Journey

Tibetan Buddhism — India, Tibet, Mongolia

Tibetan Buddhism's eight-century arc through India, Tibet, China and Mongolia — teachers, lineages, monasteries, and the four schools.

Stops (32)

1. Tibet (Bod) · Tibet (Bod) — the setting

   The Tibetan plateau, roughly 2.5 million km² at 4,500 m average elevation, between the Himalaya and the Kunlun. Settled by Yarlung-dynasty kings from the 6th century CE; united under Songtsen Gampo (c. 605-650), who married the Nepalese princess Bhrikuti and the Chinese Tang princess Wencheng and oversaw the first adoption of Buddhism and the invention of the Tibetan script.

2. Thonmi Sambhota · Thonmi Sambhota — the Tibetan script, 7th c.

   Thonmi Sambhota, minister to Songtsen Gampo, sent to the Pāla-Harṣa India of the 630s to study Sanskrit and the Indic scripts. On his return he adapted a Gupta Brāhmī variant into the Tibetan dbu-can (headed) and dbu-med (headless) alphabets, which have remained the Tibetan script unchanged since. He composed the first grammars (the Sum chu pa and the Rtags kyi 'jug pa) and translated the first Buddhist texts into Tibetan — the Karaṇḍavyūha-sūtra of Avalokiteśvara, the Ratnakūṭa, and the Twenty-One Praises of Tārā.

3. Śāntarakṣita · Śāntarakṣita — the first abbot of Samye

   Śāntarakṣita (725-788), Bengali Mahāyāna abbot of Nalanda and author of the Tattvasaṃgraha, invited by King Trisong Detsen to Tibet in the 760s to found the first Tibetan monastery. He ordained the first seven Tibetan monks (the 'Seven Tested Men') and taught the Mādhyamaka-Yogācāra synthesis later known as Svātantrika-Yogācāra Mādhyamaka. When his Mahāyāna teaching encountered local opposition from the Bön priests, he advised the king to invite Padmasambhava, the Vajrayāna adept, from Oḍḍiyāna.

4. Padmasambhava · Padmasambhava — Guru Rinpoche, the lotus-born

   Padmasambhava, the Tantric master of Oḍḍiyāna (Swat Valley) invited by Trisong Detsen on Śāntarakṣita's advice in the 770s. He subdued the local protector-deities with Vajrayāna rituals, co-consecrated Samye in 779, and transmitted the Nine Yāna structure that became the Nyingma canon. He is credited with concealing hundreds of terma — treasure teachings — across the Himalaya for later tertön masters to recover. Known across the entire Tibetan Buddhist world as Guru Rinpoche; worshipped as the 'Second Buddha'.

5. Samye Monastery · Samye Monastery, 779

   Samye on the Tsangpo at Dranang, founded by Śāntarakṣita and Padmasambhava and consecrated by King Trisong Detsen in 779 — the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery and the mother house of Nyingma. Its three-storey main temple is laid out as a maṇḍala of Mount Meru, with four continents and the sun and moon arranged around it. The 792-794 Samye debate between the Indian scholar Kamalaśīla (Śāntarakṣita's pupil) and the Chinese Chan master Heshang Moheyan established the gradual (Indian) path over the sudden (Chinese) as official Tibetan doctrine.

6. Nyingma — the Ancient Translation school · Nyingma — the Old Translation

   Nyingma, 'the Ancient Translations', the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism, tracing itself to Padmasambhava, Śāntarakṣita and Vimalamitra. Centres on the Nine Yānas culminating in Dzogchen ('the Great Perfection'), direct recognition of the nature of mind, and on the terma or treasure tradition recovered by later tertön masters. Six mother monasteries: Dorje Drak, Mindrolling, Palyul, Kathok, Dzogchen and Shechen.

7. Nālandā mahāvihāra · Nālandā mahāvihāra — the Indian source

   Nālandā, the Pāla-era Mahāyāna university in Bihar where Śāntarakṣita was abbot before his Tibet mission and where Atiśa later served. The source of the Madhyamaka, Yogācāra and Prajñāpāramitā lineages that formed Tibetan philosophical Buddhism. Tibetan monk-translators crossed the Himalaya to study there from the 8th to the 12th centuries; the 1193 sack of Nālandā by Bakhtiyar Khilji's cavalry ended the Indian transmission and left Tibet as the principal reservoir of the Pāla scholastic tradition.

8. Vikramashilā · Vikramaśīla — the second Pāla university

   Vikramaśīla, founded by King Dharmapāla in the late 8th century near Bhagalpur on the Ganges — the greatest tantric Buddhist university of the Pāla period. Its abbot Atiśa Dīpaṃkara was the figure invited to Tibet in 1042 who began the New Translation period. Sacked by Bakhtiyar Khilji's cavalry around 1200; the surviving scholars carried their texts and lineages across the Himalaya to Tibet, where they were preserved.

