Sakya Trizin
Ngawang Kunga, the 41st Sakya Trizin | |
---|---|
Born | September 7, 1945 |
Spouse | Tashi Lhakee |
Children | Ratna Vajra Rinpoche, Gyana Vajra Rinpoche |
Sakya Trizin (Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་ཁྲི་འཛིན།, Wylie: sa skya khri 'dzin "Sakya Throne-Holder") is the traditional title of the head of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism.[1]
The Sakya school was founded in 1073CE[2], when Khön Könchog Gyalpo (Tibetan: འཁོན་དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་པོ།, Wylie: 'khon dkon mchog rgyal po; 1034–1102), a member of Tibet’s noble Khön family, established a monastery in the region of Sakya, Tibet, which became the headquarters of the Sakya order.[3] Since that time, its leadership has descended within the Khön family.
Current Sakya Trizin
The current Sakya Trizin is the 41st Sakya Trizin. His legal name is "Sakya Trizin" and he is referred to as His Holiness Sakya Trizin. His religious name is Ngawang Kunga Tegchen Palbar Trinley Samphel Wangyi Gyalpo. He is considered second only to the Dalai Lama, in the spiritual hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhism.[4][5][6]
Sakya Trizin[7] was born on September 7, 1945 in Tsedong, near Shigatse, Tibet. From his father, Vajradhara Ngawang Kunga Rinchen, he received important initiations and teachings in the Sakya lineage. He began intensive religious study at the age of five. In 1952, he was officially designated as the next Sakya Trizin by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.[8] He continued intensive training from his main teacher Ngawang Lodroe Shenpen Nyingpo and many other famous Tibetan scholars, studying extensively in both the esoteric and exoteric Buddhist traditions. In 1959, at the age of fourteen, he was formally enthroned as head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism. In the same year, due to the political situation in Tibet, the Sakya Trizin, his family, and many lamas and monks from the Sakya Monastery relocated to India.[8]
To maintain the unbroken lineage of the Khon family, in 1974 Sakya Trizin consented to requests that he accept Tashi Lhakee, daughter of a noble family from Derge in Kham as his consort[9]. In the same year his first son, Ratna Vajra Rinpoche, was born. In 1979, a second son, Gyana Vajra Rinpoche was born.
After leaving Tibet, in 1963, the Sakya Trizin re-established the seat of the Sakya in Rajpur, India, building a monastery known as Sakya Centre[10]. Since that time, he has worked tirelessly to preserve the thousand-year-old religious heritage of the Sakya Order and to transmit its teachings to succeeding generations[11]. He founded and directly guides a number of institutions, including Sakya Monastery in Rajpur, Sakya Institute, Sakya College, Sakya Nunnery, Sakya College for Nuns, Sakya Tibetan Settlement, Sakya Hospital, dozens of other monasteries in Tibet, Nepal, and India, and numerous Dharma Centers in many countries.[12][13]
The Sakya Trizin is regarded as one of the most highly qualified Buddhist lineage holder respected by all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and teaches widely throughout the world[14]. He has bestowed the extensive Lam Dre teaching cycle, which is the most important teaching of the Sakya Order over 18 times on various continents, and also transmitted major initiation cycles such as Collection of All the Tantras, and the Collection of all the Sādhanās, which contain almost all of the empowerments for the esoteric practices of the various schools of Tibetan Buddhism to hundreds of lineage holders in the next generation of Buddhist teachers[15]. He has trained both of his sons as highly qualified Buddhist masters, and they both travel widely, teaching Buddhism throughout the world[16].
The year 2009 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Sakya Trizin’s leadership of the Sakya Order. The occasion was celebrated as a Golden Jubilee with extensive celebrations and tributes to his success in preserving and maintaining the Sakya school.
Sakya Trizin lineage
Lharig, the divine generation
- According to legend Ciring descended from the Rupadhatu (Realm of Clear Light) to earth.[17]
- Ciring
- Yuse
- Yuring
- Masang Cije
- Togsa Pawo Tag
- Tagpo Ochen
- Yapang Kye
Khön family, the royal generation Because previous generations subjugated the rakshasas (demons), the family became the Family of Conquerors (Wylie: khon gyi dung, shortened to Khön)[18] and therefore a royal family.
