Dromton Gyelwa Jungne
Dromton Gyelwa Jungne. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.
འབྲོམ་སྟོན་རྒྱལ་བའི་འབྱུང་གནས།
b.1004 – d.1064
Tradition: Kadam བཀའ་གདམས་པ།
Geography: Tolung Dechen County སྟོད་ལུང་བདེ་ཆེན་ཛོང།
Historical Period: 11th Century ༡༡ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Reting Monastery རྭ་སྒྲེང།; Gyelje རྒྱལ་བྱེད་དགོན།
Clan: Drom འབྲོམ།
Name Variants: Gyelwa Jungne རྒྱལ་བའི་འབྱུང་གནས།
Dromtonpa Gyelwa Jungne (‘brom ston rgyal ba ‘byung gnas) was born in Tolung (stod lung) in 1004 or 1005, into the Drom (‘brom) clan. His father was Kushen Yaksherpen (sku gshen yag gsher ‘phen) and his mother was Kuoza Lenchikma (khu ‘od bza’ lan gcig ma). He was given the name Chopel (chos ‘phel).
Atisa Dipamkara. Image credit: Treasury of Lives. Click on image to enlarge.
As a youth he studied reading and writing for four years with Geshe Yungcho (dge bshes g.yung chos mgon). He took lay vows with Nanam Dorje Wangchuk (sna nam rdo rje dbang phyug, 976-1060), who gave him the name Gyelwai Jungne.
At the age of nineteen he studied Madhyamaka, rituals, and Nyingma tantra with a lama with the title Trumkyi Khenbu Chenpo Setsun (grum gyi mkhan bu chen po se btsun). With Pandita Smrti (paNDita smr ti) he studied Sanskrit and grammar. He never ordained, but apparently left home after a dispute with his step-mother.
In 1042, at the age of thirty eight, he went to Purang (spu hrangs) to meet Atisa Dipamkara and became his chief Tibetan disciple. Alternately, the two met in Penyul (phan yul).
An exceptional painting of the Third Nenang Pawo surrounded by hierarchs of the Karma Kagyu and other traditions. Dromtonpa is depicted on the lower left (second from bottom). Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.
Dromtonpa has come down in history as both an enforcer of Second Propagation ethical standards and a holder of Atisa’s tantric lineage. According to the Blue Annals, Dromton was charged with expelling tantric practitioners from Atisa’s audience, this despite the fact that at Samye Chimpu (bsam yas ‘chims phu) Atisa gave Dromton initiation into tantric systems, including the Doha tradition of Bengal. The Blue Annals credits him with revising the translations of both sutra and tantras, including the Astasahastrika Prajnaparamita, and the Jnanasiddhi Tantra.
Following Atisa’s death in 1054, Dromton took many of Atisa’s disciples and returned to Tolung. While there he was invited by a number of local lords to Reting (rwa sgreng), where, in 1057, at the age of fifty-four, he constructed a monastery, primarily under the patronage of Trangka / Pangka Berchung (‘phrang kha / phang kha ber chung). Despite remaining a layman, he was renowned for his teachings on monastic precepts.
A thangka of Potowa Rinchen Sal Chokle Namgyel. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.
Dromton’s three chief disciples were Potowa Rinchen Sal Chokle Namgyel (po to ba rin chen gsal phyogs las rnam rgyal, 1027-1105), Puchungwa Zhonnu Gyeltsen (phu chung ba gzhon nu rgyal mtshan, 1031-1106) and Chennga Tsultrim Bar (spyan snga tshul khrims ’bar, 1038-1103).
Dromtonpa died at Reting in 1064 at the age of sixty.
Teachers
- rdo rje dbang phyug རྡོ་རྗེ་དབང་ཕྱུག། b.976 – d.1060
- chos mgon ཆོས་མགོན།
- Atisa Dipamkara ཨ་ཏི་ཤ་དཱི་པཾ་ཀ་ར། b.982 – d.1055?
Students
- stong btsan སྟོང་བཙན།
- Gonpawa Wangchuk Gyeltsen དགོན་པ་བ་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1016 – d.1083
- Potowa Rinchen Sel པོ་ཏོ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་གསལ། b.1027 – d.1105
- Naktso Lotsawa Tsultrim Gyelwa ནག་འཚོ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱལ་བ། b.1011 – d.1064
- shAkya yon tan ཤཱཀྱ་ཡོན་ཏན། b.1023 – d.1115
- tshul khrims ‘bar ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་འབར། b.1038 – d.1103
- nam mkha’i go cha ནམ་མཁའི་གོ་ཆ།
Bibliography
- Bsod nams grags pa. Bka gdams rin po che’i chos ’byung rnam thar nyin mor byed pa’i ’od snang. In Two Histories of the Bka’-gdams-pa Tradition. Gangtok: Gonpo tseten.
