A young Dungkar Lobzang Trinle, the Eighth Dungkar. Image credit: Treasury of Lives.

དུང་དཀར ༠༨ དུང་དཀར་བློ་བཟང་འཕྲིན་ལས།

b.1927 – d.1997

Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Amdo ཨ་མདོ།
Historical Period: 20^th Century ༢༠ དུས་རབས།
Institutions: Gyuto Dratsang རྒྱུད་སྟོད་གྲྭ་ཚང།; Sera Me སེ་ར་སྨད།; Potala པོ་ཏ་ལ།; Norbulingka ནོར་བུ་གླིང་ཁ།
Name Variants: Lobzang Trinle བློ་བཟང་འཕྲིན་ལས།

Dungkar Lobzang Trinle was born in 1927 to an ordinary Tibetan family in the village of Jomo (jo mo) under the jurisdiction of Jomo Dzong in the Nyingtri region of Tibet (bod ljongs nying khri sa khul). He was given the name of Dawa (zla ba) shortly after his birth. His father was Tsering Wangdu (tshe ring dbang ‘dus) and his mother was Tashi Tsomo (bkra shis mtsho mo), who was the oldest of three sisters. It was said that on the day of his birth, it snowed and the trumpeting sound of a white conch shell (dung dkar) pervaded the entire village, which were taken as auspicious signs.

The historical origins of the Dungkar incarnation lineage remain understudied, but the most notable previous incarnation was the third, the abbot Tsangyang Drukdrag (mkhan po kong po dung dkar mchog sprul sku ‘phreng gsum pa tshangs dbyangs ‘brug grags). According to Dungkar Lozang Trinle’s short history on Rika Ganden Shedrub Dargye Ling (ri kha dga’ ldan sgrub dar rgyas gling), the original seat of the Dungkar line, the establishment of the successive incarnation lineage of this abbatial position was a reward for the good deeds of Tsangyang Drukdrak. Dungkar’s encyclopedia entry explained that this was initiated by the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682) and supported by missives from Kangxi emperor (reigned 1661 to 1722). The details are scant, however, so even though the two leaders overlapped for about twenty years, for much of that time the Qing emperor was preoccupied with the War of the Three Feudatories (1673-1681), it is difficult to imagine to what extent the Kangxi emperor would have been involved in confirming an incarnation lineage.

Dungkar Lozang Trinle was recognized as the Eighth Dungkar Rinpoche by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso (da la’i bla ma 13 thub bstan rgya mtsho, 1876-1933), in the iron-sheep year of 1931. He remained in his parents’ care, where he first learned to read aloud, until the wood-boar year of 1935. In that year, at the age of eight, he took the throne at Kongpo’s Tashi Choling Monastery (bkra shis chos gling dgon). The famous Tibetan Geluk scholar the Second Pabongka, Dechen Nyingpo (pha bong kha 02 bde chen snying po, 1878-1941) gave him the dharma name Lobzang Kelden Trinle Gyatso (blo bzang skal ldan ‘phrin las rgya mtsho). He then studied Tibetan language and religious texts with the acarya (slob dpon) Ngawang Yonten Gyatso (ngag dbang yon tan rgya mtsho), a scholar specializing in monastic discipline texts (Vinaya) at the Kongpo regional division of Sera Me Monastery (se ra smad). According to his biographers, he memorized the entire monastic assembly recitations and over two hundred commentaries and the root texts of the five great treatises.

From the fire-mouse year of 1936 until late 1945, he resided at Kongpo’s regional division of Serme Monastic College. There he studied with Geshe Ngawang Gendun (dge bshes gnyen chen po ngag dbang dge ‘dun) for ten years. At the Losar ushering in the fire-dog year (1946/47), he received the Geshe Lharampa title (dge shes lha ram pa) during the Great Prayer Festival in Lhasa. Then he resided at Gyuto Tantric College (rgyud stod grwa tshang) in Lhasa where he established a dharma-connection, relying on Ganden Tri Rinpoche Lundrub Tsondru (dga’ ldan khri pa lhun sgrub brtson ‘grus) as his teacher. In the iron-tiger year (1950), he received the position of second ranking Vajrayana master (sngags rams pa ang gnyis pa). In 1954, he was appointed as disciplinarian (dge bskos) at Gyuto.

