Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye

Tibetan name
Wylie transliteration : Kong-sprul Yon-tan rGya-mtsho
Other spellings: Kongtrül Yönten Gyatsho
Chinese name
Simplified : 工 珠 • 云 登加 措
Pinyin : Gongzhu Yundeng Jiacuo

Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye ( Tib . : 'jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas ; born 1813 in Dêgê , Kham ; died 1899 ) was the founder of the Rime movement of Tibetan Buddhism with Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Choggyur Lingpa . He was one of the most important encyclopedists in Tibet. He was the 1st Jamgön Kongtrül .

Birth and childhood

Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye, hereinafter referred to as Kongtrül, was born on December 2, 1813 in the valley Ronggyab (tib .: rong rgyab ), which belongs to the kingdom of Dêgê and is below the holy place Pema Lhatse (tib .: padma lha rtse ) . He grew up in the otherwise childless household of the Bon priest Sönam Phel (tib .: bsod nams 'phel ) and his wife Trashi Tsho (tib .: bkra shis' tsho ). Trashi Tsho was his birth mother.

His biological father was the Bon teacher Khyungpo Lama Yungdrung Tendzin (Tib .: khyung po bla ma g.yung drung btsan 'dzin ), with whom the boy had an intimate relationship until his untimely death in 1819.

From the age of 5, his foster father Sönam Phel taught him to read and write. The foster father's strict upbringing methods associated with corporal punishment put the child in severe mental distress at an early age. Kongtrül was also introduced to the Bon teachings and their rituals from the foster father.

After Dege king Tshewang Dorje Rigdzin (Tib .: tshe dbang rdo rje rig 'dzin ) abdicated in 1826, there was a change in the civil service in Dege. The newly appointed officials suppressed the nomads in their sphere of influence through excessive tax demands and acts of violence. In the ensuing riots, all of Ronggyab's families were expropriated. Kongtrül's foster father was imprisoned. The destitute mother asked the boy to enter a monastery.

Kongtrül did not follow this instruction and traveled to Chöde Phodrang, where his foster father was imprisoned. Apparently he wanted to look after his imprisoned foster father there. Kongtrül initially worked as secretary to Governor Khangsar Tshephel (Tib .: khang gsar tshe 'phel ).

Entry into Shechen Monastery and first studies

The governor Tshephel recognized the boy's extraordinary intellectual talents at an early stage and, after the death of his foster father, sent him to the Shechen Monastery, which was founded in 1735 and which belonged to the Nyingma School, for training in 1828 . It was here that Kongtrül took his first monk's vows and began his studies by learning the Sinotibetan divination calculations .

This was followed by studies on Tibetan grammar, poetics and learning the Sanskrit language. His Sanskrit studies were so successful that he wrote a sample collection of Sanskrit grammar in Shechen, which was later printed. Starting in 1830, studying in Shechen also included an introduction to various meditation practices of the Nyingma school. In 1832 Kongtrül took the second monastic vows in Shechen.

Relocation to Pelpung Thubten Chökhor Ling

In the spring of 1833 Kongtrül left Shechen Monastery at the behest of Governor Tshephel and moved to the Kagyu Monastery of Pelpung Thubten Chökhor Ling , where he was supposed to help the governor build new monks' quarters .

Kongtrül continued his studies in Pelpung with an introduction to Tibetan astronomy. After the monks' quarters were built, the governor left again. Kongtrül, however, was instructed to stay permanently in Pelpung and to take the second monastic vow again, now in the tradition of the Kagyu school. This was done on November 17, 1833, despite Kongtrül's objections, in the presence of the 9th Tai Situ Pema Nyinche Wangpo (Tib .: padma nyin byed dbang po ).

Kongtrül's outstanding intellectual abilities had apparently made a strong impression on the dignitaries of Pelpung Monastery and the 9th Tai Situ. In 1833 he was recognized by the 9th Tai Situ as the reincarnation of Kongpo Bamteng Trülku (Tib .: kong po bam steng sprul sku ). Kongtrül spent the following years immersing himself in the spiritual meditation exercises of the Kagyu School.

Appointment as Sanskrit teacher of the Karmapa Thegchog Dorje

In 1836 the 14th Karmapa Thegchog Dorje (tib .: theg mchog rdo rje ) (1798–1868) visited the Karmapa monasteries in Kham , where he was told of the extraordinary Sanskrit knowledge of the Kongtrül. The subsequent call to work as the Karmapa's Sanskrit teacher, Kongtrül had to obey and interrupt his meditation exercises. In the following years (until 1838) Kongtrül accompanied the Karmapa as his teacher. In 1839 he returned to Pelpung.

