the *Eight Pronouncements* provides us with a very remarkable case of a revelation continued over centuries, of which there are many in the Nyingma tradition.

Further research will show in which elaborate ways Rigdzin Gödem's revelations may be re-elaborations of material from Nyangral, but this is beyond the scope of the present research.

Although the way in which Gödem was trained is not well documented in Nyima Zangpo's biography, it says that in his teenage years "he received the treasures of Nyangral from one named Changmawa."<fnref n="1" /> It has been so far impossible to trace him (we will return to this point in the next volume in the chapter about Rigdzin Gödem's masters). However, the Fifth Dalai Lama's *Record of Teachings Received* describes a lineage in which Gödem received the transmissions of Nyangral Nyima Özer's revelations.<fnref n="2" /> The lineage, after Nyangral Nyima Özer, reads: Namkha Palden (1171–1238, one of Nyima Özer's sons); Gyalsé Loden Sherab; a grandson of Nyangral called Ngadak Lodenma;<fnref n="3" /> Nyötön Thukjé Rinchen; Dartön Yönten Gyatso; Lama Ngödrup Palden; Gyatön Thukjé Sengé; Lama Rinchen Gyalpo;<fnref n="4" /> his son Lama Changmapa. Then we find Rigdzin Gödem<fnref n="5" /> and then a very standard lists of his successors that allows full certainty about his identification.

<footnote>pa zang thal. See also Arguillère forthcoming ("Re-reading Eva Neumaier Dargyay's 'bKa'-brgyad rang-byung rang-shar, ein rDzogs chen Tantra': A Reflection on Mahāyoga and Visionary rDzogs chen in Rig 'dzin rGod Idem's *Eight Pronouncements* System," in our third Byang gter special issue of the *RET* scheduled for February 2026).</footnote>

<footnote n="1">¹ Nyi ma bzang po 2015, p. 16: *lcang ma ba la nyang ral pa'i gter kha gsan.*</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho 1970–1971, *Thob yig gaṅgā'i chu rgyun*, vol. 3, f°158b.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ *mNga' bdag* Blo ldan ma. Gu ru bkra shis 1990, p. 383, mentions him as an emanation of Mañjuśrī. There is a biography of him in *mNga' bdag bla ma'i rnam thar*, pp. 248-255, but it does not seem to contain any date or datable element.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ *Bla ma* Rin chen rgyal po. Could be BDRC P0RK1053. Many occurrences of this name Rin chen rgyal po are in the Fifth Dalai Lama's *gSan yig*, but without much possibilities to check that these refer to the same person. Unknown to Gu ru bKra shis and *The Blue Annals*. He may be a disciple of IHa nang pa Sangs rgyas rin chen (BDR: P15, 1164–1224), but this seems a bit early.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ *gTer ston* dNgos grub rgyal mtshan, followed by *sNgags 'chang* rDo rje mgon po, *mtshan ldan* Ngag dbang grags pa, etc.</footnote>
Gongri Sangyé Wangchen (12th Century)
and The Secret Cycle of Hayagrīva

Here we must briefly mention a figure that is even more obscure than Sarben Chokmé, for even Guru Tashi’s *History of the Dharma* does not give a brief biography of him: Gongri Sangyé Wangchen (also known as Nyemo Gyagar Riwa Sangyé Wangchen).<fnref n="1" /> Although we do not know anything about his life, he is easy to place chronologically as he was a direct teacher to the Shangpa master Gyergangpa Chökyi Sengé (1154–1217)<fnref n="2" />—hence the name *Gyergang Tamdrin* under which the Hayagrīva cycle found in the liturgy of Dorjé Drak with the title *Tamdrin Sangkor* is commonly known. This cycle was introduced into the Dorjé Drak liturgy<fnref n="3" /> in the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama and Rigdzin Pema Trinlé. It is the second one sampled in the *Rinchen Terdzö*<fnref n="4" /> in the chronological order, after the oldest one, known as *The Hypersecret Hayagrīva*.<fnref n="5" />

<footnote n="1">¹ Gong ri Sangs rgyas dbang chen, sNye mo rgya gar ri ba Sangs rgyas dbang chen. He is mentioned in Gu ru bkra shis, 1990, p. 372, in the context of a short note on sNye mo Zhu yas gNod sbyin 'bar, alluded to in Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho 1970–1971, *Thob yig gaṅgā' i chu rgyun*, vol. 3, f°64a, suggesting that the two figures may be one and the same, which Guru bkra shis regards as unlikely.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² The early lineage stemming from the *gter ston*, e.g., in Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho *loc. cit.*, is easily recognizable as a Shangs pa mainstream line: *chos sku snang ba mtha' yas* | *longs sku padma dbang chen* | *sprul sku padma sam bha wa* | *gter ston rgya gong ri pa sangs rgyas dbang chen* | *skyer sgang pa chos kyi seng ge* | *sangs rgyas gnyan ston* | *'gro mgon chos rje ston pa* | (*sangs rgyas ston pa'ang zer*) | *gtsang ma shangs ston* | *mkhas btsun rgyal mtshan 'bum* | *khyung po tshul khrims mgon po* |, etc. The table of Kong *sprul* 1976, vol. 40, describes this cycle as "a fusion of the direct revelations of Padmasambhava to sKyer sgang pa Chos kyi seng ge and the *gter ma* discoveries of Snye mo rGya gong ri ba Sangs rgyas dbang chen."</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor don 'cha, vol. 3, pp. 193-212: *rTa mgrin gsang sgrub kyi brgyud gsol dang las byang dkyus gcig tu bsdebs pa rin chen mdzes pa'i phra tshom*. The lineage is presented on pp. 194-196. It begins exactly as described in the Fifth Dalai Lama's *Record of Teachings received*, and then it passes to Rig 'dzin Padma 'phrin las followed by an all-Byang gter lineage.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Kong *sprul* 1976, vol. 40, pp. 87-150.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ *rTa mgrin yang gsang*, in Kong *sprul* 1976, vol. 40, pp. 1-85. This cycle, quite unusually for a rNying ma *gter ma* teaching, became a central practice of one of the most important dGe lugs institutions: the Byes college of Se ra Monastery. The Fifth Dalai Lama devotes seven texts to this cycle (Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho 2009, *gSung' 'bum*, vol. 27, pp. 128-247), including a *lo rgyus* in which he seems to confess (p. 133), in a way that is very unusual in similar Tibetan literature, that the precise origins of the lineage are somewhat obscure. In this context, he names three *gter stons*:</footnote>
*Thirteenth Century: the Mongol Empire*

Insofar as we can appreciate in retrospect the respective importance of historical figures—knowing that later reinterpretations often make people who were actually very important in their time disappear, while others whose importance went unnoticed in their lifetime take a central place for posterity—the 13th century in the Nyingma school appears to have been dominated by the towering figure of Guru Chöwang. It was a time of change in Tibet and its surroundings. The larger world was ruled by fierce warriors whose cradle was the Mongol heartland in the steppes of Central Asia to the north of Tibet, but whose empire, by the late 13th century, spanned from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Danube River and the shores of the Persian Gulf in the west. At its peak, the Mongol Empire covered some 23 million km<fnref n="2" /> of territory, making it the largest contiguous land empire in world history. Its founder, Genghis Khan (1162–1227), started the quest of Asia, Europe, and Russia, which was continued by his heirs and reached its peak in the late 13th century. Genghis Khan died in 1227 when he conquered (and destroyed) the Tangut (Xi Xia) Kingdom, whose culture was strongly marked by Tibetan Buddhism.<fnref n="1" /> Despite the proximity of Tanguts with Tibetan masters, there is no evidence at that time of Mongol incursions in central Tibetan territory. At Genghis' death, power was shared between his sons and the pressure of Mongols on Tibet became stronger with their competition, which eventually resulted in the division of the Mongol Empire into four parts ruled by different heirs.<fnref n="2" />

Sum pa dBang tshul, 'Bre Shes rab bla ma and rKyang po Grags pa dbang phyug. For more on these three figures, see Cuevas 2021b, "Four Syllables for Slaying and Repelling," pp. 295-297, regarding the "Contest with Three Hayagrīva Yogins" which is a derogatory version of the story of the three discoverers of this cycle intended to show the superiority of Vajrabhairava rites over the Hayagrīva practices. Cuevas identifies the three figures in a way that allows to place them in the second half of the 11th century. This dates the discovery of the *rTa mgrin yang gsang* cycle quite as early as the above-described 'Jam dpal tshe bdag. The two cycles (*rTa mgrin gsang skor* and *rTa mgrin yang gsang*) seem to be somewhat interconnected, as a text in the *Rin chen gter mdzod*'s section devoted to the second one (1976, vol. 40, p. 199) presents the lineage of the first one, with *Grub thob* 'Dar phyar ba, etc. This all requires further research.

<footnote n="1">¹ See Beckwith 2011 for a general approach to the empires of the Silk Road. For more details on the Tanguts, see the publications of the BuddhistRoad ERC project (https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/).</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Encyclopedia Britannica 2023 describes the four heirs of Genghis Khan: "Tolui, the youngest, received the eastern part—the original homeland of the Mongols together with the adjacent parts of north China. Ögödei</footnote>
Following in the footsteps of the Tanguts, Mongol Khans were very interested in Tibetan Buddhism and received religious transmissions from various masters. Unlike in other countries, they therefore established religious relationships with Tibet and included it in their Empire by surrender rather than bloody conquest. This did not prevent battles, but it set the ground for a richer exchange, which was continued by later Chinese dynasties.

The first armed Mongol incursion into Tibet was ordered by Godan Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan and second son of Ögedei Khan, who had been granted an appanage at Liangzhou (present-day Gansu) in 1239.<fnref n="1" /> In 1240 he sent an invasion force under Dorta into Tibet. The Mongols reached the Penyül Valley north of Lhasa, killing some five hundred monks and destroying and looting monasteries and villages. The Gyal Lhakhang Monastery went up in flames and many monks of Reting were slaughtered.

At that time, Reting's abbot suggested that the last of Sakya's five patriarchs, Sakya Pandita Künga Gyaltsen (1182-1251), be invited to the Mongol court. In 1244, Sakya Pandita accepted the summon and traveled to Godan Khan's court with his nephews. He died there in 1351. At the same time, other Mongol Khans established links with other schools: Möngke Khan, the new Khan after Godan, connected with the Drikungpas, Kubilai with the Tsalpas, Ariq Böke with the Taklungpas, and Hülegü with the Phakmodrupas.<fnref n="2" /> The head of the Karma Kagyü, Karma Pakshi (1204-1283), was invited to Kubilai's court but chose not to stay there and journeyed to the court of Möngke Khan.<fnref n="3" /> At the same time, Chögyal Phakpa (1235-1280), Sakya Pandita's nephew, went to Kubilai's court. In 1258, he gave the Heva-jra empowerment to Kubilai. After Möngke's death in 1259, Kubilai won the war of succession over his relatives. He put Karma Pakshi under arrest and the Karma Kagyü did not benefit from Pakshi's travels in Mongol lands. Kubilai chose Phakpa, and that was how the

became ruler of the western part of the steppes (modern northern Xinjiang and western Mongolia). Chagatai received the lands of Khara-Khitai (modern northern Iran and southern Xinjiang). The eldest son, Jöchi, followed by his son Batu, ruled over southwest Siberia and west Turkistan (an area later known as the territory of the Golden Horde). To these four Mongol empires a fifth was added when Hülegü, a son of Tolui, completed the conquest of Iran, Iraq, and Syria and became the founder of the Il-Khanid dynasty in Iran.”

<footnote n="1">¹ Petech 1990, p. 6-9.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² *Ibid.*, p. 11. 'Bri khung pa, Tshal pa, sTag lung pa, Phag mo gru pa— branches of the bKa' brgyud tradition.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Manson 2022.</footnote>
Sakyapas came to power in Tibet through their alliance with Kubilai, who went on to initiate the Yuan Dynasty in China (1271–1368).

With Phakpa and the Sakyapa's spiritual rule backed by the Yuan Empire's military force, a new era started in Tibet, with a measure of centralization after centuries of disorganized leadership, grassroot movements, and local rules. For almost a century, the Sakya order, with increasingly complicated family successions, was the most powerful political force of Tibet. For approximately the same time, the Mongol Dynasty of the Yuan ruled in China, with the same itinerary of progressive disintegration. It was during this time that a style of governance combining religious and secular rule<fnref n="1" /> became central in Tibet, with a close relationship between “patron and priest.”<fnref n="2" />

### Guru Chöwang (1212–1270)

During this period, in particular in the Nyingma movements with the influence of Nyangral and Guru Chöwang, there was an increasing nostalgia for the Tibetan Empire, when Tibetan kings were sole rulers of their destiny alongside powerful religious leaders such as Padmasambhava. Often, local rulers were considered possible successors of Trisong Detsen, and tertöns were the new Padmasambhavas.

Guru Chöwang's life is not unknown, as he wrote a large autobiography that was studied by Janet Gyatso.<fnref n="3" /> He was born in 1212 in southern Tibet, obviously in a rich and learned family, which allowed him to be trained not only in the Kama traditions, but also in those of the Sarma lineages. He experienced visions as a young teenager, but it seems that it is thanks to his meeting with Nyangral's son, Ngadak Drogön, in his seventeenth year that he could begin making full sense of the transmissions he received earlier.

Jakob Leschly rightly expresses his main historical role:<fnref n="4" />

Chökyi Wangchuk was an early chronicler of the treasure tradition, and was critical in fashioning standards—loosely adhered to, but widely known—that enabled the practice of treasure revelation to become popularly accepted. (...) Perhaps more importantly, he was an early apologist for the tradition, willing to assert the existence of “false” treasure in defense of the practice as a whole, even naming names.

<footnote n="1">1 Chos srid zung 'brel.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2 mChod yon. See Ruegg 2004 and Ruegg 2013 for references on the subject.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">3 Gu ru Chos dbang 1979, studied in Gyatso 1993 and 1994. For a short but substantial hagiography of Gu ru Chos dbang, see Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991, pp. 760–770. For an even shorter version, see Leschly 2007a.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">4 Leschly 2007a.</footnote>
He discovered a considerable amount of terma material, much of which appears to have been lost over the centuries or, at the very least, not properly edited.<fnref n="1" /> His hagiographies are most impressive, but in his case, too, research is still lacking to fully appreciate his historical role. Not only are his own personal achievements—especially in terms of Nyingma doctrines and practices (other than the norms he created or promoted regarding authentic termas)—and the way he trained disciples largely unknown, but little is also understood regarding the way he was perceived in contemporary Tibetan society. What is certain is that his revelations were held in high esteem for generations, and there is hardly a biography of a Nyingma master of the next few centuries that does not mention that he received the transmissions for Guru Chöwang's termas as well as those of Nyangral Nyima Özer.<fnref n="2" />

Future research on the Northern Treasures in particular, and the Nyingma tradition in general, could be done in a comparative way.<fnref n="3" /> It is clear, for example, that several of the Jangter cycles follow in the footsteps of Guru Chöwang and, often through him, Nyangral Nyima Özer. This is typically the case with the *Eight Pronouncements*, but also with the Avalokiteśvara cycle and those of the Peaceful and the Wrathful Padmasambhava. Nor is it impossible that Rigdzin Gödem's lesser-known Dzogchen cycle, *The Natural Emergence of the Self-Arising Primordial Purity* (*Ka dag rang byung rang shar*), is in some ways a descendent of the forms of Dzogchen favored by these two tertöns. There is much to be gained from a kind of archaeology of these cycles, seeing them as layers gradually added to a common heritage.

❖

<footnote n="1">¹ In the Tibetan religious context, when a transmission lineage for a given corpus no longer exists, or when that corpus is perceived to be essentially incorporated into something perceived as more advanced in the same category, the text may cease to be copied. In the case of the early *gter chos*, another unexplored explanation might be the immense destruction caused by the Dzungar invasion of 1717–1718 and the civil war that followed. The Dzungars apparently destroyed as much rNying ma literature as they could.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Rig 'dzin rGod Idem is no exception, as we will see in the next volume's chapter about his masters. However, in this case, the lineage cannot be reconstructed from Guru Chöwang to the obscure master sNang Idan rgyal po from whom Rig 'dzin rGod Idem received this corpus.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Precise suggestions on this point will be found in the "Overview" section of vol. 2.</footnote>
# Chapter 13: An Overview of the Religious and Political Situation in Early Fourteenth Century Tibet

Cécile Ducher<fnref n="1" />
(IFRAE)

Stéphane Arguillère
(IFRAE)

*Butön Rinchen Drub (1290–1364) and
Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen (1312–1375)*

It is in an atmosphere of recentralization and increasing looking back at the grandeur of the Tibetan Empire that the 14th century started. It was a time of great change and transformation in Tibet, marked by the emergence of new religious and political movements, as well as periods of conflict and instability. In India, Buddhism had come to an end, and Tibetans did not receive any new impulses from the south. They had finished the task of importing, dissecting, and digesting the Indian teachings and were creating their own syntheses by formulating new, Tibetan ways of presenting the Buddha's words. Butön Rinchen Drub (1290–1364), for example, took part in the compilation of the first extensive Tibetan canons, the Kangyur and Tengyur. He was not alone in this, and there were many initiatives, often in collaboration with the Yuan and later Ming emperors, to collate and print the translated Indian sources of Tibetan Buddhism.<fnref n="2" />

Butön<fnref n="3" /> is quite representative of the ethos of the 14th century, a middle point between the classical dynastic era (c. 650–850) and the non-sectarian (*ris med*) movement of the 19th century, on the heels of the wave of translation of the Later Spread, and just prior to the monastic outburst of the Gelug order. Born in a Nyingma family, Butön had a very diverse upbringing, combining the classical study of sūtras, philosophy, and poetry with that of the tantras of the Later Spread, foremost among them *Kālacakra*. In 1320, he became the abbot of Zhalu Monastery, hence his tradition, related to that of the Sakya order, is

<footnote n="1">¹ The main historical part of this chapter is by Cécile Ducher.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² See an overview in Tauscher 2015.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ For a summary of his classical biography from Tibetan, see Ruegg 1966; see Tsering Namgyal 2012 for a short lifestory and van der Kuijp 2016 for a detailed survey of his biographies and works.</footnote>
known either as “Butön’s system” or as “system of Zhalu.”<fnref n="1" /> At the height of his career in the mid-14th century, when the power in Tibet was shifting away from the Sakya order, he mediated between them and the Phakmodru myriarchy headed by his student and future king of Tibet, Tai Situ Jangchub Gyaltsen (1302–1364). Butön was then invited to the court of the Yuan by Emperor Toghon Temür (Huizong, r. 1333–1370), but he declined the invitation.

Another important Sakya figure of that period—a member of the Khön family—was Lama Dampa Sönam Gyaltsen (1312–1375), a prolific author who sponsored the first edition of the collected works of the Five Patriarchs of Sakya.<fnref n="2" /> He was a student of Butön and taught Tai Situ Jangchub Gyaltsen. His numerous masters and students hailing from various horizons included Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, Tsongkhapa, and allegedly Longchen Rabjam (1308–1364).<fnref n="3" /> They are a testimony to the open atmosphere of the 14th century, when there was considerable fluidity between lineages and transmissions. Hierarchs could belong to one order, be related to a specific monastery, and still study with many others and attract all kinds of disciples. Like Butön, Lama Dampa was summoned to the Yuan court but did not go due to pretexting health reasons.

## Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé (1284–1339)

An older contemporary, who did not refuse the Yuan Emperor’s invitation and is said to have taken part in the coronation of Toghon Temür, was the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé.<fnref n="4" /> Unlike Butön and Lama Dampa, who were related to Sakya but did not head the order, he was considered the head of the Karma Kagyüpas, although his leadership was not as straightforward as later incarnations of the Karmapa.<fnref n="5" /> He was also very open to Nyingma transmissions. He had a

<footnote n="1">¹ Bu lugs or Zha lugs.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Townsend 2010, van der Kuijp 1993 and 2018.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ It is likely that they met only at the end of Klong chen pa's life, after his return for exile. In that sense, it should not be imagined that he contributed to Klong chen pa's training.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Gamble 2020, esp. p. 119 ff for the description of Rangjung Dorje's journey to Dadu and his death there.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Ruth Gamble (2020) explains that Rang byung rdo rje was not particularly welcome in the monasteries founded by his predecessor, the first Karmapa Dus gsum mkhyen pa (1110–1193). The family of Pakshi—the second Karmapa—was in charge of the monasteries and although they increasingly had to accept Rang byung rdo rje because of his evident spiritual power, they did not let him rule the monasteries. It seems that Rang byung rdo rje even did not go to Kam po gnas nang or was not wanted there. The</footnote>
close connection with Rigdzin Kumarādza (1266–1343) and his disci-
ple Longchen Rabjam and practiced cycles such as the *Khandro Nying-
tik*.<fnref n="1" /> This is quite in opposition to Butön, who is remembered for hav-
ing excluded many Nyingma tantras from his Kangyur, thus prompt-
ing (as a reaction) the compilation of the *Nyingma Gyübum* in the next
century.

Another of his disciples, Yungtönpa Dorjepal (1284–1365), has al-
ready been discussed above. He was an important bridge between Ka-
gyü and Nyingma transmissions in the 14th century. Yungtönpa was
raised in a Nyingma lineage and was an expert in the Khandro and Bima
Nyingtik.<fnref n="2" /> He also was adept at the offensive practices associated with
Yamāntaka. Like various teachers of his time, he studied with many
masters: he received Mahāmudrā teachings from the Third Karmapa,
gained realization with them, and passed his realization on to the
Fourth Karmapa, thus becoming part of the “golden rosary,”<fnref n="3" /> the
Mahāmudrā transmission at the heart of the Karma Kagyü lineage. He
also received training in Kālacakra from Butön, and he too was invited
to the court of a Yuan Emperor. He managed to make rain fall and
henceforth received much prestige and wealth. In the Nyingma line-
age, he was instrumental in the transmission of *The Gathering of Inten-
tions*.

Rangjung Dorjé was born in a poor family in Tsang, at the border-
land between Mangyül Gungthang and Latö and was recognized by
Orgyenpa Rinchen Pal (1229–1309) as a reincarnation of the Second
Karmapa, Karma Pakshi. He was a prolific writer on topics ranging
from the biographies of the Buddha to the most intricate subtleties of
the tantric body in his *Profound Inner Principles*.<fnref n="4" /> He also ordered the
print of the canon, although he did not take part in its compilation. He
is pictured as a yogi enjoying mountain retreats, but he was forced to
spend a lot of time engaged in more “worldly” activities, studying
with many masters, teaching disciples, and bringing the Karma Kagyü
lineage to an increasingly central place in Tibeto-Chinese-Mongol pol-
itics.

<footnote>transfer of power by incarnation, which became the norm in later Tibetan
history, was not yet fully established in the early 14th century.</footnote>

<footnote n="1">¹ Gamble 2020, p. 80.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991, pp. 666-667. See a long biography in the classical Karma Kagyü history called *Zla ba chu shel gyi phreng ba* (Chos kyi ’byung gnas 1990, vol. 11, pp. 368-415; for reference to this text, see Dell 2023). For a short biography see also Gardner 2011.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ gSer phreng.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ *Zab mo nang don*—see Callahan 2014.</footnote>
His doctrinal approach was quite representative of the style of 14th-
century masters:<fnref n="1" /> Rangjung Dorjé's advocacy for "sidelessness" stood
in contrast to the position the Sakyapas were advocating. Following
the lead of their luminary, Sakya Pandita (1182–1251), they considered
some of the Kagyü practices that blended sūtra and tantra traditions,
particularly Gampopa's practice of "sūtra Mahāmudrā," as akin to the
Chinese belief of "instant awakening" that was expelled from Tibet af-
ter the at-least-semi-mythical Samyé Debate. In many places within
Rangjung Dorjé's writing, there are veiled and non-veiled jibes at Sa-
kya positions on a variety of topics and on their actions as governors.
This pattern suggests that Rangjung Dorje's work could be read as an
indirect argument against the Sakya position. He, unlike them, was
dedicated to finding the common ground between all the different tra-
ditions of Tibetan Buddhism—between sūtra and tantra, between
Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen, and between the treasure traditions and
the traditional lineages.

Ruth Gamble's monograph on Rangjung Dorjé shows that if the Ka-
gyüpas and Nyingmapas often had close connections in the early Ti-
betan history—a trend that continued until the present day—there was
often considerably more tensions between the Sakyapas and the vari-
ous branches of the Kagyüpas. This trend appears in early biographies,
for instance those of Marpa and Gampopa, and continued in later cen-
turies, especially in the 13th and 14th centuries, when these orders
were consolidating and often vying for sponsors.

Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361)

The<fnref n="2" /> main exponent of the emptiness-of-other (gzhan stong) approach was Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen who, regardless of the issue of the influence of his doctrines on the Nyingmapas of Gödem's generation, was in any case another prominent figure in the background of early fourteenth century. He belonged to a somewhat dissident branch of the Sakya school, the Jonang order, which after that time can be considered an independent tradition in Tibet.<fnref n="3" />

Dolpopa was born in Dolpo, nowadays a Nepalese region close to
Tsang, Mustang, and Lhodrak, where many of the above-mentioned
masters were active. Initially a student of Kyitön Jamyang Drakpa
Gyaltsen (d.u.) who taught him Kālacakra while at Sakya, he also re-
ceived many teachings of the Kagyü and Nyingma traditions as well

<footnote n="1">¹ Gamble 2020, p. 102.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² This paragraph and the following ones are by Cécile Ducher.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ For a short presentation see Stearns 2008; and Stearns 2010 for a mono-
graph.</footnote>
as instructions on Chö and Zhijé. After formative years during which he embraced more scholastic methods, he then went to Jonang and was inspired by a more meditative approach to the *Kālacakratantra*, which eventually led him to the formulation of the emptiness-of-other doctrine. Also invited to the court of Toghon Temür, he stayed in retreat instead, and in the last years of his life, he traveled to the many monasteries of Tsang and Ü to teach his approach of ultimate reality to large crowds. Dolpopa died in 1361; this was also the year when Thangtong Gyalpo (1361–1485), considered to be his reincarnation and who had close links with the Northern Treasures Tradition,<fnref n="1" /> was born.

*An Overview of the Political Situation from Late 13th to Mid-15th centuries and its Religious Consequences*

To understand the political history of Tibet at that time and in the following centuries, it is important to take a step backward. When the Mongols started to administer Tibet in 1260, they created “myriarchies”<fnref n="2" /> organized around main monasteries—hence the name “Sakya” or “Drikung” referring to the political unit and not to the monastery—and consolidated them by the Mongol census of 1268.<fnref n="3" /> They were ruled by “myriarchs,”<fnref n="4" /> sometimes religious figures, but more often civil servants, though generally related by blood to the religious hierarchs of the monasteries. In 1368, Kubilai handed the thirteen myriarchies to Phakpa, thus uniting lords of various regions who had been under the emperors’ rule during the Tibetan Empire but were autonomous in the 13th century. Thus, the thirteen myriarchies (whose exact list varies in sources) are thirteen political units of Central Tibet (Ü), Tsang, and Ngari that were united by Kubilai. Their unification did not stop them from vying with each other, especially when the Sakya lords started to lose power. In 1290 for instance, a conflict between Sakya and Drikung led to the destruction of Drikung Til, the main monastery of the political unit Drikung, by Mongol forces allied with Sakya.<fnref n="5" /> In the middle of the 14th century, the ruler of the Phakmodrupa myriarchy, Jangchub Gyaltsen (1302–1364), progressively

<footnote n="1">¹ See Ducher 2024 and Volume 3 of this series.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² *Khri skor*, literally “ten-thousand households,” the latter being called *hordü* in the Mongol administration.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ For general explanation with maps, see Ryavec 2015, pp. 86–90. For more detailed explanations, see in general Czaja 2013, and in particular Luciano Petech’s article on “The Mongol Census in Tibet” in Tuttle and Schaeffer 2013, pp. 233–240.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ *Khri dpon*.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Czaja 2013, n. 65, pp. 106–107.</footnote>
gained power in his own region and over the Sakya lords who were entangled in succession splits between competing lineages. In 1358, he obtained from Sakya the seal of power over the thirteen myriarchies and the Yuan Emperor granted him the title of Tai Situ. As, however, he ignored imperial orders, the Yuan administration of Tibet stopped (ten years before the dynasty itself was replaced by the Ming), and Tibet became autonomous again.<fnref n="1" /> The power shifted from Tsang to Ü, and this struggle for power between these two regions of Central Tibet became the norm for the next three centuries, until Ü definitively gained the upper hand in 1642 with the establishment of the Fifth Dalai Lama's rule of Tibet.

Religious masters were often very close to one or several of the regional and imperial political leaders, by choice and, often, by necessity: leaders, in need of religious service, were also generous donors, and they could obviously make a difference when a monastery needed to be built. As pointed out earlier, there was in Tibet a nostalgia of the Empire with the reimagined representation of Trisong Detsen having an enlightened rule with Padmasambhava. Even from non-Nyingma viewpoints, Trisong Detsen and his successors' support of Śāntarakṣita and the later Indian panditas who came to Tibet to translate and transmitted Buddhist sources was something to emulate and imitate. It is therefore not surprising that religious figures gave transmissions to emperors, kings, and local rulers, and received from them offerings and titles. Sometimes, however, when the leaders lost power and were replaced, as in the case of Karma Pakshi, the religious figures faced exile and destitution.

The political changes of the mid-14th century and the coming to power of the Phakmodrupa shifted Tibet's center of gravity towards Ü, as their main seat, Densatil Monastery and the Tsetang Palace, were along the southern bank of the Tsangpo, to the South-East of Lhasa and Samyé. The late 14th century under the Phakmodrupa rule of King Drakpa Gyaltsen (1374–1432)<fnref n="2" /> was a time of prosperity and peace. It lasted until 1434, which was marked by growing tensions between regional powers and the rise of the Rinpungpa, which brought the center of influence back to Tsang. This time of prosperity, the second half of the 14th century, was when Rigdzin Gödem was active. Gödem was born and lived in Jang Ngamring, in the larger region of Latö Jang and on the way west toward Kailash. This meant that he was far from the

<footnote n="1">¹ General presentations on this topic abound. For a detailed presentation, see Czaja 2013, vol. 1, pp. 111–204; for a classical article by Petech, see Tuttle and Schaeffer 2013, pp. 249–265; and Kapstein 2006, pp. 116–119 for a more general presentation.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² *Mi dbang Grags pa rgyal mtshan.*</footnote>
Phakmodrupas' sphere of influence. There, the kings who were influ-
ential lived in the neighboring kingdom of Mangyül Gungthang.<fnref n="1" /> For
him, the new Trisong Detsen was therefore not a Khön from Sakya,
nor a Drikung or a Phakmodrupa, but a king from Gungthang, whose
familial connection to the Imperial Dynasty had been confirmed by Sa-
kya in the previous century.<fnref n="2" />

It is not yet entirely clear why some prominent Nyingma masters,
such as Longchenpa and Orgyen Lingpa (to whom we will return in
the chapters 15 and 16), opposed Jangchub Gyaltsen's rise to power in
a way that actually backfired on them. Understanding how the Nying-
mapas felt about all these political changes would certainly shed light
on elements that played a crucial role in Rigdzin Gödem's life: his be-
lief in restoring the legitimate king to the throne of Tibet, on the one
hand, and, on the other hand, his search (in the second half of his life)
for the concealed lands, which he perceived as places of refuge from
the world's trouble—wars, famines, and epidemics—would make
more sense if we understood why he was not satisfied with the form
of political unification that Tai Situ Jangchub Gyaltsen achieved in Ti-
bet.

These are elements of history that seem to have been erased in its
later rewritings, when the Phakmodrupa period was finally judged to
have been globally beneficial for Tibet, which, for some time, enjoyed
some degree of unity, peace, and independence from foreign rule.

❖

<footnote n="1">¹ Parts are in modern-day Nepal, such as Mustang which was a part of the kingdom for at least a while, but the main areas of the kingdom are in Tibet.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² The establishment of the Mang yul Gung thang Kingdom and the slow
development of the region into an ideal region for treasure revealers are
discussed in Volume 2.</footnote>
Chapter 14: A Key Figure at the turn of the 14th Century:
Pema Ledreltsal (1291–1319)

Stéphane Arguillère
(IFRAE / Inalco)

*Pema Ledreltsal's Life*

This image does not appear to contain any text. It is a drawing or a painting.
his tertön was born in 1291.<fnref n="1" /> Most of what is believed about
his previous lives is connected to the discovery of the *Khandro
Nyingthik*. The narrative about the origin of this teaching prior
to its discovery will not be developed here; it can be found elsewhere.<fnref n="2" />
Basically, a daughter of King Trisong Detsen called Pema Sal died in
infancy, but was shortly resurrected by Padmasambhava who be-
stowed the *Khandro Nyingthik* on her before she re-died and then was
reborn in the last years of the 13th century as the tertön Pema Le-
dreltsal who was to rediscover the texts.<fnref n="3" />

In 1311, he met the “Dharma King” Meban Rinchen Lingpa (1289–1368),<fnref n="4" /> who gave him the prophetic guides<fnref n="5" /> that allowed him to discover his termas in 1313. The guides had been found by Rinchen Lingpa with his first termas in 1310 or 1311.

Pema Ledreltsal's revelations did not include only the famous *Khandro Nyingthik*, but also a less known Rāhula cycle which matters to us, since its only available edition is the one included in *The Compilation of the Northern Treasures*.<fnref n="6" /> Immediately after having discovered

<footnote n="1">¹ See, e.g., Aris 1988, esp. pp. 27-28, for more information on Padma las 'brel rtsal, who was considered a pre-incarnation of Klong chen pa and Padma gling pa.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991, pp. 554-555; Barron 2005, pp. 57-70, etc.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ In g.Yung ston pa's version of the narrative (g.Yung ston pa 2009, Lo rgyus rgyal ba g.yung gis mdzad pa, p. 142-153) there are more intermediate re-
concealments and rediscoveries, as in the case of the *Heart Drops of Vimalamitra*. A careful study of this text would be invaluable in order to
make sense of some obscure prophecies. Here, we present things as if the
texts had been hidden by Yeshé Tsogyal in the imperial era, only to be
discovered in the early 14th century by Pema Ledreltsal.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Chos rgyal Rin chen gling pa, or Me ban Rin chen gling pa. Arguillère 2024a, “A King of Dharma” provides the background of all what is presented in this volume and the next about both Padma las ‘brel rtsal and Rin chen gling pa and the connections of the latter with Rig ‘dzin rGod Idem.”</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Kha byang.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ gZa' rgyud or gZa' rgod dug gi spu gri. In CNT, vol. 28 and 29.</footnote>
the treasures for which he was predestined, Pema Ledreltsal met Gyalsé Lekpa (1290–1366),<fnref n="1" /> who was to become his main Dharma heir (and who later transmitted his termas to Longchenpa). In most hagiographies of Pema Ledreltsal, it is said that after meeting Gyalsé Lekpa, the tertön went to his home region and then moved to Chimphu in Samyé, where Vajravārāhī prophesied that he would go to Lhasa to meet Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé (1284–1339). Since doubts were raised about his revelations, Pema Ledreltsal, it is said, gave the empowerments and the reading transmissions on the basis of the “yellow scrolls,” the original texts as they had been extracted from the treasure cache. However, an in-person meeting between Pema Ledreltsal and the Karmapa is not confirmed in any of the Karma Kagyü sources. The oldest Karma Kagyü document referring to this situation, Yungtönpa’s (1284–1365) history of the early transmission of the Khandro Nyingthik, instead names Lotön Dorjebum,<fnref n="2" /> an assistant of Pema Ledreltsal in the discovery of the terma, as being the person who met Karmapa. Others name Rinchen Lingpa as being this intermediary link.

It seems, in fact, that right after he found his termas, Pema Ledreltsal decided to remain in retreat in a cave. When Rinchen Lingpa

<footnote n="1">¹ See Arguillère 2024c, “Gyelse Lekpa,” for the definitive arguments based on *rGyal sras* Legs pa’s autobiography regarding Padma las ’brel rtsal’s death in 1319.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Lo *ston* rDo rje ’bum. The only known rDo rje ’bum in the relevant period is g.Yung *ston pa* himself, whose first name it was before he received his monk name rDo rje dpal. However, g.Yung *ston pa* cannot be Lo *ston* rDo rje ’bum: he is the author of the chronicle which informs us that Rang byung rdo rje received the teaching from Lo *ston* rDo rje ’bum, and then he himself, g.Yung *ston pa*, from Rang byung rdo rje. He would not have phrased the story in this way if he had been this rDo rje ’bum. It should be investigated whether “Lo *ston* rDo rje ’bum” might be another name for Rin chen gling pa, which would resolve many of the contradictions (very few sources suggest that Rang byung rdo rje received the *mKha’’gro snying thig* directly from Padma las ’brel rtsal; g.Yung *ston pa* and those who follow him name this Lo *ston* rDo rje ’bum as being the intermediary link; some of Rin chen gling pa’s biographies insist on the fact that he taught Rang byung rdo rje). Rin chen gling pa was indeed active in Lo ro in the second half of his life, which is consistent with Lo *ston*. However, we have no idea why, while his personal name was Rin chen rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po, he should be called “rDo rje ’bum.” What is more, there seems to be lineages featuring both Lo *ston* and Rin chen gling pa in successive positions, which would make impossible for them to be one and the same person. For some unknown reason, there seems to have been a tendency to erase Rin chen gling pa from history. Given his highly probable connection with Rig ’dzin rGod Idem, this is a pity for the Byang gter studies.</footnote>
came to get, as promised, the transmission of the termas for which he had given the prophetic guides, it is said that Pema Ledreltsal was in strict seclusion and so it was his disciple, Gyalsé Lekpa, who passed all the empowerments and oral transmissions to Rinchen Lingpa. It is evident through many details that neither the Karmapa nor Rinchen Lingpa originally got a complete text, and it seems that the *Khandro Nyingthik* (and maybe the Rāhula cycle) remained in the form of "yellow scrolls" for decades.

Once he had finished his retreat, Pema Ledreltsal travelled for some time with Rinchen Lingpa and Gyalsé Lekpa. Just as Rinchen Lingpa had given him the prophetic guide that allowed Pema Ledreltsal to discover his termas, Pema Ledreltsal gave Rinchen Lingpa the key to the treasures he would extract at the "rock looking like a black tortoise."

In 1319, Pema Ledreltsal died, leaving the yellow scrolls in Gyalsé Lekpa's hands. However, it seems that Rinchen Lingpa was very helpful in deciphering the ḏākinī scripts. He had a vision of Pema Ledreltsal that may be dated to 1321, after he had discovered his own termas of the site mentioned above. In that vision, Pema Ledreltsal, taking in his hands the texts of the peaceful *Khandro Nyingthik* and the wrathful *Rāhula*, said: "The books will come from the region of Dakpo."

It is said that events occurred as predicted: two otherwise unknown men<fnref n="1" />—surely disciples of Gyalsé Lekpa—brought him the texts that he then “corrected.”<fnref n="2" /> However, Gyalsé Lekpa was still alive and would remain for forty-five more years, until 1366. What is more, it is clearly stated that Gyalsé Lekpa later (1331) taught Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé on the basis of the yellow scrolls. This, then, can only mean that Rinchen Lingpa and Gyalsé Lekpa remained closely associated a long time after their master and friend Pema Ledreltsal had passed away.

In Longchenpa's biographies, it appears that he finally got a complete copy of the *Khandro Nyingthik* around 1339 from one of his own disciples named Özer Gocha. Whoever that disciple may be—perhaps Gyalsé Zöpa Drakpa<fnref n="3" /> under another name—it is said that Özer Gocha “obtained them from Loro at the cost of great efforts.”<fnref n="4" /> Loro was the place where Rinchen Lingpa spent the end of his life.

<footnote n="1">¹ Se skya'o bla ma Tshar steng pa and dBon po Tshul dbang.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Indeed, we have an edition of a manuscript of the *mKha' 'gro snying thig* (Padma las 'brel rtsal 1984) in which Rin chen gling pa's hand is visible.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ On this figure and the reasons for this identification, see Arguillère 2024d, "Gyelse Zopa."</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Klong chen pa 2009, *mThong snang 'od kyi drwa ba*, p. 158: *rnal 'byor pa 'od zer go cha lo ro nas dka' spyad chen pos zhus pa'i mkha' 'gro snying tig gi dpe yongs su tshang ba bla ma la gzigs su phul dus* | ... This passage has often been</footnote>
As a conclusion, the most likely hypothesis is that:

(1) At an early stage, only Gyalsé Lekpa, Rinchen Lingpa and, Lotön Dorjebum (if he is really someone else than Rinchen Lingpa)—and, most probably through him, Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé—received the transmissions of Pema Ledreltsal's termas;

(2) However, neither Rinchen Lingpa, Lotön Dorjebum, nor Rangjung Dorjé got the corresponding texts, which remained in Gyalsé Lekpa's hands until 1321.

(3) For whatever reason, Gyalsé Lekpa was unable to completely decipher the ḏākinī scripts<fnref n="1" /> that Pema Ledreltsal had left untranslated without the help of Rinchen Lingpa (starting ca. 1321).

(4) The work must have been complete in 1331, as it is said that at this point Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé felt the need to edit the text, to receive it again from Gyalsé Lekpa, and to transmit it to five disciples, including Yungtönpa Dorjepal. Rinchen Lingpa, who was still alive (he most probably died in 1368), is not mentioned anymore in this context.

(5) The texts were then obtained in 1339 by Longchenpa, who further edited them—erasing all trace of Rinchen Lingpa and other figures who had contributed to earlier editions.

We can assume this is true, at least to some extent, of the lesser-known Rāhula cycle. In this case, however, there is no evidence of significant editorial intervention by Longchenpa.

## Rāhula

The corpus contained in volumes 28 and 29 of *The Compilation of the Northern Treasures* is a collection of mostly very short ritual texts with few elements that would be directly usable by a historian. Due to its character as an accumulation of small magical texts without much intelligible overarching order, it is difficult to describe its structure as has been done for *Mañjuśrī Master of Life*.

The deity they are meant to propitiate, Rāhula, a protector or guardian deity specific to the Nyingmapas, is mainly used for violent magic

<footnote>misunderstood as meaning that 'Od zer go cha went then to Lo ro in order to get the books, while it can very well mean that he had obtained them much earlier and kept them with him.</footnote>

<footnote n="1">¹ *gTer ma* texts are most often revealed in the form of coded documents that need to be deciphered. The (various) codes are known as “ḍākinī scripts” (*mkha’ ‘gro brda yig*). Their “translation” seems to require a combination of skills in cryptography and somewhat more supernatural inspiration.</footnote>
and is mentioned only with awe, even by those who belong to that
lineage, as an extremely powerful weapon that can backfire if improp-
erly manipulated. It appears in a much later Jangter context, for exam-
ple, in the biography of Jangdak Tashi Tobgyal as the “messenger” he
used to kill his hated enemy Zhingshakpa.<fnref n="1" /> Rāhula seems to be some-
how related to Yamāntaka, as the earliest recorded occurrences of this
deity may well be in the context of the *Secret Black Moon Tantra*,<fnref n="2" /> in
relation to rites used to control the weather and especially hail.

One of the lineages from Pema Ledreltsal was transmitted to Long-
chenpa and his disciples and reached Dorjé Drak through the Fifth Da-
lai Lama.<fnref n="3" /> In that regard, it is not relevant to our present concern. An-
other lineage<fnref n="4" /> is more interesting in that it confirms the existence of the
above-mentioned Lotön (here mistakenly called Lhotön) Dorjebum.
However, most of the figures named are otherwise completely un-
known and their names do not recall any early Jangter figures. Even
more relevant is a lineage prayer appended to the terma:<fnref n="5" /> Vajradhara;
Padmasambhava; Yeshé Tsogyal; Trisong Detsen; Princess Pemasal;
Pema Ledreltsal; Lotön Dorjebum; Drakpa Özer; Vajrarāja (i.e. Dorjé
Gyalpo); Dharmaketu (i.e. Chökyi Gyaltsen); Chökyi Lodrö; Namkha
Palden; Śākya Zangpo; Zhangtön Chenpo; “The chief teacher of the
wrathful mantras”; Dorjé Düjom [i.e., Lekdenjé], and so forth.

The first name that can be easily identified in this list after Lotön Dorjebum is Śākya Zangpo, that is, the first Yölmo Tülku (15th century). This allows us to identify the previous figure as being Kongchen Namkha Palden,<fnref n="6" /> one of his masters, which then makes it possible to reconstruct the earlier links of this lineage on the basis of a parallel

<footnote n="1">¹ See Martin 2024.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² This should however be checked, since Rāhula is also an important pro-
tector of a probably equally ancient cycle, rTa mgrin yang gsang.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho 1970–1971, *Thob yig gangā'i chu rgyun*, vol. 4, f°65b: ...sprul sku rin chen tshul rdor | rgyal sras legs ldan | kun mkhyen dri med 'od zer | mkhas grub thar pa gling pa | stag mgo bya bral chos rje | rje sangs rgyas dbon po | stag mgo yon tan dpal ba | gu ru sangs rgyas ye shes | stag mgo sangs rgyas rgyal mtshan | mi 'gyur kun dga' dpal bzang | drin can bkra shis rgya mtsho | mkhas grub du ma rang grol | ngag dbang ye shes grub pa | zur khyab bdag chos dbyings rang grol | des bdag za hor bande la'o | |.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">4 CNT, vol. 28, p. 185 (the text is clearly corrupt at least in three points): slob dpon padma 'byung gnas | mkha' 'gro ye shes mtsho rgyal | lho (sic) ston rdo rje 'bum | padma las 'brel rtsal | lho (sic) ston rdo rje 'bum | bla ma smos pa ming zing | gu ru dpal bzang po | sngags 'chang bkra shis | de sras dbang phyug | bla ma rakna (sic) rdo rje | des dkon mchog | des bdag la'o |.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Khyab 'jug gi brgyud 'debs mu tig gi phreng ba dang phyag rdor rgyun khyer gza' bdud dug gi spu gri'i skor las mngon rtogs slob dpon pad mas mdzad pa, in CNT, vol. 28, pp. 271-278.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ Kong chen Nam mkha' dpal ldan, BDRC: P5596, "15th c.".</footnote>
account found in the Fifth Dalai Lama's *Record of Teaching Received.*<fnref n="1" />
The context is that of a Yamāntaka lineage passing through Yungtönpa Dorjepal (1284–1365): Dorjé Gyalpo (d.u.)<fnref n="2" /> is a grand-disciple of Yungtönpa and Dharmaketu<fnref n="3" /> is his tülku. The only missing link is now the Drakpa Özer who comes after Lotön Dorjebum.

The most likely hypothesis is provided by the Fifth Dalai Lama's *Record of Teachings Received*, which, in another passage, presents a close variant of this lineage.<fnref n="4" /> Besides tracing the later transmission of these materials to Jangter masters, this variant exhibits an interesting difference as instead of “Drakpa Özer” we read the name of an interesting 14th-century figure: Thingmawa Sangyé Drak Ö, one of Longchenpa's masters, a specialist of Nyangral Nyima Özer's revelations. It is quite likely that Thingmawa is in fact Drakpa Özer, as he indeed appears as Lotön Dorjebum's disciple and Dorjé Gyalpo's master in some other passages of the same *Record of Teachings Received*.

This is further confirmed by the details of the prayer referred to above, in which “Drakpa Özer” is connected to a place called Thing,<fnref n="5" /> from which Thingmawa Sangyé Drak Ö derives his surname. And, indeed, further in the same volume, the same lineage is repeated with, this time, the more explicit form “The Lama Drak Ö of Thing” (*thing gi bla ma grags 'od*).<fnref n="6" /> The same information is repeated again at the end

<footnote n="1">¹ Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho 1970–1971, *Thob yig gaṅgā'i chu rgyun*, vol. 4, f° 269a: skal ldan rdo rje rgyal po | (rdo rje spre chung gi skye ba |) dharma ke tu | (g.yung ston gyi skye ba |) rin po che chos kyi blo gros | kong chen nam mkha' dpal ldan |. This series of names recurs in many lineages.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² *sKal ldan rDo rje rgyal po*. On this figure, see Arguillère 2024b, *passim*.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ See Arguillère 2024b, p. 328 n. 93 and p. 378, n. 173 and 179. Seems to be called rDor gling Chos kyi rgyal mtshan in some sources.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Another nearly identical lineage is found in the Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho 1970–1971, *Thob yig gaṅgā'i chu rgyun*, vol. 4, f°220a: rdo rje 'chang | bcom ldan 'das sākya thub pa | slob dpon padma thod 'phreng | jo mo ye shes 'tsho rgyal | lha lcam padma gsal | gter ston rin chen tshul rdor | lo ston rdo rje 'bum | mthing gi bla ma sangs rgyas grags 'od | skal ldan rdo rje rgyal po | rig 'dzin dharma ke tu | rin po che chos kyi blo gros | kong chen nam mkha' dpal ldan rgya mtsho | mchog sprul mnga' ris legs ldan rdo rje | rigs sngags 'chang ba'i 'khor los sgyur ba dpal bkra shis stobs rgyal | mkhyen brtse nus pa'i mnga' bdag ngag gi dbang po | zur kun mkhyen chos dbyings rang grol | des pha mes brgyud pa'i bstan srung mchog 'di za hor sngags smyon la stsal to |.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Padma las 'brel rtsal 2015, Khyab 'jug gi brgyud 'debs, vol. 50, p. 273: grub pa'i bsti gnas mthing gi gnas mdzes pa'i | | grags pa 'od zer zhabs la gsol ba 'debs |.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ Padma las 'brel rtsal 2015, rDo rje gtum po'i nang bsgrub, vol. 28, pp. 279-293, p. 285: mthing gi bla ma grags 'od.</footnote>
of the second volume with a few obscure details that would require further research.<fnref n="1" />

Unfortunately, we do not have a biography of Thingma Sangyé Drak Ö, a figure who would be of interest to us given the difficulty of identifying Rigdzin Gödem's master for the Nyangter, Changmawa. His disciple, Dorjé Gyalpo, who was certainly Gödem's contemporary, is likewise unknown.<fnref n="2" />

The most reasonable tentative conclusion at this stage is that it was Yölmo Śākya Zangpo (active at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries) who was responsible for integrating Pema Ledreltsal's cycle of revelations on Rāhula into the Jangter tradition. Rigdzin Gödem must at least have been aware of its existence, as it was circulating in his time in communities to which he was certainly very close. He was clearly very familiar with Pema Ledreltsal's *Khandro Nyingthik*, and it is unlikely that the master (or masters) from whom he received the *Khandro Nyingthik* were not also well versed in the Rāhula cycle, since Rāhula may have originally been intended as a special protector for the *Khandro Nyingthik*. His master for Dzogchen and especially for the *Khandro Nyingthik* was probably Rinchen Lingpa, whose biography actually states that he had a vision, probably in 1321, in which the two cycles are mentioned side by side.<fnref n="3" />

*The Khandro Nyingthik*

Basically, the *Khandro Nyingthik* is regarded as containing a teaching of an equivalent level as the *Bima Nyingthik*, but that is supposed to have been brought from India to Tibet by Padmasambhava, not Vimalamitra. In this regard, it is in many regards parallel to other cycles that are “Padmasambhavian,” revealed version of something that has a version connected with another Indian (Nepalese, etc.) master and that was passed through an older lineage. A good example of this (in a completely different type) could be the two main sections of the Yamāntaka cycle *Mañjuśrī Master of Life*<fnref n="4" />—the *Iron Scorpion* (*lCags sdig*) that contains teachings believed to have been transmitted from the

<footnote n="1">1 Padma las 'brel rtsal 2015, *Chos skyong chen po gza' mchog gi bka' gtad*, vol. 29, pp. 475-478, p. 475: ...gter ston tshul khrims rdo rje : lo ston rdo rje 'bum pa : smyos ston sangs rgyas grags 'od : rdo rje spa chung gi skye ba rdo rje rgyal po ;, etc.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2 All these details are also given here because they are relevant elements for a future identification of Lo ston rDo rje 'bum.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">3 About this vision and its relevance, see Arguillère 2024a, p. 95 and 119.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ *Jam dpal tshe bdag*. See Arguillère 2024b.</footnote>
Nepalese master Vasudhara to Nubchen Sangyé Yeshé and the Ironlike (ICags 'dra) cycle supposedly taught by Padmasambhava to Nubchen.

