Encyclopedic Hermits: Composite Masterpieces of the Great Scholars
This 18th-century painting, held in a private collection, bears the title "Rongtho Rinpoche: Awang Losang". Depicted across the top are the Sixth Panchen Lama (1738-1780) on the left and Pujongba Awangqinba (1682-1762) on the right, while the Regent Dzogchen 8th Dalai Lama is shown at the lower right. His "Biography of the Great Pan-chen Lama" receives high praise worldwide.
The Buddhas themselves appear within these very teachings, assuming mortal forms to serve as spiritual mentors. In accordance with local custom, Regent Dazha of the Eighth Dynasty ངག་གི་དབང་ཕྱུག་འཇམ་མགོན་བླ་མ་མཆོག། ཐ་མལ་ངོར་འཚམས་བཤེས་གཉེན་ཚུལ་བཞེངས་ནས། བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པ་འཛིན་འཛད་གྲུབ་དབང་ཆེ། བཀའ་དྲིན་མཚུངས་མེད་ཞབས་ལ་གུས་ཕྱག་འཚལ། pays boundless homage at the feet of unmatched kindness and grace. May the Dharma be upheld and realized eternally, with infinite reverence offered for such benevolence.
Taken from the Eighth Dalai Lama Yeshe Tenpai Gonpo's (1760-1810) 'The Life of Longdol Lama Tadral', this passage contains the Tibetan text: སངས་རྒྱས་བྱང་སེམས་ཉ་རུ་སྤྲུལ་པ་ཡི། ཁོག་པའི་ནང་ནས་མུ་ཏིག་དམར་པོ་འབྱུང། དེ་ལ་རཀྟ་མུ་ཏིག་ཅེས་སུ་གྲགས། ཝ་ལུ་མུ་ཏིག་ག་ཛ་མུ་ཏིག་དང། སི་ཀ་མུ་ཏིག་རམ་པ་མུ་ཏིག་དང། སརྦ་མུ་ཏིག་སྨད་ཀྱི་མུ་ཏིག་དང། རྨ་ལུ་མུ་ཏིག་བཅས་ཏེ་རིགས་བདུན་ནི། གླང་ཆེན་སྦྲུལ་གྱི་ཀླད་པ་ལས་བྱུང་དང། རྒྱ་གར་ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་ཤིང་གི་འདབ་མ་ལ། ལྷ་ཡི་ཆར་རྒྱུན་ཕབས་ལས་བྱུང་བའམ། ཡང
Regarding Blood Pearl, pearls are classified into seven categories: Valu and Kaz (Snake Pearl and Elephant Pearl), Ska and Ranba (Fish Pearl and Grass Pearl), Saba Pearl (True Pearl), and lower-status Maru pearls. They are possibly born from the brains of elephants and snakes. Additionally, divine rain falling on the leaves of trees from India yields pearls, and fish consuming rain also produces them. The highest quality among them are the variously colored pearls.
According to Lama Dondrub Awang Losang's "The Essential Collection for Distinguishing Treasures," a severe drought in Chamdo that year obliged him and his parents to relocate. Two years after that drought, his parents—who had lost five children—were set on sending him to Pabongka Monastery. In his later autobiography, he described the ordeal as a run of misfortunes that turned his mind toward the law of cause and effect.
At age seven, this reserved and diligent youth entered the monastic life, and when he turned twelve, he took the full novice vows under the guidance of Pujokpa Awangqiangba, the renowned "cave philosopher" of the Tibetan region. The philosophical journey was fraught with difficulties, as the young man encountered rejection at the Jokhang Temple. Yet his teacher, the late Ratak Ngorlozang Kunga Zangpo, held a steadfast conviction that he was the reincarnation of the departed Tertön Kangyü Tsenam. The mentor passed away in 1741.
The young man was 22 when his elderly teacher, who suffered from leg ailments, arranged for a relative and eight assistants to go with him to the holy city of Lhasa for study, before the teacher's death. The teacher and the others believed that the young man, with "warm light in his eyes," would achieve great things. However, the busy market life of Lhasa and the agitated scholarly environment in the monasteries inspired fear in the young man, and he spent his entire life trying to get away from that disturbing environment.