Teaching activity in Pelpung and moving to the mountain monastery

After his return to Pelpung, Kongtrül continued his interrupted intensive meditative exercises for a few months. Then he received the order of the Tai Situ to work as a teacher in Pelpung. For the next three years Kongtrül taught Sanskrit, metrics, Tibetan grammar, poetics, and Tibetan astronomy. He also taught many young monks to read and write.

In 1840 and the following year, I met Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820–1892), who was then only 20 years old, and who came to Pelpung to study Sanskrit with Kongtrül. This was the beginning of a collaboration between the two greatest Buddhist scholars in eastern Tibet of the 19th century, which was to change the development of Tibetan Buddhism in eastern Tibet.

At the beginning of February 1842, the governor Tsephel, Kongtrül's long-time patron, fell seriously ill and died a month later. Shortly afterwards, on April 11, 1842, Kongtrül became seriously ill and believed that he was close to death. In this situation, he decided to stop teaching and retire for three years to meditate in an abandoned and dilapidated, lonely mountain hermitage (Tib .: yang khrod ) above Pelpung. The following stay in the mountain hermitage Künsang Dechen Ösel Ling (Tib .: kun bzang bde chen 'od gsal gling ), where he lived and meditated in the middle of ruins in a makeshift hut, was only made possible by a few short visits to Pelpung and the Lingtö mountain monastery (Tib .: gling stod ) above Pelpung is interrupted. During one of these short stays in 1842, a large earthquake occurred which severely devastated the area between Horkhog (tib .: hor khog ), Rudam (tib .: ru dam ) and Lingtshang (tib .: gling tshang ). His mother's house in Kongtrül's homeland was completely destroyed, so that she moved to the mountain hermitage in 1843 and stayed there until her death.

Trip to Gyelrong

After completing his meditation retreat, Kongtrül received an order from Tai Situ to travel to Gyelrong (Tib .: rgyal rong ) to settle a dispute between the monks and the chief clergyman of a monastery in the Kingdom of Sogmo. The extremely dangerous, successfully completed journey took three years to complete.

Activity as a tantric teacher and collaboration in the rime movement

With the return to Pelpung, where he lived mainly in his lonely mountain monastery, a time of intensive meditation exercises began again. At the same time he began to pass on tantric teachings and meditation practices to others.

In the years that followed, mutual visits intensified personal and spiritual contacts with Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, who had developed into one of the leading representatives of the Rime movement.

This movement called on the members of the various Buddhist schools in Tibet not to accuse each other of impurity and the lack of originality of the respective teachings, but to accept and practice Tibetan Buddhism across all school boundaries in the entirety of its traditional diversity. Kongtrül had already spoken out in favor of implementing this demand in 1842. Led by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Kongtrül and the famous treasure hunter Choggyur Lingpa , the followers of the Rime movement of the 19th century practiced intensively the exchange of lineages, cult and meditation practices of different schools. This was to have a lasting impact on religious activities in Eastern Tibet in the second half of the 19th century.

In the winter of 1853/54 Kongtrül fell ill with an eye disease that would torment him for many years. Nevertheless, he began in the summer of 1854 with a compilation of around 13 Tantra cycles from the Kagyu School, which he combined into a collection of works. This collection of texts edited by Kongtrül became known as Kagyü Ngadzö (Tib .: bka 'brgyud sngags mdzod ) "Treasure Collection of Tantras of the Kagyü School".

Even in his youth Kongtrül had various small Terma -Texten the Nyingma traditions word (Tib. Lung ) and ordination (Tib .: dbang ) received etc.. It had become clear to him that the cult transmission of these works, which had not been handed down in the great Terma cycles, was extremely threatened. Towards the end of 1855 he wondered whether it would make sense to combine these smaller Terma texts with a continuing cult tradition in a collection of works. When he brought this idea to Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, the latter immediately agreed and agreed to contribute a collection of four volumes of such Terma texts. Kongtrül initially had three scribes compile the text material available to him in his mountain monastery. The result was a collection of texts summarized in ten volumes, which Kongtrül corrected himself and to which he gave the title Terthreng (Tib .: gter phreng ) "chain of treasure texts". This was the nucleus of the large and famous collection of works by Rinchen Terdzö (Tib .: rin chen gter mdzod ; "Treasure Collection of Precious, Recovered Texts") , which was completed many years later . This collection comprised 60 or 61 volumes in the Pelpung monastery print edition.

