The Treasury of Lives



Katok Kunga Bum (kaH thog kun dga' 'bum pa) was born in 1332, the water-monkey year of the sixth sexagenary cycle. Details are not known about his parents and childhood. In his youth he travelled broadly in U-Tsang and Kham and studied under a number of distinguished lamas of various Tibetan Buddhist traditions of the time.

He gave special attention to the teachings of the Kadam and Kagyu traditions and received many commentarial teachings on tantra as well as empowerments and instructions. He had a particular interest in the practice of Chod (gcod), a teaching that was popular with Nyingma and Kagyu communities and originated with Machik Labdron (ma gcig labs sgron, 1055-1149).

Kunga Bum became a complete and perfect Chod practitioner within the lineage known as “The Oral Transmission of Peaceful Chod” (zhi gcod snyan brgyud) and is considered an important master of that tradition.

Kunga Bumpa was enthroned as the eighth abbot of Katok Monastery, succeeding Katokpa Sonam Zangpo (kaH thog pa bsod nams bzang po, 1295-1357) in 1357, the year of fire-bird in the sixth sexagenary cycle, at the age of twenty-six. He maintained the monastery's tantric traditions chiefly the Guhyagarbha Tantra, the main tantra of the Mahāyoga class and the primary Tantric text studied in the Nyingma tradition, and Atiyoga (Dzogchen), the highest tantra of the Nine-Vehicles (theg pa rim pa dgu) system of tantric doxography of the Nyingma tradition. In addition he introduced and gave commentarial teachings and esoteric instructions in detail on Peaceful Chod. Later the practice became popular in the monastery under the name of "Esoteric Instructions on Chod According to the Tradition of Kunga Bum" (chod kyi gdams pa kunga ’bum pa’i lugs srol) that was maintained with transmission and scriptures. There is a long text of this tradition of Chod still available but other compositions of Kunga Bum are no longer extant.

Kunga Bum retired from the abbacy of Katok in 1369. Wangchuk Pel (dbang phyug dpal 1332-1384) succeeded him to as the ninth abbot of Katok.

Kunga Bum had a large number of disciples in other monasteries, including Rakchab Monastery (rak chab dgon), Dredha (gras rda), Barkhyim (bar khyim), Tsangchen (gtsang chen), Pelyul Drak Khachu (dpal yul brag kha chu), and it was said that a number of disciples among them have accomplished rainbow-light body.

Kunga Bum was also known as Drubtob Chakyuwa (grub thob phyag yu ba). He died in 1381, on the thirteenth of the fifth month of the iron-bird year of the sixth sexagenary cycle, at the age of fifty.

 

 

Samten Chhosphel earned his PhD from CIHTS in India where he served as the head of Publication Dept. for 26 years. He has a Master’s degree in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College, Boston. Currently he is an adjunct Assistant Professor at the City University of New York, and Language Associate in Columbia University, NY.

Published April 2011

参考书目

'Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan. 1996.Rgyal ba kaH thog pa’i lo rgyus mdor bsdus.Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 46-47; 164.

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