Teacher: Lelung Zhepai Dorje
Gelug Teachers PageZhepai Dorje, 5th Lelung Jedrung
(1697-1740 [BDRC P675])
The Fifth Lelung Jedrung, Lobzang Trinle (sle lung rje drung 05 blo bzang 'phrin las sle lung) was born in the summer of 1697, the fifth month of the twelfth fire ox year, near Zangri Karmar (zang ri khar mar), a practice site of Machik Labdon (ma cig lab sgron, 1055-1149/53). In 1699 he was officially recognized as the reincarnation of the Fourth Lelung Jedrung, Gendun Chogyel Wangchuk (sle lung rje drung sprul sku 04 dge 'dun chos rgyal dbang phyug, 1646-1696). The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (ta la'i bla ma 06 tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho, 1683-1706), performed the hair-cutting ceremony in 1702. Lelung's autobiography gives a vivid account of the Dalai Lama during the event recounting:
The Sixth Dalai lama was wearing a fine upper garment of pale blue, his hair to just below his ears with a ring on every finger. Attendants stood on either side of him wearing various unsightly costumes and holding quivers of arrows and bows.[1]
Lelung reports that Tsangyang Gyatso joked that he would give the young tulku the initiation name of "Nun Tinkling Tārā" (a ne ting ting sgrol ma) before giving him the name Tenpa Drubpai Gyeltsen (bstan pa grub pa'i rgyal mtshan).
Due to political corruption in his homeland the Fifth Lelung lived in considerable poverty during his youth; in his autobiography he later explained that an avaricious individual had stolen the wealth of the Fourth Lelung, and it was not until later in his life that he managed to reclaim it.
In 1705 he took monastic vows from the Fifth Paṇchen Lama, Lobzang Yeshe (paN chen bla ma 05 blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan, 1663-1737) and in 1708 was installed as the abbot of Chokhor Gyel (chos 'khor rgyal dgon). During this period he carried out his monastic studies following the standardized Geluk curriculum. In 1717 the dilapidated residence of his predecessors in Wolkha ('ol kha) was rebuilt and named Tekchok Namdroling (theg mchog rnam 'grol gling), and now most commonly known as Lelung Monastery (sle lung dgon).
Lelung had numerous teachers, foremost amongst them being his root guru Damcho Zangpo (dam chos bzang po, 1677-1724). However, despite his traditional Geluk education he espoused a nonsectarian (ris med) outlook and wrote later in life:
I have an un-fabricated pure vision toward all the accomplished [masters] without bias (ris med) such as the Sakya, Geluk, Nyingma, Drukpa Kagyu, Karma Kagyu, etc. My mind has increased respect toward the holders of these [various] teachings and when I think about this, I have pride in my own powerful realizations.[2]
According to legend, in the fire pig year 1707, at a public occasion at the Potala Palace (po ta la) in Lhasa, he chanced upon the Nyingma master Terdak Lingpa Gyurme Dorje (gter bdag gling pa 'gyur med rdo rje, 1646-1714) and thereby met the man who would change his life. Lelung was struck with devotion for the Nyingma master. They only exchanged some words of greeting, but Lelung later had many dreams in which ḍākinīs told him he must receive teachings from this treasure-revealer.
In 1680 Terdak Lingpa had discovered, at a place called Sha'uk Takgo (sha 'ug stag sgo) on the border between Tibet and Bhutan, the cycle called Mahākaruṇika: Embodiment of the Sugata's Intention (thugs rje chen po bde gshegs kun 'dus). As the title indicates, the main deity of this cycle is Jīnasāgara Avalokiteśvara along with his consort Guhyajñānaḍākinī, with the cycle's main primary protector deity being Mahādeva Maheśvara (lha chen dbang phyug chen po), a Buddhist version of the Hindu deity.[3]
Despite Lelung wanting to meet with Terdak Lingpa, due to the fierce sectarianism of the era it was difficult for him to study directly with him. In particular, one of Lelung's attendants was especially partisan and prevented him from seeking out the Nyingma master. Lelung was still quite young and had not yet attained the freedom to make his own decisions. Therefore, on Lelung's behalf, his tutor Damcho Zangpo went to Terdak Lingpa's seat of Mindroling (smin grol gling) and there received the transmission of revelations concerning the deity Jinasāgara Avalokiteśvara and his consort Guhyajñānaḍākinī from Pema Gyurme Gyatso (padma 'gyur med rgya mtsho, 1686-1718), Terdak Lingpa's son and heir. He specifically received the Guhyajñāna, or Secret Gnosis (Sangwa Yeshe; gsang ba ye shes) "mother" section, and was told of a prophecy, purportedly from Terdak Lingpa himself, that his student, the Fifth Lelung, was destined to uphold (and spread) this particular cycle.[4] Damcho Zangpo then travelled to Ngari Dratsang (mnga' ris grwa tshang) where he then gave the teachings to Lelung.
