The Treasury of Lives

བསེ་ཚང་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་གསུམ་པ་བློ་བཟང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་རབ་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་བླ་བྲང་དང་འབྲས་སྤུངས་སྒོ་མང་གྲྭ་ཚང་དུ་ཐོས་བསམ་མཛད་ཅིང་། ཕྱིས་སུ་གཏེར་ལུང་དགོན་དུ་བཞུགས་པ་དང་། ནར་སོན་རྗེས་ཕལ་ཆེར་སོག་ཡུལ་དུ་བཞུགས།




The Third Setsang, Lobzang Tashi Rabgye (bse tshang 03 blo bzang bkra shis rab rgyas) was born to a Tibetan official in Rebkong (reb gong) in 1814, the wood-dog year of the fourteenth sexagenary cycle. He was identified as the reincarnation of the Second Setsang, Ngawang Jamyang Tashi (ngag dbang 'jam dbyangs bkra shis, 1739-1813) and sent to Rongwo Monastery, Gonchen Tosam Namgyel Ling (rong bo dgon chen thos bsam rnam rgyal gling).

When he turned seven years old he began studying basic reading and writing under the instruction of Lobzang Dondrub (blo bzang don grub, d.u), and received lay vows from Gyeltsen Sengge (rgyal mtshan seng+ge, d.u). At the age of eleven he visited Terlung Yiga Chodzin Ling (gter lung yid dga chos 'dzin gling), Khagya Me (kha gya smad dgon), Tso Genden Choling (gtsos dge ldan chos gling), and Dzoge Monastery, Gonsar Ganden Rabgye Ling (mdzod dge dgon sar dga' ldan rab rgyas gling).

From thirteen years old, started formal Buddhist study at Labrang Tashikhyil (bla brang bkra shis 'khyil), continuing also to study at Rongwo. Around the age of eighteen he received tantric teachings and empowerments from Serkha Gendun Ngodrub Gyatso (gser kha dge 'dun rgya mtsho, d.u ). He also studied Sanskrit and Tibetan grammar at Tso Genden Choling (gtsos dge ldan chos gling) at the beginning of his third decade.

He traveled to U-Tsang in his late twenties and, in 1842, enrolled to Gomang College (sgo mang grwa tshang) at Drepung ('bras spungs) monastic university in 1842. That year he met the Eleventh Dalai Lama, Khedrub Gyatso (ta la'i bla ma 11 mkhas grub rgya mtsho, 1838-1855), the year of the Dalai Lama's enthronement. He received various empowerment from Eighth Paṇchen Lama (paN chen 08 bstan pa'i dbang phyug, 1854/1855-1882), and Lamrim teachings from the Seventy-fourth Ganden Tripa, Lobzang Lhundrub (blo bzang lhun grub, 1782-1847). The Tibetan Government provided the Ganden Khangsar in Lhasa for his residence. At the Lhasa Monlam Festival in 1843 he was given the Manchu title of Nominhan, the equivalent of the Tibetan title chogyel (chos rgyal), or Dharma King.

In 1844, at the age of thirty-one, he returned to Labrang, bringing with him offerings from the Tibetan government. In 1850 he moved Terlung Monastery to its current location, under negotiation with local community, which was previously called Gurzhabtang (gur zhabs thang). He was offered an estate and dwelled there, and the monastery has since been a seat of the Setsang incarnations.

In 1860 he was invited to Mesok (smad sog) by local Mongol chieftains and stayed in Hoshul Monastery (ho shul dgon) for a period of time, and gained some popularity with the local Mongolian people. He then went to Wutai Shan (ri bo rtse lnga, 清凉山) and gave teachings there, in 1862.

In 1872, he joined the Tongzhi Emperor's (同治, r. 1861-1875) wedding party,  accompanying Mongol ministers in Beijing. The emperor gave him the title Gyelpen Chochod Lobpon (rgyal phan chos spyod slob dpon).

He never returned to Tibetan regions, passing away in Alashan (a lags sha), Inner Mongolia -- a place of considerable importance for many Geluk lamas of Amdo -- at the age of sixty-six, in 1879, the earth-rabbit year of the fifteenth sexagenary cycle.

Sonam Dorje is a PHD candidate in Dunhuang Tibetan Manuscripts at North-west Nationalities’ University in Lanzhou.

Published January 2013

དཔྱད་གཞིའི་ཡིག་ཆ་ཁག།

Blo bzang 'phrin las bstan pa rgya mtsho. 199?Rje btsun blo bzang bkra shis rab rgyas kyi rnam thar mdo tsam brjod pa blo ldan yid kyi dga' ston. InGsung 'bum / blo bzang 'phrin las bstan pa rgya mtsho, vol. 3, pp. 171 - 298. Qinghai: Tala Tulku.TBRC W4615.

Bstan pa bstan 'dzin. 2003.Chos sde chen po dpal ldan 'bras spungs bkra shis sgo mang grwa tshang gi chos 'byung dung g.yas su 'khyil ba'i sgra dbyangs.Dpal ldan 'bras spungs bkra shis sgo mang dpe mdzod khang, p. 32.

Srid gros kan lho bod rigs rang skyong khul bsang chu rdzong u yon lhan khang rig gnas lo rgyus dpyad gzhi'i yig rigs u yon lhan khang. 1999.Bla brang dgon pa dga' ldan bshad sgrub dar rgyas bkra shis g.yas su 'khyil ba'i gling gi lo rgyus mdor bsdus,p. 63.

'Jigs med theg mchog. 1988.Rong bo dgon chen gyi gdan rabs rdzogs ldan gtam gyi rang sgra. Xining: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, p. 256.

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