The background of the Khandro Nyingthik is the Seventeen Tantras, which are common with the Bima Nyingthik, plus a specific tantra called The Flamboyant Sphere of Clarity.<fnref n="1" />

As for its content, the Khandro Nyingthik is much shorter and somewhat simpler than the “one hundred and nineteen precepts” of the Bima Nyingthik. However, it is perhaps richer in inner yoga and body techniques and synthesizes the most advanced methods of completion phase practices (sampannakrama) with visionary Dzogchen. Another feature is, of course, that it is a terma. The traditional narrative is that Padmasambhava saw, while he was in Tibet, that the disciples who had a connection with the Heart Drops in this period could be taught by Vimalamitra and that the time had not come for his own teachings to be spread.<fnref n="2" /> For Tibetans, the fact that it is a terma may mean, on the one hand, that its authenticity requires careful verification, but also that, if it is authentic, it is extremely powerful, because the lineage is short—one is very close to its source, Padmasambhava, and from him to the Primordial Buddha.

A more complete description of its contents might be misleading for the non-specialist reader, since this collection of small esoteric texts hardly lends itself to easy systematization. It would also imply a clarification of its background, the Bima Nyingthik, which would take us too far. The key point is that for Rigdzin Gödem's elder contemporary Longchenpa<fnref n="3" />—and this may to some extent reflect Gödem's own appreciation<fnref n="4" />—the Khandro Nyingthik is the most profound of all

<footnote n="1">¹ The precise identification of the Klong gsal 'bar ma tantra is not self-obvious. It is supposed to be the first of three texts included in vol. 110 of the bKa' ma shin tu rgyas pa: (1) mKha' 'gro thams cad kyi snying khrag klong gsal 'bar ma nyi ma'i gsang rgyud (pp. 1-249); (2) mKha' 'gro ma'i gsang thig klong gsal 'bar ma'i gsang rgyud | gsang sngags gnad mdzod chen mo las | bar do gsang skor bla na med pa'i skor | (pp. 251-390); (3) Theg pa'i mthar thug | lta ba'i yang rtse | mkha' 'gro gsang thig | klong gsal | kun tu bzang moi'i | dgongs pa 'bar ma | nyi ma'i gsang rgyud dbang bzhi | bya rgyud chen mo | (p. 391-570). However, the quotations found in the mKha' 'gro snying thig cannot always be traced to any of the available variants of the tantra.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² g.Yung ston pa 2009, Lo rgyus rgyal ba g.yung gis mdzad pa, p. 144: rdzogs pa chen po snying tig gi gdul bya rnams bi ma la mi tra byon nas 'dul bar dgongs te dar bar ma mdzad do | ... gu ru zhal nas | da lta spel ba'i dus la ma bab gter du sbed dgos | ...</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ For a short presentation of Klong chen pa in context, see below.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ rGod Idem's own main rDzogs chen revelation, the dGongs pa zang thal, presents itself (Rig 'dzin rGod Idem 1973, dGongs pa zang thal, vol. 1, p. 48; see Arguillère 2024a, pp. 94-97) as a more complete version of the mKha' 'gro snying thig.</footnote>
Buddhist teachings when it comes to the swift realization of full enlightenment. It is indeed astonishing that Longchenpa, who was the main heir of Kumarādza's Dharma and thus of the *Bima Nyinthik*, later became so focused on the *Heart Drops of the Dākinī*.

Be that as it may, when Rigdzin Gödem was born, the knot in the conflict regarding legitimate authority over the *Khandro Nyinthik*—which seems to have been contested by the Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé (and especially his successor Yungtönpa Dorjepal), Rinchen Lingpa (who probably formed a bloc with Gyalsé Lekpa, but the latter seems more conciliatory), and later Longchenpa—had not yet been untangled. It seems that, for whatever reason, the lineage amalgamated into the Karma Kagyü lineage went extinct.<fnref n="1" /> Between the two remaining groups, the superiority of the synthesis proposed by Longchenpa seems to have prevailed, perhaps with the blessing of Gyalsé Lekpa, the tertön's main disciple. As for Rinchen Lingpa, it is possible that his main posterity lies with the Northern Treasures: it was probably him who passed on to Rigdzin Gödem that all the *Khandro Nyinthik* material that got merged with the *Gongpa Zangthal*.

<figure><img src="image_15.png" /></figure>

<footnote n="1">¹ The lineage through Karma pa Rang byung rdo rje is not even mentioned anymore in gTer bdag gling pa's (1646–1714) practice manual for this cycle (gTer bdag gling pa 2009, *rDzogs pa chen po mkha' 'gro snying thig gi khrid yid zab lam gsal byed*). This could be explained by the political tensions between the Karma bKa' rgyud pas and the Fifth Dalai Lama's closes allies, but there does not seem to be any such tendency to underplay the role of Rang byung rdo rje in gTer bdag gling pa's *Record of Teachings Received*.</footnote>
# Chapter 15: The Struggle for Legitimacy over Pema Ledreltsal's Legacy: Rinchen Lingpa and Longchenpa

Stéphane Arguillère<fnref n="1" />
(IFRAE)

*Rinchen Lingpa (1289–1368)*

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

his now forgotten Tertön was once called a “King of Dharma,”<fnref n="2" /> and his influence seems to have remained strong for some time, at least in the south, as the Bhutanese edition<fnref n="3" /> of the Nyingma Tantric Canon contains almost a full volume of tantras from his revelations. His central importance in the present context lies on the hypothesis that there is a high probability that he was Rigdzin Gödem's Dzogchen master.

Born in southern Tibet in 1289, Meban Rinchen Lingpa was regarded as the emanation of the eighth-century Indian master Prajñākara-gupta. It is said that while playing as a child he left a complete imprint of his body on a rock. Then, after becoming a monk, he was given

<footnote n="1">¹ The part about Rin chen gling pa is by Stéphane Arguillère and is a summary of the relevant parts of Arguillère 2024a. The part about Klong chen pa is by Cécile Ducher and Stéphane Arguillère.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² *Chos rgyal*.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ mTshams brag NG, vol. 14, contains the root tantra of his *rDzogs pa chen po chig chod kun grol* (pp. 954-972), but it is very likely that 1. the *Sangs rgyas thams cad kyi bstan pa gzhi'i rgyud mchog rin chen spungs pa* (same volume, pp. 2-104); 2. the *Theg pa chen po mngon par rtogs pa byang chub lam gyi rgyud nam mkha' dang mnyam pa* (pp. 104-246); 3. the 'Bras bu gsang ba bla na med pa'i rgyud chen po dri ma med pa'i snying po [Byin gyis brlab pa'i yi ge klad du smos pa] (pp. 246-390); 4. the *De bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi sku gsung thugs kyi snying po de kho na nyid nges pa ye shes mchog gi rgyud chen gsang ba yongs rDzogs* (pp. 390-494); 5. the *Rang byung gi chos tshig thams cad drang shar ba'i glegs bam* (pp. 494-496); 6. the *sKu lnga dbyer med rang shar gyi legs bam* (pp. 496-497); 7. the *sTong pa'i sgra* (or *rDo rje 'chang dang po'i dgongs pa bstan pa'i bu gcig po*, pp. 497-498); and 8. the *Thams cad kyi gnad* (pp. 498-499) belong to his *gter chos*. It is quite possible that more tantras revealed by Rin chen gling pa are present in this or other volumes of the collection, since Volume 14 presents only texts that are more or less connected to *rDzogs chen*. These texts, which may be revelations of Rin chen gling pa, do not seem to be found in other versions of the *rNying ma rgyud 'bum*.</footnote>
the name Rinchen Gyaltsen Palzangpo<fnref n="1" /> and made a thorough study of philosophy. He received and practiced all the instructions of Rechungpa<fnref n="2" /> and experienced infinite pure visions.

Then at some point he went on a pilgrimage to Lhasa, and one
night, in a dream, he saw a white man telling him: "Tomorrow morn-
ing there is something important to do." That morning, a crippled
yogi, who said he was called Jangsem Künga<fnref n="3" /> and came from Dingri,
asked him many questions. As he happened to match with what was
asked, this yogi told him: "I have the prophetic guide for Padmasam-
bhava of Oddyāna's profound mind-treasure to be extracted from the
top of the red rock of Padrotsal,<fnref n="4" /> hidden in Koro Drak of Drithang. But
I cannot get there. You are the man that fits the treasure prophecy, and
since this is so, I offer you the prophetic guide." Then he gave him a
paper scroll wrapped in silk from under his armpit.

In 1311 at the latest, Rinchen Lingpa went to Koro Drak. According
to the treasure histories,<fnref n="5" /> there was a rock in a cave with copper nails
embedded in it as a sign of the hidden treasure. There was a slightly
protruding rock with a triangular shape. From it, he pulled out a dark
red chest made of hardened leather. Inside were five compartments,
each of which had five divisions named after the geographical direc-
tions, in a way strangely foreshadowing Rigdzin Gödem's Zangzang
Lhadrak discoveries (1366). There were also blessed substances and a
catalog of all the things contained in the treasure chest.

He also extracted the cycle of Mañjuśrī King of [Occult] Science Nāgarakṣa.<fnref n="6" /> This is a very wrathful form of Yamāntaka, with two snakes instead of legs and three rows of three heads, with many arms. This deity is primarily used to combat diseases caused by nāgas, especially leprosy. Rinchen Lingpa's cycle is the most extensive one for Nāgarakṣa in the Rinchen Terdzö. It is not unlikely that this was the practice in which Rigdzin Gödem would receive his first signs of accomplishment around 1348.

As previously mentioned, various sources claim that it was Rinchen
Lingpa who gave Pema Ledreltsal the prophetic guide to his treasures
around 1311 and that this prophetic guide was found with the Koro
Drak terma. The joint adventures of Rinchen Lingpa and Pema Le-
dreltsal have already been discussed. The former must have visited the
latter in 1314. Between 1314 and 1320, Rinchen Lingpa unearthed his
next treasure near the Indian border after enduring many hardships.

<footnote n="1">¹ Rin chen rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Ras chung pa (1085–1161), Mi la ras pa’s disciple.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Byang sems kun dga', a figure associated to the early Zhi byed school.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ sPa sgro btsal.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ *gTer'byung, lo rgyus.*</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ *'Jam dpal rigs pa'i rgyal po nā ga ra kṣa.*</footnote>
In the various accounts of the revelation, the treasure site is described as a rock in the shape of a tortoise or a frog. Under the rock, marked with the sign of the treasure—a crossed vajra—was a two-headed frog made of sealing wax, with one of its heads on its back. Inside that head was a copper vase from which he took out five groups of texts and holy objects. Among them was *The Single [Principle] that Liberates All*, also known as *The Self-Sufficient Perfect [Principle]*,<fnref n="1" /> large selections of which are anthologized in *Rinchen Terdzö*. Seventeenth-century masters such as the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617–1682) still possessed an unbroken lineage for this cycle, but it went extinct, probably in the early eighteenth century during the Dzungar invasion. There is evidence<fnref n="2" /> in the *Gongpa Zangthal* that Rigdzin Gödem knew the *Self-Sufficient Perfect Principle*, which for some reason, as already mentioned, he seems to have regarded as another version of the *Khandro Nyingthik*. This is interesting as, in Rigdzin Gödem’s revelations, there is little other explicit evidence of his readings.

As instructed by the treasure inventory, Rinchen Lingpa replaced the texts he extracted with those previously found, presumably in Koro Drak, as a “treasure substitute,”<fnref n="3" /> something often depicted in treasure literature as a way to prevent negative consequences from the extraction. On his way back to Tibet, he made a retreat in a forested region on the border between Tibet and India. Near the cave was a rock in the shape of a five-pointed vajra with a protruding svāstika-drawing as a terma mark. Inside a vajra made of sealing wax, one cubit long, and a rock-crystal spiral, Rinchen Lingpa discovered a yellow scroll, luminous and perfumed, from which came the treasure called *The Three Sealed Cycles*. All or most of these texts seem to be lost (albeit some of them may be among the above-listed tantras found in vol. 14 of the Tsamdrak manuscript of the *Canon of the Ancient Tantras*). He extracted all scrolls that were there, our sources say, and inserted in their concealment place, as treasure-substitutes, the paper scrolls of the black tortoise. Then, it is told that according to Yeshé Tsogyal’s prophecies, after being invited by the goddess Kongtsün Demo,<fnref n="4" /> he went to Kongpo. There, the protector deity Dorjé Lekpa presented him with a treasure key, with which he discovered many more termas.

During this retreat, in a Bird year (most likely 1321), Rinchen Lingpa had a vision of Pema Ledreltsal who bestowed on him the *Khandro Nyingthik*. Pema Ledreltsal also told him he would find the

<footnote n="1">¹ *A ti rdzogs pa chig chod.*</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Rig 'dzin rGod Idem 1973, *dGongs pa zang thal*, vol. 1, p. 48. For a discussion of this passage, see Arguillère 2024a, pp. 94-97.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ *gTer tshab.*</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Kong btsun de mo, a Tibetan goddess regarded as rDo rje legs pa's consort.</footnote>
texts of this cycle and that of his revelations about Rāhula in the region of Dakpo. It seems that although Rinchen Lingpa had received all the transmissions from Gyalsé Lekpa soon after the terma discovery, no copy of the texts had been made yet. This is probably, as we have seen, because the original yellow scrolls had not been fully deciphered, either by Pema Ledreltsal or by his main disciple Gyalsé Lekpa, a task that seems to have been completed by Rinchen Lingpa. For this reason, Rinchen Lingpa can be considered a co-revealer of the corpus. Rinchen Lingpa later practiced in retreat in various places. Then he came back to Loro and took responsibility for some monasteries, such as Rinchending.

Some sources say that he transmitted all his termas to the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé, whom he declared was their predestined heir.<fnref n="1" /> It is said that this occurred in Samyé Monastery, and that on that occasion he prophesied to Rangjung Dorjé that his teachings would spread to the shores of the ocean. If this ever occurred, it must have been prior to the Karmapa's departure to Mongolia around 1331 or 1332.

Rinchen Lingpa is mentioned in two of the earliest biographies of Longchenpa. In both, the apparent motive is to claim Longchenpa's superior legitimacy as the main lineage holder of the *Khandro Nyingthik*. It is possible that this insistence derives from Longchenpa's disputed status in this regard: he never met the *Khandro Nyingthik*'s discoverer, Pema Ledreltsal. He is considered to be his reincarnation, but was born in 1308, much before Pema Ledreltsal's death in 1319. Longchenpa received the *Khandro Nyingthik* from Pema Ledreltsal's disciple Gyalsé Lekpa, but perhaps quite late and after he had already begun teaching, editing, and commenting on this cycle. One indeed finds in his biographies traces of doubts about whether he was authorized to teach it or not. When he began to do so, its officially legitimate masters were Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé (although very close to his death), Gyalsé Lekpa and Rinchen Lingpa.<fnref n="2" /> The latter two both outlived Longchenpa. In Longchenpa's biographies, his relations with Gyalsé Lekpa appear peaceful, but there are hints of disparagement with Rinchen Lingpa. Longchenpa strongly suggests that he, not Rinchen Lingpa was the predestined lineage holder of the *Khandro Nyingthik*. What is at stake in this rivalry is the fact that, as explained above, the *Khandro Nyingthik* was regarded as Padmasambhava's highest teaching on Dzogchen.

<footnote n="1">¹ *Chos bdag*.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Plus the obscure Lo ston rDo rje 'bum, and, after Rang byung rdo rje's death, g.Yung ston pa rDo rje dpal and four other disciples of the Karma pa.</footnote>
There is good reason to think that Pema Ledreltsal's premature death did not allow him to leave the *Khandro Nyingthik* in a fully finished form. We have seen Rinchen Lingpa completing and correcting the deciphering of the Dākinī scripts around 1321, and it is very likely that the *Khandro Nyingthik* was later heavily edited by Longchenpa in the 1340s, and not merely supplemented by his *Khandro Yangtik*. It is possible that allusions in Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé's biographies point to a 1331 edition by Karmapa of a version that may have been the outcome of Rinchen Lingpa's work on the yellow scrolls.

There is, as seen above, a high probability, although not known to the tradition, that Rinchen Lingpa was Rigdzin Gödem's main Dzogchen master. It is even possible that Rinchen Lingpa was the Dzogchen teacher of Rigdzin Gödem's father, Lopon Sidü Dülpal, presented as a practitioner of the "Brahmin's Dzogchen,"<fnref n="1" /> which, in context, may refer to Rinchen Lingpa's cycle, *The Single Self-Sufficient Perfect Principle*, although this assimilation is definitely awkward.

Lopon Sidü Dülpal would have been Rinchen Lingpa's student sometime between 1314, the earliest possible date for the revelation of this cycle, and the early 1340s, as he died when Rigdzin Gödem (born 1337) was a child. A further hint of this early connection of Rinchen Lingpa with Gödem's family is the fact that the first practice in which Rigdzin Gödem is said to have obtained signs of realization— the *Wheel of Activities of Black Leprosy*<fnref n="2" />—is akin to Rinchen Lingpa's cycle *Mañjuśrī King of [Occult] Science Nāgarakṣa*.

With regard to Dzogchen, it is a fact that Gödem's major Dzogchen cycle, the *Gongpa Zangthal*, contains 40 to 60% of what we can assume to be the original core of the *Khandro Nyingthik*. In his later life, Gödem was regarded as a distinguished specialist of this then very rare corpus.<fnref n="3" /> Furthermore, in Nyima Zangpo's biography of Gödem, the only person who ever taught him Dzogchen is the aforementioned Draklungpa Khetsün Rinchenpal. In the 1340-60s, Rinchen Lingpa was one of the few available specialists in the *Khandro Nyingthik*. As we

<footnote n="1">¹ *rDzogs chen bram ze*. See Nyi ma bzang po 2015, p. 9. The passage seems to mean that not only Gödem's father, but his forefathers for some generations, had been practitioners of *Phur pa mdo lugs* and *rDzogs chen bram ze'i skor*. Taken literally, this admittedly goes against the hypothesis that *rDzogs chen bram ze'i skor* could, in context, mean the *A ti rdzogs pa chig chod*.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² *mDze nag las kyi 'khor lo*.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ There are, however, allusions in rDo rje gling pa's (1346–1405) biographies about the fact that he received the *mKha'gro snying thig* during his youth (probably from the *Lo ston* rDo rje 'bum-mThing Sangs rgyas grags 'od lineage). rDo rje gling pa, if we accept the traditional dates, belonged to the exact same generation as Rig 'dzin rGod Idem.</footnote>
have already seen, we know from the biographies of some of Rigdzin Gödem’s disciples that Rigdzin Gödem also taught the *Bima Nyingthik*, and the *Gongpa Zangthal* incorporates large rewritten sections of that cycle. He may therefore have received it from Draklungpa Khetsün Rinchenpal—Rinchen Lingpa—as well.

Thus, we could say that two<fnref n="1" /> large syntheses of the two Nyingthiks produced in the fourteenth century are still available: one is the famous *Fourfold Nyingthik* by Longchenpa, and the other the *Gongpa Zangthal*, revealed by Rigdzin Gödem, which is certainly in some regards the fruit of Rinchen Lingpa’s teachings. It is not impossible, although this remains to be researched, that other revelations of Rinchen Lingpa inspired, or even *were absorbed into*, Rigdzin Gödem’s termas.

Rinchen Lingpa passed away in Loro, in his eightieth year, in 1368. We know nearly as little about Rinchen Lingpa’s disciples as we know about his masters. From a careful reading of the colophons and lineage prayers of what remains of his revelations, we can set up a list of nine names of direct disciples, and more of indirect disciples. None save those mentioned above are known to history and none of Rigdzin Gödem’s known names appears in those documents.

*Longchenpa (1308–1364)*

Longchenpa is a well-known figure, but it is challenging to replace him in concrete history while avoiding anachronistic statements: his very central status in the later Nyingma school should not be presupposed if we want to understand who he was to the Nyingmapas belonging to Rigdzin Gödem’s generation.

Longchenpa was born in a Nyingma family in 1308; he soon became a monk in Samyé Monastery. Like most of his contemporaries, he had a very diverse upbringing, including Nyingma teachings but also Sarma tantras (*Lamdré*, the *Six Doctrines of Nāropa*, *Kālacakra*, etc.) and philosophical sūtra-level treatises. In 1326, he entered the learning institute of Sangpu Neutok, which maintained both Kadam and Sakya traditions and was crucial in the scholastic training of many monks since its founding in the late 11th century.<fnref n="2" /> He was also well-versed in

<footnote n="1">¹ rDo rje gling pa's *gter chos* should also be examined in this regard, especially the vast *lTa ba klong yangs* (in rDo rje gling pa 2009, vol. 19-23), which is as extensive as the *dGongs pa zang thal* and was revealed, according to the colophons (rDo rje gling pa 2009, vol. 19, p. 436), in the *gter ston's* fifteenth year (1360?), earlier than rGod Idem's revelations (1366). The same colophon indicates a Monkey year (1368?) as that in which the texts were entrusted (*gtad*) to some disciples, which may imply that their “decoding” was complete.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Akester 2016, pp. 226-229; van der Kuijp 1987; Hugon 2016.</footnote>
poetics from his young age and his overwhelming fame is not due only
to the eminent quality of the content of his teaching, but as well to the
perfect form of his compositions.

Although he studied with many masters, during his youth he
mainly belonged spiritually to the circle of Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé's
disciples. His sudden departure from Sangphu (1332) coincided with
Rangjung Dorjé's first trip to the Mongol court. In 1334, he went to visit
Kumarādza, Rangjung Dorjé's old Nyingthik master and the main spe-
cialist of the *Heart Drops of Vimalamitra* in his time, with whom he stud-
ied for some months and kept in touch with until Kumarādza's death
in 1343. Soon after his studies with Kumarādza, around 1339,<fnref n="1" /> Long-
chenpa received supernatural signs urging him to focus on the *Khandro
Nyingthik*, and it is then that he got a complete set of the texts (from a
disciple he probably had in common with Rinchen Lingpa). For what-
ever reason, he was not pleased with Rinchen Lingpa and did not re-
ceive the teaching from him, but (much later, it seems) from Gyalsé
Lekpa, Pema Ledreltsal's main direct disciple. It is likely that he started
teaching the *Khandro Nyingthik* and developing it in his own *Khandro
Yangtik*—regarded as a mind-treasure—as soon as 1339 or 1340.

