The Treasury of Lives

རོང་བོ་གྲུབ་ཆེན་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་གསུམ་པ་དགེ་འདུན་འཕྲིན་ལས་རབ་རྒྱས་ལ་ཤར་སྐལ་ལྡན་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་གསུམ་པ་ཞེས་ཀྱང་བྱ། ཁོང་ནི་རོང་བོ་དགོན་ཆེན་དུ་གདན་ས་བྱས་པའི་བླ་མ་གྲགས་ཆེན་ཞིག་ཡིན་ལ། བླ་བྲང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འཁྱིལ་དུ་ཐོས་བསམ་མཛད། རོང་བོ་དགོན་ཆེན་ལ་དུས་འཁོར་གྲྭ་ཚང་དང་རྫོང་དམར་སྒྲུབ་སྡེ་གཉིས་བཙུགས།




The Third Rongwo Drubchen, Gendun Trinle Rabgye (rong bo grub chen 03 dge 'dun 'phrin las rab rgyas) was born in 1740, the iron-monkey year of the twelfth sexagenary cycle, in a place named Nyagong Drakarto (gnya gong brag dkar to) in the Nyantok (gnyan tog) area of Rebkong. His father, a nomad whose name is given in different sources as Zunglo (gzungs lo) and as Sonam Wangchuk (bsod nams dbang phyug), was the local chieftain of Nyantok. His mother was named Pelmokyi (dpal mo skyid). As child he was identified as the reincarnation of the Second Rongwo Drubchen, Ngawang Trinle Gyatso (rong bo grub chen 02 ngag dbang 'phrin las rgya mtsho, 1678-1739)

He started studying Tibetan reading and writing at a young age under the guidance of Nyantok Gelong Lobzang Sherab (gnyan tog dge slong blo bzang shes rab, d.u.). When he turned seven, he was given novice monastic vows by the First Rongwo Khenchen, Gendun Gyatso (rong bo mkhan chen 01 dge 'dun rgya mtsho, 1679-1765) who gave the name Gendun Trinle Rabgye (dge 'dun 'phrin las rab rgyas).

At the age of nine, in 1748, he was brought to Labrang Tashikhyil (bla brang bkra shis 'khyil) and installed on the throne of Rongwo Drubchen Labrang, one of the colleges of Labrang Tashikhyil. There he initially studied under two tutors, Jamyang Gendun Tendzin ('jam dbyangs dge 'dun bstan 'dzin, 1716-1790) and Darzhing Jamyang (dar zhing 'jam dbyangs, d.u.). He later studied advanced topics with Pelcho Khenpo (dpal chos mkhan po, d.u.), Khenpo Lobzang Trinle (mkhan po blo bzang phrin las, d.u.), Lobzang Dargye (blo bzang dar rgyas, d.u.) and Drungyik Lobzang Gyatso (drung yig blo bzang rgya mtsho, d.u.).

In 1755, when he was fourteen years old he was given the title and stamp of Ganden Achutu Erdiniminhan (dga ldan a chu thu aer ti ni min han) by the Sixth Dalai Lama Kelzang Gyatso (ta la'i bla ma 06 skal bzang rgya mtsho, 1708-1757). The following year he was enthroned on the seat of the Tantric College, Rongwo Gyupa Dratsang (rong bo rgyud pa grwa tshang), and, three years later, as the head of Rongwo Monastery.

At the age twenty five Gendun Trinle Rabgye visited Gonlung monastery and received Lamrim teachings from Changkya Rolpai Dorje (lcang skya rol ba'i rdo rje, 1717-1786). He invited the Fifth Kirti, Tenpai Gyeltsen (kirti 05 bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan, 1712-1771) and the Fourth Lamo, Tubten Gelek Gyeltsen (la mo 04 thub bstan dge legs rgyal mtshan, 1729-1796) to Rongwo monastery. Three years later, in 1767, he received the title reached at twenty eight, he was given the title of Rongwo Hutuktu Paṇḍita (rong bo ho thog thu paNDi ta) by the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735-1796).

