Item: Teacher (Lama) - Dragpa Gyaltsen (Pandita)

Dragpa Gyaltsen, Guge Panchen (d.1486). With the hands placed at the heart in the teaching gesture, he wears monastic robes and is seated in vajra posture with the right leg over the left.

Biographical Details P1033

There are two inscriptions on the sculpture. The first and shortest is located on the flat seat immediately in front of the figure. The second and longest inscription is located on the bottom of the front of the lotus seat.

པཎྜིཏ་གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ལ་ན་མོ།

རྒྱུད་སྡེ་ཀུན་ལ་མཁྱེན་པ་ཡིས།
གྲགས་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ཕྱོགས་བཅུར་འཛིན།་
བརྩེ་བས་འགྲོ་ཀུན་སྐྱོང་མཛད་ལ།
རྟག་ཏུ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།

"Homage to Pandita Dragpa Gyaltsen!"

"Having the knowledge of the collection of all tantras,
Holding the victory banner in the ten directions,
Protecting all beings with love,
[I] bow and pray at all times."

Dragpa Gyaltsen figures prominantly in many lineages of the Sakya tradition and was a student of Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382-1456). He should not be confused for Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen (1147-1216), a layman, who was one of the five founding teachers of Sakya.

Jeff Watt 1-2012

Tibetan Printed Script (Uchen)
Wylie Transliteration: Short Inscription: pan di ta grags pa rgyal mtshan la na mo.