Then started a period of intense composition. It can be supposed
that Longchenpa mostly remained in a form of seclusion which did not
prevent him from writing and teaching. Although a very large major-
ity of his writings are about Dzogchen, at some point, he felt the need
to compose general presentations of Buddhism in the light of, or
crowned by, Dzogchen. In 1352, he also authored a large commentary
on the *Sangwa Nyingpo*, which may be an answer to Yungtönpa's (said
to express the Zur system, which Longchenpa rejected).<fnref n="2" />

Around 1349 or 1350, he secured close links with a wealthy and
powerful patron, Drikung Gomchen Künrin (or Künga Özer Rinchen),
which allowed him to restore the Zhé Lhakhang. But this connection
with Gomchen Künrin backfired when the latter became a central fig-
ure in the resistance to Tai Situ Jangchub Gyaltsen's takeover of Tibet.
This forced Longchenpa to go into exile in Bhutan<fnref n="3" /> around 1354, until

<footnote n="1">¹ The reader remembers that Rig 'dzin rGod Idem was born in 1337.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Although a book tracing the history of rNying ma authors' ideas about this
tantra, of which so many commentaries have survived, has yet to be writ-
ten along the lines of Dalton's *The Gathering of Intentions*, it can be roughly
said that while Klong chen pa's exegesis draws the *gSang ba snying po* to-
ward visionary rDzogs chen, the Zur system reads it more strictly as a
Mahāyoga scripture. Moreover, the Zur system is known for positing qual-
itatively different *Buddha states* within the Great Vehicle itself, according to
the hierarchy of vehicles that the rNying ma pas say it comprises.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Another *gter ston* who had political problems with the Phag mo gru pa
authority was O rgyan gling pa (b. 1323), who was exiled to Dwags po</footnote>
about 1360. He later spent his last years in central Tibet, during which he seems to have enjoyed some acknowledgement for his superior qualities. It is believed that he gave teachings to Jangchub Gyaltsen<fnref n="1" /> but maybe this merely means that Jangchub Gyaltsen made it clear to him that he would not get in trouble as long as he would keep away from politics. He passed away not long after, in 1364.

Longchenpa may not have been as famous during Rigdzin Gödem's youth as we might imagine based on the renown his works earned him within the later Nyingma tradition. He was also not active in the same region. However, Longchenpa certainly interacted with figures meaningful to the young Gödem, starting with Rinchen Lingpa, and maybe Gyalsé Lekpa, who might well be the Lekpa mentioned thrice in Rigdzin Gödem's biographies.<fnref n="2" /> What is more, although some of Rigdzin Gödem's major fields of interest, such as the *Eight Pronouncements*, seem not to have been central to Longchenpa, still, as for Dzogchen, Rigdzin Gödem's *Gongpa Zangthal* could be regarded as another version of the synthesis of the two Nyingthiks that is at the core of Longchenpa's Dzogchen writings. If we could regard the date of the terma's revelation as the date in which its Tibetan version was complete, it should be dated 1366—two years after Longchenpa's death.

It seems unlikely that Rigdzin Gödem had a copy of any of Longchenpa's writings, since they were not printed for a long time and there is no evidence that they had human connections through whom manuscript copies could have circulated. However, an obscure prophesy about different versions of the *Khandro Nyingthik* found in the *Gongpa Zangthal* seems to prove that Rigdzin Gödem was aware, at least, of Longchenpa's existence. This passage more clearly shows, though, that Rigdzin Gödem knew Pema Ledreltsal's *Khandro Nyingthik* and Rinchen Lingpa's *Unique Self-Sufficient Principle*: the part that may be about Longchenpa is not absolutely transparent.<fnref n="3" />

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /></figure>

<footnote>(when Byang chub rgyal mtshan came to power). See Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991, pp. 775–779, and Leschly 2007b.</footnote>

<footnote n="1">¹ Roerich 1978, pp. 200–202.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Nyi ma bzang po 2015, p. 14 and p. 41.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ See Arguillère 2024a, “A King of Dharma,” pp. 94–99.</footnote>
Chapter 16: Other Tertöns
in the Time of Rigdzin Gödem

Cécile Ducher & Stéphane Arguillère
(IFRAE)

hen Gödem was active, there were several other tertöns who played an important role in the development of the Nyingma tradition, such as Orgyen Lingpa (1326–ca. 1355),<fnref n="1" /> Sangyé Lingpa (1340–1396),<fnref n="2" /> or another one considered in some classifications to be one of the “five kingly tertöns,”<fnref n="3" /> Dorjé Lingpa (1346–1405).<fnref n="4" />

In fact, Rigdzin Gödem’s century can be considered the golden age of treasure discovery. Of course, this practice had been flourishing for centuries and is still alive today. However, the great terma corpora of the 14th century were certainly the last to have a truly formative influence on the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. If the influence of Orgyen Lingpa and Sangyé Lingpa is visible in the final configuration of Padmasambhava’s legend, so crucial to the definition of Nyingma

<footnote n="1">¹ Yar rje O rgyan gling pa is known principally for his revealed biographies of Padmasambhava, but in fact he also revealed, for example, a large *bKa' brgyad* cycle. See *Rin chen gter mdzod* 1976, vol. 23, pp. 209-429.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991, pp. 784-788.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ A prediction attributed to Padmasambhava states that “There will be five kingly *gter stons* and a thousand minor ones” (Kong *sprul*, 1976–1980, *gTer ston brgya rtsa*, RT A, p. 384). Nowadays, the classification of the *gter ston rgyal po lnga* is generally given as follows: 1. Nyang gral Nyi ma ’od zer (1124–1192), 2. Guru Chos dbang (1212–1270), 3. rDo rje gling pa (1346–1405), 4. Padma gling pa (1445/50–1521), and Padma ’od gsal mdo sngags gling pa (a.k.a. ’Jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse’i dbang po, 1820–1892). The list has varied over centuries, certainly in order to reflect shifts of the power balance among the rNying ma pas. For example, *gTer ston* Tshe brtan rgyal mtshan (an almost forgotten, late 13th–early 14th c. figure, discussed in our Volume 2 in the context of rGod ldem’s search for the hidden lands) was once counted among the “five kingly tertöns” (see, e.g., Guru bKra shis 1990, p. 404: ‘*di gter ston gyi rgyal po lnga yi nang gi ya gyal gcig yin no* | ). Another passage (Kong *sprul*, 1976–1980, *gTer ston brgya rtsa*, RT A, p. 393) mentions “five kingly *gter stons* and three supreme emanations,” in which case rGod ldem is placed among the latter, as being Padmasambhava’s mind emanation (*thugs kyi sprul pa*). These lists should in any case not be taken for granted as stable rNying ma doctrines.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991, pp. 789-792. See also Gardner 2009 (https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Dorje-Lingpa/8750).</footnote>
identity and the unification of its many streams, Rigdzin Gödem can
be regarded as giving its more or less final form to the immense ritual
synthesis of the *Eight Pronouncements*, in the vein of Nyangral and
Chöwang's revelations. Pema Ledreltsal, Longchenpa, Rigdzin Gö-
dem, and perhaps Dorjé Lingpa put the finishing touches on the Dzog-
chen Nyingthik, completing the uninterrupted Oral Tradition with
their respective termas. Longchenpa's doctrinal and practical synthe-
sis of the *Heart Drops* and the *Sangwa Nyingpo* established a framework
for Dzogchen and tantra that was never bypassed by later generations
and is still the norm in most of the Nyingma school today (the rest
following Yungtönpa's commentary on the *Sangwa Nyingpo*, com-
pleted in the same vein by that of *Lochen Dharmaśrī* in the 17th cen-
tury). What has been left to later generations in terms of doctrine, nar-
rative, and practice seems less substantial in comparison: Ratna
Lingpa's work of compiling the Nyingmapas' tantric canon, the sys-
tematization of the system for visionary practice in complete darkness
in Dungtso Repa "the later"'s *Black Quintessence*, Ngari Panchen's doc-
trinal and ritual clarifications, Jangdak Tashi Tobgyal's first collection
of terma lineages,<fnref n="1" /> Sokdokpa Lodrö Gyaltsen's new approach to his-
tory, the founding of the great Nyingma monasteries by the Fifth Dalai
Lama, the vast encyclopedic compilations of the Rimé movement in
the nineteenth century, or the creation of a form of Nyingma philos-
sophical scholasticism by Jamgön Mipham can, for sure, also be re-
garded as major achievements, but none of them, except perhaps
Jamgön Mipham's new style in philosophy, was a truly major turn in
terms of either doctrine or practice. This is why the 14th century is as
crucial to the Nyingmapas as it is to other branches of the Tibetan reli-
gions.

<footnote n="1">¹ From what we know of his biography, it is clear that *Byang bdag* bKra shis stobs rgyal (1550–1603) was a systematic compiler of *gter ma* lineages. His prayer to all treasure revealers must have been designed for ritual transmission of the lineages he had collected. *Byang bdag* bKra shis stobs rgyal is also known as a specialist in liturgical arrangements of *gter ma* materials. All this evidence points to the idea that he may have produced a *textual* compilation rather than merely a collection of *transmission lineage*—a proto-*Rin chen gter mdzod*, so to speak. Indeed, it would not be surprising if a major compilation of the hidden treasures had been felt necessary in the sixteenth century, following Ratna gling pa’s edition of the *rNying ma rgyud ’bum* in the previous century. However, we have no remnants of such a corpus and no indirect evidence that it was ever produced, and Kong sprul does not seem to indicate that he was editing his own compilation on the basis of a pre-existing one. We will return to this issue in the relevant volume.</footnote>
Although the life of Orgyen Lingpa (1326–ca. 1355) does not seem to be well documented, there is a wealth of biographical material available on Sangyé Lingpa (1340–1396)<fnref n="1" /> and Dorjé Lingpa (1346–1405),<fnref n="2" /> who are Rigdzin Gödem's exact contemporaries. A systematic study of these would certainly clarify many aspects of Gödem's life and activities.

As regards Gödem's great contemporary Dorjé Lingpa, as Alexander Gardner puts it:<fnref n="3" />

> Around this time Dorjé Lingpa originated the practice known as “public revelation”,<fnref n="4" /> in which an audience is invited to witness the extraction of the treasure object. In 1371, with three hundred people in attendance, he revealed treasure at Orgyen Yiblung Dekyiling, and again at Pungthang. (...)

Dorjé Lingpa's behavior is remembered as being quite wild:

> For example,<fnref n="5" /> when visiting Barawa Gyeltsen Palzang<fnref n="6" /> in the Shang valley, he was asked to dress the part of a respectable lama, for fear that the clerics who were gathering to welcome him would lose faith. Dorje Lingpa arrived in a procession with women in tiger and leopard masks, and proceeded to sing a song of realization the topic of which was the tantric erasure of conventional dualistic thinking.

<footnote n="1">¹ See, e.g., in Sangs rgyas gling pa 2006, *sPrul sku sangs rgyas gling pa'i gter 'byung chen mo*, vol. 1, pp. 1-22 and pp. 23-114.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² See, e.g., in rDo rje gling pa 2010, vol. 2, pp. 35-48 (prayers to rDo rje gling pa in his successive rebirths and his last life as the *gter ston*); vol. 11, pp. 1-174: *sNgags 'chang ba rdo rje gling pas zab gter dang mjal ba'i gter 'byung rnam thar gter rabs rgya mtsho*; vol. 11, pp. 175-212: *rDo rje gling pa'i rnam thar thog mtha' bar gsum rgya mtsho lta bu las nye bar gsungs te dad ldan gsol ba 'debs pa'i rten du bkod pa*. Many other texts in this collection (his aforementioned songs, as well as question-and-answer texts [*dris lan*, e.g., vol. 12, pp. 1-258] showing his interaction with his contemporaries, plus *lo rgyus* texts in the *gter chos* proper) contain material that would be useful for a biography. Although the spiritual lineage of Rig 'dzin rGod Idem was much stronger in later centuries than that of rDo rje gling pa, it is obvious that the details of the latter's life would be easier to reconstruct than those of the former.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Gardner 2009.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ *Khrom gter*.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Gardner 2009.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ 'Ba' ra ba rGyal mtshan dpal bzang (1310–1391). A note could have been devoted in the present volume to this important bKa' brgyud master whose abundant works may have been very influent in his own time.</footnote>
Such songs<fnref n="1" /> are a hallmark of Dorjé Lingpa's teaching, and many of them are preserved, written by multiple hands, in his collected works. For the next three decades he continued to teach, training numerous students including the Fourth Karmapa, Rölpé Dorjé (1340–1383). He passed away at the age of sixty, and his corpse is said to have remained without decomposing for three years. His family lineage, through is son Chöyingpa, continues in Bhutan.<fnref n="2" />

Karma Lingpa's<fnref n="3" /> relative importance among all these treasure discoverers can be debated, but he is more directly relevant to us because his cycle *The Self-Liberated Contemplation of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities* [Deities] has become part of Dorjé Drak's liturgy, as opposed to the traditions that trace their origins to Orgyen Lingpa, Sangyé Lingpa, or Dorjé Lingpa.

He is the one who revealed what the *Bardo Thödröl*,<fnref n="4" /> known in the West as *The Tibetan Book of the Dead*. It would not be useful to describe the cycle to which this text belongs—*The Self-Liberated Contemplation of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities*—as it is known through Henk Blezer and Bryan Cuevas' studies.<fnref n="5" /> Although it is (in the West) the most famous of all terms, very little is known about the tertön, and it is even difficult to date him.<fnref n="6" /> We know nothing about the masters who trained him<fnref n="7" /> nor the disciples who spread his teaching, and he was not otherwise in known contact with people that left a clear trace in history.

<footnote n="1">¹ The collection of rDo rje gling pa's works, revelations, and later tradition (rDo rje gling pa 2010) contains great many such songs.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Kong sprul Blo gros mtha' yas 2007, *gTer ston brgya rtsa*, in RT B, vol. 1, p. 109: sku'i sras gnubs chen rnam 'phrul chos dbyings pa sogs las deng sang bar du mon phyogs su gdung rgyud mang du yod par snang 1.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991, pp. 800-801. Blezer 2003 contains a rendering of traditional biographies, based on 'Jam mgon Kong sprul's *gTer ston brgya rtsa* (appendix 1, pp. 323-324). Cuevas 2003 contains a more detailed account of the history of Karma gling pa's revelations. However, even this very fine piece of historical research does not lead to a precise conclusion regarding Karma gling pa's birth and death dates.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ *Bar do thos grol.* A section of the *Zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol*.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Blezer 2003 and Cuevas 2003.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ The dates 1327–1387, found in some sources, seem to be based upon a lazy misreading of Düjom Rinpoché's (Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991, p. 800) estimation, that he "was born sometime during the sixth cycle [24 January 1327 to 20 January 1387]." It is clear from all the elements gathered by Cuevas that Karma gling pa did not live for sixty years, but died young, when his father Nyi zla sangs rgyas was still alive and his son Nyi zla chos rje was just a few years old.</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷ His main master must have been his father Nyi zla sangs rgyas (d.u.), who was himself a *gter ston*. According to Cuevas 2003, p. 92: "He appears to</footnote>
The main (or official) lineage through which this cycle became amalgamated in the Dorjé Drak system is known through the prayers to the masters included in its liturgical adaptations, attested by the presence of a full volume (vol. 7, 498 pages) of *The Self-Liberated Contemplation of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities* in a ritual collection supposed to contain the whole of Dorjé Drak liturgies.<fnref n="1" /> From the reading of one such lineage prayers,<fnref n="2" /> it seems that the incorporation of this lineage into the Dorjé Drak system was even later (18th century?) than generally claimed for other materials.<fnref n="3" />

Be that as it may, Karma Lingpa is mentioned here more as an element of historical background and because his body of revelations *later* became part of the Dorjé Drak system, rather than for anything relevant to Rigdzin Gödem's life. Karma Lingpa likely was born when Rigdzin Gödem was a middle-aged man or near the end of his life. There is no known evidence to believe that they were in contact, nor that Rigdzin Gödem even heard of Karma Lingpa.

It would however be interesting to understand why the masters of Dorjé Drak, quite late in the eighteenth century, found it useful to include Karma Lingpa's liturgies, presumably as funeral rituals, instead

have been a student of the second Zhamarpa Khachö Wangpo (1350–1405), which would place him in the late fourteenth century.” Traditional accounts make for the awkwardness of the chronology by attributing an extraordinary longevity (120 years) to Nyi zla sangs rgyas. It might be reasonable to shift Karma gling pa somewhat later than commonly assumed. Düjom Rinpoché’s statement about the “sixth cycle” does not preclude that he may have been born very close to 1387.

<footnote n="1">¹ sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor las 'don cha'i skor. The Karma gling pa materials are found in vol. 7.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Zab chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol gyi smin grol rgyab rten dang bcas pa'i brgyud tshul gyi gsol 'debs bdud rtsi'i gru char, in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor las 'don cha'i skor, vol. 7, pp. 379-391.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ The historical information value of the lineages presented in ritual texts should, however, never be regarded as undisputable documents about the time when a system was first introduced. An earlier lineage may be omitted when it is regarded as less prestigious, less complete, in favor of a later one perceived as offering better guarantees. Indeed, *Byang bdag* bKra shis stobs rgyal (ca. 1550–1603) appears in transmission lineages for the Kar gling materials: see Cuevas 2003 (p. 148), where *Byang bdag* bKra shis stobs rgyal appears to have received this lineage from 'Bri gung Rin chen phun tshogs (1509–1557). Since *Byang bdag* bKra shis stobs rgyal's centrality for other components of what would become the *rDo rje brag lugs* is obvious, this is a hint of an earlier (undocumented) incorporation of this corpus in the *rDo rje brag* liturgies</footnote>
of drawing from their own rich corpus.<fnref n="1" /> The explanation cannot simply be that something was objectively missing in the Northern Treasures and had to be supplemented by foreign, imported elements.

The famous *Tibetan Book of the Dead* (with all the corrections Cuevas brought to the common Western perception of how it was actually used), although probably revealed during Gödem's lifetime, seems to have enjoyed a quite late fame in Tibet and, for whatever reason, did not become a dominant funerary system among the Nyingmapas until the mid-eighteenth century.

Hence, all this belongs to a much later historical stratum and may have been better placed in a further volume. However, to avoid inconvenient flashbacks when we will reach the point in the Northern Treasures history in which the two lineages merge and in order not to scatter information, we have chosen to present here the information found in the above-mentioned lineage prayer.

<table><thead><tr><th colspan="2">Karma Lingpa lineages in the Dorjé Drak System</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Karma Lingpa</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Nyida Sangyé</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Nyida Chöjé<sup>2</sup></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Nyida Özer (1409–?)<sup>3</sup></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Namkha Chö Gyatso (1430–ca.1499)<sup>4</sup></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Thukjé Özer (d.u.)<sup>5</sup></td><td>Sönam Özer (d.u.)<sup>6</sup></td></tr></tbody></table>

<footnote n="1">¹ As an example of a full-fledged Byang gter funeral liturgy, see Boord 2012. This book documents very accurately the relevant part of Rig 'dzin rGod Idem's revelations and their later exegesis by Rig 'dzin Padma 'phrin las, but it does not include a systematic discussion of whether they are still the dominant liturgies for the dead in a Byang gter context and about their possible concurrence with Kar gling liturgies.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Nyi zla chos rje (d.u.) was Karma gling pa's son.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Nyi zla 'od zer "was born in Longpo Tsikar in (...) 1409 or 1421" (Cuevas 2003, p. 122).</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ rGya ra ba Nam mkha' chos kyi rgya mtsho, "the first to systematize the Karling teachings and to institutionalize its liturgy" (Cuevas 2003, p. 123).</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Thugs rje 'od zer. The branch starting with this figure is the one documented by Cuevas 2003 (e.g., p. 156) as the "Nedo Lineage."</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ bSod nams 'od zer. From him starts one of the branches of what Cuevas 2003 (e.g., p. 169) calls the "Dargye Chöding / Mindroling lineages." However, the last part of this chart shows that the whole of the lineages claimed</footnote>
<table><tr><td>Buddha Maṅgala (d.u.)<sup>1</sup></td><td>Sönam Palwa (d.u.)<sup>2</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Künga Drakpa (d.u.)<sup>3</sup></td><td rowspan="2">Jangchub Lingpa Sönam Chökyong (d.u.)<sup>4</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Künga Tendzin (d.u.)<sup>5</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Tashi Wangchuk (d.u.)<sup>6</sup></td><td>Natsok Rangdröl<sup>7</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Pema Wangdrak (d.u.)<sup>8</sup></td><td>Thuksé Küngadrak (d.u.)<sup>9</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Karma Chakmé (1613–1678)<sup>10</sup></td><td rowspan="2">Tendzin Drakpa (1536–1597)<sup>11</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Pema Rigdzin (1625–1684)<sup>12</sup></td></tr><tr><td>?</td><td>Dongak Tendzin (1576–1628/48)<sup>13</sup></td></tr></table>

by rDo rje brag for Karma gling pa's revelations have been passed through gTer bdag gling pa and his posterity.

1 A.k.a. 'Khrul zhig Sangs rgyas bkra shis.

2 bSod nams dpal ba (Pu ñya śrī), whom Cuevas 2003, p. 164, calls an "obscure figure," although he mentions that he may have been a direct student of Nyi zla 'od zer, which leads him (loc. cit.) to the hypothesis that "the Sönam Özer listed in Terdak Lingpa's *Transmission Records* may actually have been Nyida Özer."

3 Kun dga' grags pa. See Cuevas 2003, pp. 165-166.

4 Byang chub gling pa bSod nams chos skyong. One of rTse le sNa tshogs rang grol's masters (Cuevas 2003, loc. cit.).

5 Kun dga' bstan 'dzin.

6 bKra shis dbang phyug.

7 If this is rTse le sNa tshogs rang grol, there must be something wrong in the dates—1605/1608–1677—generally given (e.g., by BDRC) for this figure. Cuevas writes (2003, p. 165): "In the wood sheep year 1535, when Tülklu Natsok Rangdrol was forty-two years old...". This sNa tshogs rang grol was definitely active in the sixteenth, not in the seventeenth century and must have been conflated with another figure belonging to the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama. This requires further research.

8 [A nu] Padma dbang drag, Karma chags med's father.

9 *Thugs sras Kun dga' grags.*

10 Karma chags med. In the context of this lineage, see Cuevas 2003, pp. 153-157.

11 A.k.a. Yan pa blo bde. This figure is interesting for us because of his connections with some Northern Treasure masters, notably *Byang bdag* bKra shis stobs rgyal.

12 rDzogs chen Padma rig 'dzin.

13 dGe mang *bla ma* mDo sngags bstan 'dzin, gTer bdag gling pa's grandfather. There is obviously a chronological inconsistency at this point in the prayer. It seems that the "Nedo Lineage" was merged into the "Dargye Chöding / Mindroling lineages" much later than mDo sngags bstan 'dzin, probably in the time of *gSang bdag* Phrin las lhun grub or his son gTer bdag
<table><tr><td>Trinlé Lhündrup (1611–1662)<fnref n="1" /></td></tr><tr><td>Vajrakṣara (Terdak Lingpa, 1646–1714)</td></tr><tr><td>Lochen Dharmaśrī (1654–1717/1718)<fnref n="2" /></td></tr><tr><td>Rinchen Namgyal (1694–1758)<fnref n="3" /></td></tr><tr><td>Gyurmé Gyatso (1686–1718)<fnref n="4" /></td></tr><tr><td>Orgyen Tendzin Drakpa (1701–1728)</td></tr></table>

The lineage continues for more generations with figures belonging to the same group. Although many in this chart are completely unknown (especially the first generations after Karma Lingpa, who appear in all the accounts of his successors, but are otherwise entirely obscure), it is clear that by the 18th century, all of this lineage belongs to the Mindröling milieu, certainly not far from Dorjé Drak, but outside of it.

We can thus safely conclude that the formal incorporation of Karma Lingpa's revelations into the Dorjé Drak system came very late, and we can therefore ignore them from this point on until we find them mentioned in some later biography. The general impression is that Karma Lingpa's current great fame belongs to the modern era, and although this state of affairs deserves to be studied, it is completely beyond the scope of the present volume.

<figure><img src="image_18.png" /></figure>

ging pa, or that mDo sngags bstan 'dzin received it from some earlier master of the "Nedo Lineage."

<footnote n="1">¹ *gSang bdag* Phrin las lhun grub, the son of mDo sngags bstan 'dzin, master and father of gTer bdag ging pa and *Lo chen* Dharmaśrī.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² sMin gling *lo chen* Dharmaśrī.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ sMin gling *khri chen* 03 Rin chen rnam rgyal.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Padma 'gyur med rgya mtsho, gTer bdag gling pa's second eldest son, one of the victims of the Dzungar invasion.</footnote>
Conclusion

Jean-Luc Achard
(CNRS, CRCAO)

he present collective volume is the result of a comprehensive and meticulous examination of the religious tradition known as the Northern Treasures (Byang gter), which played a pivotal and significant role in the history of Tibet. Focusing primarily on the life and works of Rigdzin Gödem (1337–ca. 1401), alongside the rule of the successive Gungthang Kings, our research project on this lineage first introduced the milieu in which what was to become the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism gradually took shape in the post-dynastic era (late 10th century or early 11th century). Despite the numerous conjectures that affect the vision that the academic world has of the historical roots of this tradition in the 8th century, there are elements that clearly indicate that it evidently did not spring out of nowhere during the post-dynastic era. It is concretely rooted in the original spread of Buddhism during a period of religious kings who favored its diffusion and laid the foundation for a sustainable implementation that would shape the entire cultural heritage of Tibetans. All subsequent developments of this ancient lineage are anchored in this foundational context. Retrospectively, this period became known as the Early Spread (snga dar) of Buddhism in Tibet, spanning from the late 7th or early 8th century to the collapse of the Yarlung dynasty in Central Tibet, either in 842 or 942 AD. It was followed by a brief “Age of Fragmentation” (bsil ba'i dus) during which the embers of this early diffusion gradually ignited the conditions for its revival. Concurrently, the misinterpretation of some crucial tantric points by Tibetan lamas served as a cause for the invitation of Indian pandits during the so-called Later Spread (phyi dar), which started in the early 11th century. It is during this later phase (and probably even before) that references to rich and complex narratives connected to the imperial period and the Early Spread were elaborated, either on patent historical bases or on what some believe to be merely legendary accounts. Central to the present research project are figures such as Padmasambhava, Trisong Detsen, Nanam Dorjé Düdjom, and other prominent religious individuals of the dynastic period (8th-9th centuries) whose emanations were to play a decisive role in the later history of Tibet.