During the wood sheep year (1955), he was active studying Tibetan culture whenever the opportunity arose. He requested dharma connections – meetings — with over ten high-ranking lamas including: the Sixth Ling Rinpoche, Tubten Lungtok Tendzin Trinle (gling rin po che 06 thub bstan lung rtogs bstan ‘dzin ‘phrin las, 1903-1983), Trijang Rinpoche, Lobzang Tendzin Yeshe Gyatso (khri byang 03 blo bzang ye shes bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho, 1901-1981), among others. In front of the venerable Khewang Tsatrul Rinpoche (mkhas dbang tsha sprul rin po che), he received lessons on all aspects of kavya (snyan ngag) and grammar (sum rtags). From the venerable Khewang Nyemo Yeshe Chopel (mkhas dbang snye mo ye shes chos ‘phel) he received instruction on several chapters of astrology (skar rtsis).

In 1956 he was appointed as the vice director of Dakkong — the combined Dakpo (dwags po) and Kongpo (kong po) counties — branch of the Religious Affairs bureau (dwags kong yan lag chos tshogs kyi gru’u ren gzhon pa). According to the biography by Pema Bhum, Dungkar Lobzang Trinle was one of sixteen geshes to serve as an examination debater when the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tendzin Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 14 bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho, b. 1935) took his Geshe Lharampa examination in early 1959. In March 1959, Dungkar Rinpoche was teaching poetry and grammar in the Yarlung River Valley in Chonggye, so he did not participate in the uprising following the Dalai Lama’s exile into India. In that year, he was also appointed director (las ‘dzin) for the Tibetan regional division (bod ljong yan lag mthun tshogs) of China’s Buddhist Association (krung go nang bstan mthun tshogs).

In the early 1960s, Dungkar Rinpoche started on a teaching career that spanned four decades. In late 1960, at the behest of Zhou Enlai, two graduate classes specializing in Tibetan Studies (bod yig zhib ‘jug ‘dzin grwa) were established in the department of Nationalities Languages (mi rigs skad yig tshan khag) at Central Institute for Nationalities (krung dbyang mi rigs slob grwa chen mo), now called Minzu University. He was recruited to be one of the two teachers for those classes. For five years he not only taught courses on grammar, poetry, history, and Buddhism, but he also wrote and edited a commentary on Tibetan kavya called Opening the Door to an Awareness of the Rhetoric of Poetics (snyan ngag la ‘jug tshul tshig rgyan rig pa’i sgo ‘byed). At this time, he also began collecting terms that were included in his most ambitious work, the encyclopedia that bears his name, the Dungkar Encyclopedia (dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo). According to the biography by Lhakpa Puntsok (lhags pa phun tshogs), currently the Executive Director of the China Tibetology Research Center, who began to study under Dungkar Rinpoche in the early 1960s, Dungkar Rinpoche arrived in Beijing as a layperson with a wife. The biography written by his son Dungkar Jigme affirms this information, although neither biography clarified the circumstances of when or how he left the monastic order. This may have been for personal reasons of falling in love with his first wife and/or political reasons because forced laicization, i.e. state-imposed removal from the monastic order, was integral to the secularizing campaigns that accompanied democratic reforms in mid-late 1950s and also followed the March uprising of 1959.

The Eighth Dungkar, Dungkar Lobzang Trinle in his later years. Image credit: Treasury of Lives.

In 1965, Dungkar Rinpoche returned to Lhasa from Beijing. For several months, he was assigned to a work team (las don ru khag) for education (slob gso chen po) in Shigatse (gshis rtse) and Gyantse (rgyal rtse). This was part of the political movement known as the Socialist Education Campaign which had started in 1962 and spread through Tibet between 1964 and 1966, whereby students and professors were tasked to promote socialist thought. The failures of the Socialist Education Campaign prompted Mao Zedong to launch the so-called Great Cultural Revolution in 1966.

Shortly after the launch of the Cultural Revolution, Dungkar Rinpoche, similar to many lamas and former monastics at that time, was sentenced to undergo “reform through labor” (Chinese: laodong gaizao; Tibetan: ngal rtsol bsgyur bkod) from 1966-1973. He was assigned to the Second Neighborhood Committee in Lhasa’s northern area of Trinkonchu (khrin kon chus). Dungkar Jigme recalled seeing his father “wearing a hat” in a public struggle session, shortly after the launch of the Cultural Revolution. He reported that after they had returned home, the hat inscribed with “annihilate bad people” was placed underneath a bed (mal khri). Another source reported that he was forced to do roadwork at this time.

Although the Cultural Revolution was not over in 1973, after that year, Dungkar Lobzang Trinle no longer had to do reform through labor. His erudition made him a choice candidate for historical and cultural projects. For example, in 1974, he was tasked to work in the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s (TAR) Archives and on the TAR Revolutionary Exhibition Hall (bod rang skyong ljong gsar brje ‘grems ston khan). In 1975, he was assigned to assist Zhang Yisun’s editorial team in Chengdu on the Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary (bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo). In 1976, when he was placed at the TAR Cultural Relics Supervisory Office (bod rang skyong ljong rig dngos bdag gnyer khang), he resided in a room at the Norbulingka (nor bu gling ka). Here his son recalled that he was permitted to read whichever books he wished, which he loved. He also began to write a history of the Potala (po ta la) at that time. He was also a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC; T. krung go mi dmangs chabs srid gros tshogs; Chinese: renmin zhengxie人民政协) Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee (bod rang skyong ljongs U yon lhan khang；xizang zishiqu weiyuanhui西藏自治区委员会).

After Mao Zedong’s death in 1976 and the official ending of the Cultural Revolution, Dungkar Rinpoche along with two other Geluk scholars, the Sixth Tseten Zhabdrung, Jigme Rigpai Lodro (‘jigs med rigs pa’i blo gros, 1910-1985) and Muge Samten (dmu dge bsam gtan rgya mtsho, 1914-1993), became known across Tibet as the “Three Great Scholars” (mkhas pa mi gsum). This epithet originated in the tenth century when “Three Great Scholars” transmitted Buddhist teachings, especially the Mulasarvastivadin Vinaya, in eastern Tibet to disciples who later returned to central Tibet to start the Buddhist renaissance of the eleventh century. Tseten Zhabdrung, Dungkar Rinpoche, and Muge Samten similarly transmitted Tibetan cultural knowledge after a period of persecution.

Dungkar Lobzang Trinle

In 1978 Dungkar Rinpoche was invited back to the Central Nationalities Institute or Minzu University, in Beijing where he was a professor for the next seven years. By this time he also had married his second wife, Pema Yudron (pad ma g.yu sgron) Although he maintained ties with China’s Tibetology Research in Beijing, in 1985 he returned to Lhasa to take up a professorial post at Tibet University (bod ljongs slob grwa chen mo) where he remained until his retirement in 1996. In the course of his teaching career, he had many famous students. These included the celebrated founder of modern Tibetan literature, Dondrub Gyel (don ‘grub rgyal, d. 1985) and the great Tibetologist Lhakpa Puntsok who began his studies with Dungkar Lobzang Trinle in Beijing in the 1960s. Other students were the head of the Tibetology Research Center in Gansu, Drugtar (‘brug thar) and the eminent historian Chen Qingying.

After being exonerated for his treatment in 1966/67, Dungkar Rinpoche, similar to many intellectuals of the time, received the State Council’s special compensation fund. He then went on to hold numerous high-ranking positions for the rest of his life. He was appointed by the Tibetan Autonomous Region People’s Government as honorary leader of the TAR’s Academy of Social Science and as vice-director of China’s Tibetology Research. He was reinstated as the director of the Chinese Buddhist Association and served as a standing committee member of the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s branch regional council; and was a Tibetan Autonomous Region’s representative committee member (srid gros u yon) for the fourth through sixth National Congresses.

Throughout his life, Dungkar Lozang Trinle crossed state-imposed boundaries dividing the religious and the secular. On one hand, he was implicitly trusted by the government as indicated by the fact that he was permitted to travel abroad for international Tibetological conferences in the 1980s and 90s. Dungkar Rinpoche was the only one of the “Three Great Scholars” allowed to travel outside of China. Pema Bhum’s biography indicated that the main reason for this was not solely due to his level of scholarship, but that the government trusted his political standpoint and work. Lhakpa Phutsok, cited by Pema Bhum, recalled that he made the following remarks at the International Association of Tibetan Studies Seminar in Munich in 1985, “It is a great achievement for me to be able to participate in this international conference on Tibetan Studies in the birthplace of Karl Marx.” Yet interestingly Dungkar Rinpoche used an essentially religious genre of “offering verses” (mchod brjod), usually restricted to Buddhist teachings, to praise the Communist Party. Pema Bhum viewed this as an expression of his political outlook that supported Communist teachings. Yet, he also took up the throne at Tashi Choling Monastery in 1992 and sent his respects to His Holiness the Dalai Lama via Pema Bhum at a conference in Italy on Tibetan language at around the same time. These vignettes serve to complicate the binaries of religion versus the secular, tradition versus the modern, and China versus Tibet; oppositional framings that feature so prominently in the media and scholarship on Tibet today.

His legacy lives on till this day in his prodigious array of Tibetan-language historical texts and important commentaries on religious subjects included in his Collected Writings. Although somewhat controversial when first published, because it told Tibetan history through a Marxist lens, his Explanation on the Relationship between Buddhism and Government in Tibet (bod kyi chos srid zung ‘brel skor bshad pa) was actually commissioned and not his own idea. It is a formidable work on Tibetan history written in a way that was accessible to many.

Other famous works include: An Exposition of Religious Schools (grub mtha’ rnam bshad); A Concise History of the Potala Palace and Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple (pho brang po ta la dang lha sa’i gtsug lag khang gi lo rgyus mdor bsdud); Opening the Door to an Awareness of the Rhetoric of Poetics (snyan ngag la ‘jug tshul tshig rgyan rig pa’i sgo ‘byed); Knowledge of Tibet’s ‘Table of Contents’ Genre (bod kyi dkar chag rig pa); On the Development of Tibetan Education (bod kyi slob gso rig pa), and many others.

On July 21, 1997, Dungkar Lobzang Trinle passed away at the age of 72 in Los Angeles after battling cancer. The Dungkar Encyclopedia, forty years in the making, was published posthumously in 2002.

Teachers

• ngag dbang blo bzang ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང། b.1880 – d.1957

Students

• skal bzang bzang lha mo སྐལ་བཟང་བཟང་ལྷ་མོ། b.1973

Bibliography

• Dung dkar ‘jigs med. 2014. “From Tulku to Professor: In Remembrance of my Father” (sprul sku nas slob dpon chen mo—nga’i A pha lags phyir dran byas ba). In China’s Tibet (krung go’i bod ljongs, Zhongguo Xizang). July 2014, no. 4; vol. 27, pp. 46-51.
• Anon. 2002. Rtsom pa po ngo spro mdor bdus. In Dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo. Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House, pp. 13-16.
• Pema Bhum. 2008. “An Overview of the Life of Professor Dungkar Lozang Trinle.” Latse Library Newsletter, vol. 5, pp. 18-35. New York: Trace Foundation.
• Lhag pa phun tshogs. 2004. Dung dkar rin po che’i dgongs pa shul ‘dzin byas nas bod rig pa dar rgyas gong ‘phel gtong dgos—mkhas pa’i dbang po dung dkar rin po che mchog la snying thag pa nas dran gso zhu. In Mkhas dbang dung dkar blo bzang ‘phrin las kyi gsung ‘bum, vol. 1, pp. 1-20. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House.
• Bstan ‘dzin dge legs. 2017. Chos dung kar po’i rang mdangs/ slob dpon chen mo dung dkar blo bzang ‘phrin las mchog nub phyogs yul du snga phyir mjal ba’i bag chags rab rim. In Gtam tshogs, vol. 37, no. 1, (July), pp. 11-43. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.

Source: Nicole Willock, “The Eighth Dungkar, Dungkar Lobzang Trinle,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 10, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Eighth-Dunkar-Dungkar-Lobzang-Trinle/2419.

Nicole Willock (Ph.D. Indiana University Bloomington, Tibetan Studies and Religious Studies, 2011) is an assistant professor of Asian Religions at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she teaches World Religions, Buddhism, and Religions of China and Tibet.

Published December 2017

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.

Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Dungkar-Lobsang-Trinle/TBRC_P1161. Click on image to enlarge.

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