Jamyang Choje Tashi Pelden
Jamyang Choje Tashi Pelden. Image credit: HimalayanArt.org.
འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཆོས་རྗེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་ལྡན།
b.1379 – d.1449
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Lhasa ལྷ་ས།
Historical Period: 14th Century ༡༤ དུས་རབས། / 15th Century ༡༥ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ganden དགའ་ལྡན་།; Drepung Monastery འབྲས་སྤུངས་།; Sangpu Neutok གསང་ཕུ་ནེའུ་ཐོག།
Offices Held: First Throne Holder of Drepung Monastery
Name Variants: Tashi Pelden བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་ལྡན།
Jamyang Choje Tashi Pelden (‘jam dbyangs chos rje bkra shis ldan) was born in 1379, the earth-sheep year in the sixth sexagenary cycle, at Samye (bsam yas). His father is known simply as Genyen (dge bsnyen) and his mother’s name is unknown. He was ordained as a monk at Tsetang Monastery (rtse thang), which at that time was still a Kagyu monastery, but appears to have already been in the process of converting to the Geluk tradition, since while he was there, Tashi Pelden is said to have memorized Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa‘s (tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357-1419) the Golden Garland of Eloquence (legs bshad gser phreng).
At Sangpu (gsang phu) Monastery he received teachings on Prajnaparamita and logical reasoning from Nyelgo Rinchen Samdrub (gnyal rgod rin chen bsam ‘grub, 14th century) and Denma Konchok Sengge (ldan ma dkon mchog seng ge, 14th century). At Kyormolung (skyor mo lung) he received teachings on Vinaya and Abhidharma. At Ganden Monastery (dga’ ldan dgon) Tsongkhapa taught him his Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path (lam rim chen mo) and Great Exposition of the Stages of Secret Mantra (sngags rim chen mo), as well as other compositions. He also received full ordination from Tsongkhapa.
A very early — possibly the earliest known — portrait of Tsongkhapa narrating his life story. Image credit: HimalayanArt.org.
Tsongkhapa gave Jamyang Choje a conch shell he had revealed as treasure from near Ganden, and asked him to establish a monastery. In 1416, with the patronage of the Pakmodru (phag mo gru) ruler of Tibet, the Lord of Neu (sne’u dpon), Namkha Zangpo, he founded Drepung Monastery. Tsongkhapa consecrated the main prayer hall and tantric temple. The monastery quickly expanded into seven colleges: Gomang (sgo mang); Losel Ling (blo gsal gling); Deyang (bde dbyangs); Shakkor Gyelwa (shag skor rgyal ba), also known as Tosam Ling (thos bsam gling); Dulwa (‘dul ba); and Ngakpa (sngags pa). Jamyang Choje, who is counted as the first abbot of the monastery, appointed the teachers to each college.
He is said to have mastered eight volumes of works that he taught regularly, and to have given oral commentary on one hundred and thirty volumes of texts. He is also said to have recited the mantras of Avalokitesvara and Manjushri thousands of times each day, and to have given away his possessions to monks. His only extant works are The Secret Biography of Tsongkhapa (tsong kha pa’i gsang ba’i rnam thar) and notes from a teaching Tsongkhapa gave at Reting (rwa sgreng) Monastery on Santideva’s Compendium of Teachings (siksasamuccaya).
Among his closest disciples were Nyenpo Shakya Gyeltsen (nyan po shAkya rgyal mtshan, 14th century), Lobpon Galeb (slob dpon sga leb, 14th century), and Nyakre Dorje Gyeltsen (nyag re rdo rje rgyal mtshan), and he served as teacher to numerous early abbots of Geluk monasteries in Lhasa.
He remained at Drepung Monastery until 1449, when he passed away in meditation at the age of seventy-one.
