Muchen Sempa Chenpo Konchok Gyeltsen
Muchen Sempa Chenpo Konchok Gyeltsen (left) and Gorampa Sonam Sengge (right). Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.
མུས་ཆེན་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
b.1388 – d.1469
Tradition: Sakya ས་སྐྱ།
Geography: Sakya ས་སྐྱ།
Historical Period: 15th Century ༡༥ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ngor Ewam Choden ངོར་ཨེ་ཝཾ་ཆོས་ལྡན།; Lingga Dewachen གླིང་དགའ་བདེ་བ་ཅན།; Musu Yama Monastery མུས་སུ་ཡ་མ་དགོན།
Name Variants: Konchok Dar དཀོན་མཆོག་དར།; Konchok Gyeltsen དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Muchen Konchok Gyeltsen མུས་ཆེན་དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Muchen Sempa Chenpo Konchok Gyeltsen མུས་ཆེན་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Ngor Khenchen 02 Konchok Gyeltsen ངོར་མཁན་ཆེན ༠༢ དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Sempa Chenpo Konchok Gyeltsen སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
The Sakya master known as Muchen Sempa Chenpo Konchok Gyeltsen (mus chen sems dpa’ chen po dkon mchog rgyal mtshan) was born in the Mu (mus) valley of Tibet in 1388. His father was Konchok Zangpo (dkon mchog bzang po, d.u.) and his mother was Namkha Kyong (nam mkha’ skyong, d.u.).
Sakya Monastery, a major monastery in central Tibet, is the seat of the Sakya tradition. Image credit: Treasury of Lives. Click on image to enlarge.
When he was nine, Konchok Gyeltsen took monastic ordination with Wang Opa (dbang ‘od pa, d.u.). At age fifteen he began to study the Prajnaparamita and Bodhicaryavatara with the teachers Lelung Khenpo Kunmon (gle lung mkhan po kun smon, d.u.) and Zur Chopa Changchub Sengge (zur chos pa byang chub seng+ge, d.u.).
At age twenty he requested initiation into Chod (gcod) practice from Muchen Namkha Neljor (mus chen nam mkha’ rnal ‘byor, d.u.). Soon afterwards, he joined Sakya Monastery (sa skya dgon) to train briefly under Yaktuk Sanggye Pel (gyag phrug sangs rgyas dpal, 1350-1414) before the master passed away. At twenty-eight, Konchok Gyeltsen went to the Mugulung Hermitage (mu gu lung), a famous site for Lamdre (lam ‘dre) transmission, where he studied the Uyuk tradition of logic (‘u yug pa’i tshad ma) with Zhonnu Gyelchok (zhon nu rgyal mchog, d.u.). At thirty-four, Konchok Gyeltsen underwent a course of study with Sheja Kunrik (shes bya kun rig, 1367-1449) in Ngamring (ngam ring) to clarify doubts that remained from his previous studies. The next year, he circumambulated Lhasa one hundred thousand times.
Ngor Ewam Choden, located near Shigatse in Tsang was founded in 1429. Image credit: Treasury of Lives. Click on image to enlarge.
In addition to the masters mentioned above, Konchok Gyeltsen’s teachers also included Peljor Sherab (dpal ‘byor shes rab, d.u.), Kunga Pel (kun dga’ dpal, d.u.), Yakton Sanggye Pel (g.yag ston sangs rgyas dpal, 1348-1414), Rongton Sheja Kunrig (rong ston shes bya kun rig, 1367-1449) and most importantly, Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (ngor chen kun dga’ bzang po, 1382-1456), with whom he studied the Cakrasamvara and Hevajra Tantras, as well as the Six Unions of the Kalacakra Tantra.
Konchok Gyeltsen helped Kunga Zangpo establish Ngor Monastery (ngor dgon) in 1430. He taught there from the age of fifty-nine and took the throne as the second abbot in 1456, at the age of sixty-eight. It was during Konchok Gyeltsen’s tenure at Ngor that the Lamdre teachings were divided into two: Lobshe (slob bshad) and Tsokshe (tshog bshad). He lived and taught at Ngor until 1462, when he retired to Mu Tendzin Puk (mus bstan ‘dzin phug) where he resided and practiced until passing away in 1469.
Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (left) and his successor Muchen Sempa Chenpo Konchok Gyaltsen (right), surrounded by lineage teachers. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.
Konchok Gyeltsen also founded Linga Dewachen Monastery (gling dga’ bde ba chen) in 1437 and Musu Yama Monastery (mus su ya ma dgon) in 1459.
Some of Konchok Gyeltsen’s close disciples were the Twenty-first Sakya Tridzin, Lodro Gyeltsen (sa skya khri ‘dzin 21blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1444-1495), who wrote his biography; Lowo Khenchen Sonam Lhundrub (glo bo mkhan chen bsod nams lhun grub, 1456-1532); Muchen Sanggye Rinchen (mus chen sangs rgyas rin chen, 1450-1524); Kunga Wangchuk (kun dga’ dbang phyug, 1424-1478) and Gorampa Sonam Sengge (go rams pa bsod nams seng ge, 1429-1489).
