Khedrubje Gelek Pelzang
Khedrupje Gelek Pelzang. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.
མཁས་གྲུབ་རྗེ་དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང།
b.1385 – d.1438
Incarnations: Panchen Lama པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ་།
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Gyantse རྒྱལ་རྩེ།
Historical Period: 15th Century ༡༥ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ganden དགའ་ལྡན་།
Clan: Se བསེ།
Offices Held: Third Ganden Tripa of Ganden
Name Variants: Ganden Tripa 03 Gelek Pelzang ཁྲི ༠༣ དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང།; Gelek Pelzang དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་བཟང།; Khedrubje མཁས་གྲུབ་རྗེ།
Khedrubje Gelek Pelzang (mkhas grub rje dge legs dpal bzang) was born in Tsang in 1385. His father, Gunga Tashi Pelzang (kun dga’ bkra shis dpal bzang, d.u.), was a member of the Se clan, said to have originated in Khotan, and his mother was Budren Gyelmo (bu ‘dren rgyal mo, d.u.).
His name Gelek Pelzang was given to him as a child when he took novice ordination at the age of seven from Khenchen Sengge Gyeltsen (mkhen chen seng ge rgyal mtshan, d.u.). From the age of sixteen he studied at the Sakya monastery of Ngamring Chode (ngam ring chos sde), training with Bodong Panchen Jikdrel Chokle Namgyel (bo dong paN chen ‘jigs bral phyogs las rnam rgyal, 1376-1451), the founder of the Bodong tradition, who taught him logic and philosophy.
When Gelek Pelzang was twenty-one he studied with Rendawa Zhonnu Lodro (red mda’ ba gzhon nu blo gros, 1349-1412), with whom he took full ordination. He studied Darmakirti’s Pramanavarttika, Abhidharma, and the Five Books of Maitreya, Nagarjuna’s works on Madhyamaka, and the Vinaya.
At the age of twenty-three, in 1407, he went to U to meet with Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa (tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357-1419) at Sera Choding (se ra chos sdings – not to be confused with the famous Sera Monastery). Khedrub Je received instructions on both sutra and tantra from Tsongkhapa, and soon became one of his most devoted disciples, receiving teachings alongside Tsongkhapa’s other disciples such as Gyeltsabje Darma Rinchen (rgyal tshab rje dar ma rin chen, 1364-1432) and Duldzin Drakpa Gyeltsen (‘dul ‘dzin grags pa rgyal mtshan, 1374-1434).
Gelek Pelzang returned to Tsang and assumed the abbacy of Changra Monastery (lcang ra). He also founded the monasteries of Riwo Dangchen (ri bo ‘dangs chen) and, at age thirty-four, was involved in the establishment of Pelkhor Chode (dpal ‘khor chos sde) in Gyantse (rgyal rtse), under the patronage of the Gyantse king, Rabten Kunzang Pak (rab brtan kun bzang ‘phags, 1389-1442).
Khedrubje is depicted making an offering to his Guru, Je Tsongkhapa. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.
At the age of forty-seven, in 1431, Gelek Pelzang was asked by Gyeltsab to take the golden throne of Ganden (dga’ ldan gser khri), becoming the third man to occupy the seat after Tsongkhapa and Gyeltsab Darma Rinchen (rgyal tshab dar ma rin chen, c.1364-1432).
At Ganden Khedrub taught extensively, gave many initiations, and personally guided some of the most renowned scholars of the era to mastery of the tradition. He passed away there in 1438, at the age of fifty-three.
He was posthumously given the title of First Panchen Lama by virtue of being considered a pre-incarnation of the Fourth Panchen, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen (blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan, 1570-1662).
Images
A painting of Tsongkapa, founder of the Geluk tradition, with the two principal students, Gyaltsab on the left and Khedrub on the right. Image credit: HimalayanArt.org
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.
In this thangka, on the left, Khedrupje is depicted while thinking of his great teacher, Tsongkhapa, who appears above him on a cloud. On the middle right, Khedrubje is making an offering to Tsongkhapa. On the lower right, Khedrubje is seated while editing a manuscript. 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.
