UpdateBot at 09:48, 12 June 2022

2022-06-12T09:48:33Z

New page

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2019}}
{{More footnotes|date=January 2021}}
{{Tibetan-Chinese-box
|title=Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö
|image = Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro.jpg
|caption = Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro
|t=རྫོང་གསར་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས་
|w=rdzong gsar mkhyen brtse chos kyi blo gros
|e=Dzòngsar Kyēndze Chȫgyi Lōtrö
}}
'''Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö''' (c. 1893 – 1959) was a [[Tibetan people|Tibetan]] [[lama]], a master of many lineages, and a teacher of many of the major figures in 20th-century [[Tibetan Buddhism]]. Though he died in 1959 in [[Sikkim]], and is not so well known in the West; he was a major proponent of the [[Rimé movement]] within [[Tibetan Buddhism]], and had a profound influence on many of the Tibetan lamas teaching today.

==Biography==

===Early life and training===
{{Tibetan Buddhism}}
He was born in 1893 at Sa-ngen or Rekhe Ajam near [[Katok Monastery]] in [[Kham]] south of [[Derge]]. His father was Gyurme Tsewang Gyatso of [[Amdo]] and was considered to be a [[tantra|tantric]] master. His mother was Tsultrim Tso, granddaughter of [[Lingtsang Gyalpo|Wangchen Tenzin, King of Lingtsang]].

In 1900, at age seven, he was brought to Kathok Monastery and Kathok Situ Chökyi Gyatso recognized him ceremonially as the action emanation of [[Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo]], the great Rimé master of 19th-century Tibet. In the following years of his youth he was tutored by Khenpo Thupten in [[Modern Standard Tibetan grammar|grammar]], [[Tibetan astrology|astrology]], [[Sanskrit]] and [[Buddhist texts]]. By the time he was thirteen he had received the transmission of the [[Longchen Nyingthig]]- the ''Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse'', the Nyingthig Yabzhi - ''Four Branches of Heart Essence'', and the [[pointing-out instruction]] to [[Dzogchen]].

When he was fifteen he moved to [[Dzongsar Monastery]], the seat of the previous Khyentse Wangpo. He studied [[abhidharma]] and [[Madhyamaka]] philosophy and soon began teaching Buddhist canonical texts to several students there. From the time he was seventeen, he received [[Sakya (Tibetan Buddhist school)|Sakya]] school transmissions such as ''lamdre lopshe'' and the [[Hevajra]] tantra, and many [[Nyingma]] [[Terma (religion)|terma]] teachings.

In 1919, when he was twenty-six, he went to [[Dzogchen Monastery]] and received ordination as a monk. Later in the same year he established a [[shedra]] at Dzongsar Monastery. At [[Shechen Monastery]], he received a number of transmissions from [[Shechen Gyaltsap]], who became one of his principal masters. The next few years of his life he visited many monasteries of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism, and received transmissions and lineage teachings from various teachers.

Then in 1926 he went on a pilgrimage to [[Ü-Tsang]], and at [[Mindrolling Monastery]], the main Nyingma monastery, took ordination as a monk for a second time. Just before he returned to his home region in Eastern Tibet, Kathok Situ Chokyi Gyatso of Kathok Monastery died. After this, for the next fifteen years Chökyi Lodrö took part in the administration of Kathok Monastery, which is home of the Kathok lineage teachings of the Nyingma. He continued to perfect, and accomplish the meditations and the sadhanas of all the Tibetan traditions, becoming a true Rime master, who was able to teach both analytical philosophy and the performance of practices leading to realization from the various lineages. During this time-period he also completed a five hundred thousand accumulation of his [[ngöndro]].

In the 1940s he studied with the leading [[Vajrayana]] masters from all over Tibet, and continued receiving transmissions from the [[Gelug]], [[Nyingma]], Sakya and [[Kagyu]] schools. He developed a reputation during that era as being a Rimé master ''par excellence'' and many of the new generation of Lamas who would bring Tibetan Buddhism to the West began to see him as their master. Thus he became a teacher and guide for [[Dilgo Khyentse]], [[Jigdral Yeshe Dorje (2nd Dudjom Rinpoche)]] and [[Sogyal Rinpoche]]. He was a major influence on a very young [[Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche]], who first met him in 1945, and he is also mentioned with awe by [[Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche]] in his biography.

===Later life and death===
He became seriously ill in 1949, when he was fifty-six years old. According to his prophecies and those of Khyentse Wangpo, [[Jamgon Kongtrul]], in order to remove obstacles to his longevity, and so he could continue to teach Dharma, it was necessary for him to drop his monastic vows and marry. For a Nyingma lama, this was not an unusual circumstance. He married [[Khandro Tsering Chödrön]] (b. 1929 d. 2011) that same year, and rapidly recovered his health.