- Khön Bar Kye
- Khön Jekundag, minister of Trisong Detsen, student of Padmasambhava
- Khön Lu'i Wangpo Srungwa
- Khön Dorje Rinchen
- Khön Sherab Yontan
- Khön Yontan Jungne
- Khön Tsugtor Sherab
- Khön Gekyab
- Khön Getong
- Khön Balpo
- Khön Shakya Lodro
- Sherab Tsultrim
Sakya lineage, generations as Buddhist teachers.[19]
- Khon Konchog Gyalpo founded the monastery in Sakya in 1073, and therefore the lineage was renamed Sakya.[17]
Name | Biographical data | Tenure | Tibetan name | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Khon Konchog Gyalpo | 1034–1102 | 1073–1102 | Tibetan: འཁོན་དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་པོ།, Wylie: khon dkon mchog rgyal po |
2. | Rinchen Drag | 1040–1111 | 1103–1110 | Tibetan: བ་རི་ལོ་ཙ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་གྲགས།, Wylie: ba ri lo tsa ba rin chen grags |
3. | Sachen Kunga Nyingpo | 1092–1158 | 1111–1158 | Tibetan: ས་ཆེན་ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ།, Wylie: sa chen kun dga’ snying po |
4. | Sonam Tsemo | 1142–1182 | 1159–1171 | Tibetan: བསོད་ནམས་རྩེ་མོ།, Wylie: bsod nams rtse mo |
5. | Dragpa Gyaltsen | 1147–1216 | 1172–1215 | Tibetan: རྗེ་བཙུན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།, Wylie: grags pa rgyal mtshan |
6. | Sakya Pandita | 1182–1251 | 1216–1243 | Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: sa skya pandi ta kun dga’ rgyal mtshan |
6a. | regent of Sakya Pandita | 1243–1264 | Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: sa skya pandi ta kun dga’ rgyal mtshan | |
7. | Drogön Chögyal Phagpa | 1235–1280 | 1265–1266 1276–1280 |
Tibetan: ཆོས་རྒྱལ་འཕགས་པ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: chos rgyal 'phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan |
8. | Rinchen Gyaltsen | 1238–1279 | 1267–1275 | Tibetan: རིན་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: rin chen rgyal mtshan |
7a. | Drogön Chögyal Phagpa 2nd reign | 1276–1280 | Tibetan: ཆོས་རྒྱལ་འཕགས་པ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: chos rgyal 'phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan | |
9. | Dharmapala Rakshita[20] | 1268–1287 | 1281–1287 | Tibetan: དྷརྨ་པཱ་ལ་རཀཥི་ཏ།, Wylie: d+harma pA la rakaShi ta |
10. | Jamyang Rinchen Gyaltsen | 1258–1306 | 1288–1297 | Tibetan: ཤར་པ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་རིན་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: shar pa 'jam dbyangs rin chen rgyal mtshan |
11. | Sangpo Pal | 1262–1324 | 1298–1324 | Tibetan: བཟང་པོ་དཔལ།, Wylie: bzang po dpal |
12. | Namkha Legpa Gyaltsen | 1305–1343 | ca. 1324–1342 | Tibetan: ནམ་མཁའ་ལེགས་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: nam mkha' legs pa'i rgyal mtshan |
13. | Jamyang Donyö Gyaltsen | 1310–1344 | ca. 1342-1344 | Tibetan: འཇམ་དབྱངས་དོན་ཡོད་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: 'jam dbyangs don yod rgyal mtshan |
14. | Lama Dampa Sönam Gyaltsen | 1312–1375 | 1344–1347 | Tibetan: བླ་མ་དམ་པ་བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: bla ma dam pa bsod nams rgyal mtshan |
