:This articles concerns the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. For information on the ancient Śākya tribe, see Shakya. The Sakya (Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་, wylie: Sa skya, "pale earth") school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug. It is one of the Red Hat sects along with the Nyingma and Kagyu.

Origins

The name Sakya ("pale earth") derives from the unique grey landscape of Ponpori Hills in southern Tibet near Shigatse, where Sakya Monastery, the first monastery of this tradition, and the seat of the Sakya School was built by Khon Konchog Gyalpo (1034–1102) in 1073.

The Sakya tradition developed during the second period of translation of Buddhist scripture from Sanskrit into Tibetan in the late 11th century. It was founded by Drogmi, a famous scholar and translator who had studied at the Vikramashila University directly under Naropa, Ratnakarashanti, Vagishvakirti and other great panditas from India for twelve years.

Konchog Gyalpo became Drogmi's disciple on the advice of his elder brother.

The tradition was established by the "Five Venerable Supreme Masters" starting with the grandson of Khonchog Gyalpo, Kunga Nyingpo, who became known as Sachen, or "Great Sakyapa":

Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092–1158)

Sonam Tsemo (1142–1182)

Drakpa Gyaltsen (1147–1216)

Sakya Pandita (1182–1251)

Chogyal Pakpa (1235–1280)

Buton Rinchen Drub (1290–1364) was an important scholar and writer and one of Tibet's most celebrated historians. Other notable scholars of the Sakya tradition are the so called "Six Ornaments of Tibet:"

Yaktuk Sangyey Pal

Rongton Sheja Kunrig (1367–1449)

Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo

Zongpa Kunga Namgyel

Gorampa Sonam Senge (1429–1489)

Shakya Chogden (1428–1507)

The leadership of the Sakya School is passed down through a hereditary system between the male members of the Sakya branch of the Khon family.

Teachings

Sachen, the first of the five supreme masters, inherited a wealth of tantric doctrines from numerous Tibetan translators or "lotsawas" who had visited India: most importantly Drokmi Lotsawa, Bari Lotsawa and Mal Lotsawa. From Drokmi comes the supreme teaching of Sakya, the system of Lamdré (lam 'bras) or "Path and its Fruit", deriving from the mahasiddha Virupa, based upon the Hevajra Tantra. Mal Lotsawa introduced to Sakya the esoteric Vajrayogini lineage known as "Naro Khachoma." From Bari Lotsawa came innumerable tantric practices, foremost of which was the cycle of practices known as the One Hundred Sadhanas. Other key transmissions that form part of the Sakya spiritual curriculum include the cycles of Vajrakilaya, Mahakala and Guhyasamaja.

The fourth Sakya patriarch, Sakya Pandita, was notable for his exceptional scholarship and composed many important and influential texts on sutra and tantra, including, Clarifying the Thought of the Sage and Discriminating the Three Vows.

The main Dharma system of the Sakya school is the Path with Its Result [lam dang 'bras bu bcas], which is split into two main lineages, Explanation for the Assembly (tshogs bshad) and the Explanation for Close Disciples (slobs bshad).

The other major Dharma system of the Sakya school is the Naropa Khechari Explanation For Disciples (Naro mkha spyod slob bshad).

Subschools

In due course, two subsects emerged from the main Sakya lineage,

Ngor, founded in Tsang by Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382–1457). The Ngor school is centered around Ngor Evam Choden monastery. It represents 85% of the Sakyapa school and most if not all the monasteries in India are Ngorpa, apart from Sakya Trizin's monastery.

Tshar, founded by Tsarchen Losal Gyamtso (1496 - 1560 or 1502–1556).

There were three "mother" monasteries of the Sakya school: Sakya Monastery, founded in 1073, Ngor Evam Choden, founded in 1429, and Phanyul Nalendra in Phanyul, north of Lhasa, founded in 1435 by Kuntchen Rongten. Nalendra became the home of the 'whispered-lineage' of the Tsar school.