Soon after, Lelung travelled to Mindroling himself in order to receive the oral explanation of the practices from a master named Chemchok Dorje (che mchog rdo rje), also called Chemchok Dupa Tsel (che mchog 'dus pa rtsal) and Losel Gyatso (blo gsal rgya mtsho).[5] According to Lelung, Chemchok Dorje received the oral explanation on the Secret Gnosis completion stage practices from Mingyur Peldron (mi 'gyur dpal sgron, 1699-1769), Terdak Lingpa's daughter, who had received them from her brother Gyurme Gyatso. Chemchok Dorje also taught Lelung a number of auxiliary "magical" practices that played an important role in the extensive Secret Gnosis cycle Lelung would go on to compile.[6]
The Secret Gnosis cycle is a section of the Mahākaruṇika: Embodiment of the Sugata's Intention, centered on the ḍākinī of the same name. According to tradition, at the time of the discovery, Terdak Lingpa decided the teachings, which has a large section devoted to sexual yoga, were not yet ready to be spread publicly, and he transmitted them only to his son and heir Pema Gyurme Gyatso, who in turn was tasked with transmitting them to Lelung.
Lelung also met the treasure revealer named Choje Lingpa (chos rje gling pa, 1681-1720/1722) who had given a prophecy connected to the name given to him at his hair cutting ceremony:
One having the name Tenpa, an emanation of Mañjuśrī in the future, on the bank of the moon plain [in] Amdo, will sustain the dharma teachings and benefit many beings. Also, the wondrous emanation of the bodhisattva [will] arise near the copper valley. In order to release from obstacles [he] relies on peaceful and wrathful Avalokiteśvara.[7]
Choje Lingpa reaffirmed Lelung's status as the reincarnation of the First Lelung Jedrung, Namkha Gyeltsen (sle lung rje drung 01 nam mkha' rgyal mtshan, 1326-1401), who had been an important teacher to Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa (P64tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357-1419). Lelung reported in his inner autobiographical account that Choje Lingpa passed on further transmissions from the same treasure tradition of Terdak Lingpa and the Secret Gnosis cycle.
In 1716-17, Lelung went on many closed retreats dedicated to the same Secret Gnosis Ḍākinī. According to tradition, miraculous signs such as a cascade of auspicious scarves and showers of fresh myrobalan arjuna plants, with leaves and stems still attached, fell from the sky. Many years later he would promote the Secret Gnosis Ḍākinī from Terdak Lingpa's treasure cycle, Mahākaruṇika: Embodiment of the Sugata's Intention, and made her a stand-alone deity. Although this had began with Gyurme Gyatso's redaction of Terdak Lingpa's cycle, Lelung established her as supreme deity wholly independent from her male consort.[8]
Lelung, although criticised by some sectarian hierarchs, also received respect from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. A letter written by the Sakya patriarch Dakchen Ngawang Kunga Lodro (ngag dbang kun dga' blos gros 1729-1883) stands out. He explained that he initially had no faith in Lelung, yet on reading his collected works he discovered that there was in fact no greater scholar during the degenerate age than Lelung Zhepai Dorje.[9]
As for criticism, he was accused of mixing the old and new tantras. He eloquently rebuked such sectarianism with such statements as:
If they simply mean that I combined them without contradicting their intended meanings, that was indeed my intention…I ask all presumptuous scholars of Geluk and Nyingma to show me a single piece of evidence proving that I should not unashamedly combine these Tantra treatises with the Gnosis Ḍākinī teachings.[10]
His non-sectarian view is best summarized in a treatise on advice concerning old and new tantra where he argues, controversially, that Padmasambhava and Tsongkhapa share the same mental continuum.