Following the collapse of the Yarlung dynasty, Buddhism experienced a period of decline until the advent of the Later Spread. However, it did not disappear entirely in the interim. While the monastic tradition indeed lost its royal support and was completely disbanded, some lay masters and practitioners were actively engaged in the task
of collecting the remnants of the early teachings, whose transmissions
were supposedly maintained in an uninterrupted manner. These
teachings are referred to as the “Kama” (bKa’ ma), namely complex
systems of instructions based on texts and cycles whose redaction is
believed to date back to the golden age of the 8th century. Over time,
this tradition was enriched and completed by a system of treasure rev-
elations called “Terma” (gTer ma), i.e., individuals works or collections,
as well as artefacts and other religious items said to have been hidden
in sacred places in the 8th century and whose discoveries were an-
nounced in prophetic guides. The origins of this revelatory tradition
generally trace back to Padmasambhava who was assisted by some of
his disciples. According to the traditional narratives recounting the or-
igins of the lineage that is the focus of the present research, Padmasam-
bhava is said to have played a key role in hiding some books in a sa-
cred sanctuary atop Mount Zangzang Lhadrak, “The Divine Rock of
Zangzang.” Subsequently, in 1366, these scriptures were unearthed by
an individual predestined for this task, named Rigdzin Gödem. He
was also regarded as an emanation of Nanam Dorjé Düdjom, one of
Padmasambhava’s main disciples. As we have seen, because of the lo-
cation of the discovery, in the district region of Jang (“North”)
Ngamring, the corpus that was revealed there came to be regarded as
making up the early tradition of the “Northern Treasures” (Byang gter).

Investigating the pre-history of this lineage has proven crucial to
understanding the later developments essentially discussed in the pre-
sent volume. From this perspective, exploring the rich and complex
narratives of this pre-history provided a solid foundation for generat-
ing significant insights into the later, post-dynastic tradition itself.
Hence, these accounts linking back the lineage to the early days of the
pre-Nyingma school effectively bridge the gap between what some see
as the mythic past of this lineage and its more documented and datable
history, underscoring the fluidity between legendary narratives and
historical events in a manner so characteristic of the post-dynastic Ti-
betan culture.

From this angle, Rigdzin Gödem’s life story unquestionably por-
trays him as a seminal figure for the whole Nyingma tradition. His
contributions to this lineage through the revelation of numerous scrip-
tures have enriched it to such an extent that the Northern Treasures
could very well be considered ab initio as a self-sustaining, fully-
fledged system centered upon Mahā, Anu, and Atiyoga teachings.
Later contributors, both authors and tertöns, added to the original cor-
pus of works, gradually modelling this tradition into a school in its
own right. Thus, the system of the Northern Treasures progressively
shaped its destiny, evolving over time from a lay foundation—most
evidently relying on small hermitages—to the building of sizable
monastic institutions such as the famed establishment of Dorjé Drak (rDo rje brag), founded in 1632 AD by Rigdzin Ngakgi Wangpo (1580–1639).

Thus, by the 12th century, grand narratives such as that of Pad-
masambhava were clearly established, weaving together real historical
elements into a cohesive story. In all likelihood, during its elaboration,
this complex account combined together a wide variety of sources and
stories, and inevitably incorporated blatant anachronisms. Blurring
the lines between facts and embellishments, the strict chronological ac-
curacy was eventually obscured into a unified discourse in which piv-
otal figures started to appear in a light that probably outshines their
original features. A good example of this happens to be Nanam Dorje
Düjom who plays a seemingly excessive role in this narrative.

In contrast, Nubchen Sangye Yeshe emerges as a personage of far
greater significance than previously acknowledged by both traditional
and academic historians. His influence clearly extends beyond the
Anuyoga tradition with which he is often nearly exclusively associ-
ated, or that of the Yamāntaka systems as preserved in the Nyingma
tradition.

Another crucial element that should definitely be taken into ac-
count in reviewing the early formation of what was to become the
Nyingma School was the importance of the teachings received in India
in the 10th century by Zurpoche's father (Zur Shérab Jungné). It is ev-
ident that the early diffusion of these teachings had a deeper impact
on the legacy of this tradition at the time it started to elaborate its own
history and to establish its doctrinal tenets on a firmer ground.

In this perspective, it would not be superfluous to reassess the role
played by lesser-known tertöns that got lost in a nearly-total historical
obscurity but may possibly have not been insignificant in their own
time. Among those who could warrant a definite reappraisal of their
literary contributions are Sarben Chokmé, Tseten Gyeltsen (about
whom more will be said in vol. 2), and evidently Rinchen Lingpa
whose role has been oddly undermined in later sources. On this topic,
the intrigue surrounding the cycle of the *Khandro Nyingthik* deserves a
closer examination to trace out how it was eventually transcribed and
codified. The biographical material associated with great contempo-
raries of Gödem, such as Sangyé Lingpa, Dorjé Lingpa, and later on
Ratna Lingpa, are also sources that would deserve in-depth researches
in their own right.

*

The period in which Gödem lived and the patronage he expected from
the Gungthang kings—according to several prophetic statements—do
not accurately mirror the state of affairs as it unfolded in 8th century
Tibet when king Trisong Detsen officially supported the diffusion of
Buddhism. Rather, Gödem was confronted with repeated difficulties
and a limited patronage which eventually led him to concretely move
his religious activities towards the southern border of Tibet. Nonethe-
less, his spiritual legacy flourished through the active diffusion of the
early teachings he had revealed. The Northern Treasures system, like
probably all other lineages of the Nyingma tradition, can be thought
of as a tree, with its seeds firmly grounded in the royal period, its roots
and main trunk developing into a remarkably coherent corpus from
the mid-14th century onwards, and its branches and leaves continu-
ously growing to this day, providing the tradition with an abundant
and lush leafage that ensures its long-term survival.

His immediate heirs and spiritual descendants played a considera-
ble role in the development of his tradition, with five early specific lin-
eages that branched out, including *inter alia* those of the son, of the
nephew, and so on. A century later, with patriarchs such as Setön
Pema Wangchen (15th c.), the Northern Treasures can be regarded on
the religious scene of Tibet as an already perfectly organized school
with its own history, its own canon, and so on. These particular themes
will be the focus of the next volume of our research project.

❖
# Appendix 1: Pönsé Khyungö Tsal and his identification with Rigdzin Gödem

Jean-Luc Achard
(CNRS, CRCAO)

In his *Biographies of a Hundred Treasure Revealers*,<fnref n="1" /> Kongtrül has proposed to identify several tertöns of the Bön tradition with discoverers from the Nyingma school. In a sense, this is quite in line with his famous “non-sectarian” (*ris med*) approach and, in some very specific cases, should not come as a surprise. If some of these identifications are well-known and do not generate particular chronological issues, others are quite problematic and difficult to confirm. We need only think of a few key figures who themselves claim to belong to both traditions and even provide the specific names they have in each line of transmission, to realize that Kongtrül did not necessarily tread on marshy ground.<fnref n="2" /> However, and given the delicate nature of the task, some of the identifications proposed by Kongtrül are difficult to reconcile not only with the chronology but also with the respective revelations of these tertöns.<fnref n="3" />

In the context that concerns us here, the case of identification proposed by Kongtrül is that of Pönsé Khyungö Tsal (dPon gsas Khyung rgod rtsal, b. 1175) and Rigdzin Gödem. First of all, it is clear that their respective dates totally invalidate this identification. Especially since, for once, the Bön chronology does not seem to pose any particular

<footnote n="1">¹ Kong sprul 2007, gTer ston brgya rtsa'i rnam thar, in *Rin chen gter mdzod chen mo*, New Delhi: Sechen ed., vol. 1, (pp. 341-765): p. 434.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² This is the case, for example, with rDo rje gling pa, who affirms that his name in the Bön tradition is Bon zhig g.Yung drung gling pa, although the Bon pos generally give different dates for him. Thus, rDo rje gling pa is said to have lived from 1346 to 1405, while g.Yung drung gling pa is said to have been born in 1228. In the light of Samten Karmay's research, it seems that the Bön chronology needs to be corrected (Karmay 2007, pp. 188, 217-219). However, it is still difficult to explain the discrepancy between their respective birth dates, which differ in terms of elements and animals. In general, such discrepancies can be neutralized by adding or subtracting one or more sexagesimal cycles. In the present case, rDo rje gling pa's birth year is a *me pho khyi*, while g.Yung drung gling pa's is said to have been a *sa pho byi*.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Some of these identifications have been taken up by others, such as the 11th Situpa, Padma dbang mchog rgyal po (1886-1952), including that of rGod Idem and dPon gsas Khyung rgod rtsal. See Padma dbang mchog rgyal po 2007, *Rin chen gter yi chos mdzod chen mo'i rtogs brjod ngo mtshar bdud rtsi'i 'byung gnas*, in RT-B, vol. 2, p. 541.</footnote>
problem with Pönsé Khyungö Tsal.<fnref n="1" /> Admittedly, while both are associated with a Northern Treasures (*byang gter*) system, the various events making up the narration of their respective lives, as well as their individual revelations, are too different to justify them being one and the same person.

Given his encyclopedic knowledge of the teachings of Bön (through his original affiliation with that tradition) and those of the Nyingmapa lineages, it is certain that Kongtrül had access to the works of these two masters, and one is therefore entitled to ask what has motivated the identification he proposes. It is certainly not their revelations, since these do not overlap and therefore do not present intertextual elements that would be obvious at first sight. Hence, if we exclude the purely literary and doctrinal elements, we are actually left with very little in common except the association of these two masters with a tradition of the Northern Treasures and the presence of the term *rgod* (vulture) in their names. This is, to say the least, a rather meagre justification for their identification.

What probably prompted Kongtrül to make this identification is the fact that both tertöns discovered treasures on Zangzang Lhadrak, although their dates are clearly incompatible. Moreover, despite having been excavated on the same mountain (though apparently in different caves), Pönse’s discovery is not explicitly discussed by later historians such as Shardza Rinpoche as belonging to the corpus of the Northern Treasures, but is rather defined in its own terms as the *Pönsema* (*dPon gsas ma*) revelation. These elements do not appear in the narratives surrounding Gödem.

Another element to take into account are the Buddhist *termas* revealed by Pönsé Khyungö Tsal which provide a possible reason motivating Kongtrül’s position. In the Bön tradition, Pönsé Khyungö Tsal is famous for a series of eight notable Treasures,<fnref n="2" /> among which the most important one is certainly *The Six Rituals of the Oral Transmission (sNyan brgyud chog drug)*, a very unusual Dzogchen cycle centered upon the *8th century figure Drenpa Namkha.<fnref n="3" /> There is no mention of such a cycle in the Rigdzin Gödem revelations of termas. And in the same vein, there is no mention of the *Gongpa Zangthal*, Gödem’s most

<footnote n="1">¹ His date of birth (as far as I know we do not have the year of his death) fits relatively well with A zha Blo gros rgyal mtshan (1198–1263) who was one of his main disciples.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² See Achard 2024a, “A Brief Note,” *passim*.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Another very famous revelation of his is the *Dran pa gsang sgrub*. Dran pa nam mkha' was originally a Bon master who eventually converted to Buddhism and became one of Padmasambhava's twenty-five disciples. However, the modern Bon tradition recognizes three Dran pa nam mkha'-s, although the two oldest ones are probably not historical figures.</footnote>
famous revelation, within the corpus discovered by Pönsé Khyungö Tsal. Therefore, if we compare their respective discoveries, we can only conclude that there is no overlap. This is not what one would expect if the two tertöns were one and the same person.<fnref n="1" />

Other elements which indicate that they are different individuals include the fact that Pönsé Khyungö Tsal appears in a very famous lineage of transmission within the Bön tradition, known as the lineage of the *Experiential Transmission from Zhangzhung (Zhang zhung nyams rgyud).*<fnref n="2" /> There is no mention of this in Gödem biography, which is not very explicit regarding his training in Dzogchen teachings.<fnref n="3" /> As far as I have been able to figure, there is no mention of Bön in Gödem's biography, even though he revealed texts from a sacred mountain which is considered as "treasure sanctuary" in the Bön tradition itself. Again, if these two masters were the same person, there would be some tangible elements showing up on this topic. From the collection of the Gödem treasure revelations as they are compiled in *The Compilation of the Northern Treasures*, it would appear that Gödem has no work associated with Bön, whereas Khyungö Tsal had indeed revealed Buddhist termas which the later Bön tradition lists as containing four main treasures, namely:

— *The Manifest Realization of Vajrasattva (rDo rje sems dpa'i mngon rtogs)*,

— *The Practice of Vajrapāṇi (Phyag rdor gyi sgrub pa)*,

— *The Methods for Curing Leprosy (Bro nad gso thabs)*, and

— *The Practice of Guru Drakpo (Gu ru drag sgrub).*<fnref n="4" />

Before briefly turning to a few more blatant details, if we limit the investigation to their respective terma revelations, it can be pointed out that their lists of treasures show no common works and that if Pönsé Khyungö Tsal did indeed reveal both Bön and Nyingma termas, Gödem seems to have revealed only treasures related to the Nyingma tradition. Limiting the investigation to the system of the Great Perfection,

<footnote n="1">¹ In the case of an obvious identity, one would expect to find in their biography statements indicating that as a Bon po, he discovered specifically Bon cycles, while as a rNying ma pa, he discovered other works affiliated with this tradition.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² It is redundantly spelt *rgyud* instead of *bryud*, an endemic rendering in Bon texts.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ On rGod Idem elliptic formation in rDzogs chen, see Arguillère 2024a, "A King of Dharma."</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ So far, I have not been able to identify any of these works among the various editions of the Bon *brTen 'gyur* or in rNying ma collections at my disposal.</footnote>
upon examining Pönse's revelation of Dzogchen works (on pp. 271-273 of his biography), it appears that there is no mention of the *Gongpa Zangthal*, the central Great Perfection treasure of the Gödem tradition. It would be impossible to justify this absence if the two personages were the same individual, in particular given the rather "non-secretian" (*ris med*) environment that is prevalent in the biography.<fnref n="1" />

If there is an ecumenic interest in conflating the two personalities into a single individual, this can however be easily dismissed by comparing the names of their birthplaces and those of their respective parents, the name the tertöns received at birth or by which they are also known, and the place where they discovered their respective treasures.

<table><thead><tr><td></td><td>Pönsé Khyungö Tsal</td><td>Rigdzin Gödem</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Birthplace</td><td>Chimé Drekhyung<fnref n="2" /></td><td>Namolung<fnref n="3" /></td></tr><tr><td>Father</td><td>Yilbön Dorseng<fnref n="4" /></td><td>Lopön Düdül<fnref n="5" /></td></tr><tr><td>Mother</td><td>Gyagar Sal, Lady of Gurub<fnref n="6" /></td><td>Jocham Sönam Khyeudren<fnref n="7" /></td></tr><tr><td>Name given at birth</td><td>Dorje Pal<fnref n="8" /></td><td>Ngödrup Gyaltsen<fnref n="9" /></td></tr><tr><td>Place of discovery</td><td>Drakphuk Tselkhama<fnref n="10" /></td><td>Unnamed cave on Zangzang Lhadrag<fnref n="11" /></td></tr></tbody></table>

<footnote n="1">¹ Hostility to Bon is however clearly evident in the attitude of some Buddhist toward Bon in several passages of the text, even though Bon and Chos treasures are treated on a par in the biography (p. 268.3). For the actual biography itself, see *dPon gsas kyi rnam thar*, in bsTan 'dzin rnam dag 1972, *Sources for a History of Bön*, pp. 245-275.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² sPyi smad dres khung.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Na mo lung.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ dByil bon rDor seng (rDo rje seng ge).</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ *Slob dpon* bDud 'dul or Srid bdud 'dul dpal (Herweg 1994, p. 54).</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ Gu rub mo rGya gar gsal.</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷ *Jo lcam* bSod nams khye'u 'dren.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸ rDo rje dpal.</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹ dNgos grub rgyal mtshan. This is possibly not the name he received at birth but rather the name by which he was also known throughout his life.</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰ Brag phug mtshal kha ma.</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹ For a summary of this revelation based on a first-hand account, see Achard 2023a.</footnote>
We know that the treasures discovered by Gödem were also conceived as supports of the local royalty, that is to say the dynasty of the kings of Gungthang, an element which does not appear in any way in the revelations of Pönsé Khyungö Tsal.

All in all, it is evident that Kongtrül's approach is not overly whimsical, given that many tertöns have belonged to both Bön and the Nyingmapa tradition, not only in a spirit of doctrinal openness but also in a perspective that encompasses local needs, namely the ritual requirements imposed by the necessities of life: rituals for the dead, for the protection of children, for the abundance of crops, to fight against disease, and ultimately for individual realization. It is therefore not surprising that tertöns reveal texts from both traditions. However, the identification proposed by Kongtrül between Pönsé Khyungö Tsal and Rigdzin Gödem is incorrect and undoubtedly based on obvious contradictory elements.

<figure><img src="image_19.png" /></figure>
Appendix 2: Timeline (dates mentioned in this volume)

