The Treasury of Lives

Khon Lui Wangpo ('khon klu'i dbang po) was likely born in the early eighth century. His father is said to have been a minister of king Tri Songdetsen (khri srong lde'u btsan) named Khon Konpa Jegungtak ('khon dkon pa rje gung stag), also known as Khon Pelpoche ('khon dpal po che). His mother, a daughter of the illustrious Lang clan, was named Nechungma (glang bza' ne chung ma). He was the elder of two sons.

Khon Lui Wangpo is said to have been a minister of religion under Tri Songdetsen, who reigned from 754 to 799, long enough to account for the possibility that both father and son served him as ministers. Lui Wangpo is credited as having been a financial patron and overseer during the founding of Samye Monastery (bsam yas) and to have provided statues and other important furnishings. He was a prolific translator, holding the title of junior translator (lo kyi chung), with close to a dozen scriptures credited to him Tibetan canon. According to the colophons, he worked primarily with the་Indian scholar Viśuddasiṁha,་but also with Jñānagarbha, Devacandra, and Vidyākarasiṁha, translating short dhāraṇi and also at least two sūtra.¹

His translations may have been connected to the Khon lineage of Vajrakīla and Śrī Heruka teachings which he is said to have received from Padmasambhava, and which are both preserved today in the Sakya tradition. One can note that these were alleged by Buton Rinchen Drub (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290-1364) and others to have been Tibetan creations, despite Sakya Paṇḍita (sa skya paN Di ta, 1182-1251) having located a fragment of a Sanskrit manuscript of the Vajrakīla root tantra. Popular legend has it that he found the text in the library at Samye Monastery; however, according to Jamgon Kongtrul ('jam mgon kong sprul, 1813-1899), Sakya Paṇḍita was handed the manuscript, written in Padmasambhava's own hand, by a yogi named Gopan Dutsi Gyelpo (mgo pan bdud rtsi rgyal po) in a place called Shangsekshing (shangs sreg shing).

Lui Wangpo is included in most lists of the "seven men who were tested" (sad mi mi bdun), the first group of Tibetan men who ordained under the Indian paṇḍita Śāntarakṣita, an event said in some histories to have occurred in the year 775. His brother Khon Dorje Rinchen ('khon rdo rje rin chen) carried on the family line with seven sons; the Khon family established Sakya Monastery (sa skya dgon) in the eleventh century and continues to lead the Sakya tradition.²

The Sanskrit translation of the name Lui Wangpo Srungpa is rendered Nāgindra Rakṣita by Khetsun Sangpo, and there is some evidence that he was known by this name in eighth-century Tibetan documents. Elsewhere he seems to have been known as Khon Nāgabhodi. Nevertheless, he should not be confused with the Indian paṇḍita named Nāgarakṣita, who translated Jetāri's Bālāvatāratarka-nāma (Derge 4263) alongside Pelchok Dangpo Dorje (dpal mchog dang po'i rdo rje).

1. My thanks to Kaia Fischer and David Mellins for pointing me to Lui Wangpo's translations in the canon.

2. See Jamgon Kongtrul, 1982-1987, Rdo rje phur pa rtsa ba'i rgyud kyi dum bu, In Bka' ma rgyas pa, vol. 10, pp. 7- 6. Kalimpong: Dupjung Lama. TBRC W19229. I am grateful to Malcolm Smith for this reference. Smith adds that "Yangdak Heruka" is a nickname for the deity based from the original sādhana. There have been many attempts to translate the name Yangdak as viśuddha and so on; they are all wrong. Śṛī Heruka (dpal khrag mthung), is too generic, so the Tibetans simply nicknamed this Śṛī Heruka as Yangdak, i.e. Śṛī Heruka from the sādhana saṃsiddhimahāśrīherukopāyikā-nāma (D1678).