Other criticism centered around his use of sexual yoga as a tool to gain the experience of bliss and emptiness. The Sixth Dalai Lama, who was himself subject to great criticism, is deftly recorded in Lelung's writings and from there parallels may be wrought. Although he witnessed and largely condemned the hedonism about which the Sixth Dalai Lama surrounded himself, Lelung maintained that Tsangyang Gyatso remained pure, writing that:
I had the good fortune to be able to see him from a rooftop. On all sides of the Dalai Lama people were full of black beer. People with impure karma were astonished because they could not believe that the Dalai Lama's servants were also involved in such activities. Also that day, such people as the regent [Desi Ngawang Rinchen (sde srid ngag dbang rin chen )], Demo Tulku (de mo 06 ngag dbang 'jam dpal bde legs rgya mtsho) and all of his attendants were drunk with beer, were shamelessly doing various bad deeds, and stumbling into each other. They were unable to get up or lie down. Nevertheless, the Dalai Lama, without even the slightest change, was teaching, writing letters, and singing songs, all without error. He was fully alert. Hence, I encountered his countenance and heard his voice, as I had wished.[11]
Lelung maintained a close patron-priest relationships (mchod yon) with every major central Tibetan ruler in the first half of the eighteenth century, including Lhazang Khan (lha bzang khan, d. 1717), Taktsepa Lhagyel Rabten (stag rtse pa lha rgyal rab brtan, d. 1720), Khangchenne Sonam Gyelpo (khang chen nas bsod nams rgyal po, d.1727), and, most significantly, Polhane Sonam Tobgye (pho lha nas bsod nams stobs rgyas, 1689-1747), whom he advised and taught. He recognized Khangchenne as an emanation of the protector deity Trakme Nyishar (skrag med nyi shar) and Polhane as the deity Yamshu Marpo (yam shud dmar po), a king of the tsen (btsan) demons. He lived during a time of great political movement and he used these relationships in the attempt to bring peace, reduce sectarianism and avert atrocity.
Lelung was part of a delegation on two separate occasions that tried to persuade the Dzungar Mongols to end their invasion of Tibet and their anti-Nyingma pogroms of 1717-1720, during which the monasteries of Mindroling and Dorje Drak (rdo rje brag) were targeted and razed to the ground. Minling Lochen Dharmaśrī (smin gling lo chen d+harma shrI, 1654-1717), Terdak Lingpa's son Gyurme Gyatso, Dorje Drak Rigdzin Pema Trinle (P657rdo rje brag rig 'dzin padma 'phrin las, 1640-1718) and other Nyingma leaders were put to death on the banks of the Kyichu River (skyid chu).[12]
In the post-war period he was active in trying to help rebuild the main Nyingma monasteries that had been destroyed during the Dzungar violence, the reconstruction of the famous "looks like me" statue of Padmasambhava that had been at Trandruk Temple (khra 'brug lha khang), and the installation of images of the eighty-four Mahāsiddha at the Rabten Shar estate (rab brtan shar).[13]
In 1727 Khangchenne, the most powerful minister on the ruling council in Lhasa, was brutally stabbed to death in a scene reminiscent of Julius Caesar's murder, during a meeting by the ministers of the U faction. His retainers, wife, and sister-in-law were also butchered. Polhane managed to escape with his family and raised an army from Ngari and Tsang. Tibet then fell into a year of bloody civil war that lasted from 1727 to 1728. After a tit-for-tat exchange of battles the U faction finally barricaded themselves in the Potala Palace and several rounds of negotiations followed, with a number of high-ranking lamas acting as mediators between Polhane, the Dalai Lama, and the ministers, Lelung among them. Demonstrating his continual effort in engendering peace in Tibet and overt support of Polhane Sonam Tobgye he wrote:
I arrived in Lhasa when the troops of Tsang had [just] reached central Tibet. As the opening provided by [this] lucky coincidence suited [the purpose of] the ruler Polhane Sonam Tobgye, I managed to pacify the disturbances between U and Tsang.[14]
The Seventh Dalai Lama's (tA la'i bla ma 07 bskal bzang rgya mtsho, 1708-1757) father Sonam Dargye (bsods nams dar rgyas, d.1744) was accused of complicity with the U faction and thus delicate negotiations were necessary between the Dalai Lama and Polhane.[15] Through a combination of efforts on the part of Lelung, the Dalai Lama, and Polhane, the U ministers were persuaded to surrender and Polhane was persuaded to spare their lives, a mercy to which his officers and men strongly, but ineffectually, objected. Soon after the surrender in another meeting to formally reconcile differences between the Dalai Lama and Polhane, in a ritual overseen by Lelung, he placed several sacred objects on each of their heads including a representation of Tsongkhapa, a treasure discovered statue representing Padmasambhava and an image of Palden Lhamo (dpal ldan lha mo).[16]
However, Lelung's initially successful plea for the lives of the U ministers would soon be undone. Responding to the situation in Tibet, which they feared was due to Dzungar meddling, the Qing court sent an armed contingent along with an investigative team which put the U ministers on trial. They were eventually found guilty of acting against the orders of the Emperor in killing Khangchenne. They were brutally executed on the banks of the Kyichu in November of 1728. Their skins were stuffed and hung in Darpo Ling Temple (dar po gling) in Lhasa.[17] Several of their associates and family members were also killed. The rest of their relatives were sent to China as prisoners.