In 1773, at the age of thirty four, with the support from the Second Takge Tulku Gendun Tenpai Rabgye (stag ge sprul sku 02 dge 'dun bstan pa rab rgyas), Gendun Trinle Rabgye established the Dukhor Dratsang Sang-gnak Dargye Ling, or the Kālacakra Tantric College (dus 'khor grwa tshang gsangs sngags dar rgyas gling) at Rongwo. Five years later, in 1778, he established the Dzongmar Meditation College, Dzongmar Drubde Tashi Choling (rdzong dmar sgrub sde bkra shis chos gling). He spent the intervening years traveling widely across Amdo giving teachings.

In 1780 the Sixth Paṇchen Lama, Lobzang Peldan Yeshe (paN chen 06 blo bzang dpal ldan ye shes, 1738-1780) passed through Amdo on his way to Beijing, and stopped at Kumbum Monastery (sku 'bum). Gendun Trinle Rabgye has an audience with him and received some teachings. At the time he made a substantial offering to Kumbum, of around three hundred head of livestock, gold, silver and other precious substances.

At the age forty-seven, in 1787, Gendun Trinle Rabgye went to U-Tsang on pilgrimage, stopping at Reting Monastery (rwa sgreng) on his way. He had an audience with the Eighth Dalai Lama, Jampel Gyatso (tA la'i bla ma 08 'jam dpal rgya mtsho, 1758-1804) and visited Drepung, Sera, and Ganden Monasteries. While in Lhasa he received Lamrim teachings from the Dalai Lama's tutor, Yeshe Gyeltsen (ye shes rgyal mtshan, 1713-1793) and from Nyetangpa Ngawang Kunga Tashi (snye thang pa ngag dbang kun dga bkra shis, d.u.). While in Lhasa he received an additional title Erdini Nominhan (er te ni no min han) an imperial patent, and two seals from the Tibetan Government (sde pa gzhung).

Back in Amdo, at the age of fifty, he visited Changkhya Yeshe Tenpe Gyeltsen (lcang skya ye she bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan, 1787-1846) at Chubzang (chu bzang) monastery and later he was invited to Semnyi (sems nyid) monastery to give teachings to Drubwang Lobzang Chokdrub (grub dbang blo bzang mchog grub,d.u.).

At the age of fifty two, at the request of Drakar Tulku Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen (brag dkar sprul sku blo bzang bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan, d.u.), he gave the Kunrik (kun rig) initiation in the assembly hall of Drakkar (brag dkar) Monastery, as well as the transmission of the Collected Works of his predecessor, the First Rongwo Drubchen, Shar Kelden Gyatso (shar skal ldan rgya mtsho, 1607-1677).

In 1792 the Third Jamyang Zhepa, Jigme Gyatso ('jam dbyangs bzhad pa 03 'jigs med rgya mtsho, 1782-1855), was born into the family of Gendun Trinle Rabgye’s younger brother, Rinchen Gyatso (rin chen rgya mtsho, d.u.).

Gendun Trinle Rabgye passed way at the age of fifty-three in 1794, the wood-tiger year of the thirteenth sexagenary cycle. His reliquary was installed at Labrang Tashikhyil.

Tsering Namgyal is a scholar in Xining.

Published April 2011

དཔྱད་གཞིའི་ཡིག་ཆ་ཁག།

Brag dgon pa dkon mchog bstan pa rab rgyas. 1982.Mdo smad chos 'byung. Lanzhou: Kan-su'u mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, pp. 308-310.

'Jigs med dam chos rgyal mtsho. 1997.Sku phreng gsum pa dge 'dun 'phrin las rab rgyas. InShar skal ldan rgya mtsho'i skyes rabs rnam thar, pp. 284-303. Xining: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang.

Khetsun Sangpo. 1973.Biographical Dictionary of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. Dharamsala: LTWA, Vol. 5, p. 588.

Minyak mgon po. 1996.Gangs can mkhas dbang rim byon gyi rnam thar mdor bsdus, Beijing: Krung go'i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang.

གང་ཟག་འདིའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་ཁག་བོད་ཀྱི་ནང་བསྟན་དཔེ་ཚོགས་ལྟེ་གནས་སུ་འཚོལ།