The Treasury of Lives

A Biographical Encyclopedia of Tibet, Inner Asia, and the Himalaya

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Tsere Khandro Kunzang Khacho Wangmo was a twentieth-century Drigung Kagyu teacher based at Gau and Tsere monasteries in the Dzachuka region of Kham. Imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution, she played a major role in restoring the two monasteries and established a large community of nuns at Tsere.

Patsab Lotsāwa Nyima Drak was a major translator of Indian Mahāyāna and tantric scriptures, including foundational works by Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti. His translations focused mainly on Madhyamaka, but he also worked on texts on Abhidharma, Pramāṇa, Jataka, and tantric teachings. He is traditionally credited with introducing the Prāsaṅgika school of Madhyamaka to Tibet. He spent twenty-three years translating in India, primarily at the Ratnagupta Temple in Pravarapura, modern-day Srinagar, with his teacher Mahāsumati, and he revised many of his texts in Lhasa after returning to Tibet. Twenty-six of his translations are included in the Tengyur.

Shong Lodro Tenpa was a thirteenth-century translator. He studied Sanskrit in Kathmandu, where he translated three texts. Under the patronage of Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen, he continued translating at Sakya Monastery. He spent time at the Yuan summer capital of Shangdu. He was the younger brother and disciple of the translator Shongton Dorje Gyeltsen. Nine of his translations are included in the Tibetan canon.

Achi Chokyi Drolma was an eleventh-century practitioner born in Drigung into the prestigious Nanam clan, who, following her death, became regarded as one of the principal protectors of the Drigung tradition, alongside Mahākāla and Tsiumar. In life she turned her back on her inheritance and went to Kham where she married and had four children, one of whom was the grandfather of Jikten Sumgon, the founder of the Drigung Kagyu tradition. Beginning in the sixteenth century, she became particularly linked with Vajrayoginī practices, serving as the central deity in multiple different protector practices.

Lodro Rabsel

b.1969 - d.2021

Lama Lodro Rabsel was a twenty- and twenty-first-century Nyingma lama of Gyelpak Monastery. He was a student of the Second Adzom Drukpa and Khenpo Jigme Puntsok.