Gyeltsabje Darma Rinchen
Gyeltsabje Darma Richen. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.
b.1364 – d.1432
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: U དབུས།
Historical Period: 14th Century ༡༤ དུས་རབས། / 15th Century ༡༥ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ganden དགའ་ལྡན་།; Sangpu Neutok གསང་ཕུ་ནེའུ་ཐོག།; Tsetang རྩེད་ཐང་།; Sakya Monastery ས་སྐྱ་དགོན་པ།
Offices Held: Second Ganden Tripa of Ganden
Name Variants: Darma Rinchen དར་མ་རིན་ཆེན།; Ganden Tripa 02 Darma Rinchen དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༠༢ དར་མ་རིན་ཆེན།; Gyeltsabje Darma Rinchen རྒྱལ་ཚབ་རྗེ་དར་མ་རིན་ཆེན།; Trichen 02 ཁྲི་ཆེན ༠༢།
Gyeltsab Darma Rinchen (rgyal tshab rje dar ma rin chen) was born in either 1362 or 1364, in a place called Rinang, in Nyangto, Tsang (gtsang myang stod ri nang). His father was a horse-master for a ruling family named Ba (rba); his mother was named Jomo Sherab (jo mo shes rab).
An old thangka with Gyeltsabje Darma Rinchen. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.
At the age of ten he met Nenyingpa Rinchen Gyeltsen (gnas rnying pa rin chen rgyal mtshan, 14th c.) and a lama named Draktokpa Zhonnu Tshultrim (brag thog pa gzhon nu tshul khrims, d.u.) and received novice vows. They gave him the name Darma Rinchen.
He studied epistemology with a lama named Kunga Pel (kun dga’ dpal), and Prajnaparamita with Kabzhipa Rinchen Dorje (bka’ bzhi pa rin chen rdo rje, 14th c.). A lama named Lodro Zangpo or Kabzhipa Losel (blo gros bzang po / dka’ bzhi pa blo gsal) taught him the Vinaya. He also studied with Rendawa Zhonnu Lodro (red mda’ ba gzhon nu blo gros, 1349-1412), a prominent Madhyamaka master of the Ngok tradition (rngog lugs), and is counted among Rendawa’s seven close disciples.
Tsetang monastery was first founded as a Kagyu monastery in 1350 by Tai Situ Jangchub Gyeltsen as a branch of Densatil. It was later converted to a Geluk monastery in the 18th century during the time of the Seventh Dalai Lama. Click on image to enlarge.
Darma Rinchen studied at Sakya Monastery (sa skya dgon), the Kadam monastery of Sangpu (gsang phu), and the Kagyu monastery Tsetang (rtse thang), which was later converted to the Geluk tradition. He is said to have engaged in philosophical debate with the Sakya masters Rongton Sheja Kunrig (rong ston shes bya kun rig, 1367-1449) and Khenchen Yagpa (mkhan chen g.yag pa), emerging victorious both times.
At the age of twenty-five he took ordination in Lato with Doklo Choje Kunga Pel (ldog lho pa chos rje kun dga’ dpal), Rendawa, Je Gangchen Kunga Pelwa (rje gangs can kun dga’ dpal ba), Pelden Lodro (dpal ldan blo gros), and Lodro Tsungme (blo gros mtshungs med).
Going to U to study in monasteries there, at Nyelto Radrong (gnyal stod ra grong) he encountered Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa (tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357-1419), the brilliant scholar monk from Amdo who was then establishing his teaching base in the Lhasa area. He became one of Tsongkhapa‘s main disciples, and is generally depicted sitting to the left of the master.
Darma Rinchen was instrumental in the establishment of Ganden Namgyel Ling (dga’ ldan rnam rgyal gling) in 1409. He assisted in ordaining monks and establishing the ritual calendar.
Following Tsongkhapa‘s death in 1419, at the age of fifty-four or fifty-six Darma Rinchen ascended to the golden throne of Ganden, becoming the Second Ganden Tripa (dga’ ldan khri pa), the official head of the Geluk tradition. It was at that time that he acquired the title Gyeltsab (rgyal tshab), the “regent” of Tsongkhapa.
A line drawing of Jamgon Gyeltsab Darma Rinchen. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.
He held the abbacy for eleven years, occupying his time in exposition, debate, and composition (‘chad rtsod rtsom gsum). In 1431, the year before he passed away, he passed the abbot’s throne to one of Tsongkhapa’s other disciples, Khedrub Gelek Pelzang (mkhas grub dge legs dpal bzang, 1385-1438), who thus became the Third Ganden Tripa.
Gyeltsab was a prolific author, composing works on Madhyamaka, Epistemology, and the Guhyasamaja, among other topics. Among his best known works are his commentary on the Bodhisattvacaryavatara (spyod ‘jug rtsa ‘grel). His collected works are in eight volumes.
