TBRC Blog   News and articles from the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center  

Remembering Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche

Published by morrishopkins on 03 Aug 2010

Venerable Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche (1938-2010) was a great scholar and a Dzogchen Master of our time. He was born in 1938, the Earth Tiger year, in the village of Joephu (rgyus phu) in the Dhoshul (rdo shul) region of Kham in eastern Tibet near the sacred mountain Jowo Zegyal (jo bo gze rgyal). In early childhood, he demonstrated signs of a remarkable intelligence and a precocious spirit. He learned to read at the age of four and at age six he began learning the chants and ritual ceremonies. At age seven he entered Gochen Monastery (sgo chen dgon) as a novice monk and began his preliminary (sngon ‘gro) practices. Later that same year he went on his first retreat for one month. The location of Gochen Monastery had been prophesied by Tsasum Lingpa, a famous terton of the 17th century, who performed an earth-taming ceremony on the site. Lama Gyalwa (la ma rgyal ba) subsequently founded the monastery in the early of 19th century. Khenchen Rinpoche’s father’s family had the hereditary responsibility for the administration of the business affairs of the monastery. His grandfather, Lama Ogyen Tharchok, had been both administrator and chant master in charge of the ritual ceremonies at Gochen.

Around the age of fourteen he attended the Riwoche monastic university (khams ri bo che), which was founded in 1276 by Taglungpa Sangye Ӧn Dragpa Pal (stag lung pa sangs rgyas dbon grags pa dpal), and is located in Chamdo Prefecture. His root teacher was Khenchen Tenzin Dragpa of Kathok Monastery. He studied the higher scholastic curriculum at Riwoche for five years and excelled in Tibetan medicine, Tibetan language and literature, Sanskrit grammar, and Buddhist philosophy.

In 1959, when Khenchen Palden Sherab was twenty-one, his father, Lama Chimed Namgyal, gathered the family and informed them that they had to embark on the difficult journey south to India. They left in the middle of winter, and endured many hardships. His sisters died during the escape and his mother died shortly after reaching India. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and his father and younger brother Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche lived for many years in refugee camps in Assam and Darjeeling, where Khenchen Palden began teaching in Tibetan camps.

In 1965, under the leadership of H.H. the Dalai Lama, the heads of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the Bon tradition, and secular leaders organized the historical conference that created the system of education to preserve the Tibetan language, culture, and Buddhism. Among the great scholars who were invited, Khenchen Rinpoche was requested by H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche to represent the Nyingma school. Soon afterwards, Khenchen Rinpoche became a founding member of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, where he taught Buddhist philosophy, history, and Tibetan language and served as the head of the Nyingma department from 1967-1984.

Khenchen Rinpoche made his first trip to America in 1980, and in 1984 he moved to New York City to work closely with H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, the head of the Nyimgmapa lineage at that time. He received numerous teachings, transmissions, and instructions from many great masters in Tibet and India, including H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche. In 1988, he and his brother, Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, founded the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center, which now has branches in India, the United States, Puerto Rico, and Russia. They founded Padma Samye Ling monastery in upstate New York, Padma Samye Chökhor Ling monastery and Ogyen Samye Chökhor Ling nunnery in Sarnath, built the Padma Samye Jetaven, the Miracle Stupa in Shravasti, India, and rebuilt Gochen monastery in Tibet.

Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche worked tirelessly his entire life to pass on the authentic, ancient teachings of Buddhism. He inspired thousands of Dharma practitioners, leaving a great legacy of loving kindness, wisdom, and compassion. He wrote three volumes of collected works and edited 16 volumes of Tsasum Lingpa’s revelation texts. He also wrote over twenty books in English with co-author Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. His writings are profound and authentic. His precise and detailed commentaries point out every aspect of a teaching according to all the sutras and tantras, and provide invaluable resources for scholars and insights for practitioners. His vast scholarship, profound teachings, and compassionate presence will continue to inspire devoted students and followers of Tibetan Buddhism around the world.

