User:SakyaMonastery/Sandbox
H.H. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya | |
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Born | November 2, 1929 Sakya, Tibet |
Website | www.Sakya.org |
His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya was born in 1929 in Sakya, Tibet. He was educated
to be the head of the Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism as well as the successor to the throne of Sakya, the third most important political position in Tibet in early times. But the Communist Chinese occupation of Tibet, and the peril that ensued, precipitated his departure from the world his family had known for generations, and led him to a new role as a leader in the transmission of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.
His immigration in 1960 makes him one of the first Tibetans-in-exile in North America. He is the first Head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism to live in the United States. From the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Seattle, Washington, and its precursor (which he co-founded in 1974), he has taught and preserved Tibetan culture and religion. Because he is also a
Dagchen Rinpoche is in the twenty-sixth generation of the Sakya-Khön lineage descended from Khön Gönchok Gyalpo and is regarded as an emanation of Manjushri as well as the rebirth of a Sakya Abbot from the Ngor sub-school, Ewam Luding Khenchen (The Great Abbot from the Luding family) Gyase Chökyi Nyima.
Life
Education and Early Adulthood
As imminent successor to the throne of Sakya, Dagchen Rinpoche was first tutored by the abbot of the South Monastery of Sakya and by the Secretary of the Sakya Government. With these two teachers, Rinpoche studied the Tibetan alphabet, composition, classical literature, philosophy, and the Four Classes of Tantra (esoteric Buddhism). He also received teachings on the Sakya meditation deities. From Pönlop Sakya of the North Monastery, Dagchen Rinpoche learned the fundamental esoteric religious rites of the Sakya tradition: religious music, mandala offering, dancing, and ritual hand gestures.
After having successfully completed this training, Dagchen Rinpoche received from his father the unbroken Sakya-Khon lineage transmission of Vajrakilaya (a meditational deity whose name means the “Dagger of Indestructible Reality”), and the complete Lamdre Tsokshey (The Path and Its Fruit in its more exoteric form), which is the main teaching of the Sakya tradition. Thus, Rinpoche’s first root lama (his primary spiritual teacher) was his father, Trichen Nawang Thutop Wangchuk.
In 1950, at age 21, Dagchen Rinpoche took a bride: Sonam Tsezom, who descends from a family of lamas and doctors of East Tibet (Kham). She is the niece of His Eminence Deshung Rinpoche III. When she married her name became Jamyang and her title Dagmo Kusho.
Later that year Dagchen Rinpoche’s father passed away. Rinpoche suddenly became the interim Throne-holder. Concurrently, Communist Chinese invaders were threatening Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. After a short reign as the head of the Sakya sect, during which Rinpoche’s right to hold the Sakya throne was put into question, he took a leave of absence as ruler of Sakya in order to travel to East Tibet to complete his religious education.
In East Tibet, Dagchen Rinpoche received teachings from fourteen lamas. Among them were his root lamas,
Emigration to the United States
In 1959, owing to the violent changes taking place in Tibet, Dagchen Rinpoche and his family (including his younger brother Trinly Rinpoche and his wife’s uncle Deshung Rinpoche III) fled to Bhutan and then to India. Professor
A Non-Sectarian Seattle Lama
In 1974 Dagchen Rinpoche co-founded, with Deshung Rinpoche III, his wife’s uncle, the original Sakya Dharma Center in Seattle called Sakya Tegchen Choling. In 1984, the group reorganized under Dagchen Rinpoche, and adopted the name of Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism.
For the purpose of the preservation of Tibetan culture and religion, Dagchen Rinpoche has overseen the religious activities and administration of the center/Monastery since its inception. His spiritual leadership takes various forms: leading meditations, giving teachings and
Ancestry
His Revered Ancestors
Lineage is all-important in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and Dagchen Rinpoche’s lineage is traditionally revered for its holiness. It extends back for over a thousand years. His father was Trichen (“Great Throne-holder”) Nawang Tutop Wangchuk, the last great throne-holder of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet, and his mother was Gyalyum (“Mother of the Khön Children”) Dechen Drolma.
Dagchen Rinpoche’s family lineage is thought of as divine because family records and Tibetan histories state that his family is descended from celestial beings from the realm of heavenly clear light. Five generations of these celestial beings are said to have lived in Tibet. A famous ancestor of his from the late eighth century was Khön Lu’i Wangpo (Nagendrarakshita), one of the first seven Tibetans ordained as a Buddhist monk, a noted translator, and a personal disciple of Padmasambhava (who erected the very first Tibetan Buddhist monastery called Samye). Since the 11th century, the Sakya male progenies are also regarded as emanations of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom;
The Sakya Name
In 1042,
It was at the same site of pale earth some thirty years later, in 1073, that Khön Gönchok Gyalpo (1034-1102), ancestor of Dagchen Rinpoche, built the first Sakya Monastery. The monastery took its name from the pale earth (in Tibetan “sa-kya”) where the monastery was founded. Subsequently, the town that arose there, the family of the monastery’s founder (the Khön lineage), and the school of Tibetan Buddhism took the name of the monastery: Sakya. The Sakya name is also renowned for having lamas as rulers of Tibet. The Sakya patriarch,
A Special Kind of Tibetan Buddhist Lama
In Tibetan Buddhism there are several ways to become a lama (a spiritual teacher and guide). Some lamas are recognized as rebirths of former lamas called Tulkus. Some of these are also considered to be emanations of bodhisattvas. The