Gendun Chöphel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tibetan name
Tibetan script :
དགེ་ འདུན་ ཆོས་ འཕེལ་
Wylie transliteration :
dge 'dun chos' phel
Official transcription of the PRCh :
Gêndün Qoipê
THDL transcription :
Gendun Chopel
Other spellings:
Gendun Chopel, Gendun Chophel, Gendun Chöphel
Chinese name
Traditional :
根 頓 群 培
Simplified :
根 顿 群 培
Pinyin :
Gēndùn Qúnpéi
Gendun Chophel

Gendün Chöphel (* 1903 in zho 'ong dpyi grong tsho ( Rêbgong ); † 1951 ) was a Tibetan artist, scholar, historian and author .

Life

Youth and education

Gendün Chöphel was at a young age as Tulku a known Nyingma - Lamas detected but not enthroned. At the age of fourteen he was accepted as a novice in the Gelug Monastery of Drisha in his homeland in the Rêbgong Valley of Amdo ( Qinghai ). His studies took him to the Gelug Monastery University in Labrang around 1920 , where he began as a brilliant debater to turn against power structures in the clergy. During his stay in Labrang he also met the American missionary Marion Griebenow , who lived in the area between 1921 and 1949. It made him interested in the world outside of Tibet.

In 1927, after a four-month trip to the capital Lhasa , Gendün Chöphel became a student of Geshe Sherab Gyatsho (approx. 1884–1968) in the famous Drepung Monastery . Although he was not considered a particularly keen student, he was respected by the monks for his exceptional debating skills. After he met Rahul Sankrityayan (1893–1963) in 1934 , however, he gave up his studies shortly before the Geshe exam and looked with him in monastery libraries for rare Sanskrit manuscripts.

India

In November of the same year Gendün Chöphel left his homeland and traveled to India with Rahul Sankrityayan. Apart from an expedition to the Tibetan region of Tsang (1938), he did not return to Tibet for twelve years. He spent the winter of 1934/35 in Patna .

Between 1935 and 1939, Gendün Chöphel traveled extensively as a pilgrim in the style of a yogi of the tantric tradition through the Indian subcontinent and, with the support of the Maha Bodhi Society, came to Ceylon , where he was able to learn about the philosophy and way of life of the Theravada monks there. As a result of his travels, on which he also tried to identify the 24 tantric sites that are listed in the “Samvaratantra”, the “Guide to India” (Tib .: s. Rgya gar gnas yig bsdus pa ) was created in several versions was printed between 1937 and 1950.

Gendün Chöphel learned English, Sanskrit and Pali, dealt with Western philosophies and social models, made contacts with intellectuals and artists and immersed himself in the “world of the senses” as a layperson . When he wasn't begging, he kept himself afloat with painting, and he always found people who supported him. Gendün Chöphel decidedly refused Rabindranath Tagore's offer to take on a professorship in Tibetology at his university, as he “didn't want to make a good life for himself, but to do everything for Tibet”.

Based on the Kama Sutra , Gendün Chöphel wrote “The Tibetan Art of Love” (Tib .: 'dod pa'i bstan bcos ) during his time in India . Hopkins describes him as the first Tibetan feminist because of this book, because in the book he calls for the appreciation and absolute equality of women. He also made the first translation of the Dhammapada from Pali into Tibetan, worked with George Roerich on a translation of Gö Lotsawa Shönnu Pel's “ Blue Annals ” (Tib .: deb ther sngon po ) and wrote a controversial study on it Madhyamaka philosophy entitled "The ornament of Nagarjuna's intention" (Tib .: klu sgrub dgongs rgyan ).

Tibet

From 1941 Gendün Chöphel had contacts in Darjiling and Kalimpong with radical Tibetans in exile from the circle of the “Tibet Improvement Party” (Tib. ནུབ་ བོད་ ལེགས་ བཅོས་ སྐྱིད་ སྡུག་), which was founded in 1939 or later by Pomdatsang Rabga ( spom mda ' tshang rab dga '; 1902–1972 ) was founded. In relation to the Tibetan government in Lhasa, British diplomats referred to him as a “communist”. In 1945 he was invited by Trijang Rinpoche and the Kashag to return to Tibet. Between 1946 and 1947 Gendün Chöphel wrote a history of the Tibetan monarchy under the title “ White Annals ” , including evaluating manuscripts from the Dunhuang finds by Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot . In 1947 he was charged with alleged counterfeiting and was imprisoned in the Potala Palace prison until 1949 . The real reason for his arrest was based on suspicion that he might be associated with exiled communist Tibetans. In 1951 Gendün Chöphel died as a result of his alcohol abuse .

Works

  • The White Annals . Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, Dharamsala 1978.
  • The Tibetan love art. Eros, ecstasy and spiritual healing. From the American by Richard Reschika , with an introduction by Jeffrey Hopkins , with the assistance of Dorje Yudon Yuthok, with a foreword by Andreas Gruschke . Hans-Nietsch-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2006, ISBN 3-934647-97-9 .

See also

literature

  • K. Dhondup: Gedun Chophel: the Man Behind the Legend. In: Tibetan Review. vol. 13, no. 10, October 1978, pp. 10-18.
  • Elke Hessel: The world made me drunk. The life story of Amdo Gendün Chöpel . Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89620-156-5 .
  • Toni Huber (translator): The Guide to India: A Tibetan Account by Amdo Gendun Chöphel . Dharamśala 2000, ISBN 81-86470-25-5 . (Orig .: rGya gar gyi gnas chen khag la 'grod pa'i lam yig )
  • Irmgard Mengele: dGe'-ldun-chos-'phel. A Biography of the 20th-Century Tibetan Scholar. Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala 1999, ISBN 81-86470-23-9 .
  • Luc Schaedler: Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet. Literary, Historical and Oral Sources for a Documentary Film . With Translated Excerpts of the Writings of Gendun Choephel and the DVD of the Film Angry Monk . PhD thesis. Zurich 2007.

Movie

  • Luc Schaedler: Angry Monk. A journey through Tibet. (Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet), cinema documentary, Switzerland 2005.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ tbrc.org: dge 'dun chos' phel
  2. ↑ locally called Sherab Danpel . Huber (2000), p. 3.
  3. ↑ Toni Huber (transl.): The Guide to India: A Tibetan Account by Amdo Gendun Chöphel. Dharamśala 2000, ISBN 81-86470-25-5 .
  4. ↑ detailed: cf. Huber (2000), "Appendix A", pp. 123f.
  5. ↑ a b Elke Hessel: Gendün Chöpel: Fool, Saint and Rebel. In: TIBET forum. No. 1/2000, p. 25.
  6. ↑ Engl .: Jeffrey Hopkins (ex.); Dorje Yuthok: Tibetan Arts of Love: Sex, Orgasm and Spiritual Healings.
personal data
SURNAME Gendun Chöphel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES dge 'dun chos' phel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tibetan monk and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Rebgong ( Qinghai )
DATE OF DEATH 1951