Person · Buddhist tantric master · India
Padmasambhava
Also known as Guru Rinpoche, Padma Sambhava, Lopön Rinpoche
Padmasambhava ('Lotus-born'), known in Tibet as Guru Rinpoche, was the tantric master invited from Uddiyana (modern Swat, Pakistan) to Tibet by king Trisong Detsen in the 760s to subdue the hostile pre-Buddhist earth-spirits and consecrate Samye monastery with the Nalanda abbot Śāntarakṣita. He is the founder of the Nyingma ('Ancient') school of Tibetan Buddhism — the oldest of the four schools — and the hidden-treasure (terma) tradition that still produces revealed scriptures today. Padmasambhava is worshipped as a second Buddha in the Himalayan Buddhist belt from Ladakh to Bhutan; his birthday (Guru Rinpoche's Tsechu) is a public holiday in Bhutan and Sikkim and the great mask dance of the year in Monpa, Sherdukpen and Memba villages of Arunachal Pradesh.
- Date
- 717–762
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Patron dynasty
- Yarlung dynasty
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (5)
- FoundedSamye Monastery
Padmasambhava, invited from Uddiyana (modern Swat, Pakistan) by king Trisong Detsen in the 760s, subdued the pre-Buddhist earth-spirits of the Yarlung valley and consecrated the Samye monastery between 775 and 787 CE with Śāntarakṣita. He is remembered as the Second Buddha of Tibet and the founder of the Nyingma 'Ancient' school.
- Life routeMount Kailāsa
Padmasambhava is one of the twelve Buddhist adepts recorded in Nyingma tradition to have meditated at Mount Kailāsa; the mountain is as central to Tibetan Buddhist cosmology (as the physical peak of Mount Meru) as it is to Shaiva and Jain geographies.
- Life routeUrgelling Monastery, Tawang
Padmasambhava is remembered in Monpa tradition as having meditated in a cave at Urgelling near Tawang on his overland journey from Uddiyana to Tibet; the sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso was born in Urgelling in 1683 and is said to have been born there specifically for this Padmasambhava association.
- Life routeTabo Monastery, Spiti
Padmasambhava is traditionally said to have passed through the Spiti valley on his overland route from Uddiyana to Tibet; Tabo monastery (founded 996 CE by Rinchen Zangpo on the lower Spiti) is an important secondary Nyingma site in India outside the Padmasambhava-primary monasteries of the Tsho-pema (Rewalsar) area in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh.
- Founder ofNyingma — the Ancient Translation school
Padmasambhava, the Vajrayāna adept of Oḍḍiyāna, was invited to Tibet by King Trisong Detsen in the 770s. His tantric initiations and the terma treasure-text system he inaugurated are the root of the Nyingma school and of every subsequent Tibetan Buddhist lineage. Across the Himalaya he is simply Guru Rinpoche — the 'Second Buddha'.
On these journeys
Sources
Standard biography.
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