The Tseten Zhabdrung incarnation line is based in Amdo. Since the late seventeenth century, the Tseten Zhabdrung incarnations shared the throne of the Six Garwaka monasteries with the lineage of Tseten Abbots, while Tseten Zhabdrung also had his own monastic seat at Tak Monastery. The mother monastery of the Six Garwaka monasteries is a Geluk monastery known as Tseten. The Sixth Tseten Zhabdrung, Jigme Rigpai Lodro was one of the great Tibetan polymaths of the twentieth century, writing extensively on Tibetan history, language, astronomy and Buddhism.
Biographies
The Sixth Tseten Zhabdrung, Jigme Rigpai Lodro
b.1910 - d.1985
Jigme Rigpai Lodro was one of the great Tibetan polymaths of the twentieth century, writing extensively on Tibetan history, language, astronomy and Buddhism. By dint of his historical life and dedication to Tibetan scholarship, he acted as a conduit between “traditional” and “modern” Tibet. He is most famous for his role as one of the so-called Three Great Scholars after the Cultural Revolution. This epithet is drawn from tenth century Tibetan history when the first Three Great Scholars brought the Dharma to Eastern Tibet due to Langdarma’s persecution of Buddhism in central Tibet. Thus this title indicates how Alak Zhabdrung and the other two Great Scholars, Dungkar Lobzang Trinle and Muge Samten, contributed significantly to the revival of Tibetan scholarship, both at monasteries and secular institutions, following a near twenty-year vacuum due to various political campaigns. Many of today’s great Tibetologists both in the PRC and abroad studied with one of these Three Great Scholars.
