The Twenty-Sixth Ganden Tripa, Damcho Pelbar
The Twenty-Sixth Ganden Tripa, Damcho Pelbar. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.
b.1619 – d.1656
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Tsang གཙང།
Historical Period: 16th Century ༡༦ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ganden དགའ་ལྡན་།; Ganden Jangtse College དགའ་ལྡན་བྱང་རྩེ་དྲྭ་ཚང།; Drakwar Monastery བྲག་དབར་དགོན།; Reting Monastery རྭ་སྒྲེང།; Ne Chode གནས་ཆོས་སྡེ།
Offices Held: Twenty-Sixth Ganden Tripa of Ganden
Name Variants: Damcho Pelbar དམ་ཆོས་དཔལ་འབར།; Ganden Trichen 26 Damcho Pelbar དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཆེན ༢༦ དམ་ཆོས་དཔལ་འབར།; Ganden Tripa 26 Damcho Pelbar དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༦ དམ་ཆོས་དཔལ་འབར།; Trichen Damcho Pelbar ཁྲི་ཆེན་དམ་ཆོས་དཔལ་འབར།; Tsangto Damcho Pelbar གཙང་སྟོད་དམ་ཆོས་དཔལ་འབར།
The Twenty-sixth Ganden Tripa, Damcho Pelbar (dga’ ldan khri pa 26 dam chos dpal ’bar) was born at Khangmar Shar (khang dmar shar) in Ne (gnas), Tsang in 1523, the water-sheep year of the ninth sexagenary cycle. He was admitted at young age to Ne Chode (gnas chos sde) where he became a monk and studied under the tutorship of Paṇchen Nepa (paN chen gnas pa, d.u.).
He served as the educator (’chad nyan pa) in the Drakwar Monastery (brag dbar dgon) in Lhasa. There he built a new Mahakala Temple there and a large applique tankas of Maitreya and the Sixteen Arhats. He also built statues of Yidam, Mahakala, and Mahakali. He also introduced and established the tradition of Rikdra Ngachod (rig gra lnga mchod) and Jammon (byams smon) prayers.
Tashilhunpo, one of Tibet’s most important monasteries, is a Geluk monastery in Shigatse that was founded in 1447 by the First Dalai Lama Gendun Drub, whose remains are interred at the site. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click to enlarge.
Damcho Pelbar then proceeded to Reting Monastery (rwa sgreng), founded in 1507 by Dromton Gyelwa Jungne (‘brom ston rgyal ba ‘byung gnas, 1004-1064) and served as their chief lama and reformed the monastic codes of disciplines. He also did some renovation and new construction at the monastery. He established an affiliated for the monastery to Tashilhunpo (bkra shis lhun po), the major Geluk monastery in Shigatse. Thereafter he left Reting and went to Ganden Jangtse College (dga’ ldan byang rtse grwa tshang) at Ganden Monastery (dga’ ldan dgon) and served as their educator.
At the age of sixty-seven, in the year of earth-ox of the tenth sexagenary cycle, he was enthroned to the seat of the Twenty-sixth Ganden Tripa, the abbot Ganden, a post he held from 1589 until 1596. During his tenure he gave special attention to the monastic education as well as to his routine duties in teachings on both sutra and tantra, and leading the religious events such as the annual Lhasa Monlam Chenmo, each session of which he attended.
In 1596, at the age of seventy-four, Trichen Damcho Pelbar retired from the seat of Tripa and pursued his personal practice. He passed away three years later, in 1599, the earth-pig year in the tenth sexagenary cycle. An extensive nirvana-prayer was done and carried out annually thereafter in his honor.
དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༢༦ དམ་ཆོས་དཔལ་འབར།
དམ་ཆོས་དཔལ་འབར་ནི་དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཐོག་ཉེར་དྲུག་པ་ཡིན་ཞིང་། ཕྱི་ལོ་༡༥༨༩ ནས་༡༥༩༦ བར་ཁྲི་པ་མཛད། གཙང་དུ་པཎ་ཆེན་གནས་པ་བཤེས་གཉེན་དུ་བསྟེན། ཁོང་ནས་རྭ་སྒྲེང་དང་། དགའ་ལྡན་བྱང་རྩེ་སོགས་དགོན་སྡེ་མང་པོའི་འཆད་ཉན་སློབ་དཔོན་དང་མཁན་པོ་མཛད།
Bibliography
- 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. 1339-1340.
- Grong khyer lha sa srid gros lo rgyus rig gnas dpyad yig rgyu cha rtsom ’bri au yon lhan khang. 1964. Dga’ ldan dgon pa dang brag yer pa’i lo rgyus, grong khyer lha sa’i lo rgyus rig gnas deb 02. Bod ljongs shin hwa par ’debs bzo grwa khang, p. 64.
- 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. 86.
Source: Samten Chhosphel, “The Twenty-Sixth Ganden Tripa, Damcho Pelbar,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 17, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Trichen-26-Damcho-Pelbar/7083.
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 September 2010
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Trichen-26-Damcho-Pelbar/7083. Click on image to enlarge.
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The Twenty-sixth Ganden Tripa, Damcho Pelbar was born at Khangmar Shar. He became a monk at a young age, studied under the tutorship of Paṇchen Nepa and other great master. Later he served as the educator in the Drakwar Monastery in Lhasa. It was there he built a new Mahakala Temple and also statues of Yidam, Mahakala, and Mahakali . He went on to establish the tradition of Rikdra Ngachod and Jammon prayers. In the later years he was enthroned as the Twenty-sixth Ganden Tripa, the abbot Ganden. He gave teachings on both sutra and tantra, and even lead in religious events at the monastery.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
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