In 1955 as the situation for monasteries continued to worsen in Eastern Tibet, he traveled to [[Lhasa]]. While there, he was invited to [[Tsurphu Monastery]] to give teachings and empowerments to [[Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa]]. In turn, the Karmapa gave him an empowerment in the red form of [[Avalokiteśvara]], a historic, personal [[Iṣṭadevatā (Buddhism)|iṣṭadevatā]] of the Karmapas.

He then commenced a pilgrimage to India. He visited sites sacred to Buddhism in [[Nepal]] and [[India]], and then at the invitation of the King of Sikkim, took up residence in [[Gangtok]], [[Sikkim]]. In the final four years of his life, the [[Tsuklakhang Palace]] where he resided became a spiritual center. By this time he was known as a Master of masters, and his presence attracted many lamas from Tibet, who came to receive transmissions from him. According to [[Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche]] one could ask him for clarification about some point, in any of the termas from any of the numerous lineages, and he always had an answer.

During this time he met [[Sangharakshita]], who was then a monk living in [[Kalimpong]]. He bestowed on him four sadhanas - [[Avalokitesvara]], [[Manjusri]], [[Vajrapani]], and [[Tara (Buddhism)|Green Tāra]]. He also commissioned a Manjusri [[thangka]] for him.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sangharakshita |first=Bhikshu |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/182656514 |title=Precious teachers : Indian memoirs of an English Buddhist |date=2007 |publisher=Windhorse Publications |isbn=1-899579-78-8 |location=Birmingham [UK] |oclc=182656514}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Green Tārā and the Fourth Lakṣaṇa by Urgyen Sangharakshita |url=https://sangharakshita.org/green-tara-and-the-fourth-laksana |access-date=2022-05-06 |website=sangharakshita.org |language=en}}</ref>

At the age of sixty-seven, in early 1959 with the [[Communist Party of China|Chinese Communist]] invasion of Tibet underway, he again became seriously ill. Prayers and rituals for his long life were performed day and night, by all the lineages in Sikkim. Despite these devoted spiritual efforts, he died. According to Sogyal Rinpoche he died in the "sleeping lion's posture", a yogic posture, and remained in a subtle meditative state for three days. His body was kept in state for six months, as disciples throughout the [[Himalayas]] came to pay their respects. According to legend, his body did not display the usual signs of decomposition during this time. This phenomenon has been known to occur at the death of several other [[tulku]]s. His [[cremation]] was performed at a [[stupa]] at [[Tashiding Monastery]], Sikkim, and his remains are kept in the Royal Chapel of Sikkim.

In 1961 [[Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche]] was born in [[Bhutan]], and was immediately recognized as the [[Rebirth (Buddhism)|incarnation]] of Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö.

==Further reading==
*Dilgo Khyentse. "Brilliant Moon: The Autobiography of Dilgo Khyentse". Trans. Ani Jinba Palmo. Shambhala 2008
*Ray, Reginald. ''Secret of the Vajra World: The Tantric Mysticism of Tibet'' Shambhala Publications, Boston, Mass. 2001. {{ISBN|1-57062-772-X}}
*Sogyal Rinpoche. ''The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying'' HarperSanFrancisco. revised 2002. {{ISBN|0-06-250834-2}}
*Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. ''Blazing Splendor: The Memoirs of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche'' Rangjung Yeshe Publications. 2005. {{ISBN|962-7341-56-8}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Cite encyclopedia
| last = Gardner
| first = Alexander
| title = Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro
| encyclopedia = The Treasury of Lives: Biographies of Himalayan Religious Masters
| access-date = 2013-10-08
| date = December 2009
| url = http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Jamyang-Khyentse-Chokyi-Lodro/9990
}}
*[http://www.siddharthasintent.org/ Siddhartha´s Intent International] Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
*[http://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/jamyang-khyentse-chokyi-lodro/ Lotsawa House – translations of texts by and about Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20091117120705/http://blip.tv/file/2293531 Video of interviews with some of his students dead link 07/04/2014]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro}}
[[Category:1893 births]]
[[Category:1959 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Tibetan people]]
[[Category:20th-century lamas]]
[[Category:20th-century Tibetan people]]
[[Category:Dzogchen lamas]]
[[Category:Khyentse incarnations]]
[[Category:People from Gangtok]]
[[Category:Rimé lamas]]
[[Category:Scholars from Sikkim]]
[[Category:Tibetan Buddhists from Tibet]]

Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö - Revision history

UpdateBot at 09:48, 12 June 2022