15. | Tawen Lodrö Gyaltsen | 1332–1364 | 1347–1364 | Tibetan: ཏ་དབེན་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན།, Wylie: ta dben blo gros rgyal mtshan |
16. | Tawen Kunga Rinchen | 1339–1399 | ca. 1364-1399 | Tibetan: ཏ་དབེན་ཀུན་དགའ་རིན་ཆེན།, Wylie: ta dben kun dga' rin chen |
17. | Lopön Chenpo Gushri Lodrö Gyaltsen | 1366–1420 | 1399–1420 | Wylie: slob dpon chen po gu shri blo gros rgyal mtshan |
18. | Jamyang Namkha Gyaltsen | 1398–1472 | 1421–1441 | Wylie: 'jam dbyangs nam mkha' rgyal mtshan |
19. | Kunga Wangchuk | 1418–1462 | 1442–1462 | Wylie: kun dga' dbang phyug |
20. | Gyagar Sherab Gyaltsen | 1436–1494 | 1463–1472 | Wylie: rgya gar ba shes rab rgyal mtshan |
21. | Dagchen Lodrö Gyaltsen | 1444–1495 | 1473–1495 | Wylie: bdag chen blo gros rgyal mtshan |
22. | Kunga Sönam | 1485–1533 | 1496–1533 | Wylie: sa skya lo tsa ba kun dga' bsod nams |
23. | Ngagchang Kunga Rinchen | 1517–1584 | 1534–1584 | Wylie: sngags 'chang kun 'dga rin chen |
24. | Jamyang Sönam Sangpo | 1519–1621 | 1584–1589 | Wylie: 'jam dbyangs bsod nams bzang po |
25. | Dragpa Lodrö | 1563–1617 | 1589–1617 | Wylie: grags pa blo gros |
26. | Ngawang Kunga Wangyal | 1592–1620 | 1618–1620 | Wylie: ngag dbang kun dga' dbang rgyal |
27. | Ngawang Kunga Sönam | 1597–1659 | 1620–1659 | Wylie: ngag dbang kun dga' bsod nams |
28. | Ngawang Sönam Wangchuk | 1638–1685 | 1659–1685 | Wylie: ngag dbang bsod nams dbang phyug |
29. | Ngawang Kunga Tashi | 1656–1711 | 1685–1711 | Wylie: ngag dbang kun dga' bkra shis |
30. | Sönam Rinchen | 1705–1741 | 1711–1741 | Wylie: bsod nams rin chen |
31. | Kunga Lodrö | 1729–1783 | 1741–1783 | Wylie: kun dga' blo gros |
32. | Wangdu Nyingpo | 1763–1809 | 1783–1806 | Wylie: dbang sdud snying po |
33. | Pema Dudul Wangchuk | 1792–1853 | 1806–1843 | Wylie: pad ma bdud 'dul dbang phyug |
34. | Dorje Rinchen | 1819–1867 | 1843–1845 | Wylie: rdo rje rin chen |
35. | Tashi Rinchen | 1824–1865 | 1846–1865 | Wylie: bkra shis rin chen |
36. | Kunga Sönam | 1842–1882 | 1866–1882 | Wylie: kun dga' bsod nams |
37. | Kunga Nyingpo | 1850–1899 | 1883–1899 | Wylie: kun dga' snying po |
38. | Dzamling Chegu Wangdu | 1855–1919 | 1901–1915 | Wylie: 'dzam gling che rgu dbang 'dud |
39. | Dragshul Trinle Rinchen | 1871–1936 | 1915–1936 | Tibetan: དྲག་ཤུལ་འཕྲིན་ལས་རིན་ཆེན།, Wylie: drag shul 'phrin las rin chen, ZYPY: Chagxü Chinlä Rinqên |
40. | Ngawang Thutob Wangdrag | 1900–1950 | 1937–1950 | Tibetan: ངག་དབང་མཐུ་སྟོབས་དབང་དྲག།, Wylie: ngag dbang mthu stobs dbang drag |
41. | Ngawang Kunga Tegchen Palbar | * 1945 | 1951– | Tibetan: ངག་དབང་ཀུན་དགའ་ཐེག་ཆེན་དཔལ་འབར་འཕྲིན་ལས་བསམ་འཕེལ་དབང་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།, Wylie: ngag dbang kun dga' theg chen dpal 'bar |
New Succession System
On 11th December, 2014, a new throne holder succession system was announced during the 23rd Great Sakya Mönlam prayer festival on a resolution passed by the Dolma Phodrang and Phuntsok Phodrang, where members of both Phodrang will serve the role of Sakya Trizin in three year term, according to their seniority and qualification[21][22].
