Gyurme Dorje(1950 - 2020)
Gyurme Dorje (1950 – 5 February 2020) was a Scottish Tibetologist and writer. He was born in Edinburgh, where he studied classics (Latin and Greek) at George Watson's College and developed an early interest in Buddhist philosophy. He held a PhD in Tibetan Literature (SOAS) and an MA in Sanskrit with Oriental Studies (Edinburgh). In the 1970s he spent a decade living in Tibetan communities in India and Nepal where he received extensive teachings from Kangyur Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche, Chatral Rinpoche, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. In 1971 Dudjom Rinpoche encouraged him to begin translating his recently completed History of the Nyingma School (རྙིང་མའི་སྟན་པའི་ཆོས་འབྱུང་) and in 1980 his Fundamentals of the Nyingma School (བསྟན་པའི་རྣམ་གཞག) - together this was an undertaking that was to take twenty years, only reaching completion in 1991. In the 1980s Gyurme returned to the UK and in 1987 completed his 3 volume doctoral dissertation on the Guhyagarbhatantra and Longchenpa's commentary on this text at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.
From 1991 to 1996 Gyurme held research fellowships at London University, where he worked with Alak Zenkar Rinpoche on translating (with corrections) the content of the Great Sanskrit Tibetan Chinese Dictionary to create the three volume Encyclopaedic Tibetan-English Dictionary. From 2007 until his death he worked on many translation projects, primarily as a Tsadra Foundation grantee. He has written, edited, translated and contributed to numerous important books on Tibetan religion and culture including The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History (2 vols.) (Wisdom, 1991), Tibetan Medical Paintings ( 2 vols.) (Serindia, 1992), The Tibet Handbook (Footprint, 1996), the first complete translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and A Handbook of Tibetan Culture (Shambhala, 1994). (Source Accessed Jul 14, 2020)
Library Items
The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17. Vol. 1, The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga
In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, a yogin and scholar of northeastern Tibet, completed a multivolume masterwork that traces the entire path of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from beginning to end. Written by a mantra practitioner for the benefit of mantra practitioners living among the lay community, it was intended to be informative, inspirational, and above all, practical. Its twenty-five books, or topical divisions, offer a comprehensive and detailed view of the Buddhist path according to the early translation school of Tibetan Buddhism, spanning the vast range of Buddhist teachings from the initial steps to the highest esoteric teachings of great perfection. Choying Tobden Dorje’s magnum opus appears in English here for the first time.
Books 15 to 17: The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga is presented in two volumes and concerns the first of the three classes of inner tantra. It presents the entire text of the Guhyagarbha Tantra, in Tibetan and English, together with the interlinear sections of one of its most important commentaries, Dispelling the Darkness of the Ten Directions, by the outstanding fourteenth-century master Longchen Rabjam. Also included is Choying Tobden Dorje’s rewriting of Candragomin’s inspirational Extensive Commentary on the Sublime Litany of the Names of Manjushri. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Dorje, Gyurme, trans. The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17: The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga. Vol. 1. By Chöying Tobden Dorje (chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje). Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2016.
Dorje, Gyurme, trans. The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17: The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga. Vol. 1. By Chöying Tobden Dorje (chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje). Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2016.;The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17. Vol. 1, The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga;Nyingma;Chöying Tobden Dorje;ཆོས་དབྱིངས་སྟོབས་ལྡན་རྡོ་རྗེ་;chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje;a lags rgyal po;ཨ་ལགས་རྒྱལ་པོ་;Alak Gyalpo; Gyurme Dorje;The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17: The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga. Vol. 1.;chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje
The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism
Written by a great modern Nyingma master, Dudjom Rinpoche’s The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism covers in detail and depth both the fundamental teachings and the history of Tibetan Buddhism’s oldest school. This, the first English translation of His Holiness’ masterwork, constitutes the most complete work of its type in the West.
Dorje, Gyurme, and Matthew Kapstein, trans. and ed. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History. By Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje (bdud 'joms 'jigs bral ye shes rdo rje). Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1991.
Dorje, Gyurme, and Matthew Kapstein, trans. and ed. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History. By Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje (bdud 'joms 'jigs bral ye shes rdo rje). Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1991.;The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism;Nyingma;History;Great Madhyamaka;Dudjom Jikdral Yeshe Dorje;བདུད་འཇོམས་འཇིགས་བྲལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་;bdud 'joms 'jigs bral ye shes rdo rje;bdud 'joms rin po che;'jigs bral ye shes rdo rje;བདུད་འཇོམས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་;འཇིགས་བྲལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་;Dudjom Rinpoche; Gyurme Dorje;Matthew Kapstein;The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History;Dudjom Rinpoche
Affiliations & relations
- Tsadra Foundation · workplace affiliation
- 84000 · workplace affiliation
- Kangyur Rinpoche · teacher
- Dudjom Rinpoche · teacher
- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche · teacher
- Chatral Rinpoche · teacher
- Tulku Pema Wangyal · teacher
- Zenkar Rinpoche · teacher
- Thubten Nyima · teacher