- ’Jam mgon a myes zhabs. 1634. Bka’ gdams chos ’byung.
- Khetsun Sangpo. 1973. Biographical Dictionary of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. Dharamsala: LTWA, Vol. 17.
- Grags pa ’byung gnas. 1992. Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon ming mdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 1252-1254.
- Mi nyag mgon po. 1996. Gangs can mkhas dbang rim byon gyi rnam thar mdor bsdus. Beijing: Krung go’i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, vol. 2, pp. 6-13.
- Tshe mchog gling yongs ’dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan. 1970 (1787). Byang chub lam gyi rim pa’i bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam par thar pa rgyal bstan mdzes pa’i rgyan mchog phul byung nor bu’i phreng ba. Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo.
Source: Alexander Gardner, “Dromton Gyelwa Jungne,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 23, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Dromton-Gyelwa-Jungne/4267.
Alexander Gardner is Director and Chief Editor of the Treasury of Lives. He completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007.
Published February 2010
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Dromtonpa-Gyelwai-Jungne/p2557. Click on image to enlarge.
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Dromtonpa Gyelwa Jungne was the chief disciple of the Buddhist master Atiśa. Dromtonpa is considered to be the 45th incarnation of Avalokiteśvara. He was the founder of the Kadampa school of Tibetan Buddhism, where he founded Reting Monastery in Lhasa China. He was renowned for his teachings on monastic precepts. Short interesting read .
Thank you Rinpoche for this short sharing.
The teacher-disciple relationship between the great Atisa and his chief Tibetan disciple Dromtonpa is to be repeated once again during the last century in the form of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche (an incarnation of the great Atisa) and the 14th Dalai Lama (an incarnation of Dromtonpa).
The fact that both of these lamas who count as part of the greatest lamas of all time, have reincarnated again and again to turn the wheel of Dharma and in the form of teacher-disciple, just shows their very highest attainments.
It is sad that the 14th Dalai Lama has had to resort to insinuating that his teacher Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was practising a rogue practice in the form of Dorje Shugden, which is not only harmful to us mortal beings but also to the very highest lamas such as the 14th Dalai Lama, and who is also surprisingly admitting impotence against a little perfidious spirit from Dol. It is even sadder that many have bought into this defamatory campaign showing their very narrow and limited thinking.
If Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was wrong in wholeheartedly relying on Dorje Shugden, then Atisa who is of the same mindstream would also be guilty of making big mistakes. If this is so, then we might as well forget about relying on the teachings of the Kadam-Gelug tradition for if the highest of the highest lamas in this these traditions can be so wrong, what is there to say that the other “lower” lamas are not wrong either?
It would be the end of the Kadam-Gelug tradition. Really THE END.
Dromtonpa Gyelwa Jungne was born in Tolung ,Tibet and is considered to be the 45th incarnation of Avalokiteśvara. He was one of the primary disciples of Atiśa and a member of the early lineage of the Dalai Lamas. Following Atisa’s death , Dromton took many of Atisa’s disciples and returned to Tolung and founded Reting Monastery in the Reting Tsampo Valley north of Lhasa.. He was renowned for his teachings.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Nice short video of a new LED signage reminding us of who we can go to for blessings in case of need: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwrkaKUoH0
Listening to the chanting of sacred words, melodies, mantras, sutras and prayers has a very powerful healing effect on our outer and inner environments. It clears the chakras, spiritual toxins, the paths where our ‘chi’ travels within our bodies for health as well as for clearing the mind. It is soothing and relaxing but at the same time invigorates us with positive energy. The sacred sounds invite positive beings to inhabit our environment, expels negative beings and brings the sound of growth to the land, animals, water and plants. Sacred chants bless all living beings on our land as well as inanimate objects. Do download and play while in traffic to relax, when you are about to sleep, during meditation, during stress or just anytime. Great to play for animals and children. Share with friends the blessing of a full Dorje Shugden puja performed at Kechara Forest Retreat by our puja department for the benefit of others. Tsem Rinpoche
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbzgskLKxT8&t=5821s