The Buddhist Digital Resource Center conflates Gyelse Lekpa with another student of Pema Ledreltsel (padma las 'brel rtsal, 1291–1319), Loton Dorjebum (lo ston rdo rje 'bum), but this is almost certainly an error.
In his childhood, Gyelse Lekpa was very wild, intelligent, and imaginative. In 1297, from within the great stūpa of Drol, he found many books that had been concealed there in fear of Mongol armies. Those who had hidden the books, or their descendants, had apparently forgotten them. These texts seem to be connected in some way or another with an unidentified figure called Shokrel Lotsāwa (shog ral lo tsā ba chen po). In The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa this figure is named Khuwo Shoril / Shorim Lotsāwa (khu bo sho ril / rim lo tstsha). and the same text mentions "the translator of Sho and his brother" (sho lo sku mched). The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa further says that Gyelse Lekpa received yoga-tantras in his tradition.
While this episode recalls many elements of treasure revelation, the books were hidden in mundane circumstances (the fear of a coming army) by ordinary people. Although there are references to a prophecy from a ḍākinī, they were discovered because the stūpa in which they had been hidden partly collapsed. No secret codes such as ḍākinī scripts were involved, and in 1299, after having initially been left as they had been found, the lost books are presented as being put in good order through a process that seems to be quite human. Some texts that remained incomplete because wind had carried away some of their pages were put back in a new stūpa.
The cache contained about one hundred volumes—ninety-three according to The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa—of scripture and thirteen smaller volumes of the religious traditions of Gyelse Lekpa's own forefathers.
In The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa, Gyelse Lekpa's mother taught him to read the books he had discovered. When Gyelse Lekpa finally showed the books to his father in 1299, Wangchuk Gyelpo—who in the The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa here refers to himself as "the small monk of Sho, Chokyongpel" (sho'i ban chung chos skyong dpal)—expressed his amazement at finding the teachings of Shokrel Lotsāwa and other scholars and siddhas, and said: "This pleases me more than if you had found one hundred measures of gold."
Gyelse Lekpa learned from his father various worldly sciences, such as grammar, spelling, and medicine, as well as the Vajravidāraṇa Dhāraṇī and the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti. From his paternal uncle (khu bo) Sho the Omniscient (sho thams cad mkhyen pa), he received the Zhije tradition, including the Ālikāli Inconceivable Great River Tantra. Another of his uncles, Gyelse Tsondru Wangchuk, named in some sources by the contraction Gyelse Tsonwang (rgyal sras brtson dbang), gave him many teachings of the Nyingma and Sarma traditions. Lobpon Sanggye Wangzhon (slob dpon sangs rgyas dbon gzhon) taught him mainly Drukpa Kagyu traditions. The names of additional masters are ambiguous. Some sources list two lamas, Lama Chogyel Dzamapa (bla ma chos rgyal rdza ma pa), and Lama Shenchen (bla ma gshen chen), who in Gyelse Zopa Drakpa's (rgyal sras bzod pa grags pa)'s History of the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī appear as a single person: Lama Chogyel Janggi Shenchen (bla ma chos rgyal ljangs gi [sic] bshen [sic] chen). Despite the seemingly Bon name, he (or they) gave him Buddhist teachings. Another master with a seemingly Bon name, Bongom Nangwa Gyayen (bon [b]sgom snang ba rgyal yan)[1] gave more Buddhist teachings.
A few more of his masters are named in the oldest sources: Lobpon Len (slob dpon glan), Nyima Wozer (nyi ma 'od zer) who was a specialist of Guru Chowang's (gu ru chos dbang, 1212–1270) revelations; Ritro Repa (ri khrod ras pa); and Zhikpo Jigme Bepa (zhig po'i 'jigs med sbas pa) from whom he received the Heart Essence of Vimalamitra and the seventeen tantras. He was also a student of Neljorpa Āhūṃ Dorje (rnal 'byor pa ā hūṃ rdo rje), and Jamyang Sherab Rinchen ('jam dbyangs shes rab rin chen). The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa also mentions a Lobpon Nyen (slob dpon gnyen), a specialist of Nyangrel Nyima Wozer's (nyan ral nyi ma 'od zer, 1124–1192) revelations, and also the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje (karma pa 03 rang byung rdo rje, 1284–1339), with whom, as we shall see, he exchanged teachings much later in his life, in 1332.
