Dromtön

Dromtönpa
འབྲོམ་སྟོན་པ་རྒྱལ་བའི་འབྱུང་གནས་
School Initiator of the Kadampa
Other names Dromtön Gyalwe Jungney
Dharma names Gyelwai Jungne
Personal
Born Chopel (chos 'phel)
1004 or 1005
Tolung
Died 1064
Reting Monastery
Religious career
Teacher Chief disciple of Atisha; Trumkyi Khenbu Chenpo Setsun (grum gyi mkhan bu chen po se btsun); studied reading and writing with Paṇḍita Smṛti (paNDita smr ti)
Reincarnation 45th incarnation of Chenresig
Students Chekawa Yeshe Dorje, Geshe Yungcho (dge bshes g.yung chos mgon), Potowa Rinchen Sal Chokle Namgyel (po to ba rin chen gsal phyogs las rnam rgyal, 1027-1105), Puchungwa Zhonnu Gyeltsen (phu chung ba gzhon nu rgyal mtshan, 1031-1106) and Chennga Tsultrim Bar (spyan snga tshul khrims ’bar, 1038-1103)
Ordination Lay vows with Nanam Dorje Wangchuk (sna nam rdo rje dbang phyug, 976-1060); never ordained.
Post Founded Reting Monastery, 1056

Dromtön Gyalwe Jungney (Tibetan: འབྲོམ་སྟོན་པ་རྒྱལ་བའི་འབྱུང་གནས་, Wylie: 'Brom-ston-pa Rgyal-ba'i 'Byung-gnas ) (or Dromtönpa) (1004 or 1005–1064) was the chief disciple of Buddhist master Atisha, the initiator of the Kadampa school, and the founder of Reting Monastery.

Biography

Dromtönpa was born in Tolung at the beginning of the period of the second propagation of Buddhism in Tibet. "His father was Kushen Yaksherpen (sku gshen yag gsher 'phen) and his mother was Kuoza Lenchikma (khu 'od bza' lan gcig ma)."[1]

He began preaching in the Tibetan region in 1042. He has been remembered as the initiator of the Tibetan Tantric School known as Kadampa.

Dromtön is considered to be the 45th incarnation of Chenresig or Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and, thus, part of the early lineage of the Dalai Lamas (the First Dalai Lama is said to have been the 51st incarnation).[2]

Dromtön founded Reting Monastery in 1056 in the Reting Tsampo Valley north of Lhasa which became the seat of the Kadampa lineage and brought some relics of Atisha there.[3]

It was Dromtönpa's student Chekawa Yeshe Dorje who first compiled Atiśa's core teachings on the practice of bodhicitta in written form, as The Seven Point Mind Training.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Gardner, Alexander (February 2010). "Dromton Gyelwa Jungne". The Treasury of Lives: Biographies of Himalayan Religious Masters. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
  2. ↑ Stein, R. A. (1972). Tibetan Civilization, p. 139. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 (cloth); ISBN 0-8047-0901-7 (pbk).
  3. ↑ Dowman, Keith. (1988). The Power-Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, p. 93. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0.

References