Buton Rinchen

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A 14th century wall painting depiction of abbot Buton Rinchen (left) and his successor

Buton Rinchen Drub (Tibetan: བུ་སྟོན་རིན་ཆེན་འགྲུབ་; Wylie: Bu-ston Rin-chen Grub), 11th Abbot of Shalu Monastery (1290-1364) was a fourthteenth century Sakya master and Tibetan Buddhist leader. Buton was not merely a capable administrator but he is remembered to this very day as a prodigious scholar and writer and is Tibet's most celebrated historian. Buton catalogued all of the Buddhist scriptures at Shalah, some 4,569 religious and philosophical works and formatted them in a logical,coherent order. He wrote the famous book the History of Buddhism in India and Tibet at Shalu which many Tibetan scholars utilize into their study today.

After his death he strongly influenced the development of esoteric studies and psychic training in Tibet for centuries. The purpose of his works were not to cultivate paranormal magical abilities but to attain philosophical enlightenment, a belief that all earthly phenonoma are a state of the mind. He remains to this day one of the most important Tibetan historians and Buddhist writers in the history of Buddhism and Tibet