Konchok Gyeltsen’s written works include the biography of Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo, and a biography of the Sakya master Pelden Tsultrim (dpal ldan tshul khrims, 1333-1399), as well as works he compiled and edited on mind training or Lojong (blo sbyong).
Teachers
- dpal ‘byor shes rab དཔལ་འབྱོར་ཤེས་རབ།
- Rongton Sheja Kunrik རོང་སྟོན་ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་རིག། b.1367 – d.1449
- Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo ངོར་ཆེན་ཀུན་དགའ་བཟང་པོ། b.1382 – d.1456
- gzhon nu rgyal mchog གཞོན་ནུ་རྒྱལ་མཆོག།
- sangs rgyas dpal ba སངས་རྒྱས་དཔལ་བ། b.1350 – d.1414
- kun dga’ dpal ཀུན་དགའ་དཔལ།
- nam mkha’ rnal ‘byor ནམ་མཁའ་རྣལ་འབྱོར།
- dbang ‘od bzang po དབང་འོད་བཟང་པོ།
- dpal ‘od pa དཔལ་འོད་པ།
- Yakton Sanggye Pel གཡག་སྟོན་སངས་རྒྱས་དཔལ། b.1350 – d.1414
Students
- The Eighth Ngor Khenchen, Muchen Sanggye Rinchen ངོར་མཁན་ཆེན ༠༨ མུས་ཆེན་སངས་རྒྱས་རིན་ཆེན། b.1450 – d.1524
- The Twenty-First Sakya Tridzin, Lodro Gyeltsen ས་སྐྱ་ཁྲི་འཛིན ༢༡ བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1444 – d.1495
- Lowo Khenchen Sonam Lhundrub ཀློ་བོ་མཁན་ཆེན་བསོད་ནམས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ། b.1456/1441 – d.1532/1525
- sangs rgyas ‘phel སངས་རྒྱས་འཕེལ། b.1412 – d.1485
- The Fourth Ngor Khenchen, Kunga Wangchuk ངོར་མཁན་ཆེན ༠༤ ཀུན་དགའ་དབང་ཕྱུག། b.1424 – d.1478
- Gorampa Sonam Sengge གོ་རམས་པ་བསོད་ནམས་སེང་གེ། b.1429 – d.1489
- The Seventh Ngor Khenchen, Konchok Pelwa ངོར་མཁན་ཆེན ༠༧ དཀོན་མཆོག་འཕེལ་བ། b.1445 – d.1514
- rin chen mkhyen rab mchog grub རིན་ཆེན་མཁྱེན་རབ་མཆོག་གྲུབ། b.1436 – d.1497
- bkra shis dpal bzang བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་བཟང།
Bibliography
- Blo gros rgyal mtshan. Dkon mchog rgyal mtshan gyi rnam thar ngo mtshar phreng ba.
- Dung dkar blo bzang ‘phrin las. 2002. Dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo. Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House.
- Grags pa ‘byung gnas. 1992. Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon ming mdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 449-450.
Source: Dominique Townsend, “Muchen Sempa Chenpo Konchok Gyeltsen,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 28, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Muchen-Sempa-Chenpo-Konchok-Gyeltsen/1898.
Dominique Townsend has a PhD in Tibetan Studies from Columbia University and is currently teaching at Barnard College.
Published April 2010
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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Muchen Sempa Chenpo Konchog Gyaltsen, a Sakya master , writer and also the 2nd Ngor Khenchen. Interesting read of this Sakya master who was well known in the Sakya Lineage. Having built Linga Dewachen Monastery, Musu Yama Monastery Konchok , and also helped to establish the Ngor Monastery. His works including writing the biography of Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo, and a biography of the Sakya master Palden Tsultrim and he did compiled and edited on mind training. That’s incrediable.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
This beautiful painting (thangka) is in Sakya Monastery in Tibet’s protector chapel. It is Dorje Shugden Tanag or Dorje Shugden riding on a black horse. This is the Sakya version of Dorje Shugden. Dorje Shugden is originally Sakya and still practiced in Sakya and came to Gelug and Kagyu practitioners later.
8 pictures of the Sakya Monastery to share, where Protector temple Mug Chung is located. This is the monastery where Dorje Shugden was enthroned first as a Dharma protector in Tibet over 400 years ago by the highest Sakya throneholders and masters. Since then when people are doing Dorje Shugden prayers and pujas, they invoke his holy wisdom presence from Mug Chung Protector Chapel in Sakya Monastery in Tibet.
Muchen Sempa Chenpo Konchok Gyeltsen was born in the Mu valley of Tibet. He spent most of his younger age studying and was a disciples of few great teachers . Wow….he did circumambulated Lhasa one hundred thousand times. Konchok Gyeltsen also founded Linga Dewachen Monastery and Musu Yama Monastery Konchok. He also helped one of his teacher to establish the Ngor Monastery. Interesting biography of a great master.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.