To this day, Sera Monastery’s stories still recount how, during his retreat at the Jé College, he was teasingly called the "Loba Mad Monk." The nickname came not only from his stay in the college’s Loba monk quarter but also from his fervent dedication to wisdom and practice.
The full ordination he received in 1748 from Pujungwa Ngawang Qoigyi—a scholar who would later exert a major influence on the traditions and knowledge systems of the Gelugpa monastic colleges—marked the start of his lifelong pursuit of enlightenment. While the early half of a young person's life is typically occupied with academic study within the monastery, the latter half is wholly devoted to a state of seclusion.
A cave hermitage known as "Longdo" (ཀློང་རྡོལ་རི་ཁྲོད་) stands in present-day Qushui County. It was initially renowned as the retreat cave of the revered master Tertön Sangye Gyare (གཙང་པ་རྒྱ་རལ་; 1161–1211) of the Zhaba Kagyu lineage. Ultimately, young people who had traveled the length and breadth of Tibet made Longdo their permanent hermitage, and in doing so came to bear the title "Longdo Rinpoche" (ཀློང་རྡོལ་བླ་མ་).
At the Royal Ontario Museum, an early 19th-century piece titled "Partial view of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Sacred Realm" is held in the collection. Additionally, from the private collection of Doris Wiener, there is an 18th-century "Takpu Kagyu Lineage Masters Lineage Chart" showing a partial view of Zhaba Jaré. གྲུབ་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་མར་པ་ཡབ་ཡུམ་གྱི། བཀའ་བཞིན་རྗེ་བཙུན་མི་ལས་བསྒྲུབ་པ་ཡིས། ལྷོ་བྲག་གྲོ་བོ་ལུང་གི་སྲས་མཁར་ལ། སྒྲོལ་མ་རིག་གསུམ་དོན་ཞགས་དྲུགབརྒྱ་དང། གཡས་གཡོན་པཎ་གྲུབ་བརྒྱ་ཕྲག་ཟུང་དང་བཅས། ཁྱོན་བསྒྲིལ་དར་ལ་སྐུ་གཟུགས་བརྒྱད་བརྒྱ་དང། ཕྱེ་འཕུལ་དར་གྱི་ཅོད་པན་གཡེར་ཁ་འཁྲོལ། འདོད་ཡོན་ལྷ་མོ་ལྔ་ཚར་བཞི་ཡིས་བརྒྱན། The temple was constructed by Milarepa in accordance with the commands issued by Marpa and his consort.
Within the Lhakhang Choje Kandzod Yeshe Monastery, dedicated areas for goddesses number three, alongside six hundred Avalokiteshvaras. One hundred enlightened monks surround the site, and silk curtains display eight hundred painted images. Ribbons dance and bells ring, while four rows of the five transcendent goddesses serve as adornment.
In the excerpt from "Offering Silk Curtain to the Holy Lake Lhamo Lhatso" by Venerable Lhundrup Awang Losang, after word spread that such an eminent high lama was in the vicinity, the monks and laypeople of Lhasa were anxious to bring Rinpoche back to the city. To rest and pursue further teachings, Rinpoche chose to return. While in the holy city, he received teachings from the 60th Ganden Tripa Losang Tenpa (1725-1782) and the 8th Panchen Lama Palden Tenpai Nyima (1758-1804). Yet a sudden and significant change occurred.
At that time, the regent, the 6th Dalai Lama Ngawang Jampel Gyatso (1722-1777), appointed Rinpoche as the official sponsor. Yet the people of Lhasa could find no trace of Rinpoche. Not long afterward, the master’s students reported that Master Longdo had already reached the Lozha Sekaguto Monastery, which is more than 300 kilometers away.
Master Longdo preferred wandering freely to receive teachings over being bound by the rigid authority of established monasteries and sacred sites, finding his true spiritual refuge in the peaceful meditation retreats associated with Marpa and Milarepa. He died in 1794, a scholar and leader who had kept his distance from worldly concerns. Honoring his wish for a simple, pastoral approach to practice, his disciples gave him an elaborate sky burial rather than the standard cremation.
From the Dalai Lama's collected works—or what remains of them—one can still observe the scope of his intellectual framework. His writings include not only an extensive body of work on Gelug philosophical thought, but also systematic structures of knowledge across various fields. These range from accounts of prominent monastic figures to biographies of patrons and protectors, and alongside engagement with classical texts, they incorporate oral traditions and unusual tales.