In 1857 there was a first encounter with the great discoverer of hidden texts (Tertön) of the Nyingma school Choggyur Lingpa. In the first few months of the same year, Kongtrül and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo attended a ceremony for Choggyur Lingpa to find treasure texts. The treasure site finding and opening ceremony took more than a week to complete. Then Kongtrül returned to Pelpung. He had become fully convinced that the practice of finding terma texts and sacred objects were believable.

Trip to central Tibet

On June 13, 1853, the 9th Tai Situ died in Pelpung Monastery. In 1855 the news had arrived in Pelpung that the 10th Tai Situ had been born in Namtshokha and had been recognized by the 14th Karmapa. The tenth Tai Situ was born into a peasant family who was subordinate to the Trashilhünpo Monastery . Kongtrül was given the honorable task of escorting the 10th Tai Situ with his parents to Pelpung. In 1857 Kongtrül set out on this trip, where he was accompanied by a large delegation. Kongtrül used this trip to central Tibet to visit numerous holy places. On November 6, 1858, the 10th Tai Situ was solemnly received in Pelpung.

Expansion of the Künsang Dechen Ösel Ling mountain hermitage

During the first fifteen years of Kongtrül's stay in the Künsang Dechen Ösel Ling mountain hermitage, some of the crumbling buildings were restored. For it had been inevitable for Kongtrül in the course of time to create rooms for writers, meditators and students and for himself. In May 1859 the construction of a large temple began. The construction was financed by the Pelpung Monastery. Since the financing of the outbuildings and the interior of the temple had to be taken over by Kongtrül, the latter successfully traveled to various noble houses to collect donations. At the end of Kongtrül's life, the mountain monastery comprised eight different temples and had thus grown up into a large monastery.

War with Nyagrong

In 1861 the first incursions of troops from Nyagrong against Dege began . Life in Pelpung and Kongtrüls Bergkloster was initially not affected.

In 1862 Kongtrül began to compose the encyclopedia Shecha Künkhyab Dzö (Tib .: shes bya kun khyab mdzod ) "treasure collection that contains everything worth knowing". On the advice of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, he added a large commentary to this work. The work on this was completed by Kongtrül on May 11, 1864. Kongtrül had thus created the most extensive work in Tibetan encyclopedic literature, in which he systematically presented Tibetan Buddhism with all its schools and also dealt with the historical development of the Tibetan sciences.

From 1863 Kongtrül was drawn into the vortex of the armed conflict with Nyagrong. The first bad news that the troops of Nyagrong had taken the monastery Dege Gönchen (Tib .: sde dge dgon chen ), which also served as the seat of the royal family, reached Kongtrül at the beginning of 1863. A little later, they became Queen of Dege and their two sons captured by the Nyagrong forces. In addition, a central Tibetan force under the minister Phulungba was advancing from the west. Kongtrül took the side of the central Tibetan army, which he supported with rituals and predictions about the direction of the enemy attacks. With the capture of the fortress of Nyagrong in September / October 1865, the war for the central Tibetan troops was successfully ended.

Kongtrül was rewarded princely for his commitment. An estate and various nomadic areas were awarded to his mountain monastery. At the same time, the Pelpung Monastery was obliged to ensure the permanent supply of the mountain monastery with food.

Activities until the end of life

In the last third of his life, Kongtrül was tirelessly busy completing his literary collections. In 1871 he came up with the plan to compile the basic texts of the eight most important Buddhist schools in Tibet in a collection of works and to publish them. The result was the large collection of works Damngag Dzö (Tib .: gdams ngag mdzod ) "Treasure Collection of Instruction", which Kongtrül was still busy with in 1893.

Kongtrül paid special attention to cultivating sacred places during this period. This included the following: 1. Finding and opening holy places by discovering holy texts and objects. 2. The erection of temples in these holy places. 3. Performing meditations and great sacrificial ceremonies at these sites. 4. The organization of periodic pilgrimages.

Kongtrül's old age was overshadowed by a falling out with the Pelpung Monastery, which he did not enter in the years 1873-1885, with one exception. Only after the death of the 10th Tai Situ in 1885 was the old connection between Kongtrül and Pelpung restored.

Kongtrül died on December 29, 1899 at the age of 86.

Works

The sum of his literary work is available to us with the works called "Five Treasure Collections" (Tib .: mdzod lnga ):

1. "Shecha Künkhyab Dzö" (Tib .: shes bya kun khyab mdzod ; "Treasure collection that contains everything worth knowing").

2. "Damngag Dzö" (Tib .: gdams ngag mdzod ; "Treasure Collection of Instructions").

3. "Rinchen Terdzö" (Tib .: rin chen gter mdzod ; "Treasure collection of precious, recovered texts").