If we follow admittedly unclear chronological indications in The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa, it seems that he was in his sixteenth year, 1305, when he started following Sho the Omniscient and studied with him for five years, until 1310. The same source then says that he followed Lobpon Sanggye Wangzhon for eight years, although these were likely overlapping periods rather than successive. If so, we can suppose that his basic training was completed in 1313, the year he met the important treasure revealer Pema Ledreltsel (padma las 'brel rtsal, 1291–1319).
Pema Ledreltsel and the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī
Gyelse Lekpa met Pema Ledreltsel just after the latter had revealed his termas in 1313, including his most famous cycle, the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī. Gyelse Lekpa was around twenty-three years old, one year older than the terton himself.
In most hagiographies of Pema Ledreltsel, it is said that after meeting Gyelse Lekpa, the terton went to his home region and then moved to Samye Chimpu (bsam yas mchims phu), where Vajravārāhī prophesied him to go to Lhasa to meet Karmapa Rangjung Dorje. As there was some doubt expressed about his revelations, Pema Ledreltsel gave the empowerments and the reading transmissions on the basis of the yellow scrolls—some say Pema Ledreltsel gave these yellow scrolls to the Karmapa, but the most consistent narrative is that Gyelse Lekpa inherited them. An in-person meeting between Pema Ledreltsel and the Karmapa is not confirmed in all Karma Kagyu sources, however. Our oldest source, Yungtonpa's (g.yung ston pa, 1284–1365) history of the early transmission of the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī, rather mentions an otherwise-unidentified intermediary named Loton Dorjebum (lo ston rdo rje 'bum), whom the Karmapa met instead. Loton was likely Pema Ledreltsel's assistant during the treasure discovery; he cannot have been Gyelse Lekpa.
Nyoshul Khenpo (smyo shul mkhan po, 1931–1999), in his biography of Pema Ledreltsel in A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems, states that Gyelse Lekpa then passed to Rinchen Lingpa (chos rgyal rin chen gling pa, 1289–1368) the termas that had just been discovered, while Pema Ledreltsel remained in retreat.
It has been so far difficult to decide exactly when Pema Ledreltsel died, 1315 or 1319 (or even 1313). The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa explicitly says that the terton was in his twenty-eighth year when he entrusted Gyelse Lekpa with the yellow scrolls in the year of the horse (1318) and that Pema Ledreltsel died in his twenty-ninth year, the earth-sheep year (1319). This seems to settle the matter in favor of the latest possible date for Pema Ledreltsel's death. The text then states, "I [Gyelse Lekpa had] reached [my] thirtieth year," which confirms that he was born in the year 1290 and was one year older than Pema Ledreltsel.
In 1331, on the eve of leaving for Mongolia, the Karmapa, who likely had already received the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī from either Pema Ledreltsel or Loton Dorjebum, wished to revise the corpus so it could be better preserved and transmitted. It is likely that the corpus was not fully "decoded" and fixed at least until Longchenpa edited it in the 1340s. The following year, 1332, the Karmapa invited Gyelse Lekpa to Kongpo, where he was residing, and received all the transmissions yet again. It is said that Gyelse Lekpa was rewarded with teachings from Rangjung Dorje: the Vimalaprabhā commentary on Kālacakra Tantra, Rangjung Dorje's own composition on the Buddha's past lives, the Six Yogas, and Yanggonpa's (yang dgon pa rgyal mtshan dpal, 1213–1258) Mountain Dharma (ri chos skor gsum).
