Yonge Mingyur Dorje

"Kunga Drolchok (1507–1566) was one of the greatest masters of 16th century Tibet. He studied, practiced, and taught many different teachings from various lineages, but especially those of the Sakya, Shangpa, and Jonang traditions. Kunga Drolchok’s exemplary life of nonsectarian study and practice, and his many written works, were later an inspiring example for the great Jamgon Kongtrul (1813–1899).

"Kunga Drolchok was born in Lo Montang, the capital of the Mustang region of present-day Nepal. His main teacher as a youth was his uncle, the Sakya master Drungpa Chojé Kunga Chokdrup (d. 1526), who was a disciple of the great Dakchen Lodro Gyaltsen (1444−1495). Kunga Drolchok received ordination as a novice monk from Drungpa Chojé when he was ten years old, and stayed with him constantly for the next four years, receiving many initiations and teachings of the Sakya tradition, including the Path with the Result three times."

"In 1534, when he was twenty-seven years old, Kunga Drolchok again traveled northeast into Tibet, visiting Lhasa and then the great Karma Kagyu monastery of Tsurpu where he received the complete transmission of the Kagyu teachings. He would later travel several more times back and forth between Mustang and Central Tibet."

"Kunga Drolchok was especially devoted to the practices of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition which he received from the master Gyagom Lekpa Gyaltsen and other teachers. He met the dakini Niguma in a vision and taught the Shangpa transmission of the Six Dharmas of Niguma more than one hundred times to many masters from different traditions. He also frequently taught the Path with the Result and other precious instructions of the Sakya tradition throughout his career. Kunga Drolchok was a master of the Jonang tradition’s sixfold yoga of Kalachakra which he received from Lochen Ratnabhadra (1489−1563), who seems to have been the most important of his many teachers."

"For about the last twenty years of his life Kunga Drolchok was the twenty-fourth holder of the monastic seat at Jonang, retaining this position until his death in 1566. "