People/Kun dga' grol mchog

ཀུན་དགའ་གྲོལ་མཆོག་

Kunga Drolchok(1507 - 1566) 

Born in:

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glo smon thang

Tibetan date of birth:

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Year of the Female Fire Rabbit, 9^th sexagenary cycle.

Kunga Drolchok (kun dga' grol mchog) was born in 1507 in Lo Montang (glo smon thang), the capital of the Mustang (glo) region of present-day Nepal. His main teacher as a youth was his uncle, the Sakya master Drungpa Choje Kunga Chokdrub (drung pa chos rje kun dga' mchog grub, d.u.), who was a disciple of the great Sakya master Dakchen Lodro Gyeltsen (bdag chen blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1444-1495).

Kunga Drolchok received ordination as a novice monk from Drungpa Choje when he was ten years old, and stayed with him constantly for the next four years, receiving many initiations and teachings of the Sakya tradition, including Lamdre three times.

In 1519, when Kunga Drolchok was thirteen years old, he traveled with his elder brother to U and Tsang for further studies. They first went to the great monastery of Sakya and the nearby retreat center of Khau Drakdzong (kha'u brag rdzong), where they received teachings from the master Kunpang Doringpa (kun spangs rdo ring pa, d.u.).

Then they proceeded to the Sakya monastery of Serdokchen (gser mdog can), the monastic seat of Paṇchen Śākya Chokden (paN chen shAkya mchog ldan, 1428-1507), where they began the serious study of epistemology and other scholastic subjects under the guidance of Shākya Chokden's disciple and successor, Donyo Drubpa, known by the Sanskrit version of his name, Amoghasiddhi (a mo g+ha sidd+hi, don yod grub pa, d.u.). But tragedy soon stuck. A smallpox epidemic claimed the lives of nineteen of the twenty-two students, including Kunga Drolchok's elder brother.
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Library Items

Book

Prajñāpāramitā, Indian "gzhan stong pas", and the Beginning of Tibetan gzhan stong

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In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, there is an ongoing debate about whether the gzhan stong system was "invented" by Tibetans, in particular by Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan (1292–1361), or whether there are Indian precursors of that view. Here, I will (1) discuss evidence for a number of typical positions of the gzhan stong system in several Indian texts, (2) provide a sketch of the transmission of the five works of Maitreya from India to Tibet and the beginning of a Tibetan gzhan stong tradition preceding Dol po pa, and (3) trace some typical gzhan stong assertions in a few early Tibetan works before Dol po pa that are considered by Tibetan writers as belonging to the gzhan stong system. (Brunnhölzl, introduction, 9)

Brunnhölzl, Karl. Prajñāpāramitā, Indian "gzhan stong pas", and the Beginning of Tibetan gzhan stong. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 74. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2011.

Brunnhölzl, Karl. Prajñāpāramitā, Indian "gzhan stong pas", and the Beginning of Tibetan gzhan stong. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 74. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2011.;Prajñāpāramitā, Indian "gzhan stong pas", and the Beginning of Tibetan gzhan stong;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;History of buddha-nature in India;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;gzhan stong;Karl Brunnhölzl; Prajñāpāramitā, Indian "gzhan stong pas", and the Beginning of Tibetan gzhan stong;Daṃṣṭrasena;Vasubandhu;Jagaddalanivāsin;Vimalamitra;Praśāstrasena;Mahājana;Ratnākaraśānti;Kun dga' grol mchog;Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims

Affiliations & relations

• Jonang · religious affiliation
• lo chen rat+na bha dra · teacher
• Byang bdag bkra shis stobs rgyal · student
• 'gyur med bde chen · student