He passed away at the age of sixty-seven or sixty-nine, in 1432, on the eighth day of the fifth month of the male water-mouse year, on the Potala hill in Lhasa.
རྒྱལ་ཚབ་རྗེ་དར་མ་རིན་ཆེན།
རྒྱལ་ཚབ་དར་མ་རིན་ཆེན་ནི་རྗེ་ཙོང་ཁ་པའི་ཐུགས་སྲས་གཙོ་བོ་ཞིག་ཡིན། ཁོང་ནས་དབུ་མའི་ལྟ་བ་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་གསང་སྔགས་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་གཞུང་ལུགས་མང་པོ་བརྩམས་ཤིང་། དེའི་ཁོངས་ནས་གྲགས་ཆེ་བ་ནི་སྤྱོད་འཇུག་རྣམ་བཤད་སོགས་ཡིན། ཕྱི་ལོ་༡༤༡༩ ལོར་རྗེ་ཙོང་ཁ་པ་ཆེན་པོ་དགོངས་པ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའི་རྗེས་སུ་ཁོང་དགའ་ལྡན་དགོན་པའི་མཁན་པོར་མངའ་གསོལ་ཞིང་། སྐུའི་བཀོད་པ་མ་བསྡུས་ཀྱི་བར་དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ་ཞེས་ཡོངས་སུ་གྲགས་པའི་མཚན་གནས་དང་འགན་དབང་བདག་གིར་བཞེས།
Images
In this thangka, the central figure of Shakyamuni Buddha is shown with Tsongkhapa and primary disciples in the upper left corner. Below are protector deities. Image credit: HimalayanArt.org.
A painting of Tsongkhapa, founder of the Geluk tradition, with the two principal students, Gyaltsab on the left and Khedrub on the right. Image credit: HimalayanArt.org
Tsongkhapa, founder of the Geluk tradition, with the two principal students, Gyaltsab on the left and Khedrubje on the right. Image credit: HimalayanArt.org.
A very early — possibly the earliest known — portrait of Tsongkhapa narrating his life story. Image credit: HimalayanArt.org.
Teachers
- rin chen rgyal mtshan རིན་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
- rin chen rdo rje རིན་ཆེན་རྡོ་རྗེ།
- Rendawa Zhonnu Lodro རེད་མདའ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་བློ་གྲོས། b.1349 – d.1412
- Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa ཙོང་ཁ་པ་བློ་བཟང་གྲགས་པ། b.1357 – d.1419
Students
- rin chen bsam ‘grub རིན་ཆེན་བསམ་འགྲུབ།
- Duldzin Drakpa Gyeltsen འདུལ་འཛིན་གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1374 – d.1434
- shAkya rgyal mtshan ཤཱཀྱ་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
- Jamyang Choje Tashi Pelden འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཆོས་རྗེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་ལྡན། b.1379 – d.1449
- dpal ldan don grub དཔལ་ལྡན་དོན་གྲུབ། b.1382 – d.1466
- rgyal mtshan bzang po རྒྱལ་མཚན་བཟང་པོ། b.1383 – d.1450
- The Seventh Ganden Tripa, Lodro Tenpa དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༠༧ བློ་གྲོས་བརྟན་པ། b.1402 – d.1476
- Khedrubje Gelek Pelzang མཁས་གྲུབ་རྗེ་དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང། b.1385 – d.1438
- blo gros rgya mtsho བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
- The First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༡ དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་པ། b.1391 – d.1474
- blo gros rgyal mtshan བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1402 – d.1472
Bibliography
- Grags pa ‘byung gnas. 1992. Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon ming mdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 407-408
- Sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho. 1989 (1698). Dga’ ldan chos ‘byung baiDU r+ya ser po. Beijing: Krung go bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, pp.73-75.
- 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 mtshan mdzes pa’i rgyan mchog phul byung nor bu’i phreng ba. New Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo. Volume 1, pp. 814-822.
- Ye shes rgyal mtshan. 1990. Sras kyi thu bo rgyal tshab dar ma rin chen gyi rnam thar. In Lam rim bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar, pp. 386-394. Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang.
Source: Alexandar Gardner, “Gyeltsab Darma Rinchen”, Treasury of Lives, accessed July 13, 2018, https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Gyeltsab-Darma-Rinchen/9095
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 August 2010
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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Gyeltsab Darma Rinchen was born, in the Tsang province of central Tibet. He received novice vows at the age of ten after meeting Nenyingpa Rinchen Gyeltsen and a lama named Draktokpa Zhonnu Tshultrim . He was a famous student of Je Tsongkhapa, and actually became the first throne holder at Ganden monastery of the Gelug tradition after Je Tsongkhapa’s death. Gyeltsab Dharma Rinchen. Gyaltsab Je was a prolific writer and composed many books.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
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