Lelung remained in Lhasa in the months following the civil war, meeting with Polhane and the Dalai Lama. He is credited during this period with helping the latter recover from an illness with the propitiation of the protector deity Nyima Zhonnu (nyi ma gzhon nu) from his own pure visions (dag snang) which arises through meditative concentration through dreams and visions.[18]
Lelung was also a prolific explorer of sacred geography, having spent the years between 1720-1740 visiting Tibet's sacred places (gnas yul) and hidden lands (sbas yul). Regarding the latter, hidden lands are exclusively revealed and identified through treasure texts. Longchen Rabjam (klong chen rab 'byams, 1308-1364) describes in a eulogy about the Bumtang (bum thang) area that they are "a spiritual Arcadia where ideal geographical and human qualities together conspire to create perfect conditions for religious life."[19] They arise specifically in response to the degenerate age narrative (rtsod ldan gyi dus, corresponding to Sanskrit kaliyuga) offering succour from sectarian persecution, war, plague and religious decline, a particular concern of religious leaders during the eighteenth century.
Lelung is credited for promoting the holy mountain of Tsāri (rtsA ri) as a place of mass pilgrimage after travelling there from 1719 to 1720[20] and he composed various short ritual texts dedicated, among others, to the chief protective deities of the mountain. He also traveled extensively in Lhodrak (lho brag) and is credited with recognizing, through dreams, the existence of the hidden land named Wormo Lhasa ('or mo lha sa). In 1729 he led his first of two expeditions to the hidden land of Pemako (pad+ma bkod). Pemako is located in southern Tibet, at the end of the Himalayan massif where the Tsangpo River (gtsang po) carves through the two magnificent mountains of Namchak Barwa (gnam lcags 'bar ba) and Gyala (rgya la), sandwiched between Kongpo (kong po) and Powo (spo bo). He followed in part Rigdzin Nuden Dorje's (rig 'dzin nus ldan rdo rje) revelations and his own indications coming through dreams. He also emphatically identified Pemako as taking the secret form of Vajravārāhī, writing:
[Pemako] has the aspects of a self-arisen physical manifestation of Vajravārāhī, with the cakra of great bliss at the crown of the head, and so forth.[21]
On his return from the 1729 expedition he opened the newly discovered hidden lands of Dolung Dorje Ling (rdo lung rdo rje gling) and Trolung (spro lung) and returned to Pemako in 1733. In total, he wrote no less than twenty-five texts on the topic of sacred landscape, both actual geographic locations and buddhafields.
The Lelung lineage is particularly known for their mastery of the numinous and nowhere is this seen in more detail than his repeated use of oracles throughout his life utilising their power in the support of his enlightened activities. One oracle declared in trance:
O! Since I was sent alone to accompany you, the tantric knowledge holder, to assist in opening the sacred sites by the great accomplished master, Padmasambhava, I will not waver even a moment in carrying out your enlightened activities.[22]
Lelung's career as a religious savant was primarily directed toward ritual technologies for controlling, directing, and employing a huge pantheon of dharma protectors, and he made use of this expertise to explain his decision to take a sexual consort. The woman, named Dorje Kyabje (rdo rje skyabs byed), was the medium for a spirit known as Nyima Zhonnu (nyi ma gzhon nu), a special protector form of Secret Gnosis Ḍākinī. Their union is said to have been prophesied by Choje Lingpa; Lelung wrote that the "prophecies were so clear" that "even stupid cow-herders could understand them." He further claimed that sexually uniting would lead to widespread happiness among the people of China, Tibet, and Mongolia.[23] It also appears that Dorje Kyabje played an integral part of opening the doors to Pemako making her importance clear in his later aspiration prayer to Pemako by writing:
May the intentions of the one who opened this hidden land, Zhepai Dorje (bzhad pa'i rdo rje) and the mother of the victorious ones Lhachik Dorje Kyabche be accomplished just as they were made and may they remain stable and firm for and may they remain stable and firm for an ocean of eons![24]
