Subject: Bari Gyatsa Text History
Bari GyatsaLineage Teachers:
- Ratnakara Gupta (The Greater Vajrasana, 11th century)
- Lalitavajra (The Middling Vajrasana, 11th century)
- Amoghavajra (The Lesser Vajrasana, 11th century)
- Bari Lotsawa Rinchen Drag (1040-1112 [72 years])
- Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158 [66 years])
Videos:
- Bari Gyatsa: Introduction, Part 1 (HAR on Patreon [8.5 min.])
- Bari Gyatsa: Introduction, Part 2 (HAR on Patreon [8 min.])
- Bari Gyatsa: Introduction, Part 3 (HAR on Patreon [7 min.])
- The Bari Gyatsa Text (HAR on Patreon [5.5 min.])
- Sachen Texts
- Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrub: The Lamp Removing Obscurations
- Categories in the Bari Gyatsa (HAR on Patreon)
- Gender in the Bari Gyatsa (HAR on Patreon)
(For reference, the dates of Abhayakara Gupta are 1064 to 1125 [61 years] making him junior to Bari Lotsawa).
Jeff Watt 11-2025
"Bari Lotsāwa compiled a collection of 108 sādhanas from the over one thousand teachings he received from Ratnākaragupta and Amoghavajra. The collection is preserved in the Tengyur (bstan 'gyur) under the title Hundred Sādhanas of Bari, or Bari Gyatsa (ba ri brgya rtsa). As described by the Tibetan historian Amey Zhab (a mes zhabs, 1597–1659):
Bari received one thousand and eight sādhanas of yidam deities from Ratnākaragupta, Amoghavajra and others. From among these, the Lotsāwa and the Paṇḍita selected one hundred and eight of the finest and most profound essential ones, compiled them into a collection, and translated them into Tibetan. The Paṇḍita composed a general visualization ritual for all of them and wrote very clear individual sādhanas for each deity. Additionally, the Paṇḍita transmitted four different kinds of oral instructions—the explanatory reading transmission, the blessing transmission, the recitation transmission, and the commitment transmission. Bari brought all these oral transmissions and practices to Tibet and disseminated them.[2]
It appears that most of the sādhanas were translated while Bari Rinchen Drak was in India. The colophon to The Maṇḍala Ritual of Blue-Robed Vajrapaṇi (Toh. 2899 nīlāmbaradharavajrapāṇimaṇḍalavidhi-nāma; phyag na rdo rje gos sngon po can gyi dkyil 'khor gyi cho ga) states that it was "translated and edited by the Indian abbot Paṇḍita Amoghavajra and the Tibetan translator Khampa Bari Rinchen Drak."[3] In other translation colophons Bari customarily refers to his birthplace as Kham or Yarmotang.
There are six titles credited to Bari Lotsāwa in the Kangyur (bka' 'gyur) and fifty-eight titles in the Tengyur. With Amoghavajra he translated Amoghapāśahṛdayasūtra (Toh. 682) a Kriyā Tantra dedicated to Avalokiteśvara that was first translated into Tibetan in the eighth century. It is Bari Lotsāwa's translation that is in the Kangyur.
Notable titles in the Tengyur include the Gurūpadeśa (Toh. 1314b) also translated with Amoghavajra. With Atulyavajra, in Kathmandu, he translated Bhavabhadra's Śrīcakrasaṃvarapañjikā (Toh. 1403). With Tathāgatarakṣita, he translated that paṇḍita's own composition, Yoginīsaṃcāryanibandha (Toh. 1422), as well as Kumāracandra's vajrabhairavatantrapañjikā (Toh. 1973)."
(See the full biography. Author: Gedun Rabsal is a Senior Lecturer of Tibetan Language in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, where he teaches Tibetan language and Tibet-related courses. [From the Treasury of Lives, June 2025]).
