Person · Nalanda abbot & philosopher · India
Śāntarakṣita
Also known as Shantarakshita, Khenpo Bodhisattva
Śāntarakṣita (725-788), abbot of Nālandā mahāvihāra and founder of the Yogācāra-Madhyamaka synthesis in Indian Buddhism, was summoned to Tibet by king Trisong Detsen in the 760s to establish institutional Buddhism there. He designed Samye monastery as a mandala plan, ordained the first seven Tibetan monks (the sad-mi mi-bdun), consecrated Samye in 779 with Padmasambhava, and set up the translation bureau that produced the first authoritative Tibetan Buddhist canon. He is called in Tibetan Khenpo Bodhisattva ('the abbot-bodhisattva') and remains the second of the three founders of Tibetan Buddhism after Padmasambhava and before Atiśa. His disciple Kamalaśīla defeated the Chinese Chan subitist Heshang Moheyan at the Samye Debate of c.792 CE, which settled Tibetan Buddhism in favour of the Indian scholastic path.
- Date
- 725–788
- Function
- Learning & scholarship
- Patron dynasty
- Pala
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (4)
- Monastic foundationNālandā mahāvihāra
Śāntarakṣita was the senior abbot of Nālandā mahāvihāra before king Trisong Detsen summoned him to Tibet in the 760s. His Yogācāra-Madhyamaka synthesis is the characteristic Nalanda late-phase scholastic philosophy and the lens through which Tibetan Buddhism continues to read Indian Mahayana.
- FoundedSamye Monastery
Śāntarakṣita designed Samye monastery as a three-dimensional mandala in the Yarlung valley, ordained the first seven Tibetan monks (the sad-mi mi-bdun) in 779 CE, and set up the translation bureau that produced the first authoritative Tibetan Buddhist canon in collaboration with the Indian paṇḍitas and Tibetan lotsawa translators.
- Founder ofNyingma — the Ancient Translation school
Śāntarakṣita, Bengali Mahāyāna abbot of Nalanda, laid the philosophical foundations of Tibetan Buddhism from the 760s. He ordained the first seven Tibetan monks at Samye, debated the Chinese Chan school in the 790s and established the Indian gradualist path. Padmasambhava gave Tibet its tantra; Śāntarakṣita gave it its scholastic grammar.
- Studied atNālandā mahāvihāra
Śāntarakṣita was abbot of Nalanda before his mission to Tibet in the 760s.
On these journeys
Sources
Standard biography.
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