རིན་ཆེན་བྱང་ཆུབ་ནི་འབྲི་གུང་དགོན་ཕྱག་འདེབས་མཛད་མཁན་འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོའི་བུ་སློབ་དང་གཉེན་ཉེ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ལ། འབྲི་གུང་དགོན་གྱི་གདན་རབས་གསུམ་པ་དབོན་ཤེས་རབ་འབྱུང་གནས་ཀྱི་གཅུང་ཡིན་པ་རེད།
Rinchen Jangchub (rin chen byang chub) was born in a village called Lhadra (lha sgra) in Dento ('dan stod), Kham. His father, Tonpa Sanggye Pel (ston pa sangs rgyas dpal), was said to be an incarnation of Marpa Chokyi Lodro (mar pa chos kyi blo gros, 1012?-1097). His mother's name was Choden (chos ldan). They were members of the Kyura (skyu ra) clan, and relatives of Jikten Gonpo ('jig rten dgon po, 1143-1217), the founder of Drigung Til Monastery ('bri gung mthil dgon pa). Rinchen Jangchub had one sister and five brothers, including an elder brother, Won Sherab Jungne (dbon shes rab 'byung gnas, 1187-1241), who served as the third abbot of Drigung Monastery, and a youngest brother named Chennga Gampopa (spyan snga sgam po pa), another close disciple of Jikten Gonpo. The names of his other siblings are not known.
Upon receiving ordination, he received the name by which he is known, Rinchen Jangchub. He studied all of the early Kagyu teachings and was known for being very learned.
As a youth Rinchen Jangchub traveled to central Tibet and became a disciple of his brother as well as his famous relative, becoming one of the twelve chennga (spyan snga) or close students of Jikten Gonpo, and is therefore sometimes referred to as Chennga Rinchen Jangchub (spyan snga rin chen byang chub).
Rinchen Jangchub quickly amassed a large entourage of fully ordained monks said to number upwards of five hundred. Drigung sources state that locals likened him and his monks as the Buddha and his disciples. Because of this and because he offered his sangha generous alms, he was also known as "Sonyom Lingpa" (bsod snyoms gling pa) or "The Lord of Alms" and Tubpa Sonyompa (thub pa bsod snyoms pa) or "The Muni Who Gives Alms."
It is said that once, while teaching at Daklha Gampo (dwags lha sgam po), the seat of the early Kagyu tradition, a man named Namse Dungmarchen (rnam sras mdung dmar can) sponsored the mining of gold on his behalf. So much gold was excavated that Rinchen Jangchub was said to have given an ounce of gold to each of the residents of Dakpo, which he requested they donate to the local monastic community.
Rinchen Changchup wrote many treatises including a commentary on Single Intention (dgongs gcig) titled Rinjangma (rin byang ma).
དཔྱད་གཞིའི་ཡིག་ཆ་ཁག།
Dkon mchog rgya mtsho. 2004.Chos rje 'jig rten mgon po'i slob ma. In'Bri gung chos 'byung, pp. 311-343. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang.TBRC W27020.