Sakya Main Page

Bari Lotsāwa Rinchen Drak (ba ri lo tsA ba rin chen grags [1040-1112. BDRC P3731) was born in Lingkha (gling kha) in Yarmotang (g.yar mo thang), Amdo, a region that takes its name for the Yarmotang flower, or Primrose, that grows abundantly there. His clan name of Bari (ba ri) likely refers to today's Pari (dpa' ris) region, where Gonlung Monastery (dgon lung dgon) is located, or possibly to an area near Liangzhou where Sakya Paṇḍita Kunga Gyeltsen (sa skya paNDi ta kun dga' rgyal mtshan, 1182–1251) passed away. He was known to refer to himself as "Khampa," which has led some scholars to surmise that his birthplace was Lingtsang in Kham.[1]

As a child, Bari was said to possess compassionate characteristics and engaged in Buddhist practices such as chanting mantras. After dreaming of a white man with four hands who asked him to go to central Tibet, Bari left Yarmotang when he was nineteen, around 1059.

In central Tibet, Bari received novice monk vows from Zhang Yonten Rinchen (zhang yon tan rin chen) and Tenchikpa Tsondu Drak (stan gcig pa brtson 'grus grags) in Wuru Toe (dbu ru stod), known today as Meldro Gungkar (mal gro gung dkar), near Lhasa. The two lamas gave him the name Rinchen Drak, as well as teachings on Atiśa's (b. 982) instruction lineage, Prajñāpāramitā, and other subjects. From Geshe Nyarawa Dondrub (dge bshes gnya' ra ba don grub), he received teachings on all the Kadampa (bka' gdams pa) instructions, Maitreya's five treatises, and the Abhidharma-samuccaya (Toh. 4049).

After studying these teachings, Bari sought out additional masters and scholars across central Tibet. In Lhasa, Bari performed one hundred thousand circumambulations and prostrations at the Jokhang (jo khang) and made offerings to the central Jowo image. According to tradition, in a dream the Eleven-faced Avalokiteśvara appeared on the left side of the Jowo and told him to go to India, where he would accomplish great things. At the age of thirty-four, in 1074, after spending fifteen years in central Tibet, he set out for India.

Nepal and India

Bari and twelve other men first traveled to Nepal, via Kyirong (skyid rong). The group included a group bound for Bodhgaya (G2GS1037) and the other Buddhist pilgrimage sites, which included Geshe Darma (dge shes dar ma) from central Tibet, Lowopa Jowo Jangchub Drak (glo bo pa jo bo byang chub grags) from Mustang; four yogis from Kamarupa, the southwestern Tibetan region in contemporary Assam; and Bari Rinchen Drak with three other companions.

In Nepal, Bari received teachings from Paṇḍita Ānanda, also named in sources as Yerang Paṇḍita (ye rang paN+Di ta), meaning the Paṇḍita from Pāṭan, including an empowerment of Cakrasaṃvara and Sanskrit language instruction, and extensive instruction in tantric rituals such as consecrations and authorizations related to Cakrasaṃvara, Vajrayoginī, and Catuḥpīṭha materials. He then journeyed to the Magadha region of India where he met a teacher named Mahāyogin who gave him instructions on Vajravārāhī.

His most important teacher in India, presumably at Bodhgaya and Nālandā, was Amoghavajra, who is said by historians to have been the most renowned Buddhist teacher of his day. Amoghavajra was known as "the Lesser Vajrāsana (rdo rje ldan pa chung ba), in contrast to his teacher, the Great Vajrāsana (rdo rje ldan pa chen po), Ratnākaragupta. (A third teacher, Lalitavajra, is known to Tibetan historians as the "middle Vajrāsana.") Rinchen Drak received numerous tantric empowerments and instructions on sutras, including the Ratnakūṭa (Toh. 45) the Avataṁsaka (Toh. 44), and the Samādhirāja (Toh. 127) sūtras. Amoghavajra also taught him the rituals for repelling enemies.

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).

On his journey back to Tibet, Bari built a residence for Tibetan visitors on the plains above Yambu (yam bu), Kathmandu, for Tibetans who were facing hardship from their Nepalese hosts. Bari also constructed a building without walls called Chopari (co pa ri), intended to serve as a shield for Tibetans from the heat. Amey Zhab names Bari's rest house as Botang (bod thang), which is the Tibetan name for an ancient temple in Kathmandu more commonly known as Mahakaal.

Sakya Monastery

After nine years in India and Nepal, in 1083, at the age of forty-three, Bari Lotsāwa returned to Tibet.

Lung Tengpa Geshe Konchok Kyab (lung steng pa dge bshes dkon mchog skyabs) was the first Tibetan lama to host a reception for Bari Rinchen Drak upon his arrival and to seek teachings from him. Subsequently, Khon Konchok Gyelpo ('khon dkon mchog rgyal po, 1034–1102) invited Bari to Sakya, where ten years earlier he had begun constructing Sakya Monastery (sa skya dgon).