Teachers
- rin chen bsam ‘grub རིན་ཆེན་བསམ་འགྲུབ།
- dkon mchog seng+ge དཀོན་མཆོག་སེངྒེ།
- Duldzin Drakpa Gyeltsen འདུལ་འཛིན་གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1374 – d.1434
- Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa ཙོང་ཁ་པ་བློ་བཟང་གྲགས་པ། b.1357 – d.1419
- Gyeltsabje Darma Rinchen རྒྱལ་ཚབ་རྗེ་དར་མ་རིན་ཆེན། b.1364 – d.1432
Students
- shAkya rgyal mtshan ཤཱཀྱ་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
- nam mkha’ blo gros ནམ་མཁའ་བློ་གྲོས།
- The Tenth Ganden Tripa, Yeshe Zangpo དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༡༠ ཡེ་ཤེས་བཟང་པོ། b.1415 – d.1498
- Taktsang Lotsawa Sherab Rinchen སྟག་ཚང་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཤེས་རབ་རིན་ཆེན། b.1405 – d.1477
- The Eighth Ganden Tripa, Monlam Pelwa དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༠༨ སྨོན་ལམ་དཔལ་བ། b.1414 – d.1491
- Lodro Rinchen Sengge བློ་གྲོས་རིན་ཆེན་སེངྒེ། b.late 14th cent. – d.late 15th cent.
Bibliography
- Blo bzang tshul khrims. 2006. Dpal ldan ‘bras spungs chags ‘debs pa po ‘jam dbyangs chos rje bkra shis dpal ldan gyi rnam thar. In Rje tsong kha pa’i rnam thar chen mo, pp. 429-443. Beijing: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang. TBRC W2DB4600.
- Bsod nams grags pa. 1982-1990. ‘Jam dbyangs chos rje bkra shis dpal ldan gyi rnam thar dang gang gi gdan sa dpal ldan ‘bras spungs phyag ‘debs tshul sogs ‘chad pa. In Gsung ‘bum bsod nams grags pa, vol. 11, pp. 181-202. Mondgod: Drepung Loseling Library Society. TBRC W23828.
- Bsod nams grags pa. 2001. ‘Jam dbyangs chos rje’i skor. In Bka’ gdams gsar rnying gi chos ‘byung, pp. 109-114. Lhasa: Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang. TBRC W933.
- Bsod nams grags pa. 2007. ‘Jam byangs chos rje. In Bka’ gdams gsar rnying gi chos ‘byung yid kyi mdzes rgyan, pp. 118-126. Ngawa: Rnga yul kirti dgon dge dlan legs bshad gling. TBRC W1KG4257.
- Dge ‘dun blo gros. 1974. ‘Bras spungs phyag ‘debs pa po ‘jam dbyangs chos rje’i rnam thar. In ‘Bras spungs chos ‘byung, pp. 136-142 Wiesbaden: Steiner. TBRC W2CZ8087.
- Mi nyag mgon po. 2000. ‘Jam dbyangs chos rje bkra shis dpal ldan gyi rnam thar mdor bsdus. In Gangs can mkhas dbang rim byon gyi rnam thar mdor bsdus, pp. 142-145. Beijing: Krung go’i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang. TBRC W25268.
- Mkhyen brtse’i dbang po. 1977-1980. ‘Jam dbyangs chos rje bkra shis dpal ldan pas po sti brgya’i tshig dang don bcas thugs la bzung nas ‘chad pa’i rkang grangs la. In Gsung ‘bum mkhyen brtse’i dbang po. Gangtok, Gonpo Tseten, vol. 19, pp. 82-84. TBRC W21807.
- Ye shes rgyal mtshan. 1990. Bkra shis dpal ldan gyi rnam thar. In Lam rim bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar, pp. 394-397. Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang. TBRC W1CZ2730.
Source: Thinlay Gyatso, “Jamyang Choje Tashi Pelden ,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 13, 2018, https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Jamyang-Choje-Tashi-Pelden/p35.
Thinlay Gyatso is an academic researcher at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. Born in Amdo and educated at Labrang and in India, he has published several translations, including An Undercover Journey Through Tibet, by Ajam (from Tibetan to English) and Bertrand Russel’s On Education: Especially in Early Childhood (from English to Tibetan).
Published May 2014
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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Interesting short biography of Jamyang Choje Tashi Pelden who was a disciple of Je Tsong Khapa the founder of Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism.. He was ordained as a monk at Tsetang Monastery. He received teachings and received full ordination from Je Tsong Khapa. Amazing he have had mastered eight volumes of works that he taught regularly to many students in monasteries he had established over the time. He did served as teacher to numerous early abbots of Geluk monasteries in Lhasa. He had spent his whole life to benefit many till his passing.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
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