Transmission of the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī to Longchenpa
The circumstances of how Longchenpa received the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī, and from whom he received a complete copy of the treasure cycle, remain unclear. One of Longchenpa's disciples, Gyelse Zopa Drakpa, who was also a student of both Gyelse Lekpa and Rinchen Lingpa, would have been one of the few persons around Longchenpa who might have procured a complete copy of the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī. This is why it is probable that Gyelse Zopa is the same person as Wozer Gocha ('od zer go cha), the disciple of Longchenpa who, tradition holds, gave him, around 1339, a complete copy of the cycle.
Gyelse Lekpa had transmitted to Gyelse Zopa the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī three times in the form of a word-by-word explanation, plus many other teachings, during a one- or two-year retreat. The History of the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī presents Gyelse Zopa as Gyelse Lekpa's heir as regards the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī. It is probable that Gyelse Zopa was trained in the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī by both Gyelse Lekpa and Rinchen Lingpa prior to 1339, when the texts passed to Longchenpa.
Most biographers write that Longchenpa, out of concern for proper usage and correct forms, requested and received from Gyelse Lekpa the empowerments and reading transmissions for the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī. Pema Lingpa's (padma gling pa, 1450–1521) autobiography suggests that Longchenpa received the teaching from Gyelse Lekpa by 1334, not long after his departure from Sangpu Monastery (G226 gsang phu dgon) in 1332 and before he met Kumarādza (1266–1343),[2] but that is unlikely: the texts of Longchenpa's Quintessence of the Ḍākinī (mkha' 'gro yang tig), composed apparently between 1339 and 1343, do not name Gyelse Lekpa. There is more probability that, if this meeting ever actually occurred, Longchenpa met Gyelse Lekpa after 1343 and received these teachings from him in order to silence criticisms which are slightly echoed in the Visionary Network's (mthong snang ’od kyi drwa ba) dialogue with the ḍākinīs:
[Longchenpa:] Is it appropriate for me to confer the empowerment and instructions [of the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī]?
[Ḍākinī:] Yes, of course! No fault in that, no fault in that. You are without question the custodian of these teachings.
[Longchenpa:] So people won't think me a charlatan?
[Ḍākinī:] What's the point of paying attention to gossip? I will make sure that fortunate people meet you. Anyway, those who are unfortunate would slander even the Buddha.
The transmission surely occurred after Longchenpa had already composed at least part of his writings relating to the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī, in the 1340s or in the early 1350s—hence the embarrassment that one can guess on the part of Gyelse Lekpa, who could not consider him an ordinary disciple. If we assume such an order of events, the traditional narratives can be more or less maintained in their entirety. It is even possible that it occurred after Longchenpa's return from Bhutan, in the period 1360–1364, at the very end of Longchenpa's life.
None of our sources contain anything that would allow us to situate the meeting with Longchenpa historically. The narrative, however, is worth reading, in part for the assertion that Longchenpa was the reincarnation of Pema Ledreltsel, despite being born over ten years before the latter's death:
It was from this master [Gyelse Lekpa] that the omniscient dharma king [Longchenpa] Drime Wozer [received this tradition]. In accordance with the last prophetic words of the treasure-discoverer Ledreltsel, he went to Gyelse Lekpa, and told him about his past lives. The latter said: "Apart from the change in physical appearance, you are really my master; it would be superfluous [for me to confer] consecrations and ritual transmissions on you."
But [Longchenpa] replied, "Because of this change from one life to another, and since it is necessary for the tradition to be uninterrupted, it would not be appropriate [for me not to receive these transmissions]."
Thus, having received [from Gyelse Lekpa] the entire transmissions of the tantras, consecrations, precepts, and practice instructions of the Secret Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī, the omniscient king of the Dharma finally became the repository of the hidden treasure of the Guru [Padmasambhava]'s short lineage.