Feudal lordship over Tibet

In 1264 the feudal reign over Tibet was given to Phagpa by the Mongolian emperor, Kublai Khan. Sakya lamas continued to serve as viceroys of Tibet on behalf of Yuan emperors for nearly 75 years after Phagpa’s death (1280), until the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty in China subjugated the Mongols. The leaders of the Sakya regime were as follows.

Phagpa 1253-1280

Dharmapala Raksita 1280-1282, d. 1287

Jamyang Rinchen Gyaltsen 1286-1303

Zangpo Pal 1306-1323

Khatsun Namka Lekpa Gyaltsen 1325-1341

Jamyang Donyo Gyaltsen 1341-1344

Lama Dampa Sonam Lotro Gyaltsen 1344-1347

Lotro Gyaltsen 1347-1365

Sakya today

The head of the Sakya school, known as Sakya Trizin ("holder of the Sakya throne"), is always drawn from the male line of the Khön family. The present Sakya Trizin, Ngawang Kunga Tegchen Palbar Samphel Wanggi Gyalpo, born in Tsedong in 1945, is the forty-first to hold that office. 41st Sakya Trizin is the reincarnation of two great Tibetan masters: a Nyingmapa lama known as Apong Terton (Orgyen Thrinley Lingpa), who is famous for his Red Tara cycle, and his grandfather, the 39th Kyabgon Sakya Trizin Dhagtshul Thrinley Rinchen (1871–1936). Today, he resides in Rajpur, India along with his wife, Dagmo Tashi Lhakyi, and two sons Ratna Vajra Rinpoche and Gyana Vajra Rinpoche. Ratna Vajra Rinpoche being the older son, is the lineage holder and is married to Dagmo Kalden Dunkyi Sakya and Gyana Vajra Rinpoche is married to Dagmo Sonam Palkyi.

Traditionally hereditary succession alternates between the two Sakya palaces since Khon Könchok Gyelpo's (1034–1102) reign. The Ducho sub-dynasty of Sakya survives split into two palaces, the Dolma Phodrang and Phuntsok Phodrang. Sakya Trizin is head of the Dolma Phodrang. H.H. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya (b. 1929) is the head of the Phuntsok Phodrang, and lives in Seattle, Washington, where he co-founded Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism with Dezhung Rinpoche III, and constructed the first Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in the United States. Dagchen Sakya's father was the previous Sakya Trizin, Trichen Ngawang Thutop Wangchuk, throne holder of Sakya, and his mother Dechen Drolma. Dagchen Sakya is married to Her Eminence Dagmo Jamyang Kusho Sakya; they have five sons, and several grandchildren.

The Rimé movement

During the 19th century the great Sakya master and terton Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, the famous Kagyu master Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye and the important Nyingma terton Orgyen Chokgyur Lingpa founded the Rime movement, an alleged ecumenical attempt to incorporate all teachings of all schools, to overcome the separation of Buddhist transmission in different traditions.

This movement still influences modern Tibetan Buddhist practice through the "five great treasures" of Jamgon Kongtrul and the treasure of rediscovered teachings (Rinchen Terdzöd).

See also

Sakya Monastery

Lamdré

Tibetan Buddhism

Jonang

Notes

References

Davidson, Ronald (1992). "Preliminary Studies on Hevajra's Abhisamaya and the Lam 'bras Tshogs bshad." In Davidson, Ronald M. & Goodman, Steven D. Tibetan Buddhism: reason and revelation. State University of New York Press: Albany, N.Y. ISBN 0-7914-0786-1 pp. 107–132.

Trichen, Chogyay. History of the Sakya Tradition, Ganesha Press, 1993

External links

His Holiness the Sakya Trizin, Official Website.

The French Ngorpa temple.