<table><tr><td>609/623</td><td>Beginning of the reign of Songtsen Gampo</td></tr><tr><td>650</td><td>End of the reign of Songtsen Gampo</td></tr><tr><td>740/755</td><td>Beginning of the reign of Trisong Detsen</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 777</td><td>Birth of Nyang Tingdzin Zangpo</td></tr><tr><td>797</td><td>End of the reign of Trisong Detsen</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 815</td><td>Beginning of the reign of Ralpachen</td></tr><tr><td>838</td><td>End of the reign of Ralpachen; beginning of the reign of Langdarma</td></tr><tr><td>842</td><td>End of the reign of Langdarma</td></tr><tr><td>844</td><td>Birth of Nubchen Sangyé Yeshé (the date of his death is unclear, maybe quite late in the 10th c.)</td></tr><tr><td>978</td><td>Birth of Rinchen Zangpo</td></tr><tr><td>982</td><td>Birth of Atiśa</td></tr><tr><td>992</td><td>Birth of Drokmi Lotsāwa</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 997</td><td>Birth of Chetsün Sengé Wangchuk</td></tr><tr><td>1000</td><td>Birth of Marpa Chökyi Lodrö</td></tr><tr><td>1002</td><td>Birth of Zurpoché Śākya Jungné</td></tr><tr><td>1014</td><td>Birth of Zurchungwa Sherab Drakpa</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1016</td><td>Birth of Gya Zhangtrom</td></tr><tr><td>1023</td><td>Birth of Ngok Chödor</td></tr><tr><td>1028</td><td>Birth of Milarepa</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1050</td><td>Birth of Chegom Nakpo</td></tr><tr><td>1052</td><td>Birth of Dzeng Dharmabodhi</td></tr><tr><td>1054</td><td>Death of Atiśa</td></tr><tr><td>1055</td><td>Death of Rinchen Zangpo</td></tr><tr><td>1062</td><td>Death of Zurpoché Śākya Jungné</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1072/1074</td><td>Death of Drokmi Lotsāwa</td></tr><tr><td>1074</td><td>Death of Zurchungwa Sherab Drakpa. Birth of Drophukpa (Zurwön) Śākya Sengé</td></tr><tr><td>1079</td><td>Birth of Gampopa</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td>1081</td><td>Death of Marpa Chökyi Lodrö</td></tr><tr><td>1085</td><td>Birth of Rechungpa</td></tr><tr><td>1090</td><td>Death of Ngok Chödor</td></tr><tr><td>1097</td><td>Birth of Zhangtön Tashi Dorjé</td></tr><tr><td>1110</td><td>Birth of Karmapa I Düsum Khyenpa</td></tr><tr><td>1111</td><td>Death of Milarepa</td></tr><tr><td>1120 (not before —)</td><td>Death of Chegom Nakpo</td></tr><tr><td>1121</td><td>Death of Chetsün Sengé Wangchuk</td></tr><tr><td>1123</td><td>Birth of Lama Zhang Tsöndrü Drakpa</td></tr><tr><td>1124</td><td>Birth of Nyangral Nyima Özer</td></tr><tr><td>1134/1135</td><td>Death of Drophukpa (Zurwön) Śākya Sengé</td></tr><tr><td>1151/1130</td><td>Birth of Künzang Dorjé (compiler of The Vajra Bridge of the Space Section)</td></tr><tr><td>1153</td><td>Death of Gampopa</td></tr><tr><td>1158</td><td>Birth of Khepa Nyibum</td></tr><tr><td>1161</td><td>Death of Rechungpa</td></tr><tr><td>1162</td><td>Birth of Genghis Khan</td></tr><tr><td>1167</td><td>Death of Zhangtön Tashi Dorjé</td></tr><tr><td>1168</td><td>Death of Dzeng Dharmabodhi</td></tr><tr><td>1171</td><td>Birth of Namkha Pal (a son of Nyangral Nyima Özer)</td></tr><tr><td>1173</td><td>Birth of Trophu Lotsāwa Jampa Pal</td></tr><tr><td>1175</td><td>Birth of Pönsé Khyungö Tsal</td></tr><tr><td>1192</td><td>Death of Nyangral Nyima Özer</td></tr><tr><td>1193</td><td>Death of Karmapa I Düsum Khyenpa and of Lama Zhang Tsöndrü Drakpa</td></tr><tr><td>1196</td><td>Birth of Guru Jober</td></tr><tr><td>1198</td><td>Birth of Azha Lodrö Gyeltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1202</td><td>Birth of Trülshik Sengé Gyabpa</td></tr><tr><td>1204</td><td>Birth of Karmapa II Karma Pakshi</td></tr><tr><td>1212</td><td>Birth of Guru Chöwang</td></tr><tr><td>1213</td><td>Death of Khepa Nyibum</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td>1225</td><td>Death of Trophu Lotsāwa Jampa Pal</td></tr><tr><td>1227</td><td>Death of Genghis Khan, during the conquest (and destruction) of the Tangut (Xi Xia) Kingdom</td></tr><tr><td>1229</td><td>Birth of Orgyenpa Rinchen Pal</td></tr><tr><td>1231</td><td>Death of Guru Jober</td></tr><tr><td>1235</td><td>Birth of Chögyal Phakpa</td></tr><tr><td>1238</td><td>Death of Namkha Pal (son of Nyangral Nyima Özer)</td></tr><tr><td>1239</td><td>Godan Khan orders the first armed Mongol incursion into Tibet</td></tr><tr><td>1243</td><td>Birth of Melong Dorjé</td></tr><tr><td>1244</td><td>Sakya Paṇḍita accepts the summon to Godan Khan's court</td></tr><tr><td>1263</td><td>Death of Azha Lodrö Gyeltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1265</td><td>Death of Trülshik Sengé Gyabpa</td></tr><tr><td>1266</td><td>Birth of Kumarādza</td></tr><tr><td>1270</td><td>Death of Guru Chöwang</td></tr><tr><td>1280</td><td>Death of Chögyal Phakpa</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1280</td><td>Birth of Zur Jampa Sengé</td></tr><tr><td>1283</td><td>Death of Karmapa II Karma Pakshi</td></tr><tr><td>1284</td><td>Birth of Yungtönpa Dorjepal and Karmapa III Rangjung Dorje</td></tr><tr><td>1289</td><td>Birth of Meban Rinchen Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1290</td><td>Birth of Butön Rinchendrup and Gyalsé Lekpa. Destruction of Drikung Til by Mongol forces allied to Sa-kya</td></tr><tr><td>1291</td><td>Birth of Pema Ledreltsal</td></tr><tr><td>1292</td><td>Birth of Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1294</td><td>Birth of Drölmawa Samdrup Dorjé and Sazang Mati Paṇchen</td></tr><tr><td>1302</td><td>Birth of Tai Situ Jangchub Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1303</td><td>Death of Melong Dorjé</td></tr><tr><td>1308</td><td>Birth of Longchenpa</td></tr><tr><td>1309</td><td>Death of Orgyenpa Rinchen Pal</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td>1310</td><td>Birth of Barawa Gyeltsen Palzang</td></tr><tr><td>ca.1310</td><td>Death of Zur Jampa Sengé</td></tr><tr><td>1311</td><td>Rinchen Lingpa finds his first terma in Koro Drak including the prophetic guide for the Khandro Nyingthik which he gives to Pema Ledreltsal</td></tr><tr><td>1312</td><td>Birth of Lama Dampa Sönam Gyaltsen and of the Gungthang king Tri Tashidé</td></tr><tr><td>1314</td><td>Rinchen Lingpa unearths his second large terma, including The Self-Sufficient Perfect Principle</td></tr><tr><td>1319</td><td>Death of Pema Ledreltsal</td></tr><tr><td>1321</td><td>Rinchen Lingpa meets Pema Ledreltsal in a dream and receives a prophecy about the Khandro Nyingthik and the Rāhula cycle.</td></tr><tr><td>1323</td><td>Birth of Yarjé Orgyen Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1326</td><td>Longchenpa begins his studies in Sangphu</td></tr><tr><td>1331</td><td>Gyalsé Lekpa teaches the Khandro Nyingthik to Karmapa III Rangjung Dorjé</td></tr><tr><td>1332</td><td>Karmapa III Rangjung Dorjé leaves to Mongolia. Longchenpa quits Sangphu</td></tr><tr><td>1333</td><td>Beginning of the rein of the Yuan emperor Toghon Temür (Huizong)</td></tr><tr><td>1334</td><td>Longchenpa meets Kumarādza</td></tr><tr><td>1337</td><td>Birth of Rigdzin Gödem</td></tr><tr><td>1338</td><td>Birth of the Gungthang king Phüntsok Pal</td></tr><tr><td>1339</td><td>Death of Karmapa III Rangjung Dorje</td></tr><tr><td>ca.1339</td><td>Longchenpa gets a complete copy of the Khandro Nyingthik from Özer Gocha</td></tr><tr><td>1340</td><td>Birth of Sangyé Lingpa and Karma pa IV Rölpé Dorje</td></tr><tr><td>1343</td><td>Death of Kumarādza</td></tr><tr><td>1346</td><td>Birth of Dorjé Lingpa according to traditional chronologies</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1348</td><td>Birth of Rendawa Zhönnu Lodrö</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1349</td><td>Longchenpa secures close links with Drikung Gomchen Künrin and restores the Zhé Lhakhang</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td>1350</td><td>Birth of the second Zhamarpa Khachö Wangpo</td></tr><tr><td>1352</td><td>Birth of Lotsāwa Drakpa Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1352</td><td>Longchenpa composes his commentary on the Sangwa Nyingpo</td></tr><tr><td>1354</td><td>Longchenpa goes to exile in Bhutan</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1355</td><td>Death of Yarjé Orgyen Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1357</td><td>Birth of Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa</td></tr><tr><td>1358</td><td>Tai Situ Jangchub Gyaltsen obtains from Sakya the seal of power over the thirteen myriarchies and the Yuan Emperor grants him the title of Tai Situ</td></tr><tr><td>ca.1360</td><td>Longchenpa returns from exile</td></tr><tr><td>1361</td><td>Death of Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1361/1365</td><td>Birth of Thangtong Gyalpo</td></tr><tr><td>1363</td><td>Death of the Gungthang king Tri Tashidé</td></tr><tr><td>1364</td><td>Death of Longchenpa, of Butön Rinchendrup and of Tai Situ Jangchub Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1365</td><td>Death of Yungtönpa Dorjepal</td></tr><tr><td>1366</td><td>Death of Gyalsé Lekpa</td></tr><tr><td>1366</td><td>Rigdzin Gödem opens the Zangzang Lhadrak cave</td></tr><tr><td>1368</td><td>Death of Meban Rinchen Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1370</td><td>Death of the Yuan emperor Toghon Temür (Huizong)</td></tr><tr><td>1370</td><td>Death of the Gungthang king Phüntsok Pal</td></tr><tr><td>1371</td><td>Birth of the Gungthang king Sönam Dé</td></tr><tr><td>1375</td><td>Death of Drölmawa Samdrup Dorjé and Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1376</td><td>Death of Sazang Mati Paṇchen</td></tr><tr><td>1383</td><td>Death of Karma pa IV Rölpé Dorje</td></tr><tr><td>1391</td><td>Death of Barawa Gyeltsen Palzang</td></tr><tr><td>1392</td><td>Birth of Gö Lotsāwa Zhönnu Pal</td></tr><tr><td>1396</td><td>Death of Sangyé Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1401</td><td>Most probable date for Rigdzin Gödem's death</td></tr><tr><td>1403</td><td>Birth of Ratna Lingpa</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td>1404</td><td>Death of the Gungthang king Sönam Dé</td></tr><tr><td>1405</td><td>Death of Dorjé Lingpa, Lotsāwa Drakpa Gyaltsen and of the second Zhamarpa, Khachö Wangpo</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1409 / 1421</td><td>Birth of Nyida Özer (a master in the Karma Lingpa line)</td></tr><tr><td>1412</td><td>Death of Rendawa Zhönnu Lodrö</td></tr><tr><td>1419</td><td>Death of Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa</td></tr><tr><td>1428</td><td>Birth of Śākya Chokden (Serdok Paṇchen)</td></tr><tr><td>1430</td><td>Birth of Namkha Chö Gyatso (a master in the Karma Lingpa line)</td></tr><tr><td>1441</td><td>Birth of Zhalu Lotsāwa Dharmapālabhadra</td></tr><tr><td>1445 or, more probably, 1473</td><td>Birth of Jamyang Rinchen Gyaltsen (father of Lekdenjé and Ngari Paṇchen)</td></tr><tr><td>1450</td><td>Birth of Pema Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1452</td><td>Birth of Lekdenjé</td></tr><tr><td>1476</td><td>Birth of the second Dalai Lama, Gendün Gyatso</td></tr><tr><td>1478</td><td>Death of Ratna Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1480</td><td>Birth of Tennyi Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1480 / 1485 / 1486</td><td>Death of Thangtong Gyalpo</td></tr><tr><td>1481</td><td>Death of Gö Lotsāwa Zhönnu Pal</td></tr><tr><td>1487</td><td>Birth of Ngari Paṇchen</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1499</td><td>Death of Namkha Chö Gyatso (a master in the Karma Lingpa line)</td></tr><tr><td>1507</td><td>Death of Śākya Chokden (Serdok Paṇchen)</td></tr><tr><td>1509</td><td>Birth of Drikung Rinchen Phüntsok</td></tr><tr><td>1512</td><td>Another possible date of birth for Lekdenjé</td></tr><tr><td>1521</td><td>Death of Pema Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1527</td><td>Death of Zhalu Lotsāwa Dharmapālabhadra</td></tr><tr><td>1535</td><td>Death of Tennyi Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1536</td><td>Birth of Tendzin Drakpa (Yenpa Lodé, a master in the Karma Lingpa line)</td></tr><tr><td>1542</td><td>Death of Ngari Paṇchen</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td>1542</td><td>Death of the second Dalai Lama, Gendün Gyatso</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1550</td><td>Birth of Jangdak Tashi Tobgyal (a.k.a. Chögyal Wangpödé)</td></tr><tr><td>1552</td><td>Birth of Sokdokpa Lodrö Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1557</td><td>Death of Drikung Rinchen Phüntsok</td></tr><tr><td>1558</td><td>Death of Jamyang Rinchen Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1565</td><td>Death of Lekdenjé</td></tr><tr><td>1575</td><td>Birth of Tāranātha</td></tr><tr><td>1576</td><td>Birth of Dongak Tendzin</td></tr><tr><td>1580</td><td>Birth of Rigdzin Ngakgi Wangpo</td></tr><tr><td>1587</td><td>Birth of Lhatsün Namkha Jigmé</td></tr><tr><td>1589</td><td>Birth of Yolmo tertön Tendzin Norbu</td></tr><tr><td>1597</td><td>Death of Tendzin Drakpa (Yenpa Lodé, a master in the Karma Lingpa line)</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1602</td><td>Death of Jangdak Tashi Tobgyal</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1605/1608</td><td>Birth of Tselé Natsok Rangdröl</td></tr><tr><td>1611</td><td>Birth of Sangdak Trinlé Lhündrup</td></tr><tr><td>1617</td><td>Birth of the Fifth Dalai Lama</td></tr><tr><td>1624</td><td>Death of Sokdokpa Lodrö Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1625</td><td>Birth of Dzogchen Pema Rigdzin</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1628/48</td><td>Death of Dongak Tendzin</td></tr><tr><td>1639</td><td>Death of Rigdzin Ngakgi Wangpo</td></tr><tr><td>1640</td><td>Birth of Tertön Garwang Dorjé</td></tr><tr><td>1641</td><td>Birth of Rigdzin Pema Trinlé</td></tr><tr><td>1642</td><td>The Fifth Dalai Lama controls Tibet</td></tr><tr><td>1643</td><td>Death of Tāranātha</td></tr><tr><td>1644</td><td>Death of Yolmo tertön Tendzin Norbu</td></tr><tr><td>1646</td><td>Birth of Terdak Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1650</td><td>Death of Lhatsün Namkha Jigmé</td></tr><tr><td>1654</td><td>Birth of Lochen Dharmaśrī</td></tr><tr><td>1655</td><td>Birth of Taksham Nüden Dorjé</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td>1662</td><td>Death of Trinlé Lhündrup</td></tr><tr><td>1677</td><td>Death of Tselé Natsok Rangdröl</td></tr><tr><td>1682</td><td>Death of the Fifth Dalai Lama</td></tr><tr><td>1684</td><td>Death of Dzogchen Pema Rigdzin</td></tr><tr><td>1685</td><td>Death of Tertön Garwang Dorjé</td></tr><tr><td>1686</td><td>Birth of Gyurmé Gyatso (son of Terdak Lingpa)</td></tr><tr><td>1694</td><td>Birth of Rinchen Namgyal (Minling Trichen III)</td></tr><tr><td>1701</td><td>Birth of Orgyen Tendzin Drakpa</td></tr><tr><td>1708</td><td>Death of Taksham Nüden Dorjé</td></tr><tr><td>1714</td><td>Death of Terdak Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1717–18</td><td>Dzungar invasion</td></tr><tr><td>1717</td><td>Death of Rigdzin Pema Trinlé</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1717</td><td>Death of Lochen Dharmaśrī</td></tr><tr><td>1718</td><td>Death of Gyurmé Gyatso (son of Terdak Lingpa)</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1719</td><td>Birth of Rigdzin Kalzang Pema Wangchuk</td></tr><tr><td>1728</td><td>Death of Orgyen Tendzin Drakpa</td></tr><tr><td>1729/30</td><td>Birth of Jigmé Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1758</td><td>Death of Rinchen Namgyal (Minling Trichen III)</td></tr><tr><td>ca. 1770</td><td>Death of Rigdzin Kalzang Pema Wangchuk</td></tr><tr><td>1798</td><td>Death of Jigmé Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1802</td><td>Birth of Khordong Terchen Nüden Dorjé</td></tr><tr><td>1808</td><td>Birth of Paltrül Orgyen Chökyi Wangpo</td></tr><tr><td>1820</td><td>Birth of Khyentsé Wangpo</td></tr><tr><td>1835</td><td>Birth of Düjom Lingpa</td></tr><tr><td>1845</td><td>Birth of Gönpo Wangyal of Khordong</td></tr><tr><td>1846</td><td>Birth of Ju Mipham Namgyal Gyatso</td></tr><tr><td>1856</td><td>Birth of Lerab Lingpa (Tertön Sögyal)</td></tr><tr><td>1864</td><td>Death of Khordong Terchen Nüden Dorjé</td></tr><tr><td>1878</td><td>Birth of Thekchok Tendzin</td></tr><tr><td>1885</td><td>Birth of Tsültrim Zangpo (Tülku Tsullo)</td></tr><tr><td>1886</td><td>Birth of Pema Wangchok Gyalpo (Situpa XI)</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td>1887</td><td>Death of Paltrül Orgyen Chökyi Wangpo</td></tr><tr><td>1888</td><td>Birth of Bāḥné Choktrül Do-ngak Shedrub Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1892</td><td>Death of Khyentsé Wangpo</td></tr><tr><td>1904</td><td>Death of Düjom Lingpa. Birth of Dudjom Rinpoché.</td></tr><tr><td>1912</td><td>Death of Gönpo Wangyal of Khordong and of Ju Mipham Namgyal Gyatso</td></tr><tr><td>1926</td><td>Death of Lerab Lingpa (Tertön Sögyal)</td></tr><tr><td>1933</td><td>Birth of Khenpo Jigmé Phüntsok</td></tr><tr><td>1936</td><td>Birth of Rigdzin Chenmo X Thubten Jigmé Namdrol Gyatso</td></tr><tr><td>1949</td><td>Death of Thekchok Tendzin</td></tr><tr><td>1952</td><td>Death of Pema Wangchok Gyalpo (Situpa XI)</td></tr><tr><td>ca.1957</td><td>Death of Tsültrim Zangpo (Tülku Tsullo)</td></tr><tr><td>1964</td><td>Death of Bāḥné Choktrül Do-ngak Shedrub Gyaltsen</td></tr><tr><td>1966</td><td>Beginning of the Cultural Revolution</td></tr><tr><td>1976</td><td>End of the Cultural Revolution</td></tr><tr><td>2004</td><td>Death of Khenpo Jigmé Phüntsok</td></tr><tr><td>2024</td><td>Death of Rigdzin Chenmo X Thubten Jigmé Namdrol Gyatso</td></tr></table>
Appendix 3: Table of Equivalences

A Ford to the Ocean of Maṇḍalas

Ame Sherab Lodrö

Aural Lineage of [Mundane] Individuals<fnref n="1" />

Batönpal or Gatönpal

Biographies for the Sūtra Initiation Lineage, The —

Black Dawn, The —

Blue Annals, The —

Bön

Buddha Maṅgala

Butön Rinchen Drub

Changmapa, Lama —

Chegom Nakpo

Chetsenkyé, the Abbot from Druzha

Chetsün Sengé Wangchuk

Chögyal Phakpa

Chögyalkyong, Abbot —

Chökyi Jungné (8th Situ)

Chökyi Lodrö

Chöyingpa

Contemplative transmission of the Victors<fnref n="2" />

Dampa Gyertön

Dampa Yasé Repa or Yasé Chenpo

Dangma Lhüngyal

'Dus pa'i mdo'i bdang gi cho ga khrigs su byas pa'i dkyil 'khor gyi rgya mtsho'i 'jug mngogs by Rig 'dzin Padma 'phrin las

A mes Shes rab blo gros (d.u.)

Gang zag snyan brgyud

Bla ma sBa ston dpal / rGa ston dPal (ba)

'Dus pa mdo dbang gi bla ma brgyud pa'i rnam thar ngo mtshar dad pa'i phreng ba by Rig 'dzin Padma 'phrin las

'Char kha nag po

Deb ther sngon po

Bon

'Khrul zhig Sangs rgyas bkra shis (d.u.)

Bu ston rin chen grub (1290–1364)

Bla ma lCang ma pa (d.u.)

ICe sgom nag po (ca. 1050?–ca. 1120?)

Bru zha'i mkhan po Che btsan skyes (d.u.)

ICe btsun Seng ge dbang phyug (ca. 997–1121)

Chos rgyal 'Phags pa (1235–1280)

mkhan po Chos rgyal skyong (d.u.)

Chos kyi 'byung gnas (Si tu 08, 1700–1774)

Chos kyi blo gros (d.u.)

Chos dbying pa (d.u.)

rGyal ba dgongs brgyud

Dam pa dGyer ston (d.u.)

sPrul sku Dam pa ya se (d.u.)

lDang ma lhun rgyal (d.u.)

<footnote n="1">¹ Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991's translation (e.g., p. 456).</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² This is our translation. However, in this volume, the phrase occurs only with reference to Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991 who translate it (e.g., p. 447) as “the intentional lineage of the Conquerors.”</footnote>
Dawa Münsel

Densatil Monastery

Deva, The "Minister of Religion" (or
"pious minister") —

Dharmaketu, Chökyi Gyaltsen

*Diamond Bridge of the Oral Transmission*

Dingri

Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

Dongak Tendzin

Dorjé Gyalpo

Dorjé Lingpa

Dorjebum, Lotön —

Draklungpa Rinchenpal

Drakpa Gyaltsen, King —

Drakpa Özer

Dralté Sambhoṭa

Drangben Tashidar

Drikung Gomchen Künrin

Drikung Til

Drikungpa(s)

Drokmi Lotsāwa

Drölmawa Drotön Samdrup Dorjé

Drophukpa (zur wön) Śākya Sengé

Drubtop Lhünpal

Druzha

Düjom Lingpa

Dzeng Dharmabodhi

Five forefathers (of Sakya)

*Flamboyant Sphere of Clarity, The —*

*Flaming Razor of Ultimate Repelling, The —*

Gampopa

Gangpa Rikarwa

Gangpa Śākbum

Garab Dorje

Gartön Rinchenbum

Garwang Dorjé

Zla ba mun sel (a.k.a Me long rdo
rje, 1243–1303),

gDan sa thil

*Chos blon* De ba (d.u.)

Chos kyi rgyal mtshan (d.u.)

*Klong sde'i rdo rje'i zam pa*

Ding ri

Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan
(1292–1361)

dGe mang bla ma mDo sngags bstan
'dzin (1576–1628/48)

rDo rje rgyal po (d.u.)

rDo rje gling pa (1346–1405)

Lo ston rDo rje 'bum (d.u.)

Brag lung pa (mkhas btsun) Rin chen
dpal (= Rin chen gling pa?)

Grags pa rgyal mtshan, *Mi dbang* —
(1374–1432)

Grags pa 'od zer (d.u.)

Bral te Sambho ṭa (d.u.)

Gangs *ban* bKra shis dar (d.u.)

'Bri khung sgom chen Kun rin, also
known as Kun dga' 'od zer rin
chen (d.u., 14th c.)

'Bri gung thil

'Brog mi lo tsā ba (992–1072/74)

rTa nag sGrol ma ba bSam grub rdo
rje (1294–1375)

sGro phug pa (Zur dbon) Śā kya seng
go (1074–ca. 1134).

Grub thob lHun dpal (d.u.)

Bru zha

bDud 'joms gling pa (1835–1904)

'Dzeng sgom Dharmabodhi (1052–
1168)

Gong ma Inga (sa skya —)

*Klong gsal 'bar ma*

Yang zlog me'i spu gri, or Yang zlog
nag po

sGam po pa, (1079–1153)

Gangs pa Ri dkar ba (d.u.)

Gangs pa Śāk 'bum (d.u.)

dGa' rab rdo rje (d.u.)

mGar ston Rin chen 'bum (d.u.)

Gar dbang rdo rje (1640–1685)
Gathering of Intentions, The —

Gö Lotsāwa Zhönnu Pal

Great Image, The —

Great Secret Commentary on Yangdak

Guru Jober

Gya Zhangtrom

Gyaben Lama

Gyal Lhakhang

Gyalsé Lekpa

Gyalwa Zhangtön Tashi Dorjé

Gyatön Lodrö Jangchub

Gyertön Jomé

Gyurmé Gyatso

Heart Drops (of Dzogchen)

Hidden treasures

*Iron Scorpion*

*Iron-Like*

Jalgyiphu

Jamyang Rinchen Gyaltsen

Jangchub Lingpa Sönam Chökyong

Jangsem Kunga

Jigmé Lingpa

Jomo Menmo

Kadam

Kagyü

Kalden Chökyi Sherab

Kama

Karma Chakmé

Karma Kagyü

Karma Pakshi

Ketsewa, Bönpo —

Khachö Wangpo, Zhamarpa 02

Khandro Yangtik

Khepa Nyibum

mDo dgongs 'dus

'Gos lo tsā ba gZhon nu dpal (1392–1481)

Bee ro'i 'dra 'bag or Bee ro'i 'dra 'bag chen mo

Yang dag gsang 'grel chen po or dPal khrag 'thung chen po'i sgrub thabs yang dag grub pa ascribed to Pad-masambhava

Gu ru Jo 'ber (1196–1231)

rGya zhang khrom rDo rje 'od 'bar (11th century)

rGya *ban bla ma* (d. u.)

rGyal lha khang

rGyal sras Legs pa (1290–1366)

Zhang ston bkra shis rdo rje (1097–1167)

rGya ston Blo gros byang chub (d. u.)

dGyer ston Jo me (d. u.)

Padma 'gyur med rgya mtsho (1686–1718)

sNying thig

gTer ma

lCags sdig

lCags 'dra

Jal gyi phu

'Jam dbyangs rin chen rgyal mtshan (1445/1473–1558)

Byang chub gling pa bSod nams chos skyong (d.u.)

Byang sems kun dga' (d. u.)

'Jigs med gling pa, ca. 1729–1798

Jo mo sMan mo (1248–1283)

bKa' gdams

bKa' brgyud

sKal ldan Chos kyi shes rab (d.u.)

bKa' ma

Karma chags med (1613–1678)

Karma bka' brgyud

Karma pakshi (1204–1283)

Ke rtse ba (d.u.)

Zhwa dmar mKha' spyod dbang po (1350–1405)

mKha' 'gro yang tig

mKhas pa Nyi 'bum (1158–1213)
Khepa Sochenpo

Khön (clan)

King of Zahor

Koro Drak of Drithang

Kumarādza

Künga Drakpa

Künga Tendzin

Küntuzangpo

Kyemé Jokyab

Kytön Jamyang Drakpa Gyaltsen

Kyotön Śākya Yeshé

Lachen Ralbu

Lama Dampa Sönam Gyaltsen

Lamp for the Eye of Contemplation

Langdarma

Langdrö Chepatak

Later Spread

Lekdenjé

Lhajé Nubchung

Lhatsün Namkha Jigmé

Lochen Dharmaśrī

Loden Sherab, Gyalsé —

Lodenma, Ngadak —

Longchen Rabjam

Mañjuśrī King of [Occult] Science
Nāgarakṣa

Mañjuśrī Master of Life

Marpa

Mawochok

Melong Dorjé

Metön Gönpo

Milarepa

Mother tantras

Muné Tsenpo

Munis, the six —

Namkha Chö Gyatso

mKhas pa Sro chen po, mKhas pas Sre
chen po, Bla ma Sro, So ston Shes
rab rgyal mtshan

'Khon

Za hor rgyal po (d.u.)

'Bri thang Kho ro brag

Ku ma rā dza (1266–1343)

Kun dga' grags pa (d.u.)

Kun dga' bstan 'dzin (d.u.)

Kun tu bzang po

sKye med Jo skyabs (d.u.)

sKyi ston 'Jam dbyangs grags pa
rgyal mtshan (d.u.)

sKyo ston Śā kya ye shes (late 11th
cent.？)

Bla chen Ral bu (d.u.)

Bla ma dam pa bSod nams rgyal
mtshan (1312–1375)

bSam gtan mig sgron by gNubs chen
Sangs rgyas ye shes

Glang dar ma (r. 838–842)

Lang gro'i Chad pa ltag

sPyi dar

Legs ldan rje (1452/1512-ca. 1565)

lHa rje gNubs chung (d.u.)

lHa btsun Nam mkha' 'jigs med
(1587–1650)

sMin gling Lo chen Dharmaśrī
(1654–ca. 1717)

Blo ldan shes rab, rGyal sras — (d.u.)

mNga' bdag Blo ldan ma (d.u.)

Klong chen rab 'byams (1308–1364)

'Jam dpal rigs pa'i rgyal po na ga ra kṣa,
a gter ma of Rin chen gling pa

'Jam dpal tshe bdag

Mar pa Chos kyi blo gros (1000–
1081)

sMra bo lcogs

Me long rdo rje (1243–1303)

Mes ston mGon po (late 12th-early
13th cent.), a.k.a. Me ston Shes
rab mgon po

Mi la ras pa (1028–1111)

Ma rgyud

Mu ne btsan po (r. 797?-799?)

Thub pa drug

rGya ra ba Nam mkha' chos kyi
rgya mtsho (1430-ca.1499)
Namkha Dorjé

Namkha Pal

Namkha Palden, Kongchen —

Natsok Rangdröl

Ngadak Drogön

Ngakchang Wangdar

Ngari

Ngari Paṇchen Pema Wangyal

Ngödrup Palden, Lama —

Ngok Chödor

Nub Khulungpa Yönten Gyatso

Nub Yeshé Gyatso

Nubchen Sangyé Yeshé

Nyag Jñānakumāra

Nyang Tingdzin Zangpo

Nyentön Sherab Tsemo

Nyida Chöjé

Nyida Özer

Nyida Sangyé

Nyima Zangpo

Nyoshül Khenpo

Orgyen Lingpa

Orgyen Tendzin Drakpa

Orgyen Yiblung Dekyiling

Orgyenpa Rinchen Pal

Özer Gocha

Padrotsal

*Path with Its Fruit, The —*

Pema Ledreltsal

Pema Lingpa

Pema Rigdzin

Pema Sal

Pema Wangdrak

Penyul (region)

Phakmodrupa(s)

*Poisonous Bronze Tree, The —*

Nam mkha' rdo rje

Nam mkha' dpal (1171–1238)

Kong chen Nam mkha' dpal ldan

sNa tshogs rang grol (d.u.)

mNga' bdag 'Gro mgon (d.u.)

sNgags 'chang dBang dar (d.u.)

mNga' ris

mNga' ris paṇ chen Padma dbang rgyal (1487–1542)

Bla ma dNgos grub dpal ldan (d.u.)

rNgog Chos rdor (1023–1090)

gNubs khu lung pa Yon tan rgya mtsho, a.k.a. gTer bzhad rtsal

gNubs Ye she rgya mtsho

gNubs chen Sangs rgyas ye shes (844–first half of the 10th cent.)

gNyags Dzñā na ku mā ra (d.u.)

Myang Ting nge 'dzin bzang po (born ca. 777?)

gNyen ston Shes rab rtse mo (d.u.)

Nyi zla chos rje (d.u.)

Nyi zla 'od zer (1409–?)

Nyi zla sangs rgyas

Nyi ma bzang po, Se ston — (1386–?)

sMyo shul mkhan po 'Jam dbyangs rdo rje (1932–1999)

Yar rje O rgyan gling pa (1323–ca. 1355)

O rgyan bstan 'dzin grags pa (1701–1728)

O rgyan yib lung bde skyi gling

O rgyan pa Rin chen dpal (1229–1309)

'Od zer go cha (maybe the same person as rGyal sras bZod pa grags pa)

sPa sgro btsal

Lam 'bras

Padma las 'brel rtsal (1291–1319)

Padma gling pa (1450–1521)

rDzogs chen Padma rig 'dzin (1625–1684)

Padma gsal (d.u.)