In the Fifth Dalai Lama's (ta la'i bla ma 05, 1617–1682) Record of Teachings Received, Gyelse Lekpa appears only as a disciple of Pema Ledreltsel, and as a master of Longchenpa, of Karmapa Rangjung Dorje and, more curiously, of Kumarādza—which is an indication that Kumarādza may have known the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī, although this is not stated in any of the available sources. He was also a master of Namkha Dorje according to the Fifth Dalai Lama's Record of Teachings Received and of Delek Gyatso, one of Longchenpa's disciples according to Terdak Lingpa (gter bdag gling pa, 1646–1714)'s (confirmed, of course, by The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa and many passages in the manuscript volume to which it belongs), which also presents him as having taught his own son Lekpatsel (legs pa rtsal), Menlungpa Sanggye Zangpo (sman lung pa sangs rgyas bzang po), Tarpa Gyeltsen (thar pa rgyal mtshan), Loton (probably Loton Dorjebum), said in Karma Kagyu sources to be Pema Ledreltsel's companion during the discovery of the Khandro Nyingtik), Rangdrol Rinchen (rang grol rin chen), Lhadingpa Tsonshe (lha sdings pa brtson she).
He is presented in Terdak Lingpa's Record of Teachings Received as a terton of his own, who discovered a terma about the Lion-Faced Protector (zhing skyong seng ge'i gdongs pa can).
There are two obscure mentions of a "Lekpa" in Nyima Zangpo's biography of Rigdzin Godem (rig 'dzin rgod ldem, 1337–1409), which is the oldest available one. The first occurrence is in the context of Godem's childhood and the people who taught him after his father passed away. In the second one, "Lekpa" is consulted about how to avert inauspicious signs that occurred after the revelation, and this means that "Lekpa" was himself a terton. These hints are too uncertain to lead to any conclusion, but if it were confirmed that Rinchen Lingpa was Rigdzin Godem's Dzogchen master, an association of Godem with Gyelse Lekpa too is not unlikely. Indeed, in Godem's childhood, Gyelse Lekpa was in his forties, and he died soon after the Zangzang Lhadrak discoveries, in the year fire-horse, 1366.
Bibliographical reference
The oldest chronologically well-ordered account of Gyelse Lekpa's life are found in (1) Gyelse Zopa's History of the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī (mkha' 'gro snying thig gi lo rgyus rin po che'i phreng ba, p. 207–210) and (2) another equally ancient source, more detailed but more difficult to interpret chronologically: a fourteen-page verse biography in a manuscript version of the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī (img. 39-52 in BDRC W8LS16393—cited above as The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa). This source is precious because some of its parts at least are an autobiography of Gyelse Lekpa. A passage (img. 50) makes it finally possible to conclude on very firm grounds that Pema Ledreltsel died in 1319 and not earlier as generally assumed. The special value of this source also lies in the fact that the manuscript itself seems not to have been annotated later than two generations after Delek Gyatso.
There is also a text containing prophecies about Gyelse Lekpa in the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī (Longchenpa 2009, vol. 6, p. 176: sprul sku legs ldan pa'i lung bstan), but it does not contain anything useful to the historian. Gyelse Lekpa is also mentioned in biographies of the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje. Among later sources, the Records of Teachings Received of both the Fifth Dalai Lama and Terdak Lingpa give some more information about him, especially complements about his masters and disciples. Guru Tashi's History of the Nyingmapas (1990: p. 500–501) and Nyoshul Khenpo's History of the Heart Essence of Dzogchen (1998: vol. 1, p. 197–202) both contain biographical accounts of Gyelse Lekpa—but we have no information about their sources. None of the oldest sources mentions the episode for which he remains in the Tibetan memory: teaching the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī to Longchenpa.
[1] In The Biography of Gyelse Lekpa, instead of bon sgom, we read a curious abbreviation *bhee (vai?), or *bhoo / *bho + nasalisation, apparently an old abbreviation for bsgom. This part of the name of this master may rather read dbon bsgom than bon sgom (found in Gyelse Zopa as edited in the standard editions of the Mkha' 'gro snying thig).
[2] Aris, pp. 29–30.