Teachers
- Duldzin Drakpa Gyeltsen འདུལ་འཛིན་གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1374 – d.1434
- Jampel Gyatso འཇམ་དཔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1356 – d.1428
- shes rab dpal bzang ཤེས་རབ་དཔལ་བཟང།
- bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
- rin chen rgyal mtshan རིན་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
- kun dga’ rgyal mtshan ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1382 – d.1446
- seng+ge rgyal mtshan སེངྒེ་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
- Rendawa Zhonnu Lodro རེད་མདའ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་བློ་གྲོས། b.1349 – d.1412
- dpal ‘byor shes rab དཔལ་འབྱོར་ཤེས་རབ།
- blo gros mtshungs med བློ་གྲོས་མཚུངས་མེད།
- 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
- Sherab Sengge ཤེས་རབ་སེངྒེ། b.1383 – d.1445
- rin chen rgya mtsho རིན་ཆེན་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
- The Fourth Ganden Tripa, Lekpa Gyeltsen དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༠༤ ལེགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1375 – d.1450
- bzang po rgyal mtshan བཟང་པོ་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
- Baso Chokyi Gyeltsen བ་སོ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1402 – d.1473
- rgyal mtshan bzang po རྒྱལ་མཚན་བཟང་པོ། b.1383 – d.1450
- Chowang Drakpa ཆོས་དབང་གྲགས་པ། b.1404 – d.1469
- bsod nams mchog grub grags bzang བསོད་ནམས་མཆོག་གྲུབ་གྲགས་བཟང། b.1399 – d.1452
- chos ldan rab ‘byor ཆོས་ལྡན་རབ་འབྱོར།
- blo gros rgyal mtshan བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1402 – d.1472
- The Fifth Ganden Tripa, Lodro Chokyong དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༠༥ བློ་གྲོས་ཆོས་སྐྱོང། b.1389 – d.1463
- Jangsem Sherab Zangpo བྱང་སེམས་ཤེས་རབ་བཟང་པོ། b.1395 – d.1457
Subsequent Incarnations
- bsod nams phyogs glang བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོགས་གླང། b.1439 – d.1504
- The Second Panchen Lama, Sonam Chokyi Langpo པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༢ བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ། b.1439 – d.1504
- The Third Panchen Lama, Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༣ དབེན་ས་པ་བློ་བཟང་དོན་གྲུབ། b.1505 – d.1556
- The Fourth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༤ བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1570 – d.1662
- The Fifth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Yeshe པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༥ བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས། b.1663 – d.1737
- The Sixth Panchen Lama, dpal ldan ye shes པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༦ དཔལ་ལྡན་ཡེ་ཤེས། b.1738 – d.1780
- The Seventh Panchen Lama, bstan pa’i nyi ma པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༧ བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ། b.1782 – d.1853
- The Eighth Panchen Lama, Tenpai Wangchuk པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༨ བསྟན་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག། d.1882
- The Ninth Panchen Lama, thub bstan chos kyi nyi ma པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༩ ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ། b.1883 – d.1937
- The Tenth Panchen Lama, phrin las lhun grub chos kyi rgyal mtshan པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༡༠ ཕྲིན་ལས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1938 – d.1989
Bibliography
- Cabezon, Jose Ignacio. 1992. A Dose of Emptiness: An Annotated Translation of the sTong thun chen mo of mKhas grub dge legs dpal bzang. Albany: State University of New York Press
- Grags pa ‘byung gnas. 1992. Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon ming mdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 219-221
- 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, p. 75-76
- 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, vol 1, pp. 877 ff.
Source: Miranda Adams, “Khedrubje Gelek Pelzang”, Treasury of Lives, accessed July 13, 2018, https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Khedrubje-Gelek-Pelzang/8027
Miranda Adams
Published August 2007
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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Khedrupje Gelek Pelzang was born in Tsang, who was known as Khedrup Je . He was one of the main disciples of Je Tsongkhapa and is considered to be an emanation of Manjusri, the Buddha of Wisdom. Interesting according to the legend, after Tsongkhapa died , Khedrub Je on five occasions met with him in mystical states. Kedrub Jey is most remembered as a teacher, as well as for the many excellent commentaries that he wrote on the tantric lineages. He played an important role in the education of the First Dalai Lama, who was the youngest of Tsongkhapa’s five chief disciples. Khedrub Je wrote an important text on Kalachakra that is still used by the current 14th Dalai Lama. He also wrote many prayer books and gave teachings to many thousands of people where they have had meditated upon his teachings and achieved realizations.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article which is extremely useful for our knowledge.
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