Karma Gongde

Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center

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Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Visits the U.S.

Published by Gene Smith on 03 Aug 2010

The Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center welcomes the Yangsi of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche on his first visit to the United States and to New York which begins today, the 3rd of August.

We celebrate the centenerary of the birth of H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Rabsal Dawa. TBRC in many ways is the product of Khyentse Rinpoche’s vision. It was he who encouraged the reprinting of many of the rare Tibetan Buddhist texts and collections through the Library of Congress PL480 project.

We thank the Shechen and Mangala Shri Bhuti organizations for making this visit possible. This year TBRC has been able to make its resources available throughout the world to dharma practitioners and translators in order to celebrate the vision of Khyentse Rinpoche, and other teachers who have encouraged the project.

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Treasury of Lives

Published by Jeff Wallman on 08 Jun 2010

The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation is pleased to announce the release of its new website, Treasury of Lives. The mission of the Treasury of Lives is to provide well-researched and clearly written biographies of all known masters of Tibetan religion, both Buddhist and Bon, each illustrated with portraits. Since its inception several years ago the site has been closely linked with TBRC. Its database of names comes from TBRC, and TBRC’s leadership, particularly Gene Smith and Jeff Wallman, have been instrumental in defining the vision of the site and in forging the plan for its development. Many of the same exceptional technical team that built the new TBRC site are also behind the Treasury of Lives: Theresa Reed as the the information architect, Sean O’Dwyer as the designer and usability expert, and Trevor Conn as the principal software developer.

TBRC users will find a link to the Treasury of Lives on each TBRC Person record page, in the “expand your search” menu on the upper left-hand side of the screen. Each biography on the Treasury of Lives site also links back to TBRC via a dedicated TBRC button.

The Treasury of Lives presents biographies of masters of all religious traditions of Tibet and the Himalaya. Users can access these via several avenues: Religious Tradition, Geography, Historical Period, and Alphabetical by either Wylie transcription or phonetics (using the RMA system, with alternate systems accounted for). One can also simply type in the name of the lama one is searching for using both Wyle or a phonetic spelling.

All images are linked to the Himalayan Art Resources site, whose director, Jeff Watt, has also been generous in his support for the site.

The Treasury of Lives is a growing site that depends on contributions of biographies from scholars and practitioners. The “Our Community” portion of the website, which will enable users to submit and discuss work, is currently under development. Short biographies of people involved in the project will also be available. If you would like to submit a biography, please email Alex Gardner, the general editor, at agardner@sdrubin.org.

Additional enhancements now in development include an option for searching via incarnation line and abbatial succession, and the ability to view lineage tangkas and access the biographies of depicted historical figures via clicking on their image.

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TBRC Library Release 2.0

Published by Jeff Wallman on 23 Apr 2010

TBRC is pleased to announce the upcoming release of its new website on May 3, 2010.  The new release is intended to provide (1) multi-language capability [localization] and an (2) improved user experience.

The TBRC Library provides access to the complete range of Tibetan literature using a variety of current knowledge management solutions.  This release is the fourth release of the TBRC Library since 2000 and second major release since 2006.

Multi-Language Capability

We are indebted to the great work of all those involved in the implementation and development of applications that support Tibetan Unicode.  TBRC has leveraged these exciting developments into its library. Without Unicode, cross-platform, data centric repositories cannot be built.  With Tibetan Unicode having reached a reasonable level of usability, Tibetan language can now begin to be properly represented in the digital space.

Tibetan Unicode offers exciting possibilities, but with the usual caveats of a new technology.  Users can enter search phrases in Extended Wylie or Tibetan Unicode and execute searches on the library.  Search results can be displayed in Tibetan, copied to other platforms, and shared.  There are problems however but we are committed to working these through for the benefit of the various communities we serve.

Long lists of names and titles are sorted using a native Tibetan collation.  The collation is accomplished using the ICU – International Components for Unicode for Java and the collating rules published by Pema Geyleg in Bhutan, http://www.unicode.org/cldr/data/common/collation/dz.xml. The published rule set was converted to conform to the syntax requirements of the ICU4J package.