The 42nd Sakya Trizin will be enthroned in March 2017, with Ratna Vajra Rinpoche being the incumbent to assume the throne of Sakya[23].
Footnotes
- ^ Holy Biographies of the Great Founders of the Glorious Sakya Order, translated by Venerable Lama Kalsang Gyaltsen, Ani Kunga Chodron and Victoria Huckenpahler. Published by Sakya Phuntsok Ling Publications, Silver Spring MD. June 2000.
- ^ http://tibet.net/about-tibet/glimpses-on-history-of-tibet/
- ^ The History of the Sakya Tradition, by Chogay Trichen. Manchester Free Press, U.K. 1983.
- ^ http://www.sakyaling.de/sakya-history
- ^ <http://vairochana.com/interviews/item/28-hh-the-41st-sakya-trizin.html>
- ^ https://mbasic.facebook.com/280100425371178/photos/a.600840603297157.1073741825.280100425371178/775037339210815/?type=3&_ft_=top_level_post_id.775040799210469%3Atl_objid.775037339210815%3Athid.280100425371178%3A306061129499414%3A69%3A1388563200%3A1420099199%3A2840036276629917724&__tn__=E>
- ^ http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/sakya_bios.pdf
- ^ a b Biographies of The Great Sachen Kunga Nyingpo and His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin. Compiled by Ratna Vajra Sakya, Dolma Lhamo, and Lama Jampa Losel. Published by Sakya Academy, Dehradun, U.A. India. 2003.
- ^ http://drogmi.org/the-sakya-tradition/sakya-masters/his-holiness-the-sakya-trizin
- ^ http://www.glorioussakya.org/history/sakya-lineage/
- ^ http://drogmi.org/the-sakya-tradition/sakya-masters/his-holiness-the-sakya-trizin
- ^ Sakya Trizin’s official website: http://www.hhthesakyatrizin.org
- ^ http://drogmi.org/the-sakya-tradition/sakya-masters/his-holiness-the-sakya-trizin
- ^ http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Sakya_Trizin
- ^ http://buddhismo-sakya-en.blogspot.in/2012/06/biography-of-his-holiness-sakya-trizin.html
- ^ http://sakyatsechenthubtenling.org/teachers.html
- ^ a b Official site of Sakyapa Biography Sakya Lineage. (Retrieved: September 16, 2006)
- ^ Sakya Tsechen Thubten Ling Biography Sakya Trizin. (Retrieved: September 16, 2006)
- ^ Drogmi Buddhist Institute, Throneholders of Sakya
- ^ A བ༹ཕྱོང་རྒྱས་པ།/琼结巴 or from ས་ཧོར།/萨护罗国/萨霍尔国. Son of 达玛惹扎, grandson of 夏扎布达,(ISBN 7800575462) or son of ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ།/恰那多吉? [1]
- ^ http://www.hhthesakyatrizin.org/pdfs/HHSakyaTrizin_2014Announcement.pdf
- ^ http://sakyatrizinenthronement.org/
- ^ http://sakyatrizinenthronement.org/
References
- Penny-Dimri, Sandra. (1995). "The Lineage of His Holiness Sakya Trizin Ngawang Kunga." The Tibet Journal. Vol. XX, No. 4 Winter 1995, pp. 64–92. ISSN 0970-5368.
- Trizin, Sakya. Parting from the Four Attachments. Shang Shung Publications, 1999.