9. Atiśa Dīpaṃkara · Atiśa Dīpaṃkara — the New Translation, 1042

   Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna (982-1054), the Bengali abbot of Vikramaśīla invited to Tibet in 1042 by King Yeshe Ö of Guge. His Bodhipathapradīpa ('Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment') reorganised the three vehicles (hīnayāna, mahāyāna, vajrayāna) as sequential paths for progressively more capable practitioners — the structure that all later Tibetan lam-rim literature inherits. His principal Tibetan disciple Dromtönpa founded the Kadampa school at Reting in 1057; the Kadam synthesis of monastic discipline with lam-rim was absorbed by all later Tibetan schools.

10. Odantapuri · Odantapuri — the third Pāla mahāvihāra

    Odantapuri in Bihar, founded under the Pāla king Gopāla (c. 750) and the model on which Samye was planned. Tibetan sources describe Odantapuri as a central node of the Vajrayāna transmission to Tibet. Destroyed along with Nālandā and Vikramaśīla in the Khilji invasions around 1200; nothing survives above ground.

11. Marpa Lotsawa · Marpa Lotsawa — the translator, 11th c.

    Marpa Chökyi Lodrö (c. 1012-96), the Tibetan farmer-scholar who crossed the Himalayas to India three times to study with the Bengali mahāsiddha Nāropā at Pullahari and with Maitripa. He translated the Hevajra, Guhyasamāja and Cakrasamvara Tantras and the Six Yogas of Nāropā into Tibetan, and remained a householder — a farmer in the Lhodrak valley of southern Tibet. His transmission is the root of the Kagyu lineage; his most celebrated student was Milarepa.

12. Jetsun Milarepa · Jetsun Milarepa — the yogi, 1052-1135

    Jetsun Milarepa, the greatest of the Tibetan poet-yogis. The Life of Milarepa and the Hundred Thousand Songs tell of his youthful black magic to avenge his family, his catastrophic trials under Marpa to purify that karma, and years of solitary meditation in Himalayan caves at Lapchi, Chuwar and Nyanam, eating only nettles. He attained Buddhahood in a single lifetime through Mahāmudrā and the Six Yogas of Nāropā. His disciple Gampopa fused the yogic lineage with the Kadam monastic curriculum, founding the Kagyu school proper.

13. Kagyu — the Oral Lineage · Kagyu — the oral lineage

    Kagyu, the four greater and eight lesser sub-schools descending from Marpa and Milarepa through Gampopa. Signature teachings are the Six Yogas of Nāropā and Mahāmudrā. The largest branches today are the Karma Kagyu (headed by the Karmapa, re-established at Rumtek in Sikkim since 1959), the Drukpa Kagyu (the state religion of Bhutan since 1616), and the Drikung Kagyu.

14. Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim · Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim — the Karma Kagyu in exile

    Rumtek near Gangtok, Sikkim, re-established in 1966 by the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje as the seat of the Karma Kagyu lineage in exile after the Chinese closure of the historic Karmapa seat at Tsurphu in central Tibet. Built as a replica of Tsurphu by King Chögyal of Sikkim; houses the Vajra Crown relic, the Karma Shri Nalanda Institute, and the Dharma Chakra Centre. A disputed succession after 1981 has produced two rival Karmapas.

15. The Drukpa Kagyu · Drukpa Kagyu — the state religion of Bhutan

    The Drukpa Kagyu, one of the four greater sub-schools of Kagyu, founded in Tibet by Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje in the late 12th century and later transplanted to Bhutan by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651), who unified Bhutan into a single Drukpa Kagyu state in 1616. Its clergy constitute the Dratshang Lhentshog, the Monk Body of Bhutan, headed by the Je Khenpo; its monasteries are the Punakha, Thimphu and Paro Dzongs that double as civic government buildings. The Drukpa monk Phajo Drugom Zhigpo first brought the school to Bhutan in the 1220s.

16. Khön Könchok Gyalpo · Khön Könchok Gyalpo — founder of Sakya, 1073

    Khön Könchok Gyalpo (1034-1102), of the ancient Khön family of southern Tibet, who founded the mother monastery of the Sakya school at Sakya in Tsang in 1073 — on grey earth (sa skya), from which the school takes its name. He fused the earlier Nyingma transmissions of his family with the new Sanskrit tantric lineages that Drokmi Lotsawa had brought back from India, notably the Hevajra cycle derived from the Indian mahāsiddha Virūpa, into the Lamdré ('Path and Fruit') system.