A nu Padma dbang drag (d.u.)

'Phan yul

Phag mo gru pa

Khro chu dug sdong
Profound Quintessence

Pungthang

Rabtu Salwa, The “great master” —

Ralpachen

Rangjung Dorjé (Karmapa III)

Ratna Lingpa

Rechungpa

Reting

Rinchen Gyalpo, Lama —

Rinchen Gyaltsen Palzangpo

Rinchen Namgyal

Rinchen Saldrön

Rinchen Sengé, Tönpa —

Rinpungpa

Ripa Sanggyepal

Rölpé Dorjé

Sakya

Sakya Pандita Kunga Gyaltsen

Sakyapa(s)

Sangyé Lingpa

Sarben Chokmé (tertön)

Sarben Nyimé Nyingpo

Sarma

Se (or Ame) Dorjé Dechen

Secret Black Moon Tantra

Self-Liberated Contemplation of the
Peaceful and Wrathful [Deities],
The —

Self-Sufficient Perfect [Principle], The —

Setön Rinchen Gyaltsen

Shangpa Repa

Shezangdrön

Single [Principle] That Liberates All,
The —

Sokdokpa Lodrö Gyaltsen

Zab mo yang tig by Klong chen pa

sPungs thang

Slob dpon chen po Ra btu gsal ba (d.u.)

Ral pa can (ca. 802–838)

Rang byung rdo rje (1284–1339)

Ratna gling pa (1403–1478)

Ras chung pa (1085–1161)

Rwa sgreng

Bla ma Rin chen rgyal po (d.u.)

Rin chen rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po

Rin chen rnam rgyal, sMin gling khri chen 03 (1694–1758)

Rin chen gsal sgron (d.u.)

sTon pa Rin chen seng ge (d.u.)

Rin spungs pa

Ri pa Sangs rgyas dpal

Rol pa'i rdo rje (Karma pa 04, 1340–1383)

Sa skya

Sa skya paṇḍi ta Kun dga' rgyal mts-han (1182–1251)

Sa skya pa

Sangs rgyas gling pa (1340–1396)

Sar ban Phyogs med (d.u.)

Sar ban Nyi ma'i snying po (d.u.)

gSar ma

Sras rDo rje bde chen or A mes rDo rje bde chen (d.u.)

Zla gsang nag po

Zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol

A ti rdzogs pa chig chod or A ti chig chod kun grol, Rin chen gling pa's main rDzogs chen gter ma cycle

Se ston Rin chen rgyal mtshan

Shangs pa ras pa, sometimes called Shong pa ras pa (d.u.)

She bza' sgron, Jo mo — (d.u.)

A ti chig chod kun grol or A ti rdzogs pa chig chod, Rin chen gling pa's main rDzogs chen gter ma cycle, also known as The Self-Sufficient Perfect [Principle]

Sog bzlog pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan (1552–1624)
<table><tr><td>Sokpo Pal gyi Yeshé</td><td>Sog po dPal gyi ye shes (d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Sokyadewa</td><td>dGe slong So kya de ba (d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Sönam Özer</td><td>bSod nams 'od zer (d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Sönam Palwa</td><td>bSod nams dpal ba (Pu ñya śrī, d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Songtsen Gampo</td><td>Srong btsan sgam po (ca. 609/623–650)</td></tr><tr><td>Symbolic Lineage of the Awareness Holders<fnref n="1" /></td><td>Rig 'dzin brda brgyud</td></tr><tr><td>Tai Situ Jangchub Gyaltsen</td><td>Ta'i si tu Byang chub rgyal mtshan (1302–1364)</td></tr><tr><td>Taklungpa(s)</td><td>sTag lung pa, sTag lung bka' brgyud</td></tr><tr><td>Tashi Wangchuk</td><td>bKra shis dbang phyug (d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Teachers, the twelve —</td><td>sTon pa bcu gnyis</td></tr><tr><td>Tendzin Drakpa</td><td>bsTan 'dzin grags pa, a.k.a. Yan pa blo bde (1536–1597)</td></tr><tr><td>Terdak Lingpa</td><td>gTer bdag gling pa 'Gyur med rdo rje (1646–1714)</td></tr><tr><td>Terma</td><td>gTer ma</td></tr><tr><td>The Peaceful and Wrathful Deities: Self-Liberated Contemplation</td><td>Zab chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol (gter ma of Karma gling pa)</td></tr><tr><td>The Poisonous Razor of the Fierce Planetary Spirit</td><td>gZa' rgod dug gi spu gri (gter ma of Padma las 'brel rtsal)</td></tr><tr><td>Thogar Namkhadé</td><td>Tho gar Nam mkha' sde (d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Three Padlens, The —</td><td>dPal ldan gsum</td></tr><tr><td>Thukjé Özer</td><td>Thugs rje 'od zer (d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Thukjé Rinchen, Nyötön —</td><td>gNyos ston Thugs rje rin chen (d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Thukjé Sengé, Gyatön —</td><td>rGya ston Thugs rje seng ge (d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Thuksé Küngadrak</td><td>Thugs sras Kun dga' grags (d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Trinlé Lhündrup</td><td>gSang bdag Phrin las lhun grub (1611–1662)</td></tr><tr><td>Trülshik Sengé Gyabpa</td><td>'Khrul zhig Seng ge rgyab pa (1202–1265)</td></tr><tr><td>Tsalpa(s)</td><td>Tshal pa, Tshal pa bka' brgyud</td></tr><tr><td>Tsang</td><td>gTsang</td></tr><tr><td>Tsangpo (river)</td><td>gTsang po</td></tr><tr><td>Tsetang palace</td><td>rTse thang</td></tr><tr><td>Tsongkhapa</td><td>Tsong kha pa Blo bzang grags pa (1357–1419)</td></tr><tr><td>Tsuklak Palgé</td><td>gTsug lag dpal dge, Slob dpon — (d.u.)</td></tr><tr><td>Ü</td><td>dBus</td></tr><tr><td>Uninterrupted Oral Tradition of the Nyingmapas<fnref n="2" /></td><td>rNying ma bka' ma</td></tr></table>

<footnote n="1">¹ Gyurme Dorje and Kapstein 1991's translation (e.g., p. 456).</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² This term could either refer to the more abstract notion of all the teachings that were passed from generation to generation without ever being hidden</footnote>
Uninterrupted Oral Tradition

Uyuk

Vairocana (of Bagor, the translator)

Vasudhara

Wangchuk Gyaltsen, Bende —

Wheel of Black Leprosy (tantra)

Yangdak Heruka

Yeshé Zhönnu

Yeshegön, Lama —

Yönten Gangpa

Yönten Gyatso, Dartön —

Yudra Nyingpo or Gyalmorong

Yungtönpa Dorjepal

Zabmo Yangtik

Zabtön Chöbar: see Zhangtön Chöbar

Zhalu Monastery

Zhangtön Chöbar

Zhangtön Tashi Dorjé

Zhé Lhakhang

Zhijé

Zhingshakpa

Zhutön Sönam Śākya

Zöpa Drakpa, Gyalsé —

Zur Jampa Sengé

Zur nag 'khor lo

Zurchungwa Sherab Drakpa

Zurpoché Śākya Jungné

bKa' ma

U yug

Ba gor Bee ro tsa na (d.u.)

Bha su dha ra, Bal po — (d.u.)

Ban de dBang phyug rgyal mtshan (late 13th–early 14th century)

mDze nag las kyi 'khor lo

Yang dag he ru ka (deity)

Ye shes gzhon nu (d.u.)

Bla ma Ye shes mgon (d.u.)

Yon tan sgang pa / Rin po che Yon tan sgang pa (d.u.)

'Dar ston Yon tan rgya mtsho (d.u.)

rGyal mo g.Yu sgra snying po (d.u.)

g.Yung ston pa rDo rje dpal (1284–1365)

Zab mo yang tig by Klong chen pa

Zab ston Chos 'bar; sometimes spelled Zab don Chos 'bar

Zhwa lu dgon

Zhang ston Chos 'bar (1053–1135)

Zhang ston bKra shis rdo rje (1097–1167)

Zhwa'i lha khang

Zhi byed

Zhing shag pa Karma tshe brtan (?–1599)

Zhu ston bSod nams śā kya (d.u.)

rGyal sras bZod pa grags pa

Zur Byams pa seng ge (ca. 1280–ca 1310)

Zurnak Khorlo (late 11th–early 12th century)

Zur chung ba Shes rab grags pa (1014–1074)

Zur po che Śākya 'byung gnas (1002–1062)

<footnote>and rediscovered as *gter ma* (but in this case we preferred the phrase “Uninterrupted Oral Tradition”); or to various collections of the relevant literature compiled at least from the time of gTer bdag gling pa, the most recents of which are commonly called *rNying ma bka' ma shin tu rgyas pa*. See bibliography.</footnote>
# Bibliography

## Cécile Ducher
(IFRAE)

### Tibetan Sources

#### Collections

CNT 2015, sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs [Compilation of the Northern Treasures], S.l., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457.

gTer bdag gling pa 'Gyur med rdo rje (1646–1714), 1998, sMin gling gter chen rig 'dzin 'gyur med rdo rje'i gsung 'bum—The collected works (gsun 'bum) of sMin-gliṅ gter-chen rig-'dzin 'gyur-med-rdo-rje, vol. 1-16, Dehra dun, D.G. Khochhen Tulku. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW22096.

Klong chen rab 'byams pa Dri med 'od zer (1308–1364), 2009, Kun mkhyen klong chen rab 'byams kyi gsung 'bum, edited by the dPal brtsegs mes po'i shul bzhag, Beijing, Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 26 vols. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG4884.

KSG 'Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan, mKhan chen (ed.), 1999, bKa' ma shin tu rgyas pa (kahthog) [sNga'gyur bka' ma], [Chengdu, Kah thog mkhan po 'Jam dbyangs]. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW25983.

Mi pham 'Jam dbyangs rnam rgyal rgya mtsho (1846–1912), 1984–1993, gSung 'bum mi pham rgya mtsho, vol. 1-27, Paro, Lama Ngodrup And Sherab Drimey. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23468.

Also in: 2007, Mi pham bka' 'bum, vol. 1-32, Chengdu, Gangs can rig gzhung dpe rnying myur skyobs lhan tshogs. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2DB16631.

mKhyen brtse dbang po (1820–1892), 1977–1980, 'Jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse'i dbang po'i bka' 'bum—The Collected Works (gsuṅ 'bum) of the great 'Jam-dbyaṇs Mkhyen-brtse'i-dbaṅ-po, Gangtok, Gonpo Tseten.

NG 1982, rNying ma rgyud 'bum—The Mtshams-brag manuscript of the Rñiṅ ma rgyud 'bum [Collection of Tantras of the Ancients], Thimphu, National Library, Royal Government of Bhutan, vols. 1-46. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21521.

Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho (Dalai Lama 05, 1617–1682), 1991–1995, The Collected Works (gSung 'bum) of the Vth Dalai Lama Ngag-dbang-blo-bzang-gya-mtsho, gSung 'bum ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Gangtok, Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology, 25 vols. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW294.

— 2009, rGyal dbang lnga pa ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho'i gSung 'bum, Beijing, Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 28 vol. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1PD107937.

NKG bDud 'joms 'Jigs bral ye shes rdo rje (ed.), 1982–1987, rNying ma bka' ma rgyas pa: Gangs can bstan pa'i phyi mo snga 'gyur pa'i chos mdzod ring brgyud ma nyams bka' ma'i gzhung, “A Collection of Teachings and
Initiations of the Rñiṅ-ma-pa Tradition passed through Continuous and Unbroken Oral Lineages from the Ancient Masters—completely edited and restructured by H.H. Bdud-’joms Rin-po-che on the basis of the successive Smin-grol gliṅ and Rdzogs-chen Rgyal-sras redactions”, Kalimpong, Dupjung Lama. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW19229.

rDo rje gling pa (1346–1405), 2009, *gTer chen chos kyi rgyal po o rgyan rdo rje gling pa'i chos sde*, Kathmandu, Khenpo Shedup Tenzin and Lama Thinley Namgyal/Gampopa Library, 33 vols. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG2118.

Ratna gling pa (1403–1478), 1977–1979, *Ratna gling pa'i gter chos, Collected re-discovered teachings of Ratna-gliṅ-pa*, vol. 1-19, Darjeeling, Taklung Tsetrul Pema Wangyal. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21730.

RT-A Kong sprul Blo gros mtha' yas (ed., 1813–1899), 1976–1980, *Rin chen gter mdzod chen mo*, [*Great Treasury of Rediscovered Teachings A*] "A reproduction of the Stod-luṅ Mtshur-phu redaction of 'Jam-mgon Koṇ-sprul's great work on the unity of the *gter-ma* traditions of Tibet, With supplemental texts from the Dpal-spuṅs redaction and other manuscripts, Reproduced at the order of the Ven. Dingo Chhentse Rimpoche under the esteemed patronage of H. M. Ashé Kesang, Queen Mother of Bhutan, and H.R.H. Ashé Phuntsho Choedron, Senior Royal Grandmother, Published by Ngodrup and Sherab Drimay Kyichu Monastery, Paro, Bhutan and Printed at Photo Offset Printers, Ballimaran, Delhi-6 1976," vol. 1-111. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW20578.

RT-B: 2007–2008, *Rin chen gter mdzod chen mo* [*Great Treasury of Rediscovered Teachings B*], New Delhi, Shechen Publications. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG14.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21807.

## Individual works

Anonymous, 1982–1987, *Klong sde'i rdo rje'i zam pa* [*The Vajra Bridge of the Space Section*], in bDud 'joms 'Jigs bral ye shes rdo rje (ed.), NKG, vol. 18-19. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW19229_D621F4.

Karma chags med (1613–1678), 2010, *gSol 'debs le'u bdun ma'i dmigs rim lo rgyus phan yon dang bcas pa*, in mKhas grub karma chags med kyi gsum 'bum, vol. 48, Nang chen rdzong, gNas mdo gsang sngags chos 'phel gling gi dpe rnying nyams gso khang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG8321_895841.

Karma mi 'gyur dbang rgyal (Zab bu lung, b. 17th c.), 1978, *gTer bton gyi lo rgyus gter bton chos 'byung, gTer bton brgya rtsa'i mtshan sdom gsol 'debs chos rgyal bkra sis stobs rgyal gyi mdzad pa'i 'grel pa lo rgyus gter bton chos 'byung*, Darjeeling, Taklung Tsetrul Pema Wangyal. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW19709.

Karma tshe dbang kun khyab (b. 18th c.), 1998. *Karma kam tshang gi brgyud pa rin po che'i rnam thar*, vol. 1-2, Beijing, Krung go'i bod kyi shes rigs dpe skrun khang.

Kong sprul Blo gros mtha' yas (1813–1899), 1976–1980, *gTer ston brgya rtsa: zab mo'i gter ston grub thob ji ltar byon pa'i lo rgyus mdor bsdus bkod pa rin*
chen vaidūrya'i phreng ba, in RT, vol. 1, pp. 291-759. https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW20578_804121.

2007, *brGyud yig dkar chag* [Catalogue of Lineages], in *Rin chen gter mdzod chen mo*, New Delhi, Shechen Publications, vol. 2, pp. 1-524. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG14_BF069F.

Kun bzang 'gro 'dul rdo rje (Yon do mchog sprul, 19th c.), 2004, *Thub bstan rdo rje brag dgon gyi byung ba mdo tsam brjod pa ngo mtshar vaidūrya'i phreng ba* [Brief History of Dorje Drak Monastery], S.l., S.n. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW00KG03797.

Krang dbyi sun, 1985, *Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo*, Beijing, Mi rigs dpe skrun khang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW29329.

Klong chen rab 'byams pa Dri med 'od zer (1308-1364), 2009, *mThong snang rin po che 'od kyi dra ba*, in *gSung 'bum*, vol. 8, pp. 155-194. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG4884_C4B9F3.

2009, *sNyan brgyud kyi rgyab chos chen mo zab don gnad kyi me long*, in *gSung 'bum*, vol. 12, pp. 82-311. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG4884_50EE5C.

2009, *Grub thob me long rdo rje'i rnam thar dri log ma*,<fnref n="677" /> in *gSung 'bum*, vol. 4, pp. 141-145. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG4884_6CB3D3.

2009, *Zab mo yang thig*, in *gSung 'bum*, vol. 11 and 12. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG4884_E25732.

2009, *rGyud gsang ba snying po'i 'grel pa*, dPal gsang ba snying po de kho na nyid nges pa'i rgyud kyi 'grel pa phyogs bcu'i mun pa thams cad rnam par sel ba, in *gSung 'bum*, vol. 23, pp. 53-565. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG4884_3C5394.

Also in: 1999, *rGyud gsang ba snying po'i 'grel pa*, dPal gsang ba snying po de kho na nyid nges pa'i rgyud kyi 'grel pa phyogs bcu'i mun pa thams cad rnam par sel ba", bKa' ma shin tu rgyas pa (kah thog), edited by mKhan chen 'Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan, vol. 68, pp. 5-684. [Kahthog mkhan po 'jam dbyangs]. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW25983_220347.

sKal bzang padma dbang phyug (rDo rje brag Rig 'dzin 05, 1720-1771), 1973, *sKyes rabs gsol 'debs* [*A Prayer to the Successive Incarnations*] in *lHa rigs kyi btsun pa bskal bzang padma'i min can rang nyid kyi rtogs pa brjod pa 'jam gnyen utpal bzhad pa'i dga' tshul gzhon nu bung ba'i yid 'phrog, *Smanrtsis Sherig Spendzod* no. 43, Leh, S.W. Tashigangpa, pp. 372-377. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW30122.

mKhas btsun bzang po (1920-2009), 1973-1990, *rGya bod mkhas grub rim byon gyi rnam thar phyogs bsgrigs* [Biographical Dictionary of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism], Dharamsala, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 12 vols. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG10294.

Gu ru bKra shis (18th c.), 1990, *Gu bkra'i chos 'byung*, [*Guru Tashi's History of the Dharma*], Pe cin, Krung go'i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/W20916.

<footnote n="677">⁶⁷⁷ This is not properly a writing by Klong chen rab 'byams: it belongs to the *Bi ma snying thig* corpus that is appended to his *gSung 'bum*.</footnote>
Gu ru Chos dbang (1212–1270), 1979, *Gu ru chos dbang gi rang rnam dang zhal gdams: The Autobiography and Instructions of Gu-ru Chos-kyi-dban-phyug*, 2 vols, Paro, Ugyen Tempai Gyaltsen. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23802.

1979, gū ru chos dbang gis gter 'byung chen mo, in Gu ru chos dbang gi rang rnam dang zhal gdams, vol. 2, pp. 78-193.

Gung thang bsTan 'dzin nor bu (b. 1983), 2018, gTsang la stod byang ngam ring gi rig gnas lo rgyus [History of Jang Ngamring is Tsang Latö], IHa sa, Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, 2018. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/WA3CN21514.

sGrol ma bSam 'grub rdo rje (1294–1375), 1982–1987, dPal gsang ba'i snying po de kho na nyid nges pa'i rgyud kyi khog dbub rin po che 'bar ba'i mgur, in NKG, vol. 28, pp. 591-713. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW19229_8FDACD.

2015, bCom ldan 'das phyag rgya zil gnon gyi phrin las kyi rim pa gsal bar byed pa'i sgron me, in CNT, vol. 20, pp. 631-654. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_C7DD16.

s.d., gSung'bum, s.l., s.n. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW3CN17890.

Ngag dbang grags pa (Yongs 'dzin, 1520–1580), 1985, sPrul sku ngag dbang grags pa'i bka' 'bum nor bu'i bang mdzod: The Autobiography and Collected Writings of The Bhutanese Gter-ston Yongs-'dzin Nag-dban-grags-pa, Thim-phu, National Library of Bhutan. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW22192.

Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho (Dalai Lama 05, 1617–1682), 1972, Byang pa rig 'dzin chen po ngag gi dbang po'i rnam par thar pa ngo mtshar bkod pa rgya mtsho [The Ocean Displaying Marvels: Biography of Rigdzin Ngakgi Wangpo], in bKa' ma mdo dbang gi bla ma brgyud pa'i rnam thar, Leh, S.W. Tashigangpa. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21523_23CD49.

Also in: 2009, vol. 11, pp. 476-567.

Also in: 2015, rGyal dbang lnga pa chen pos mdzad pa'i byang pa rig 'dzin chen po ngag gi dbang po'i rnam par thar pa ngo mtshar bkod pa rgya mtsho [The Ocean Displaying Marvels: Biography of Rigdzin Ngakgi Wangpo], in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs, vol. 59, pp. 305-455. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_0D220C.

1976–1980, 'Jam dpal rdzogs pa chen po'i phrin las dang smin byed kyi cho ga bsgrigs snang stong 'od lnga'i rgya can, in Rin chen gter mdzod chen mo, vol. 25, pp. 249-301. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW20578_3A4AF0.
Also in: 2009, gSung' 'bum, vol. 26, pp. 354-385. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1PD107937_95E42C.

1970–1971, Zab pa dang rgya che ba'i dam pa'i chos kyi thob yig gaṅgā'i chu rgyun [Flow of the River Ganges], Record of Teachings Received: the gSan-yig of the Fifth Dalai Lama Nag-dban-blo-bzan-rgya-mtsho, vol. 1-4, Delhi, Nechung and Lhakhar. https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW30183?s=%2Fosearch%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dbdr%253AMW30183.

Also in: 1991–1995, Zab pa dang rgya che ba'i dam pa'i chos kyi thob yig gaṅgā'i chu rgyun [Flow of the River Ganges], in The Collected Works (gsung 'bum) of the Vth Dalai Lama Ngag-dbang-blo-bzang-gya-mtsho, vols. 1-4,
Gangtok, Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW294.

Also in: 2009, Zab pa dang rgya che ba'i chos kyi thob yig gang ga'i chu rgyun, in rGyal dbang Inga pa ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho'i gsum 'bum, vols. 1-3, Pe cin, Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang.
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— 2009, 'Jam dpal zhi ba'i 'phrin las sangs rgyas mngon sum ston pa'i lag bcangs, in gSung 'bum ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, vol. 26, pp. 386-395.

Also in: Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho 2009, vol. 26, pp. 250-320.
https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW1PD107937_F00DB1.

— 2015, INga ba rin po ches mdzad pa'i zil gnon 'phrin las kyi rnam nges rig 'dzin 'chi med dga' ston bdud rtsi' chu rgyun, in CNT, vol. 22, pp. 57-174.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_F82DAF.

mNga' ris gter ston Gar dbang rdo rje (1640-1685), 1979, Zab tig chos dbyings rang gsal, Dalhousie, Damchoe Sangpo.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW8880.

Other manuscripts editions: (s.n., s.d.):
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1LT2937 and
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sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor las 'don cha'i skor, 1997-2002, vol. 1-8, Shimla, Thub bstan rdo rje brag e wam llog sgar dgon. The first four volumes can be found on: http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW26672.

Chos kyi 'byung gnas (Si tu 08, 1700-1774) and 'Be lo Tshe dbang kun khyab (18th c.), 1990, sGrub brgyud karma kam tshang brgyud pa rin po che'i rnam par thar pa rab 'byams nor bu zla ba chu shel gyi phreng ba, in Collected Works of the Great Ta'i Si-tu-pa Kun-mkhyen Chos-kyi-'byun-gnas-bstan-pa'i-nin-byed, Sansal, Palpung Sungrab Nyamso Khang, vol. 11 and 12.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW26630_929374.

Also in: 1998, Karma kam tshang brgyud pa rin po che'i rnam thar tshe dbang kun khyab rab 'byams nor bu zla ba chu shel gyi phreng, vol.1-2, Kunming, Yun nan mi rigs dpe skrun khang.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW24686.

Also in: 2014, bKa' brgyud gser phreng rnam thar zla ba chu shel gyi phreng ba, bKa' brgyud gser phreng, vol. 1-4, Sarnath, Vajra Vidya Institute.
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Chos rgyal dBang po'i sde (1550-1603), n.d., rJe 'bangs nyer Inga'i gsol 'debs byin rlabs dbang gi chu rgyun [A Prayer to the Twenty-Five Disciples: A Flowering River of Ripening Empowerment], in Bla ma nor bus nyer tshags mdzad pa'i dpe rnying dpe dkon, Unpublished, vol. 15, pp. 159-168.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW4PD974_AEDF93.

Chos dbyings (b. 20th c.), 2015, Byang gter thub bstan rdo rje brag gi chos 'byung rig 'dzin brgyud pa'i rtogs brjod ngo mtshar gtam gyi phreng ba [The Garland of Wondrous Tales], in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs, S.l., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung, vol. 62, pp. 3-847.
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'Jigs med phun tshogs 'byung gnas (1933-2004), 2002, Phur pa mgul khug ma'i cha shas thugs dam thugs kyi phur cig, in 'Jigs med phun tshogs 'byung gnas gsung 'bum, Xiang gang, Xiang gang xin zhi chu ban she, vol. 1, pp. 4-6
[Translated in Pearcey 2018]. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW00KG03976_F2018E.