Bari Lotsāwa resided at Sakya and taught for decades, and in 1102, following the death of Konchok Gyelpo, ascended to the throne of the monastery. Konchok Gyelpo's son, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (sa chen kun dga' snying po 1092–1158), was then too young for the office. Bari became one of Kunga Nyingpo's main teachers, instructing him in the full range of tantric materials then available in Tibet.

For the next ten years, from the water-horse year to iron-rabbit year, 1111, Bari led the monastery, giving teachings and building a Victory Stūpa (rnam rgyal mchod rten) at Sakya. His administrative undertakings included the building of many bridges, stūpas, and lodgings.

While still serving as head of Sakya, Bari traveled to Toling Monastery (mtho lding) in Ngari, where he translated several texts, including Tathāgatarakṣita's Vajrasattvasādhanabhāṣya (Toh. 1835), commentary on the main Vajrasattva sādhana, with an Indian Pandita named Dipamkararakṣita. He also established his own temple near Sakya known as Yukharmo (g.yu mkhar mo). The statue of Tārā of the same name, now in the Tārā Temple (sgrol ma lha khang) at Sakya, was offered to Bari by Milarepa's (mi la ras pa, 1040–1123) student Repa Zhiwa Wo (ras pa zhi ba 'od).

At the age of seventy-one, after handing over the Sakya throne to Sachen Kunga Nyingpo in 1111, Bari Rinchen Drak went to Phugrong (phug rong), a place near Sakya, for meditation practices. In 1113, at the age of seventy-three, after giving instructions on managing Sakya Monastery and on Buddhism in general to the young Kunga Nyingpo, Bari passed away on the fourteenth day of the ninth month of the water-snake year, at Phugrong.

In 1278, Drogon Pakpa ('gro mgon 'phags pa, 1235–1280) wrote a lineage prayer of Bari's teachings, which includes the following verse:

The seed of bodhicitta, nourished by the water of compassion,
The tree of qualities bearing the fruit of realization,
Having cool shade through the gathering of others' welfare,
I bow down at the feet of Rinchen Drakpa.[4]




[1] On the location of his birth see Tseten Zhabdrung, 403 and Hortsang Jigme, 232–235.

[2] Amey Zhab,

[3]

[4] 'Gro mgon chos rgyal 'phags pa, p. 98.



_________________________________________________

Publication of this biography was made possible through support of Khyentse Foundation.

Additional Bios Sponsored By Khyentse Foundation

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.

Published June 2025


བ་རི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་གྲགས།
Bari Lotsāwa Rinchen Drak
b.1040 - d.1112
TOL 6101
BDRC P3731

AUTHOR
Gedun Rabsal


Wylie: ba ri lo tsA ba rin chen grags


Bibliography:

A mes zhabs ngag dbang kun dga' bsod nams. 2000. Dpal rdo rje nag po'i zab mo'i chos skor rnams byung ba'i tshul legs par bshad pa bstan srung chos kun gsal ba'i nyin byed. InGsung 'bum ngag dbang kun dga' bsod nams, vol. 25, pp. 1–491. Sa skya rgyal yongs gsung rab slob gnyer khang. BDRC MW29307.

Davidson, Ronald. 2005. Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.

'Gro mgon chos rgyal 'phags pa. 2006 Ba ri ba'i chos skor gyi brgyud 'debs. In Sa skya bka' 'bum, vol. 13: 97–100. Kathmandu: Sachen International.

Hor gtsang 'jigs med. 2009. Mdo smad lo rgyus chen mo. Dharamsala. Bod kyi dpe dmzod khang.

Slob dpon bsod nams tshe mo. 1999. Bla ma ba ri lo tsā ba ri rin chen grags kyi rnam thar bzhugs so. In Sa skya bka' 'bum gsar rnyed phyogs bsgrigs, vol. 1, 255–266. Lhasa.

Śūnyatāsamādhi. 1982–1985. phyag na rdo rje gos sngon po can gyi dkyil 'khor gyi cho ga. Edited Zhu chen tshul khrims rin chen, translated by Amoghavajra and Ba ri rin chen grags. In Bstan ʼgyur (sde dge), vol. 73, pp. 505–520. New Delhi: Delhi Karmapae Choedhey, Gyalwae Sungrab Partun Khang. BDRC MW23703.

Tshe tan zhabs drung 06 'jigs med rigs pa'i blo gros. 1982. Bstan rtsis kun las btus pa. Xining: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang.

Tshe tan zhabs drung 06 'jigs med rigs pa'i blo gros. 2007. Kha ti ka'i dgon pa'i rten gtso rje zhal thang gzhan phan chen mo'i lo rgyus mdor bsdus bsod nams chu gter 'phel ba'i zla zer. In Gsung 'bum 'jigs med rigs pa'i blo gros, vol. 3: 403. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang.

Teacher (Lama)
Teacher