17. Sakya — the Grey Earth school · Sakya — grey earth and priest-patron

    Sakya, founded 1073 at Sakya in Tsang. The teachings centre on the Lamdré, a systematic exposition of the Hevajra Tantra. The Sakya Paṇḍita Kunga Gyaltsen (1182-1251) negotiated the submission of Tibet to the Mongol prince Köden in 1247; his nephew Chögyal Phakpa (1235-80) served as imperial preceptor to Kublai Khan, establishing the chöyön (priest-patron) relationship that is the paradigm of Tibetan political theology. From 1264 to 1354 Sakya administered Tibet under Mongol overlordship.

18. Je Tsongkhapa · Je Tsongkhapa — the reformer, 1357-1419

    Tsongkhapa Lobsang Dragpa, born in Tsongkha in Amdo, the author of the Lamrim Chenmo ('Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path') and the Ngagrim Chenmo ('Great Treatise on the Secret Mantra') that together became the curriculum of the Gelug school he founded. Combined the Kadam ethical rigour of Atiśa, the Mādhyamaka of Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti, and the full Sakya tantric transmission in a reformed monastic regime that insisted on celibacy, the full Vinaya, and sequential study. Founded Ganden Monastery in 1409 as the mother house of the new school.

19. Gelug — the Yellow Hat school · Gelug — the Yellow Hats, 1409 onwards

    Gelug, 'the Virtuous Ones' or Yellow Hats, founded by Je Tsongkhapa in 1409. Combines Kadam ethical rigour with the full Sakya tantric curriculum, insisting on monastic celibacy and sequential study of the five great Indian texts. Holds the lines of the Dalai Lamas (recognised reincarnations since Altan Khan of the Tümed Mongols conferred the title in 1578) and the Panchen Lamas. From the 5th Dalai Lama (1617-82) onwards, administered Tibet through the Ganden Phodrang government until 1959.

20. Ganden Monastery, Lhasa · Ganden Monastery, 1409 — the first great seat

    Ganden on the Wangbur mountain east of Lhasa, founded by Tsongkhapa in 1409 as the mother house of the Gelug school. 'Ganden' is the Tibetan rendering of Tuṣita, the heaven of Maitreya. The abbot of Ganden holds the title of Ganden Tripa — the formal head of the Gelug school, elected on seniority for a seven-year term, and in doctrinal matters outranking the Dalai Lama. Destroyed in the Cultural Revolution (1966-69) and now partly rebuilt.

21. Drepung Monastery, Lhasa · Drepung Monastery, 1416

    Drepung on Mount Gephel northwest of Lhasa, founded in 1416 by Jamyang Choje Tashi Palden, a direct disciple of Tsongkhapa. The largest monastery in the Tibetan world — at its 1950s peak home to over 10,000 monks across four great monastic colleges (Gomang, Loseling, Deyang and Ngagpa). The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Dalai Lamas were based here before the Potala was built. The Drepung Monastic University in Mundgod, Karnataka, re-established in 1969, carries the lineage in India.

22. Sera Monastery, Lhasa · Sera Monastery, 1419

    Sera, founded in 1419 by Jamchen Chöje Shakya Yeshe at the foot of the Pubuchok mountain north of Lhasa. The third of Tsongkhapa's three great seats, with the Sera Me and Sera Je colleges and the Sera Ngagpa tantric college. Famous for the Mahāyāna debate courtyard where monks test one another in formal logical disputation. Sera Monastic University at Bylakuppe, Karnataka, re-established in 1970, is the Indian successor.

23. Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama · The Great Fifth Dalai Lama — unification of Tibet, 1642

    Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617-82), the only Dalai Lama acknowledged by Tibetan tradition as a political as well as a spiritual sovereign. With the military support of Güshi Khan of the Khoshut Mongols, who defeated the Tsangpa dynasty in 1642, he founded the Ganden Phodrang government and brought all of Tibet under a single Lhasa-based administration. He confirmed the Panchen Lama lineage at Tashilhunpo and composed a prolific body of philosophical, historical and poetic writing. His regent Sangye Gyatso concealed his death for fifteen years to protect the political order he had built.

24. Potala Palace, Lhasa · Potala Palace, Lhasa, from 1645

    The Potala on Marpori ('Red Hill') in Lhasa, built from 1645 under the Great Fifth Dalai Lama on the site of an earlier 7th-century palace of Songtsen Gampo. Thirteen storeys, 999 rooms; housed the Ganden Phodrang government, the Dalai Lama's winter residence, the Namgyal monastery, and the gold-encased tombs of eight Dalai Lamas. Named after Mount Potalaka, the Puranic southern-Indian abode of Avalokiteśvara, of whom the Dalai Lamas are regarded as emanations. UNESCO World Heritage Site 1994.