Palden Sakya - Website of Sakya Trizin's Monastery in Rajpur, India

Tsechen Kunchab Ling - Sakya Trizin's seat in the United States

Sakya Tsechen Thubten Ling - Canada

Sakya Foundation - Canada

Sakya Dechenling - Canada

Sakya Kachöd Chöling - Canada

Sakya Lamas

International Buddhist Academy (IBA) in Kathmandu, Nepal

Sakya Foundation - USA

Sakya Monastery in Seattle, Washington

Category:Schools of Tibetan Buddhism

Region	Tibetan Buddhism
Color	#87cefa
Name	Ngawang Kunga,the 41st Sakya Trizin
Birth date	September 7, 1945
Birth place	Shigatse, Tibet
School tradition	Sakya

Sakya Trizin means "Sakya Throne Holder" in the Tibetan language. It is the traditional title of the head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism was founded in 1073, when Khon Konchog Gyalpo, 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 of Tibetan Buddhism. Since that time, the leadership of the Sakya Order 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.

Sakya Trizin 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 His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. 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.

Sakya Trizin is a highly accomplished Buddhist master respected by all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and teaches widely throughout the world. 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 Sadhanas, 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. He has trained both of his sons, Khonrig Ratna Vajra Sakya and Khonrig Gyana Vajra Sakya as highly accomplished Buddhist masters, and they both travel widely, teaching Buddhism throughout the world.

The year 2009 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Sakya Trizin’s headship 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 Order of Tibetan Buddhism.

Sakya Trizin lineage

Lharig, the divine generation :According to legend Ciring descended from the Rupadhatu (Realm of Clear Light) to earth.

Ciring

Yuse

Yuring

Masang Cije

Togsa Pawo Tag

Tagpo Ochen

Yapang Kye

Khön family, the royal generation :Because the previous generations subjugated the rakshas (demons), the family became the Family of Conquerors (Khon gyi dung shortened to Khön) 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. : Khön Konchog Gyalpo founded the monastery in Sakya in 1073, and therefore the lineage was renamed Sakya. # Khön Konchog Gyalpo # Rinchen Drag # Kunga Nyingpo # Sonam Tsemo # Trakpa Gyaltsen # Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen # Lodro Gyaltsen # Rinchen Gyaltsen # Dharmapala Rakshita # Sharpa Jamyang Chenpo # Zangpo Pal # Namkha Legpa # Jamyang Donyo Gyaltsen # Sonam Gyaltsen # Tawen Lodro Gyaltsen # Kunga Rinchen # Kushri Lodro Gyaltsen # Jamyang Namkha Gyaltsen # Kunga Wangchug # Sherab Gyaltsen # Lodro Gyaltsen # Kunga Sonam # Ngakchang Kunga Rinchen # Sonam Wangpo # Dhagpa Lodro # Kunga Wangyal # Ngawang Kunga Sonam # Sonam Wangchug # Kunga Tashi # Sonam Rinchen # Sachen Kunga Lodro # Wangdu Nyingpo # Pema Dudul Wangchug # Dorje Rinchen # Tashi Rinchen # Kunga Sonam # Kunga Nyingpo # Dzamling Chegu Wangchug # Dragshul Thinley Rinchen # Ngawang Thutob Wangchug # Ngawang Kunga (the current Sakya Trizin)

Footnotes

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. ISBN 0970-5368.

Trizin, Sakya. Parting from the Four Attachments. Shang Shung Publications, 1999.

External links

His Holiness Sakya Trizin’s official website

Biography of Sakya Trizin

Hungarian website of His Holiness Sakya Trizin including some information about Her Eminence Jetsun Kushok Chimey Luding see last section

The Kalyanamitra Fund

Parting from the Four Attachments by His Holiness Sakya Trizin

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Lamas Category:Sakya Category:Tibetan people Category:Tulkus

Name	H.H. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya
Birth date	November 2, 1929
Birth place	Sakya, Tibet
Website	www.Sakya.org

Jigdal Dagchen Sakya (born November 2, 1929) is a Tibetan Buddhist teacher educated in the Sakya sect. He was educated to be the head of the Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism as well as the successor to the throne of Sakya, the third most important political position in Tibet in early times. Dagchen Rinpoche is in the twenty-sixth generation of the Sakya-Khön lineage descended from Khön Gönchok Gyalpo and is regarded as an emanation of Manjushri as well as the rebirth of a Sakya Abbot from the Ngor sub-school, Ewam Luding Khenchen (The Great Abbot from the Luding family) Gyase Chökyi Nyima.