4. “Kagyü Ngadzö” (Tib .: bka 'brgyud sngags mdzod ; “Treasure Collection of Tantras of the Kagyü School”).

5. “Gyachen Kadzö” (Tib .: rgya chen bka 'mdzod ; “treasure collection of words”, ie Kongtrül's own collected writings).

Translated editions

• Jamgon Kongtrul: The Great Path of Awakening . Theseus Verlag, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-89620-097-6
• Jamgon Kongtrul, Richard Barron: The Autobiography of Jamgon Kongtrul. A Gem of Many Colors . Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca 2003, ISBN 1-55939-184-7 (Tsadra Foundation Series Book)
• Jamgon Kongtrul, Ngawang Zangpo: Enthronement. The Recognition of the Reincarnate Masters of Tibet and the Himalayas . Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca 1997, ISBN 1-55939-083-2
• Jamgon Kongtrul: The Teacher-Student Relationship . Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca 1999, ISBN 1-55939-096-4
• Jamgon Kongtrul: Buddhist Ethics (Treasury of Knowledge) . Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca 2003, ISBN 1-55939-191-X
• Jamgon Kongtrul: Myriad Worlds (Treasury of Knowledge) . Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca 2003, ISBN 1-55939-188-X
• Jamgon Kongtrul: Treasury of Knowledge Book 6, Systems of Buddhist Tantra . Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca 2005, ISBN 1-55939-210-X
• Jamgon Kongtrul: Cloudless Sky: The Mahamudra Path of the Tibetan Buddhist Kagyu School . Shambhala Publications, Boston 2001, ISBN 1-57062-604-9
• Jamgon Kongtrul: Creation & Completion: Essential Points of Tantric Meditation . Wisdom Publications, Somerville 2002, ISBN 0-86171-312-5

literature

• Dieter Schuh : Collected works of Kong-sprul Blo-gros mtha'-yas. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1976, ISBN 3-515-02348-8 ( Directory of oriental manuscripts in Germany 11: Tibetan manuscripts and block prints 6).
• Peter Schwieger : The mTshur-pu edition of the Rin-chen gter-mdzod chen-mo, Volume 1 to 14. Steiner, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-515-05011-6 ( Directory of oriental manuscripts in Germany 11: Tibetan manuscripts and Block prints 10).
• Peter Schwieger: (The mTshur-pu edition of Rin-chen gter-mdzod chen-mo, based on the copy from the Orient Department, Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Hs or 778, volumes 14 to 34). Steiner, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-515-06579-2 ( Directory of oriental manuscripts in Germany 11: Tibetan manuscripts and block prints 11).
• Peter Schwieger: The mTshur-pu edition of the Rin-chen gter-mdzod chen-mo, based on the copy of the Orient Department, Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Hs. Or 778, volumes 34 to 40. Steiner, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3 -515-06905-4 ( Directory of oriental manuscripts in Germany 11: Tibetan manuscripts and block prints 12).
• Peter Schwieger: The mTshur-pu edition of the Rin-chen gter-mdzod chen-mo, based on the copy of the Orient Department, Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Hs. Or 778, volumes 40 to 52. Steiner, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978 -3-515-07347-9 ( Directory of oriental manuscripts in Germany 11: Tibetan manuscripts and block prints 13).
• Karl-Heinz Everding: The mTshur-phu edition of the Rin-chen gter-mdzod chen-mo collection, based on the copy from the Orient Department, Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Hs or 778, volumes 52 to 63. Steiner, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-515-07348-6 ( Directory of oriental manuscripts in Germany 11: Tibetan manuscripts and block prints 14).
• Ngawang Zangpo: Sacred Ground. Jamgon Kongtrul on "Pilgrimage and Sacred Geography". Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca NY 2001, ISBN 1-55939-164-2
• Ringu Tulku : The Ri-Me Philosophy of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great. A Study of the Buddhist Lineages of Tibet. Shambhala Publications, Boston MA et al. 2006, ISBN 1-59030-286-9 .

Web links

• chinabaike.com: Gongzhu Yundeng Jiacuo dashi (1813-1899)
• Literature by and about Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye in the catalog of the German National Library
• just gros mtha 'yas

Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye (alternative names of the lemma)
Kongtrül Yönten Gyatsho, kong sprul yon tan rgya mtsho; 工 珠 • 云 丹嘉 措, 工 珠 • 云 登加 措, 蔣 貢 ‧ 康 楚 ‧ 羅卓 ‧ 泰耶, Kongtrül Yönten Gyatso, Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé