The Third Purchok, Jampa Gyatso
Image credit: Treasury of Lives. Click to enlarge.
b.1825 – d.1901
Incarnations: Purchok ཕུར་ལྕོག།
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Dzachukha རྫ་ཆུ་ཁ།
Historical Period: 19th Century ༡༩ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Sera Monastery སེ་ར།
Name Variants: Jampa Gyatso བྱམས་པ་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Lobzang Tsultrim Jampa Gyatso བློ་བཟང་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་བྱམས་པ་རྒྱ་མཚོ།; Purbuchok Lobzang Jampa Gyatso ཕུར་བུ་ལྕོག་བློ་བཟང་བྱམས་པ་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
The Third Purchok Jampa Gyatso (pur bu lcog 03 byams pa rgya mtsho) was born in the pasture land of Dzachu Aurtok in Kham (khams rdza chu a’or tog) in 1825, the wood-bird year of fourteenth sexagenary cycle. His father was called Jamcho (byams chos, d.u.) and his mother was named Tsering Dolkar (tshe ring sgrol dkar, d.u.).
At the age of five, having been identified as the reincarnation of the Second Purchok, Lobzang Jampa (pur bu lcog 02 blo bzang byams pa, 1763-1825), Jampa Gyatso was escorted to U and installed in the Purchog Hermitage (pur bu lcog ri khrod) above Sera Monastery outside of Lhasa. He began his basic education in reading and writing, and memorization of daily prayer-texts under Ne Lama (gnas bla ma, d.u.), the master of the hermitage at that time.
H.H the 10th Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.
At the age of ten, Jampa Gyatso matriculated in the Sera Je College of Sera Monastic University for his further studies. The Tenth Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 10 tshul khrims rgya mtsho, 1816-1837) cut his crown-hair and gave him the name Jampa Tsultrim Gyatso (byams pa tshul khrims rgya mtsho) in 1734. Subsequently the Seventh Panchen Lama Lobzang Tenpai Nyima Chole Namgyel (paN chen bla ma 07 blo bzang bstan pa’i nyi ma phyogs las rnam rgyal, 1781-1854) granted him the vows of novice monk.
Jampa Gyatso studied Abhisamayalamkara, Madhyamaka, Abhidharmakosa, Pramanavarttika and Vinaya, the major subjects of the Geluk monastic curriculum, under a number of masters, including Geshe Drakpa Tsondu (dge bshes grags pa brtson ‘grus, d.u.) who served as his principal tutor. He took the first traditional exam on Prajnaparamita in 1739, followed by three more exams. In the meantime, at the age of twenty, he received the vows of full ordination from the Seventh Panchen Lama. He became a competent scholar, and earned his Geshe Lharampa degree at the examinations during the Lhasa Monlam when he was twenty-one.
At the age of thirty-seven, Purchok Jampa Gyatso served as the tutor to the Twelfth Dalai Lama, Trinle Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 12 ‘phrin las rgya mtsho, 1857-1875). Nearly two decades later, at the age of fifty-three, he served as the tutor to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama Tubten Gyatso (tA la’i bla ma 13 thub bstan rgya mtsho, 1876-1933). Purchok gave teachings, empowerments and initiations, transmissions and instructions on various important topics of both sutra and tantra to the two Dalai Lamas. He also gave the vows of full ordination to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama.
Image credit: Treasury of Lives. Click to enlarge.
Because of his close connections to the Tibetan government Jampa Gyatso was able to enlarge his hermitage, which had been initially established by Drubkhang Gelek Gyatso (sgrub khang dge legs rgya mtsho, 1641-1713) and the First Purchok, Ngawang Jampa (phur lcog 01 ngag dbang byams pa, 1682-1762) in the first few years of the eighteenth century. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama visited the hermitage, significantly elevating its status. Major renovations began in 1882 and continued for some years.
Purchok Jampa Gyatso passed into nirvana in 1901, the iron-ox year of the fifteenth sexagenary cycle, at the age of seventy-seven. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama supervised the funeral. One source has it that he lived at the age of seventy and passed in 1894, the wood-horse year in the fifteenth sexagenary cycle, but this is in error.
The works of Purchok Jampa Gyatso were collected into two volumes containing forty-four texts covering subjects such as commentary on logics, rituals, and biography.
ཕུར་ལྕོག ༠༣ བྱམས་པ་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
ཕུར་ལྕོག་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་གསུམ་པ་བྱམས་པ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ནི་དགེ་ལུགས་པའི་བླ་མ་གྲགས་ཆེན་ཞིག་ཡིན་ལ། པཎ་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དང་རྒྱལ་དབང་གཉིས་ཀར་འབྲེལ་བ་དམ། ཁོང་ནི་པཎ་ཆེན་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་དྲུག་པ་ལས་རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་ཞིང་སེ་ར་དགོན་དུ་ཐོས་བསམ་མཛད། ཕྱིས་སུ་རྒྱལ་དབང་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་དང་བཅུ་གསུམ་པ་གཉིས་ཀའི་ཡོངས་འཛིན་མཛད་ཅིང་། རྒྱལ་དབང་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་བཅུ་གསུམ་པ་ཉིད་ཁོང་ལས་རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་བ་ཡིན།
Teachers
- ye shes rgya mtsho ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1789 – d.1856
- ‘jam dpal tshul khrims འཇམ་དཔལ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས།
- grags pa brtson ‘grus གྲགས་པ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས།
- nyi ma chos ‘phel ཉི་མ་ཆོས་འཕེལ།
- blo bzang tshul khrims bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan བློ་བཟང་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
- The Seventy-Second Ganden Tripa, Jampel Tsultrim དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༧༢ འཇམ་དཔལ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས། b.mid 18th cent. – d.mid 19th cent.
- ye shes rgya mtsho ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
- blo bzang bstan pa rgya mtsho བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པ་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
Students
- pad+ma mchog dpal bzang po པདྨ་མཆོག་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ། b.1914 – d.1963
- The Eighth Panchen Lama, Tenpai Wangchuk པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༨ བསྟན་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག། d.1882
- The Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༣ ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1876 – d.1933
- The Second Pabongkha, Dechen Nyingpo ཕ་བོང་ཁ ༠༢ བདེ་ཆེན་སྙིང་པོ། b.1878 – d.1941
- ngag dbang gsung rab mthu stobs ངག་དབང་གསུང་རབ་མཐུ་སྟོབས། b.1874 – d.1952
- The Third Chesho, Lobzang Jangchub Tenpei Dronme ཆེ་ཤོས ༠༣ བློ་བཟང་བྱང་ཆུབ་བསྟན་པའི་སྒྲོན་མེ། b.1861 – d.1933
- The Twelfth Dalai Lama, Trinle Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༡༢ འཕྲིན་ལས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1856 – d.1875
- The Tenth Tatsak Jedrung, Ngawang Pelden Chokyi Gyeltsen རྟ་ཚག་རྗེ་དྲུང ༡༠ ངག་དབང་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1850 – d.1886
- blo bzang thub bstan rnam rgyal བློ་བཟང་ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྣམ་རྒྱལ།
- bstan pa bstan ‘dzin བསྟན་པ་བསྟན་འཛིན།
Previous Incarnations
- The First Purchok, Ngawang Jampa ཕུར་ལྕོག ༠༡ ངག་དབང་བྱམས་པ། b.1682 – d.1762
- The Second Purchok, Lobzang Jampa ཕུར་ལྕོག ༠༢ བློ་བཟང་བྱམས་པ། b.1763 – d.1823/1865
Subsequent Incarnations
- The Fourth Purchok, thub bstan byams pa tshul khrims bstan ‘dzin ཕུར་ལྕོག ༠༤ ཐུབ་བསྟན་བྱམས་པ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་བསྟན་འཛིན།
Bibliography
- Cabezón, José Ignacio. 2006. The Hermitages of Sera. Charlottesville: The Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library, pp. 103-104.
- Grags pa ‘byungs gnas and Blo bzang mkhas grub. 1992. Gangs can mkhas sgrub rim byon ming mdzod, Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 1056-1058.
- Don rdor and bstan ‘dzin chos grags. 1993. Gangs ljongs lo rgyus thog gig rags can mi sna. Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, pp. 224-296.
- Thub bstan rgya mtsho. 1981. Mkhan chen yongs ‘dzin rdo rje ‘chang blo bzang tshul khrims byams pa rgya mtsho dpal bzang po’i rnam thar mkhas mang mdzes par byed pa’i don bzang me tog gi mgul rgyan gsar pa. Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, vol. 1, pp. 11-324.
- A biography of Jampa Gyatso by Rgyal ba tshul khrims rgya mtsho is listed in Sonam Dondrub’s catalog of Tibetan biographies, no. 1367. See: Bsod nams don grub. 2000. Bod kyi lo rgyus dpe tho. Lhasa: Bod ljongs Mi dmangs Dpe skrun khang.
Source: Samten Chhosphel, “The Third Purchok, Jampa Gyatso,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 22, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Purchok-Jampa-Gyatso/3274.
Samten Chhosphel is an independent scholar with PhD from the Central University of Tibetan Studies (CUTS) at Sarnath, Varanasi, India. He has a Master’s degree in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College, Boston, MA. After serving as the In-charge of Publication Department of CUTS for 26 years, he immigrated to the United States in 2009 and is currently an adjunct Assistant Professor at the City University of New York, and Language Associate in Columbia University.
Published August 2010
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
About Treasury of Lives
The Treasury of Lives is a biographical encyclopedia of Tibet, Inner Asia, and the Himalaya. It provides an accessible and well-researched biography of a wide range of figures, from Buddhist masters to artists and political officials, many of which are peer reviewed.
The Treasury of Lives is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Your support makes their important work possible. For information on how you can support them, click here.
Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Third-Purchok,-Yongdzin-Jampa-Gyatso/TBRC_P194. Click on image to enlarge.
For more interesting information:
- The Dorje Shugden category on my blog
- The Tsongkhapa category on my blog
- The Great Lamas and Masters category on my blog
- Tsongkhapa’s Way of Compassion
- Emptiness with a Heart of Compassion
- Am I Empty
- Golden words by H.H. Dilgo Kyentse
- Equanimity
- Love Without Agenda
- Nothing Changes Everything Changes
Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:
If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
Wow this great Lama the third Purchok incarnation the Lozang Tsultrim Jampa Gyatso who had served as tutor to both the Twelfth and the Thirteenth Dalai Lamas . He studied under a number of great masters and became a competent scholar at a very young age. His collected works covering subjects such as commentary on logics, rituals, and biography were compiled into texts. Interesting read.
Thank you Rinpoche .
Interesting short biography of a lama…. the third Purchok, Jampa Gyatsowho was the reincarnation of the Second Purchok, Lobzang Jampa. He learned and studied various rituals, religious dance and music from many great masters. Having studied under many great masters , he was able to gave teachings, empowerments and initiations, transmissions and instructions at a young age on various important topics of both sutra and tantra. He was an accomplished scholar and served as a tutor to two Dalai lamas…. the Twelfth the Thirteenth Dalai Lamas. Interesting read.
Thank you for this sharing.
The Third Purchok Jampa Gyatso was born in Kham. He was recognised as the reincarnation of the Second Purchok, Lobzang Jampa at the age of five. He began his early education in reading and writing and memorization of daily prayer-texts under Ne Lama the master of the hermitage at that time. He soon learned various rituals, religious dance and music . He was an accomplished scholar served as a tutor to both the Twelfth and the Thirteenth Dalai Lamas.
Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting read of a great Lama.
Listening to the chanting of sacred words, melodies, mantras, sutras and prayers has a very powerful healing effect on our outer and inner environments. It clears the chakras, spiritual toxins, the paths where our ‘chi’ travels within our bodies for health as well as for clearing the mind. It is soothing and relaxing but at the same time invigorates us with positive energy. The sacred sounds invite positive beings to inhabit our environment, expels negative beings and brings the sound of growth to the land, animals, water and plants. Sacred chants bless all living beings on our land as well as inanimate objects. Do download and play while in traffic to relax, when you are about to sleep, during meditation, during stress or just anytime. Great to play for animals and children. Share with friends the blessing of a full Dorje Shugden puja performed at Kechara Forest Retreat by our puja department for the benefit of others. Tsem Rinpoche
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbzgskLKxT8&t=5821s