Dagchen is a title meaning “Lineage Holder.” Among his followers he is known as Dagchen Rinpoche, or simply as Rinpoche (“Precious One”).His formal title of “His Holiness” indicates the high degree of esteem with which the Tibetan Buddhist community holds him.

He immigrated in 1960 to the United States with his family, one of the first groups Tibetans-in-exile in North America. He is one of the first head of a denomination of Tibetan Buddhism to live in the United States. From the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Seattle, Washington, and its precursor (which he co-founded in 1974), he has taught and preserved Tibetan culture and religion. Because he is also a non-sectarian master within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, he has defined Sakya Monastery as a non-denominational and ecumenical center for teachings about Tibetan Buddhism. His work has also included the foundation of Tibetan Buddhist communities overseas in India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Southeast Asia, and teaching at Buddhist centers around the world.

Life

Education and Early Adulthood

and Dagmola Sakya, 2009]] Dagchen Rinpoche was tutored by the abbot of the South Monastery of Sakya and by the Secretary of the Sakya Government. With these two teachers, Rinpoche studied the Tibetan alphabet, composition, classical literature, philosophy, and the Four Classes of Tantra (esoteric Buddhism). He also received teachings on the Sakya meditation deities. From Pönlop Sakya of the North Monastery, Dagchen Rinpoche learned the fundamental esoteric religious rites of the Sakya tradition: religious music, mandala offering, dancing, and ritual hand gestures.

After having successfully completed this training, Dagchen Rinpoche received from his father the Sakya-Khon lineage transmission of Vajrakilaya (a meditational deity whose name means the “Dagger of Indestructible Reality”), and the complete Lamdré Tsokshey (The Path and Its Fruit in its more exoteric form), which is the main teaching of the Sakya tradition. Thus, Rinpoche’s primary spiritual teacher was his father, Trichen Nawang Thutop Wangchuk.

In 1950, at age 21, Dagchen Rinpoche married Sonam Tsezom, who descends from a family of lamas and doctors of East Tibet (Kham). She is the niece of His Eminence the late Deshung Rinpoche III. When she married her name became Jamyang and her title Dagmo Kusho or, more formally, Dagmo Kushola, which roughly translates as: "mother of a prince."

Later that year Dagchen Rinpoche’s father died. Rinpoche became the interim Throne-holder. Concurrently, Communist Chinese invaders were threatening Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. After a short reign as the head of the Sakya sect, he took a leave of absence as ruler of Sakya in order to travel to East Tibet to complete his religious education.

In East Tibet, Dagchen Rinpoche received teachings from fourteen lamas. Among them were his root lamas, Jamyang Chökyi Lodrö and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. They were renowned non-sectarian lamas, of the Sakya and Nyingma traditions, respectively. From Jamyang Chökyi Lodrö Rinpoche, Dagchen Rinpoche received initiations and teachings of the Sakya School’s most valued teaching, the seven-volume Lamdré Lopshey (The Path and Its Fruit in its more esoteric form) and the fourteen-volume Druptap Kundu (Collection of Methods of Realization). From Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Dagchen Rinpoche received teachings on the thirteen-volume Damngak Dzö (Treasury of Esoteric Instructions), a non-sectarian compilation by Jamgön Kongtrul, a great non-sectarian master of Tibetan Buddhism from the Kagyu School. Additionally, twelve other Sakya lamas gave him the teachings from the thirty-one volume Gyude Kundu.

Emigration to the United States

In 1959, due to the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet, Dagchen Rinpoche and his family (including his younger brother Trinly Rinpoche and his wife’s uncle Deshung Rinpoche III) fled to Bhutan and then to India. Professor Turrell V. Wylie from the Tibetan Studies Program at the University of Washington, the first such program in the country, invited Dagchen Rinpoche to participate in a research project on Tibet sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. This enabled Dagchen Rinpoche to bring his family to Seattle, Washington in 1960. The research project funding lasted for three years. Following that, over the next decade Rinpoche held several positions at the University of Washington, including working in the Anthropology Department and at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

A Non-Sectarian Seattle Lama

In 1974 Dagchen Rinpoche co-founded, with Deshung Rinpoche III, his wife’s uncle, the original Sakya Dharma Center in Seattle called Sakya Tegchen Choling. In 1984, the group adopted the name of Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism.