A user can search using Extended Wylie transliteration or Unicode Tibetan.  Conversion between the Extended Wylie Transliteration System and Unicode TIbetan is accomplished using a package developed by Roger Espel Llima of Lerab Ling. Roger kindly converted his original Perl code to Java for incorporation into our system. The package provides a small simple code base that can run on both the server and client.

The entire user interface and web framework was rewritten using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) to take advantage of the built-in i18N localization framework, to leverage our already substantive Java code base and to provide a solid framework to expose the richness of the TBRC Library.  GWT is an excellent platform for developing cloud-based, data-centric software systems such as the TBRC Library.

In addition to search sort capability, multi-language also means that a complete native Tibetan and Chinese interface is available – each label, button, tool tip, caption, navigation and organizational element can be viewed in the native language.  Since the framework is extensible, we can add languages as needed.

We also have used Chris Fynn’s excellent web-based Unicode font  DDC Uchen.  Thanks to Chris for working with us on implementing this.  The DDC Uchen font is specifically designed for web-based usage of Tibetan Unicode.

Improved User Experience

The TBRC Library attempts to organize and deliver a vast amount of information.  With more than 6 million pages, and over 400,000 bibliographic entries, organizational methods have had to be adaptive.  In an effort to improve the user experience we have developed the new interface with the following in mind.

1. Faster response time
2. Browse and search
3. Improved text viewing capability
4. Clearer pathways to the literature
5. Improved display of information

Faster response time – The new library software is built on GWT and is tuned for an XML environment, passing around small chunks of information.  The result is a very responsive interface.  An area we are still researching is speeding up the search results.  The new version of our eXist XML database (1.4) is integrated with the Lucene search engine and we will be rewriting, as necessary, our main search routines for Lucene.

Browse and search - We have developed a series of methods to organize the increasingly vast amount of information available in the TBRC Library.  Last year we embarked on developing a series of loose taxonomical structures to organize the Topic rubric of the TBRC Library.  The first release of this work is visible when you browse the TBRC Library by Topic.  This approach is not intended to provide exhaustive hierarchical classificatory structures, but rather, is intended to organize the topics, keywords and terms we find as we catalog the literature.  It is a work in progress.  Subsequent releases rely on these structures and will involve a more semantic approach.

Improved text viewing capability – TBRC created a new interface (Digital Pecha View [DPV]) to view digital texts in the TBRC Library.  This new interface again is built on GWT and uses a variety of Java servlets to convert the archival formats into web and pdf formats.  In order to use the DPV, we ask that you register yourself as a user of the TBRC Library.  Registration is required so that we can improve the performance of the web application.

Clearer pathways to the literature – The TBRC Library is organized around 4 major access points – Work, Person, Place, and Topic.  These provide navigational paths to texts.  We have emphasized these access points in the new design.  With each access point, we are providing both a browsable and a searchable pathway and users should be better able to navigate the extensive source text repository and organizing knowledge base.  We also implemented a live search option, available in the Advanced Search section.  Live search displays result sets as you type.

Improved display of information - TBRC engaged a professional web designer and information architect to help organize the TBRC Library.  In many software development projects these two functions are rolled into one person.  However, since the TBRC Library had the challenge to deliver the classic literary approach in a contemporary knowledge system, we engaged separate people and worked together as a team to produce something that hopefully will endure.  Theresa Reed spearheaded the extensive information architecture process and Sean O’Dwyer the design.  We hope you find the results beneficial.

Please visit the new site tbrc.org on May 3.

We have scheduled a series of web-based training meetings from May 3 – 7.  Notification will be on our new website after the release.

Thanks for your support.