Throughout his life Lelung took many other consorts but always according to the strict guidelines of the Secret Gnosis Ḍākinī teachings.[25] The current Eleventh Lelung Tulku writes about these practices:
In all the precious literatures of both old and new Tantras, this is explained as the most excellent speedy path. It was cultivated by many realised beings, who actualised the state of union, so how can anyone find fault with it?[26]
Lelung taught the Secret Gnosis Ḍākinī cycle to numerous disciples, stating that most of his students who learned the practice of sexual yoga "attained control over their own psychic channels."[27] In the supplication prayer to the aforementioned Nyima Zhonnu these practices are described as:
The distilled essence of the consummation of the vehicle of the Great Secret, the path of the union of wisdom and means, of the primordial wisdom of emptiness and bliss.[28]
The same deity had also given Lelung a prophecy in 1730 that stated that sexually uniting with Mingyur Peldron would be of great benefit to sentient beings. Her biography (rje btsun mi 'gyur dpal gyi sgron ma'i rnam thar dad pa'i gdung sel) depicts Lelung in an unflattering light and stresses that she refused his advances; she even left the main monastery for her nearby retreat place in order to avoid further contact with Lelung. It should be mentioned that all his activities were ostensibly framed as tantric practice, and these occasions likely looked very different when described from other perspectives, including Lelung's biography. As Townsend writes "the point here is not to discredit Lelung but to demonstrate that he was portrayed as a foil for Mingyur Peldron,"[29] representing the types of behavior from which she wished to distance Mindroling. Activities such as these had been used as an excuse for the recent Dzungar persecution and destruction of Mindroling and therefore her refusal may not be the rejection of the tantric sexual practices themselves but a reaction to the climate in which they found themselves. It may also reflect the biases of its actual author, Khyungpo Repa Gyurme Wosel (khyung po ras pa 'gyur med 'od gsal, b. 1715), more than the opinion of Mingyur Peldron herself, as it was not written until 1782, forty two years after Lelung's death and thirteen years after Mingyur Peldron's death. However, this oft-cited moment requires further examination especially since Mingyur Peldron and Lelung were both student and teacher to one another.
Lelung was also a prolific writer; his collected works totals some forty-six volumes. An incredibly rich and varied collection, it includes his autobiography, liturgical texts, stand-alone texts such as major works on protector deities and one extensive commentary on the practice of Cakrasaṃvara. From 1729 Lelung began the project of compiling the Secret Gnosis Ḍākinī treasure cycle (gsang ba ye shes kyi chos skor). He compiled a sixteen-volume cycle (four times the length of the Terdak Lingpa's original treasure cycle Mahākaruṇika: Embodiment of the Sugata's Intention) which was produced over the course of about nine years, based on the dates found in the colophons of some of the individual texts which span the years of 1729-1737.[30]
Other topics in the collected works also includes numerous texts from his own pure visions. In 1734 he wrote a major collection of the origin myths of protector deities arising from his pure vision called The Unprecedented Holy Lineage Histories: A Partial Presentation from the Liberating Chronicles of Damchen, an Ocean of Protectors (dam can bstan srung rgya mtsho'i rnam par thar pa cha shas tsam brjod pa sngon med legs bshad stod cha deb gzugs ldi li dpar ma la) which is arguably Lelung's most unique and well-known contribution to Tibetan literature.
He was also one of the first masters to reveal practices related to Ling Gesar (gling ge sar) the semi-divine Tibetan hero famed for his use of theriocephalic drala (dgra lha) and werma (wer ma) to return balance to the human world. His recorded three texts are entitled, Chapters of Narrative about Gesar from Pure Vision (dag snang ge sar gyi gtam rgyud), Relief at an Era's End: A Supplication and Offering to King Gesar and his Ministers (ge sar rgyal po dpon blon gyi gsol mchod dus mtha'i dbugs 'byin la) and The Third Set of Quintessential Instructions of Gesar from Pure Vision (dag snang ge sar gyi man ngag skor tsho gsum pa la).