25. Jokhang Temple, Lhasa · Jokhang Temple — the heart of Lhasa

    The Jokhang in central Lhasa, founded by Songtsen Gampo around 652 CE to house the Jowo Śākyamuni statue brought from Chang'an by his Chinese Tang bride Wencheng, and the Mikyö Dorje Buddha brought by his Nepalese bride Bhrikuti. The most sacred temple in Tibetan Buddhism. The Barkor circumambulation route around it is the central Lhasa pilgrimage. UNESCO World Heritage Site (as an extension to the Potala, 2000).

26. Tashilhunpo Monastery, Shigatse · Tashilhunpo Monastery — the Panchen Lama's seat

    Tashilhunpo at Shigatse in Tsang, founded in 1447 by the 1st Dalai Lama Gendun Drup. From the 17th century the seat of the Panchen Lamas — the lineage of Amitābha emanations recognised by the Great Fifth as a complement to the Dalai Lama line (Avalokiteśvara emanations). The two lineages traditionally recognise each other's reincarnations. The 11th Panchen Lama recognised by the Dalai Lama in 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, was taken by Chinese authorities within days of the announcement and has not been seen in public since.

27. Erdene Zuu, Karakorum · Erdene Zuu, Karakorum — Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia

    Erdene Zuu at the site of the Mongol imperial capital Karakorum, built from 1585 by Abtai Sain Khan after Altan Khan of the Tümed had received Tibetan Buddhist initiation from the Gelug hierarch who became the 3rd Dalai Lama — the moment the Dalai Lama title itself was conferred (ta le, 'ocean [of wisdom]'). Erdene Zuu became the mother house of Mongolian Gelug Buddhism; at its 17th-century peak it held 10,000 monks across 62 temples. Most of the monastic buildings were destroyed in the 1937 Stalinist purges; the enclosure walls, three main temples and 108 stupas survive.

28. Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama · The 14th Dalai Lama — exile and renewal, 1959 onwards

    Tenzin Gyatso (b. 1935), 14th in the Dalai Lama lineage. Enthroned at Lhasa in 1950 as a child during the Chinese military entry into Tibet; crossed the Himalaya into India in March 1959 after the suppression of the Lhasa uprising. From Dharamshala he has led the Central Tibetan Administration (government-in-exile), rebuilt the three great Gelug seats (Ganden, Drepung and Sera) in Karnataka, established Men-Tsee-Khang and dozens of settlements across India, and taught Tibetan Buddhism to a global audience. Nobel Peace Prize 1989; stepped down from political leadership in 2011 while retaining spiritual leadership.

29. Dharamshala · Dharamshala — the government in exile

    McLeod Ganj and Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh — the seat since 1960 of the 14th Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration. The Tsuglagkhang complex is the Dalai Lama's residence and principal temple; the Namgyal Monastery (the Dalai Lamas' personal monastery, re-established here) sits beside it. Dharamshala houses the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Men-Tsee-Khang, the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, the Tibetan Children's Villages and the Norbulingka Institute — the whole scaffolding of a cultural reconstruction in exile.

30. Men-Tsee-Khang, Dharamshala · Men-Tsee-Khang — the medical and astrological institute in exile

    The Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute at Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamshala, re-founded in 1961 by the 14th Dalai Lama in exile from the 1916 Lhasa institute. The global centre for Sowa Rigpa, Tibetan medicine, recognised by the Government of India as the sixth AYUSH system in 2010. Seven-year amchi training; 54 branch clinics across India. Men-Tsee-Khang also publishes the Phuggles astrological almanac used across the Tibetan Buddhist world.

31. Tabo Monastery, Spiti · Tabo Monastery, Spiti — a thousand years unbroken

    Tabo in the Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh, founded in 996 CE by the Tibetan king-monk Yeshe Ö of Guge and his descendants — the longest continuously operating Buddhist monastery in India and the Himalaya. The nine temples carry the finest surviving late-10th-century Indo-Tibetan wall paintings and clay sculptures, including the Du khang maṇḍala of Vairocana. Nicknamed the 'Ajanta of the Himalayas'; the 14th Dalai Lama has visited several times to perform the Kālacakra initiation.

32. Alchi Monastery, Ladakh · Alchi Monastery, Ladakh — the Kashmir hand

    Alchi on the Indus in Ladakh, founded in the late 10th or early 11th century by the great translator Rinchen Zangpo. The surviving murals — in the Sumtseg, the Dukhang and the Manjushri temples — are the only large-scale examples of the Kashmir-influenced painting style that illustrated the first Tibetan translations of the Yogācāra and Mahāyoga tantras. Alchi has been inactive as a working monastery since the 12th century, which is precisely why the murals survive.

Sources

• Wikipedia