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Ar Byang chub ye shes

Published by Michael Sheehy on 12 Mar 2010

By David Rawson

A color plate of a lonely and austere st?pa on a bleak and stony plain greets the reader of the cycle of works of Ar Byang chub ye shes (11th cent.) (Ar byang chub ye shes kyi gsung chos skor), a publication of Paltsegs’ [Beijing, 2007]. Drawn to the caption below, “the remains of Ar byang chub ye shes,” one might wonder what kind of man and what kind of deeds were enshrined within this strikingly simple monument.

Since Ar is portrayed in the Blue Annals as the principal upholder of the tradition of Rngog Blo ldan shes rab (1059-1109), to locate the importance of Ar one must first find the impact of Rngog. In traditional accounts, the strong and vital tradition of Prajñ?p?ramit? scholarship that presently composes the core of the curriculum of the three seats of Dga’ ldan, Se ra and ‘Bras spungs presents its immediate origins in the tradition of Rngog and his monastery of Gsang phu ne’u thog. There Rngog instigated a commentarial tradition of the Prajñ?p?ramit? emphasizing the commentaries of Haribhadra as authoritative. This was brought about through Rngog’s own teachings, and his two commentaries known as TIk chen and TIk chung, the former being rather difficult to find at this time and the latter was published recently by Drepung Gomang Library as well as by the Karma Kagyu Preservation Society, Varanasi.

The influence of Rngog in forming this tradition of study of the Prajñ?p?ramit? (and although it is beyond the scope of this essay, the study of pram??a) and reciprocally the wish of subsequent scholars to place Rngog as the founder of the tradition can be felt in the veneration afforded to Rngog. Throughout Tsong kha pa’s Golden Rosary (Legs bshad gser phreng) Rngog is addressed as a great being (bdag nyid chen po) and Rgyal tshab Dar ma rin chen, in his commentary on the Uttaratantra, bestows upon him the title of great charioteer (shing rta [pa] chen po), a praise imparted to few Indian panditas and even fewer Tibetan scholars. As Gung thang Blo gros rgya mtsho notes in his annotations, Rgyal tshab’s Rnam bshad snying po rgyan which was destined to become the primary focus of study at the three Geluk monastic seats is primarily based on Rngog’s two commentaries (as opposed to the Legs bshad gser phreng which is based on Bu ston Rin chen grub’s Lung gi snye ma and Nya dbon Kun dga’ dpal’s Yid kyi mun sel).

With such an undeniably important contemporary, and with Ar’s own principal teacher, ‘Bre Shes rab ‘bar being a disciple of Rngog, one would expect Ar’s role to be that of one continuing the latter’s lineage of explanation. This certainly seems to be the opinion of Gos Lo ts? b? in his Blue Annals and  Sh?kya Mchog ldan, after stating there is no system of explanation of the Five Treatises of Maitreya that does not depend on Rngog’s, they each assert a single lineage of explanation of the same from Rngog through ‘Bre and Ar. Two important examples of records of lineages heard (gsan yig) also seem to suggest this: Mkhas Grub rje’s Gsan yig and the 5th Dalai Lama Ngag dbang Blo bzang rgya mtsho’s Gang+gA’i chu rgyun both have Rngog, followed by ‘Bre, followed by Ar in the succession of gurus for the lineage of the explanation of the Mngon rtogs rgyan.

Here, meticulous scholarship in the introduction of this new Paltseg edition by Karma Bde legs reveals an unapparent subtlety. Although ‘Bre was a student of Rngog, it seems that he only made a connection with Rngog when at an advanced age when most of his explanation of the Prajñ?p?ramit?, including his teaching of Ar, had already been written. Long before he met Rngog, ‘Bre had studied the Prajñ?p?ramit? under Se btsun Gzhon nu dbang phyug, a teacher who had traveled to Nepal and relied on various Indian and Nepali pandits including Sm?tijñ?nak?rti. During the 70 or so years when the Buddhist teachings were nearly absent in Central Tibet, Se btsun taught in the ‘Dan khog region of Kham along with his students including ‘Brom ston Rgyal ba’i ‘byung gnas, Rngog,  and ‘Bre. With ‘Bre teaching the Prajñ?p?ramit? independently of Rngog, and founding a school of Prajñ?p?ramit? scholarship at Nyang stod Gnas rnying.