The NDTH Museum (Tibetan House) in New Delhi today houses a set of paintings depicting the Dalai Lama's previous incarnations. Meanwhile, the Gelug tradition regards him as the embodiment of the great wrathful deity Vajrabhairava, while modern scholarship respectfully calls him an 'encyclopedic achiever and classical scholar.' In addition, the vast ocean of knowledge about objects and meanings—covering everything from gemstone appreciation to ghost systems and divination summaries—is freely navigable by anyone.
This set of paintings is composed of seven works, with the Dalai Lama positioned at the center and his previous incarnations and teachings shown on either side. The initial work, "The Lineage Chart of His Holiness Rongtong Tulku," dates to the early 18th century and is held in the NDTH Museum; it portrays His Holiness Rongtong Tulku. From left to right, the eminent monks are Pakpa Gyatso, the 6th Panchen Lama, and the 59th Ganden Tripa. Pakpa Gyatso (1710-1772) was a Tibetan Buddhist lama who commanded respect. Mijitsu and Gyalse are placed to the sides of the supreme teacher.
The great wrathful Vajra is thought to be embodied in the supreme teacher. At the beginning of the text, there is an image whose composition the painting closely follows. It is probable that the artwork was created by a painter from Gongde Monastery and subsequently sent to Litang, where the lineage of the Rongdo sect resides. Local: Sanjosensei "The Past Life Lineage of the Lord Rongdao" Second Painting Bodhisattva Tamwuhe Early 18th century, collection of NDTH Museum.
The lineage holder of the Prajna teachings is the great master Longdho. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (འཕགས་པ་) expounds the wisdom of prajna, and before him sits the constantly weeping Bodhisattva who seeks the dharma (རྟག་ཏུ་རྔུ་).
The NDTH Museum collection includes an early-18th-century work titled 'Lineage Chart of the Previous Lives of Guru Rinpoche,' whose third image, Princess Nechung of Nepal, bears the local description 'The Bodhisattva Nantai and the Elder Offering Charity to a Woman.' The great master Longdu regularly takes the Goddess Tara's teachings as a central meditation deity, with Green Tara among the principal forms. In the upper-left corner sits Devadatta, the first Buddhist nun and the beloved aunt of the Buddha.
From his past existences, Lama Thubten Yeshe carried forward the practice lineages of both Vajrasattva and Vajrayogini. The fourth painting, titled "The Lineage Chart of Rongdo Rinpoche's Previous Lives," depicts Bhikkhuni's profound devotion to the dharma, with the radiance of merit above and a colorful forest below. This work dates to the early 18th century and belongs to the NDTH Museum collection. Another piece, "The Source of Merit and Virtue, the Essence of the Vinaya," shows Venerable Serlingpa at Adhiṣastra, while "The Light of Merit" presents Guru Shijin and Serimpa Guru Maitreya. Additionally, the fifth image of "The Previous Lives Lineage Chart of Lama Zopa Rinpoche" features the Accomplished Master Jigme Yeshe above and the Translator Marpa Lotsawa below; it also dates to the early 18th century and is held in the NDTH Museum collection.
The NDTH Museum holds an early 18th-century collection featuring the "Past Life Lineage Chart of Rongdo Rinpoche," whose sixth panel depicts E Qu Qugduoji above and Litang Kangqin below. This panel was created by the Marba translator and his wife. E Qu Qugduoji studied under Marpa Lotsawa (1023-1090), who was himself the principal disciple of Guru Rinpoche, while Litang Kangqin is regarded as the prior incarnation of Longchenpa and is also thought to be the rebirth of Orgyen Lingpa. The same museum also houses the "Previous Life Lineage of the Great Guru Rongzompa," a seventh panel from the early 18th century that illustrates the spiritual bond between Ek Qu Ge Duoji and Marba, featuring above the great wise Siddha Chakrasamvara and below the powerful King Jigme of Shambhala.
Translated from Sorang Wangqing's blog, this article presents the Law Lineage of the Omniscient Sage. The great sage Pangco Jiacuo (17th century) held the powerful Vajrayana tradition and was a principal disciple of Litang Khenpo. In the local context, Chago sage and Litang Kanqin shared a master-disciple relationship.