____ 2002, gTan gyi skyabs gcig padma thod phreng rtsal [The Singular and Constant Refuge of Padmasambhava Thötreng Tsal], in 'Jigs med phun tshogs 'byung gnas gsung 'bum, Xiang gang, Xiang gang xin zhi chu ban she, vol. 3, pp. 10-11. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW00KG03976_2FDF65.

Nyang ral Nyi ma 'od zer (gTer ston, 1124–1192), 1978, bKa' brgyad bde gshegs 'dus pa'i chos skor: The Complete Collection of Revelations of Mña'-Bdag Nan-Ral Nī-Ma 'Od-Zer Setting Forth the Teachings Of The Eight Pronouncements (Bka' Brgyad) Of The Rñiñ-Ma-Pa Tradition, Gangtok, Sonam Topgay Kazi. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG12075.

____ 1979–1980, bKa' brgyad bde gshegs 'dus pa'i chos skor: The Largest Version of the bKa' rgyad or Eight Pronouncement System of the rÑiñ-ma-pa tradition. "Reproduced from the complete mTshams-brag manuscript reflecting the tradition of Gon-ra lo-chen Nag-dbañ-gzhan-phan-rdo-rje," Paro, Lama Ngodrup. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW22247.

____ 1985, mNga' bdag bla ma'i rnam thar, Rewalsar, Zigar Drukpa Kargyud Institute. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23380.

____ 1988, Chos 'byung me tog snying po sbrang rtsi'i bcud, Lhasa, Bod ljongs mi dbang dpe bskrun khang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW7972.

____ 1989, bKa' thang zangs gling ma [Copper Island], Chengdu, Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW7956.

Nyi ma bzang po (14th–15th c.), 1983, sPrul sku chen po'i rnam thar gsal byed nyi ma'i 'od zer [The Clarifying Ray of Sunlight], in Byang gter lugs kyi rnam thar dang ma 'ongs lung bstan: Collected Biographies and Prophecies of the Byang gter Tradition, Gangtok, Sherab Gyaltsen and Lama Dawa, pp. 49-147. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW27866_4EABEF.

Also in: 2015, Rig 'dzin dngos grub rgyal mtshan gyi rnam thar nyi ma'i 'od zer, in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs, S.l., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung, vol. 59, pp. 1-75. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_AE3877.

Tāranātha (1575–1643), 2007–2008, Slob dpon chen po pad ma 'byung gnas kyi rnam par thar pa gsal bar byed pa'i yi ge yid ches gsum ldan [i.e., *Slop dpon padma'i rnam thar rgya gar lugs*], in RT-B, vol. 1, pp. 191-234. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG14_0D29B6.

gTer bdag gling pa 'Gyur med rdo rje (1646–1714), 1998, *Thob yig rin chen 'byung gnas*, in gSung 'bum, vol. 1-3. https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW22096?part=bdr%3AMW22096_DB97CA

____ 2009, rDzogs pa chen po mkha' 'gro snying thig gi khrid yid zab lam gsal byed, in Klong chen pa 2009, vol. 6, pp. 215-286. https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW1KG4884_AB8149.

rTa tshag Tshe dbang rgyal (b. 15th c.) 1994, *lHo rong chos 'byung*, Lhasa, Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW27302.

bsTan 'dzin rgya mtsho (Dalai Lama 14, b. 1940), 2002, *Phur pa mgul khug ma'i brgyud 'debs* [A Swift Blessing: Lineage Supplication of The Neck-
Pouch Dagger], in 'Jigs med phun tshogs 'byung gnas gsung 'bum, Xiang gang, Xiang gang xin zhi chu ban she, vol. 1, pp. 1-2.
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bsTan 'dzin rnam dag (1926-), 1972, *Sources for a History of Bön: A Collection of Rare Manuscripts from Bsam-gling Monastery in Dolpo (Northwestern Nepal)*, Dolanji and Delhi, Tibetan Bonpo Monastic Center, 769 p.

bsTan 'dzin 'phrin las lhun grub (Che tshang rin po che, b. 1946), 2015, *Bod btsan po'i rgyal rabs*, Dehradun, Songtsen Library.
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Dungdkar Blo bzang 'phrin las (1927-1997), 2002, *Bod rig pa'i tshig mdzod chen mo shes bya rab gsal* [*Dung dkar tshig mdzod*], Beijing, Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang.
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rDo rje gling pa (1346-1405), 2009, *sNgags 'chang ba rdo rje gling pas zab gter rnams dang mjal ba'i gter byang rnam thar* gter rabs rgya mtsho (ka), in rDo rje gling pa 2009, vol. 11, pp. 1-174.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG2118_4DC83B.

2009, *Pha rgyud lta ba klong yangs*, in rDo rje gling pa 2009, vol. 19-23.

Padma gling pa (1450-1521), 1981, *bKa' thang mun sel sgron me, O rgyan chen po padma 'byung gnas kyi 'khrungs rabs sangs rgyas bstan pa'i chos 'byung mun sel sgron me*, "reproduced from a manuscript preserved at monastery of O rgyan chos ling, Thimphu," Thimphu, Drug Sherig Press.
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Padma 'phrin las (rDo rje brag Rig 'dzin 04, 1641-1717), 2015, *dGe slong bya bral ba padma 'phrin las rang nyid kyi rtogs pa brjod pa rab dkar shel gyi me long las le'u dang po'i dum bu dang po*, in *sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs (CNT)*, S.I., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung, vol. 36.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_0F927A.

2015, *Khyab 'jug gi brgyud 'debs* mu tig gi phreng ba dang phyag rdor rgyun khyer gza' bdud dug gi spu gri'i skor las mngon rtogs slob dpon pad mas mdzad pa, in CNT, vol. 50, pp. 517-522.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_16C309.

2015, *'Dus pa'i mdo'i dbang gi cho ga khrigs* su byas pa'i dkyil 'khor rgya mtsho'i 'jug ngogs [*A Ford to the Ocean of Mandalas*], In CNT, vol. 38, pp. 1-734; vol. 39, pp. 1-527; vol. 40, pp. 1-540).
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_3E3204

2015, *'Dus pa mdo dbang gi bla ma brgyud pa'i rnam thar* ngo mtshar dad pa'i phreng ba, in CNT, vol. 41, pp. 1-437.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_84682B.

Also in: 2017, *'Dus pa mdo dbang gi bla ma brgyud pa'i rnam thar ngo mtshar dad pa'i phreng ba*, Lhasa, Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang.
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW8CZ364.

Also in NKG, vol. 44, pp. 197-780.

Padma dbang mchog rgyal po (Si tu pa 11, 1886-1952), 2007, *Rin chen gter yi chos mdzod chen mo'i rtogs brjod ngo mtshar bdud rtsi'i 'byung gnas*, in RT-B, vol. 2, pp. 525-555.
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Padma las 'brel rtsal (1291-1319), 1984, *mKha' 'gro snying thig gi chos skor*, Gangtok, Lama Dawa & Sherab Gyaltsan.
— 2015, gZa' rgyud or gZa' bdud dug gi spu gri'i skor las bskang gso'i las byang don bdun ma dang 'phrin las bcol ba, In CNT, vol. 28-29, pp. 271-278. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_E1B2BB.

— 2015, rJe gtum po'i nang bsgrub rgyun 'khyer gyi bdag bskyed, in CNT, vol. 28, pp. 279-293. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_0D857C.

— 2015, Chos skyong chen po gza' mchog gi bka' gtad, in CNT, vol. 29, pp. 475-478. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_0CCD6F.

Ba mkhal smug po (gter ston, 11th–12th c.), 2009–2011, gSol 'debs bar chad lam sel, in gTer chen rdo rje gling pa'i zab chos phyogs bsdebs, Kathmandu, Khenpo Shedup Tenzin and Lama Thinley Namgyal, vol. 1, pp. 137-149. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG2118_44F7B5.

sBa tshang bsTan pa tshe ring (b. 1980) 2024, “Rig 'dzin rgod Idem gyi yang srid dpal ldan 'jam dbyangs bla ma yin min la rob tsam dpad pa bre mo'i gtam,” Bod rig pa, Accessed August 02, 2024. https://bodrigpa.org/archives/4265.

Mi pham 'Jam dbyangs rnam rgyal rgya mtsho (1846–1912), dPal tshe bdag bsnyen yig gi lhan thabs dngos grub sgo 'byed, in Mi pham bka' 'bum, vol. 5, pp. 581-656. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23468_8E984F.

— 2007, 'Jam dpal phyag rgya zil gnon gyi gter srung ma mthu chen sde bzhi mchod thabs, in Mi pham bka' 'bum, Chengdu, Gangs can rig gzhung dpe rnying myur skyobs lhan tshogs, vol. 27, pp. 13-16. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2DB16631_A8C61A.

Also in: 2008, Gu ru'i tshig bdun gsol 'debs kyi rnam bshad padma dkar po, in Mi pham gsung 'bum las gzhung 'grel skor, Chengdu, 'Jam dpal dhī yig ser po'i dpe skrun tshogs pa, vol. 32, pp. 283-331. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1PD76231_7773E6.

Also in: 2015, dPal tshe bdag gi bsnyen yig lhan thabs dngos grub sgo byed, CNT, vol. 22, pp. 325-390. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_EB1E3E.

— 1984–1993, 'Jam dpal dbyangs kyi sgrubs thabs dang 'brel ba'i smon lam byin rlabs sprin chen, vol. 5, pp. 73-78. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23468_3C3E05.

Also in: 2007, 'Jam dpal dbyangs kyi sgrubs thabs dang 'brel ba'i smon lam byin rlabs sprin chen, vol. 26, pp. 485-490. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2DB16631_D7E001.

Also in: 2015, Bla ma mi pham kyis mdzad pa'i 'jam dpal dbyangs kyi sgrub thabs dang 'brel ba'i smon lam byin rlabs sprin chen, in CNT, vol. 22, pp. 447-453. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_E413B9.

— 2008 'Jam dpal rdzogs pa chen po gzhi lam 'bras bu dbyer med pa'i don la smon pa rig ston rdo rje'i rang gdangs, in Mi pham bka' 'bum, vol. 32, pp. 345-347. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1PD76231_265CC9. Also in: 1984–1993, vol. 5, pp. 79-83.

— 2015, brGyud pa'i gsol 'debs, in CNT, vol 22, pp. 391-393. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_91BA55.

gTsang phrug sTob lags (b. 1979), 2020, dBus gtsang lo rgyus chen mo, vol. 1-3, Dharamshala, dBus gtsang chol kha'i dubus spyi khyab khang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2KG229480.
Tshul khrims bzang po (sPrul sku Tshul lo, 1884–ca. 1957), n.d. [ca. 2014], *gTer chen las rab gling pa'i rnam thar* [Biography of Terchen Lerab Lingpa], gSer rta, gSer ljongs bla ma rung Inga rig nang bstan slob grwa chen mo. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/WA1KG9040.

n.d. [ca. 2014], *Gu ru mtshan brgyad kyi rnam bshad mdzad pa bcu gcig*, in sPrul sku tshul khrims bzang po'i gsung 'bum, s.d., s.n., vol. 3. pp. 259-278. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW3PD247_139173.

n.d. [ca. 2014], *gSang ba'i rnam thar dad pa'i 'jug ngogs*, in sPrul sku tshul khrims bzang po'i gsung 'bum, S.N., S.I., vol. 8. pp. 112-128. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW3PD247_A1D371.

2015, *Byang gter bka' dbang spyi la sbyor rung gi lo rgyus gsal ba'i me long*, in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs, S.I., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung, vol. 56, p Dung dkar Blo bzang p. 395-427. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_B62790.

bZhad pa'i rdo rje (Sle lung, 1697–1740), 2003, *Dam can bstan srung rgya mtsho'i rnam par thar pa cha shas tsam brjod pa sngon med legs bshad*, Beijing, Mi rig dpe skrun khang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW24826.

bZang po grags pa (*gTer ston*, 14th c.), 1976, *gSol 'debs le'u bdun pa dang bsam pa lhun grub rten bskyed dang bcas pa* [*The Prayer in Seven Chapters and the Spontaneous Fulfillment of Aspirations together with Visualization Instructions*], Delhi, D.G. Dhongthog. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW27513.

1983, *sNying byang rgyas pa gnad gyi them bu* [*The Essential Steps: An Extensive Essential Guide*], in Byang gter lugs kyi rnam thar dang mang 'ongs lung bstan, Gangtok, Sherab Gyaltsen and Lama Dawa, 1983, pp. 299-319. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW27866_FEE128.

2000, *O rgyan padmas gsungs pa'i gsol 'debs le'u bdun ma*, in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor las 'don cha'i skor, vol. 1, Thub bstan rdo rje brag e wam lcog sgar dgon nas par 'debs mdzad, pp. 61-131. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW26672_6CFA86.

2007–2008, *O rgyan gu ru padma 'byung gnas kyi rdo rje'i gsung 'khrul pa med pa'i gsol 'debs le'u bdun ma lo rgyus dang bcas pa* (*Byang gter gsol 'debs le'u bdun ma*), in RT-B, Delhi, Shechen Publications, vol. 5, pp. 571-616. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG14_81B98A.

2015, *sNying byang rgyas pa gnad kyi them bu* [*The Essential Steps: An Extensive Essential Guide*], in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs, S.I., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung, vol. 33, pp. 143-159. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_AB9916.

g.Yung ston rdo rje dpal ba (1284–1365), 1999, *dPal gsang ba snying po'i rgyud don gsal byed me long*, in *bKa' ma shin tu rgyas pa* (*Kaḥ thog*), edited by mKhan chen 'Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan, vol. 70, pp. 5-590. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW25983_7014E0.

2009, *Lo rgyus rgyal ba g.yung gis mdzad pa*, in Klong chen rab 'byams pa 2009, *gSung 'bum*, vol. 6, pp. 142-153. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG4884_896C12

2009, *g.Yung ston pas gsungs pa'i phyag 'tshal*, in Klong chen rab 'byams pa 2009, *gSung 'bum*, vol. 6, pp. 154-156. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG4884_89EA44.
2010, rGyal ba g.yung ston ri khrod pa'i rnam thar, in *Bod kyi lo rgyus rnam thar phyogs bsgrigs*, Xining, mTsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, vol. 25, pp. 143-212. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG10687_086EFB. Also in a 32-folio manuscript: http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW26463.

Ratna gling pa (1403–1478), 1977–1979, *bKa' thang gser phreng* or *O rgyan gu ru padma 'byung gnas kyi rnam thar gser gyi phreng ba, in Ratna gling pa 1977–1979, vol. 15, pp. 1-583. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21730_4E7489.

1977–1979, *Ratna gling pa'i rnam thar rgyas pa*, in Ratna gling pa 1977–1979, vol. 1, pp. 1-687. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21730_405A08.

Rig 'dzin rGod Idem (*gter ston*, 1337–ca. 1401), 1973, *dGongs pa zang thal gyi chos skor*, “Reproduced From Prints from the A 'dzom chos sgar blocks carved at the beginning of the 20th century through the efforts of A 'dzom 'brug pa rin po che 'gro 'dul dpa' bo rdo rje by Pema Choden,” vol. 1-5, Leh, S.W. Tashigangpa. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW4CZ1100.

Also in: 2015, *dGongs pa zang thal*: rDzogs pa chen po dgongs pa zang thal chos skor, in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs, vols. 1-3, S.l., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_7E340C.

1983, *'Dzeng rdo dkar po nas byon pa['i shog hril skor]* [*The Cycle of Scrolls from the White Whetstone Keys]*, in Byang gter lugs kyi rnam thar dang ma 'ongs lung bstan: Collected Biographies and Prophecies of the Byang gter Tradition, Gangtok, Sherab Gyaltsen and Lama Dawa, pp. 321-343. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW27866_AF2474.

2008, *Ma 'ongs lung bstan sbas yul gyi them byang* [*Prophecies of the Future of the Concealed Lands: A Register Guide*], in 'Bras mo ljongs kyi gnas yig, Gangtok and Dharamsala, Namgyal Institute of Tibetology & Amnye Machen Institute, pp. 101-115. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG818_1B1F0F.

2015, *bKa' brgyad rang byung rang shar cycle* [*Natural Emergence of the Self-Arising Eight Pronouncements*], in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs, S.l., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung, vols. 9-12. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_0DDB4B.

2015, *sGrub chen bka' brgyad kyi dbang* gi chu bo'i babs so chen po [*The Descent of the River of Empowerments for the Eight Pronouncements*], in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs, S.l., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung, vol. 9, pp. 579-587. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_E6F0A3.

2015, *'Dzeng rdo dkar po nas byon pa['i shog hril skor]* [*The Cycle of Scrolls from the White Whetstone Keys*] in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs, S.l., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung, vol. 14, pp. 229-245. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_14B725.

2015, Rig 'dzin rgod Idem pas mdzad pa'i 'phags pa 'jam dpal gyi 'grel pa zab mo, in sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs, S.l., Byang gter
dpe sgrig tshogs chung, vol. 14, pp. 271-362. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_BA2569.

Based on: n.d., 'Phags pa 'jam dpal gyi don 'grel zab mo, in Khams sde dge rdzong sar bla ma lha khang du bzhugs pa'i dpe rnying, [rDzong sar], vol. 53, pp. 225-332. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW3PD988_3BE4E2.

Sangs rgyas gling pa (gter ston, 1340-1396), 1981-1984, *Bla ma dgongs pa 'dus pa las lung bstan bka' brgya'i skor*, in *Bla ma dgongs 'dus*, Paro, Lama Ngudrub and Sherab Drimey, vol. 6, pp. 155-582. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23445_01B1E0.

____ 1983, *Bla ma dgongs pa 'dus pa las: Ma 'ongs lung bstan* gsang ba'i dkar chag bkod pa'i lung bstan bka' rgya ma [*The Sealed Prophecy of The Gathering of the Lama's Contemplation*] in *Bla ma dgongs pa 'dus pa las ma 'ongs lung bstan bka' rgya ma'i skor*, Gangtok, Sherab Gyaltsen Lama. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23433_1C992A.

____ 1985, *bKa' thang gser phreng* [*The Golden Garland Chronicles*], Thimphu Bhutan, National Library of Bhutan. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW27933.

____ 2006, *gTer chen sangs rgyas gling pa'i bla ma dgongs pa 'dus pa*, Great treasure of Sangye Lingpa, the Lama's Wisdom Intent, vol. 1-14, edited by Khenpo Namdrol, Parphing, Palri Parkhang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW01CT0060.

____ 2006, *sPrul sku sangs rgyas gling pa'i gter 'byung chen mo*, in *gTer chen sangs rgyas gling pa'i bla ma dgongs pa 'dus pa*, Pharping, Palri Parkhang/Khenpo Namdrol Rinpoche, vol. 1, pp. 23-214. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW01CT0060_F56494.

____ 2006, *Ma 'ongs lung bstan gsang ba'i dkar chag* or *Lung bstan bka' rgya ma*, in *gTer chen sangs rgyas gling pa'i bla ma dgongs pa 'dus pa*, Pharping, Palri Parkhang/Khenpo Namdrol Rinpoche, vol. 6, pp. 69-654. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW01CT0060_E312EF.

Sangs rgyas dpal bzang (ca. 15th c.), 1983, *Bla ma rnams kyi rnam thar 'od kyi phreng ba* [*The Garland of Light*], in *Byang gter lugs kyi rnam thar dang mang 'ongs lung bstan: Collected Biographies and Prophecies of the Byang gter Tradition*, Gangtok, Sherab Gyaltsen and Lama Dawa, pp. 173-206. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW27866_A59942.

Se ston Padma dbang chen (15th c.), 2015, *Byang gter gyi chos skor rnams kyi spyi chings rin chen phreng ba*, [*Generalities about the Northern Treasures*], in *sNga 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs bsgrigs*, S.l., Byang gter dpe sgrig tshogs chung, vol. 14, pp. 363-454. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2PD17457_43E01B.

O rgyan gling pa (gter ston, 1323-1360), 1986 [1997], *bKa' thang sde lnga*, Beijing, Mi rigs dpe skrun khang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW17319.

____ 2016, *Padma bka' thang* [*The Chronicles of Padmasambhava*], Lhasa, Ser gtsug nang bstan dpe rnying 'tshol bsdu phyogs sgrig khang. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG25186.

O rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po (1808-1887), 2003, *rGyud gsang ba snying po'i 'chad thabs brgyud pa gsum gyi lo rgyus rna rgyud lung gi phreng ba*, in O rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po'i gsung 'bum, Chengdu, Si khron mi
rigs dpe skrun khang, vol. 2, pp. 293-304. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW24829_66E5C5.

## Canonical Texts

### Kangyur

*Ārya-ḍākinīt-Vajrapañjara-Mahātantrarāja-Kalpa-Nāma ('Phags pa mkha' 'gro ma rdo rje gur zhes bya ba'i rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po'i brtag pa), D 419, vol. 80, f°30a-65b. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW22084_0419.

*Ārya-ḍākinīt-Vajrapañjara-Mahātantrarāja-Kalpa-Nāma ('Phags pa mkha' 'gro ma rdo rje gur zhes bya ba'i rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po'i brtag pa), in bKa' 'gyur (Phug brag bris ma), vol. 105, f°56a-121a. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG13607_0458.

Mañjuśrijñānasattvasya paramārthanāmasaṃgīti ('Jam dpal ye shes sems dpa'i don dam pa'i mtshan yang dag brjod pa), D 360, vol. 77, pp. 2-26. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW22084_0360.

### Nyingma Canonical Collections

Thig le kun gsal chen po'i rgyud, in NG, vol. 13, pp. 296-492. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21521_AF756A.

bsTan pa thams cad kyi snying po sems can thams cad la sangs rgyas chen por bzhugs pa'i rgyud, in NG, vol. 13, pp. 682-704. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21521_B4A553.

dPal khrag 'thung chen po'i sgrub thabs yang dag grub pa, in NKG, vol. 47, pp. 6-585. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/WA0XL1252757BD8FD.

Sangs rgyas thams cad kyi bstan pa bu gcig pa'i rgyud [rab tu dkon pa'i tshig], in NG, vol. 13, pp. 492-519. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21521_1F6A3C.

Sangs rgyas rdo rje sems dpa'i dgongs pa tshig gsum po, in NG, vol. 13, pp. 764-780. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21521_9A3EDC.

Ye shes mar me'i rgyud or sGron ma rnam par bkod pa'i rgyud, in NG, vol. 13, pp. 780-795. http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW21521_6488B3.

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2024a, "A Brief Note on the Northern Treasures of the Bon Tradition," *Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines*, no. 68.

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Akester, Matthew, 2016, *Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo's Guide to Central Tibet*, Chicago, Serindia Publications.

Almogi, Orna, 2009, *Rong-zom-pa's Discourses on Buddhism: A Study of Various Conceptions of Buddhism in Indian Sources with Special Reference to the Controversy Surrounding the Existence of Gnosis (jnāna: ye shes) as Presented by the Eleventh-Century Tibetan Scholar Rong-zom Chos-kyi-bzang-po*, Tokyo, The International Institute for Buddhist Studies.

Angowski, Elizabeth, 2022, "The rDo rje in the Details: A Note on sNa nam rDo rje bdud 'joms (fl. 8th century) and His Role in Bringing Padmasambhava to Tibet," *Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines*, no. 62, pp. 29-50.
https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_62_03.pdf.

Anonymous, *Encyclopedia Britannica*, 2023, "Mongol empire | Time Period, Map, Location, & Facts | Britannica," in *Encyclopedia Britannica*, https://www.britannica.com/place/Mongol-empire.

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— (trans.), 2016, Tülku Tsullo: *Le Manuel de la transparution immédiate*, Paris, Le Cerf.

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— 2018b, "Khordong Terchen Nuden Dorje," in *The Treasury of Lives*, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Khordong-Terchen-Nuden-Dorje/13617.

— 2021, "Khamtrul Sherab Mebar," in *The Treasury of Lives*, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Khamtrul-Sherab-Mebar/13688.

— 2022a, "Introduction—For a Critical History of the Northern Treasures," *Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines*, no. 62, pp. 5-21. https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_62_01.pdf.

— 2022b, "History of the dGongs pa zang thal practice manuals," *Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines*, no. 62, pp. 233-298. https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_62_10.pdf.

— 2022c, "The First Practice in which Rigdzin Gödem Obtained Signs of Accomplishment as a Teenager," in *Northern Treasures Histories*, 03/12/2022. https://fchnt.hypotheses.org/91.

— 2022d, "Recovering the tantras of the Brahmin Cycle of the Dzogchen Yangti (rDzogs chen Yang ti bram ze'i skor)," in *Northern Treasures Histories*, 09/12/2022. https://fchnt.hypotheses.org/360.

— 2024a, "A King of Dharma forgotten on the Jewel Island: Was Me *ban* Chos rgyal Rin chen gling pa Rig 'dzin rGod Idem's rDzogs chen master? (How half of the *mKha* 'gro snying thig got included in the *dGongs pa zang thal*)," *Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines*, no. 68, pp. 69-147. https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_68_04.pdf.

— 2024b, "Yamāntaka among the Ancients: *Mañjuśrī Master of Life* in Context," *Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines*, no. 68, pp. 294-380. https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_68_11.pdf.

— 2024c, "Gyelse Lekpa," in *The Treasury of Lives*, https://treasuryoflives.org/bo/biographies/view/Gyelse-Lekpa/10298.