In addition to the fact that Ar was already teaching Prajñ?p?ramit? extensively in the years that Rngog was studying in Kashmir, it seems Ar was not a student of Rngog and the lineage of explanation that is exemplified in this newly published volume evolved independently of Rngog. It is classified as a lineage of the former propagation since it ultimately descended uninterruptedly from the translators Ska ba Dpal brtsegs, Cog ro Klu’i rgyal mtshan, and Zhang Ye shes sde (ska cog zhang gsum) through their student Dbas Rgyal ba ye shes, his student Se btsun, then to ‘Bre and finally to Ar. In this context, these commentaries by Ar contain refutations of Rngog’s positions and take the explanations of ‘Bre as authoritative. The interesting conclusion is that the later propagation of the teachings of the Prajñ?p?ramit? was not completely disconnected from the former propagation, and given the influence of Ar and ‘Bre, it undoubtedly survives in some form today.

To illustrate, Ar is credited with a system of classifying the s?tras of which Abhisamay?la?k?ra is a commentary called the cycle of nine mothers (Yum skor dgu). The Prajñ?p?ramit? s?tras are divided into extensive, middling, and condensed and each of those again into three, meaning that the Prajñ?p?ramit? in 500 sections (said to reside in the realms of the gods) is the extensive of the extensive and the Verse Summary of the Prajñ?p?ramit? (Yon tan rin po che sdud pa) is the condensed of the condensed. Both Mkhas grub and Rgyal tshab as well as ‘Jam dbyangs Bzhad pa use this system when enumerating these s?tras.

Although biographical entries for Ar appear in the Ming mdzod chen mo and the Dung dkar tshig mdzod, both seem to have confused Dbus pa Blo gsal, a student of Bcom ldan Rig ral, with Ar. Drawing attention to this mistake, a well written biography of Ar in the Paltseg edition summarizes thus: Ar’s date of birth is uncertain but it is recorded that he was invited to teach in Mnga’ ris in 1076 and by that time was already renowned as a scholar (dge bshes). He was the hidden preceptor (gsang ston) for Phag gru Rdo rje rgyal po’s full ordination in 1134, and in 1144 was installed as abbot in Rgyal Lha khang. He established traditions of explanation of the Prajñ?p?ramit? at Gzhu Kun dga’ ra ba, Gnam Rdzing kha and at Gnam Rtse ldeng where his st?pa currently resides. It seems that Ar gave a great number of lectures on the Prajñ?p?ramit? and in fact passed away on the dharma throne during the middle of one of these. Thus it is moving when another great Tibetan Prajñ?p?ramit? scholar, Rong ston Shes bya kun rig makes a prayer to be able to enact the same, as recorded in the Blue Annals.

In conclusion, it seems that the new steel of Rngog’s explanations, wrought in extensive study under Indian pandits, was tempered by an already existant lineage of explanation of which ‘Bre and Ar were the foremost exponents and through their widespread teaching and significant commentaries they both helped popularize the study of the Prajñ?p?ramit? in Tibet.

The recent publication of Ar’s three surviving works on the Prajñ?p?ramit? by Paltseg is the second volume in the series entitled Important Rare Texts of the Kadam (Bka’ gdams dpe dkon gces btus), the fruit of an arduous search throughout Tibet for rare texts led by Thub bstan Nyi ma Rinpoche. Comprising commentaries on the Heart S?tra, the Verse Summary of the Prajñ?p?ramit? and on Abhisamay?la?k?ra, it is exquisitely presented with excellent introductory essays and table of contents, signalling that this series, which will gradually be published over the subsequent years will be very exciting and meaningful for those interested in the profound and vast.

David Rawson is a monk from New Zealand studying the Prajñ?p?ramit? at Sera Jey Monastery in South India.

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