In his biography, he recorded his life events through the combination of prose and poetry, often referring to scriptural authority through his knowledge of traditional Buddhist dialectics. In other places he utilizes allegory, metaphor and simile all combined with exacting detail. One such example includes his trip the Nyingma monastery Mindroling where he wrote:
We descended from the hill of Japo Lanyak (bya pho la nyag) like turquoise peacocks skilled in the expression of dance and on the ground transforming into very handsome youths putting on a musical show with various singing and dancing girls, immortal maidens with the rank of lordship. The ocean of the welcoming assembly was like a wondrous garland of constellations, well dressed in robes, peaceful like a flock of ornamented swans.[31]
Finally, with no more disciples to teach, in 1740 at the very young age of forty-three he passed away. Given Lelung's particular focus on more wrathful practices it is not surprising that he was posthumously declared to be the protector deity (srung ma) Drakshul Wangpo "The Mighty Furious Lord" (stobs ldan drag shul dbang po) who is particularly focused on subduing the controversial spirit Dorje Shugden (rdo rje shugs ldan).
The wrathful deity appears in three texts of Lelung's collected works. The first two include Bestowing the Vajra Essence: Entrusting Oneself to the Powerful Lord of Wrath (stobs ldan drag shul dbang po'i srog gtad) and Appendices to a Sādhana of the Wrathful Aspect of the Miraculous Hanging House (drag sgrub 'phrul gyi lding khang gi lhan thabs). The last is an extremely long protector deity invocation and offering text and entitled The Quick Thunderbolt that Destroys the Evil Hosts of Māra, Fulfilling the Sacred Bond with the Embodiment of All the Three Refuges, the King of the Enemy Gods, the Mighty Furious Lord and his Retinue (skyabs gsum kun ’dus gcig chog dgra lha’i rgyal po stobs ldan drag shul dbang po gtso 'khor gyi thugs dam bskang ba'i rim pa log ’dren bdud dpung 'joms byed rno myur drag po thog mda’i chad bal). The first two arose from Lelung's pure vision and written down in 1730, the last was written in 1755, fifteen years after Lelung's death; the colophon indicates that Kunga Mingyur Dorje, under the pen name of Yungdrung Dorje (g.yung drung rdo rje) was the author. This text explicitly states that this deity, the Mighty Furious Lord, "previously arose in the form of Zhepai Dorje."[32]
His corpus of material lives on through the efforts of the current Eleventh Lelung, Tendzin Puntsok Loden Rinpoche (bstan 'dzin phun tshogs blo ldan b. 1970) who set up the Lelung Literature Preservation Centre in 2003. Its mission is to compile, transcribe and publish in Tibetan and other languages the works of the Fifth Lelung Rinpoche for future generations.
[1] Shakabpa 2010, p. 395.
[2] Blo bzang ’phrin las, 2009, p. 7.
[3] Bailey, 2016 p.82-83
[4] Loden 2013, p. 63.
[5] Bailey, 2016, p. 85.
[6] Bailey, 2016, p. 85.
[7] Sle lung 1983c, pp. 472-473.
[8]Bailey, 2016 p.82-83
[9] Loden, 2013, p. 68.
[10] Loden 2013, p.69.
[11] Shakabpa 2010, p. 408.
[12] Petech 1972, pp. 32-66.
[13] Bailey, 2016, pp. 62-63, Sørensen and Hazod, 2005 pp. 79-80.
[14] Ehrhard 1999b, p. 245.
[15] Shakabpa 2010, p. 432.
[16] Shakabpa 2010, p. 448, Bailey 2016, p. 67, Ehrhard, 1999a, p. 252, Loden 2013, p. 66.
[17] Richardson 1998, p. 315.
[18] Bailey, 2016, p. 67.
[19] Aris, 1979, p. 63.
[20]Huber, 1999, p. 155.
[21] Sle lung 1983a, p. 39
[22] Sle lung 1983a, pp. 399.6-400.1.
[23] Bailey 2016, p.159.
[24] Sle lung, 1982b, pp. 2. For a full translation see Tibshelf.
[25] Bailey 2016, p.159.
[26] Loden. 2013, p. 67.
[27] Ibid, p. 67.
[28] Chenagtsang 2018, p. 287.
[29] Townsend 2012, p.234.
[30] Bailey 2016, p. 86.
[31] Sle lung 1983g, p. 514.
[32] Bailey 2016, p. 230.
Tom Greensmith is a MPhil graduate in Tibetan and Himalayan studies from Oxford University. His completed dissertation focused on the “non-sectarian” (ris med) figure of the Fifth Sle lung bZhad pa’i rdo rje (1697-1740) and his journey to Pad+mo bkod in 1729. Published July 2018.
[Extracted from the Treasury of Lives, Tibetan lineages website. Edited and formatted for inclusion on the Himalayan Art Resources website. November 2022].
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