དཔྱད་གཞིའི་ཡིག་ཆ་ཁག།
Arguillère, Stéphane. 2007. Profusion de la vaste sphère—Klong-chen rab-'byams (Tibet, 1308–1364), Sa vie, son œuvre, sa doctrine. Oslo: The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture / Leuven: Peeters.
Arguillère, Stéphane. 2024. "A King of Dharma forgotten on the Jewel Island: Was Me ban Chos rgyal Rin chen gling pa Rig 'dzin rGod ldem's rDzogs chen master? (How half of the mKha' 'gro snying thig got included in the dGongs pa zang thal)." Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, no.68, January 2024, pp. 69–147 (https://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_68_04.pdf).
Arguillère, Stéphane. 2024. "Meban Rinchen Lingpa," The Treasury of Lives (https://treasuryoflives.org/bo/biographies/view/Meban-Rinchen-Lingpa/3417).
Aris, Michael. 1988. Hidden Teachings and Secret Lives: A Study of Pemalingpa (1450-1521) and the Sixth Dalai Lama (1683-1706). London: Kegan Paul International.
Bde legs rgya mtsho, s.d.: Sprul sku legs ldan pa'i rnam thar. In Mkha' 'gro snying thig, "handwritten manuscript in Umed script; margin marked ka-tha, na-a, ki-pi, bi-zi, yi; missing volume da, phi, zhi-i, ri", BDRC W8LS16393. This text includes autobiographical fragments by Gyelse Lekpa and was completed by Delek Gyatso in the 14th century; the manuscript as we have it is no later than mid-15th century for its latest annotations.
Gter bdag gling pa 'gyur med rdo rje. 1998. Zab pa dang rgya che ba'i chos kyi thob yig rin chen 'byung gnas. In The collected works (gsuṅ 'bum) of Smin-gliṅ Gter-chen Rig-'zin-'gyur-med-rdo-rje, vols. 1-2. Dehra Dun: D.G. Khochhen Tulku. MW22096
Gu ru bkra shis. 1990. Bstan pa'i snying po gsang chen snga 'gyur nges don zab mo'i chos kyi 'byung ba gsal bar byed pa'i legs bshad mkhas pa dga' byed ngo mtshar gtam gyi rol mtsho. Xining: Mtsho sngon mi rigs par khang.
Klong chen rab 'byams. 2009.Mthong snang ’od kyi drwa ba, in Longchenpa 2009, vol. 8, p. 155-194.
Longchenpa. 2009.Dri med ’od zer gsung ’bum.Beijing: Krung go’i bod kyi shes rigs dpe skrun khang (Dpal brtsegs / Mes po’i shul bzhag).
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Nyi ma bzang po. 1983. Sprul sku rig 'dzin rgod kyi ldem 'phru can kyi rnam thar gsal byed nyi ma'i 'od zer. In Byang gter lugs kyi rnam thar dang ma 'ongs lung bstan. Gangtok: Sherab Gyaltsen & Lama Dawa.
Nyoshul Khenpo. 2005. A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems—Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage. Translated by Barron, Richard. Junction City: Padma Publishing.
Rgyal sras bzod pa grags pa. 2009: Mkha' 'gro snying thig gi lo rgyus rin po che'i phreng ba. In Kun mkhyen klong chen rab 'byams kyi gsung 'bum, vol. 6, pp.188-214. Beijing: Krung go'i bod kyi shes rigs dpe skrun khang. MW1KG4884
Smyo shul mkhan po 'jam dbyangs rdo rje. 1998. Snyun zhi mkhan po 'jam dbyangs rdo rje'i gsung rdzogs chen chos 'byung. New Delhi: Rigpa House.
Sprul sku legs ldan pa'i lung bstan. In Longchenpa 2009, vol. 6, p.176.
Zur mang Tshe dbang kun khyab. 1998. Karma kaṃ tshang brgyud pa rin po che'i rnam thar tshe dbang kun khyab rab 'byams nor bu zla ba chu shel gyi phreng, vol.1-2. Kunming:Yun nan mi rigs dpe skrun khang.