For the purpose of the preservation of Tibetan culture and religion, Dagchen Rinpoche has overseen the religious activities and administration of the Monastery since its inception. His spiritual leadership takes various forms: leading meditations, giving teachings and empowerments (spiritual initiations), conducting refuge ceremonies in which people formally become Buddhists, and holding special services upon request. Now that the Monastery is completed, Dagchen Rinpoche is placing greater emphasis on education. The Virupa Educational Institute is devoted to the study of Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhism in general, religions, cultures, and sciences from around the world. Non-sectarianism and education are major components to Rinpoche’s teaching, in keeping with the beliefs of his root lamas. Sakya Monastery in Seattle has hosted visits from leading lamas of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, including H. H. the Dalai Lama. Dagchen Rinpoche’s interest in ecumenism stems from his training as a non-sectarian master, and his experience as an immigrant who came to this country seeking religious freedom. Like His Holiness The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Rinpoche encourages inter-religious and interdisciplinary meetings and encounters for Tibetan Buddhists. He regularly travels to teach in Asia, Europe, Canada, and throughout the United States.

Ancestry

Ancestors

Lineage is important in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and Dagchen Rinpoche’s lineage is revered. It extends more than thousand years. His father was Trichen (“Great Throne-holder”) Nawang Tutop Wangchuk, the last great throne-holder of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet, and his mother was Gyalyum (“Mother of the Khön Children”) Dechen Drolma.

Dagchen Rinpoche’s family lineage is considered divine because family records and Tibetan histories state that his family is descended from celestial beings from the realm of heavenly clear light. Five generations of these celestial beings are said to have lived in Tibet. A famous ancestor of his from the late eighth century was Khön Lu’i Wangpo (Nagendrarakshita), one of the first seven Tibetans ordained as a Buddhist monk, a noted translator, and a personal disciple of Padmasambhava (who erected the very first Tibetan Buddhist monastery called Samye). Since the 11th century, the Sakya male progenies are also regarded as emanations of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom; Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva of Compassion; or Vajrapani, Bodhisattva of Power.

The Sakya Name

In 1042, Atisha, the great Indian Buddhist master who helped revive Buddhism in Tibet, was traveling in Tibet spreading the Buddha’s teachings. At the side of a mountain where there was “pale earth,” he foresaw the emanations of three bodhisattvas whom he knew would spread the Buddhist doctrine in Tibet: Avalokiteshvara (the embodiment of compassion), Manjushri (the embodiment of infinite wisdom), and Vajrapani (the embodiment of infinite power).

It was at the same site of pale earth some thirty years later, in 1073, that Khön Gönchok Gyalpo (1034–1102), ancestor of Dagchen Rinpoche, built the first Sakya Monastery. The monastery took its name from the pale earth (in Tibetan “sa-kya”) where the monastery was founded. Subsequently, the town that arose there, the family of the monastery’s founder (the Khön lineage), and the school of Tibetan Buddhism took the name of the monastery: Sakya. The Sakya name is also renowned for having lamas as rulers of Tibet. The Sakya patriarch, Chogyal Pakpa (1235–1280) was given temporal authority over Tibet through the patronage of the Mongol rulers of China. Subsequently, the Sakya lamas governed Tibet for over 90 years. The Sakya School is one of the four great Schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Sakya masters developed a tradition that emphasized study and meditation in equal measure.

External links

Official website of the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism, Seattle

Category:1929 births Category:Living people Category:Buddhist monks Category:Buddhist philosophers Category:Sakya Category:Modern Buddhist writers Category:Tibetan Lamas Category:Tibetan Buddhist teachers Category:Lamas from Tibet Category:Buddhist monks from Tibet Category:Buddhist religious leaders Category:Tibetan Buddhists from Tibet