The Great Fifth Dalai Lama a Harmonious Blend

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

The Great Fifth Dalai Lama A Harmonious Blend Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso was born in 1617, at a time when Tibet was going through a period of turmoil. However, after the Qoshot chieftain, Gushri Bronze of the Fifth Dalai Lama Khan took control over Tibet, the spiritual and political power was The Potala Palace in Lhasa © Pitt Rivers Museum Rivers © Pitt handed over to the young Lama. In 1642, he became the Fifth Dalai Lama. He ordered the construction of the Potala Former residence of the Dalai Palace on the Red Hill, where King Songtsen Lamas in Ganden monastery Gampo had built a fort. Though the Potala Collection Jean Lasalle would only be completed after his death, the Dalai Lama used it as his residence. Lhasa became the capital of Tibet. The Dalai Lama, Gushri Khan and Sangye Gyatso In 1652, he went to Beijing to meet the Manchu Emperor Shunzhi. While in the Chinese capital, the Dalai Lama stayed at the Yellow Palace, specially built for Audience between the Dalai him by the emperor. They are said to have met as equals. Lama and Emperor Shunzhi The Fifth Dalai Lama, a great scholar versed in Sanskrit, established the Ganden Phodrang, a form of governance characterized by an ‘harmonious blend between the secular and the spiritual’. For the ﬁrst time since the Religious Kings, Tibet had a centralized form of government. He died in 1682 before the construction of the Potala was completed. His Regent Sangye Gyatso, kept his death secret until its completion. Illustration of the Secret Visions of the Fifth Dalai Lama Desi Sangye Gyatso also founded Medical text written the Chakpori School of Medicine by Desi Sangye Gyatso.

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Buddhist Archeology in Mongolia: Zanabazar and the Géluk Diaspora Beyond Tibet
Buddhist Archeology in Mongolia: Zanabazar and the Géluk Diaspora beyond Tibet Uranchimeg Tsultemin, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Uranchimeg, Tsultemin. 2019. “Buddhist Archeology in Mongolia: Zanabazar and the Géluk Dias- pora beyond Tibet.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review (e-journal) 31: 7–32. https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-31/uranchimeg. Abstract This article discusses a Khalkha reincarnate ruler, the First Jebtsundampa Zanabazar, who is commonly believed to be a Géluk protagonist whose alliance with the Dalai and Panchen Lamas was crucial to the dissemination of Buddhism in Khalkha Mongolia. Za- nabazar’s Géluk affiliation, however, is a later Qing-Géluk construct to divert the initial Khalkha vision of him as a reincarnation of the Jonang historian Tāranātha (1575–1634). Whereas several scholars have discussed the political significance of Zanabazar’s rein- carnation based only on textual sources, this article takes an interdisciplinary approach to discuss, in addition to textual sources, visual records that include Zanabazar’s por- traits and current findings from an ongoing excavation of Zanabazar’s Saridag Monas- tery. Clay sculptures and Zanabazar’s own writings, heretofore little studied, suggest that Zanabazar’s open approach to sectarian affiliations and his vision, akin to Tsongkhapa’s, were inclusive of several traditions rather than being limited to a single one. Keywords: Zanabazar, Géluk school, Fifth Dalai Lama, Jebtsundampa, Khalkha, Mongo- lia, Dzungar Galdan Boshogtu, Saridag Monastery, archeology, excavation The First Jebtsundampa Zanabazar (1635–1723) was the most important protagonist in the later dissemination of Buddhism in Mongolia. Unlike the Mongol imperial period, when the sectarian alliance with the Sakya (Tib.
[Show full text]
Medical Murals at Labrang Monastery Katharina Sabernig (Universität Wien)
Medical Murals at Labrang Monastery Katharina Sabernig (Universität Wien) Thursday, December 8, 3:50 pm, Jindřišská 27, room No. 1 (2nd floor) In the courtyard of the medical College at Labrang Monastery in China's Gansu Province the visitor finds a series of murals depicting the first and the second part of the Four Tantras in form of so-called unfolded trees. The murals are fascinating works of art illustrating traditional knowledge of Tibetan medicine. Their meaning is not obvious for the ordinary viewer but the ramifying structure, using leaves of different color and shape, is a guide through medical contents which an aspiring physician should become acquainted. The paintings are based on a text written by Darmo Menrampa Lobsang Chodrag (Dar mo sman rams pa Blo bzang chos grags), the personal physician of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Both didactically intriguing and visually captivating, they seem to be connected to the famous set of thangkas illustrating the Blue Beryl commentary of the Four Tantras compiled by Desi Sangye Gyatso (Sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho) in a complementary way. After the destructive years of the Cultural Revolution, the original murals at Labrang Monastery have been repainted skilfully. They indicate a time of revitalisation of Tibetan Medicine and still form a vivid part of Labrang's medical culture. Katharina Sabernig (MD/MA) is a lecturer in different fields of Tibetan Medicine at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies of the University of Vienna and teaches related topics at the Medical University of Vienna. Beyond her research on the medical murals at Labrang Monastery in Northeastern Tibet (modern Gansu province) her interests focus on medical illustrations, history, terminology and development of contents in Tibetan medicine, particularly in the field of anatomy.
[Show full text]
The Life and Vicissitudes of Khandro Choechen Nicola Schneider
Self-Representation and Stories Told: the Life and Vicissitudes of Khandro Choechen Nicola Schneider To cite this version: Nicola Schneider. Self-Representation and Stories Told: the Life and Vicissitudes of Khandro Choechen. Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, CNRS, 2015. hal-03210266 HAL Id: hal-03210266 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03210266 Submitted on 27 Apr 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Self-Representation and Stories Told: the Life and Vicissitudes of Khandro Choechen Nicola Schneider (Centre de Recherche sur les Civilisations d’Asie Orientale)1 n Tibetan Buddhism, the female figure of the khandroma (mkha’ ’gro ma) is an elusive one, especially in her divine I form,2 but also when applied to a particular woman. Most often, khandroma refers to a lama’s wife (or his consort)—who is usually addressed by this title—, but there are also other female religious specialists known as such. Some are nuns, like the famous Mumtsho (Mu mtsho, short for Mu med ye shes mtsho mo, b. 1966) from Serthar,3 yet others are neither nuns nor consorts. All can be considered, in varying degrees, as holy women or female saints.
[Show full text]
Construction Work and Wages at the Dergé Printing House in the Eighteenth Century Rémi Chaix, École Pratique Des Hautes Étud
Construction Work and Wages at the Dergé Printing House in the Eighteenth Century Rémi Chaix, École Pratique des Hautes Études Abstract During the eighteenth century, the powerful Kingdom of Dergé in eastern Tibet became a major political, economic, and religious center that gave birth to one of the most important printing houses in the Tibetan world. Written documentation about the construction of the building and the work performed by numerous artisans allows for a better understanding of the traditional economy in Kham in general, and of wage labor in particular. This article investigates the nature and terms of remuneration for construction and decoration work on the extension to the printing house that was built in 1744–1745. It demonstrates that, in Kham, tea and barley were taken as a reference value to estimate wages and, in so doing, lays out the methodology for comparing these data with those of Central Tibet, where the terms of remuneration were far more complex, including as many as ten different types of goods. This analysis contributes to a better understanding of the role certain goods and trade items played in the economy and lays the groundwork for the history of remuneration in Kham and Tibetan societies at large. Keywords: printing house, Dergé, Kham, Tibet, economy, wages, construction work, decoration work Introduction The history of economic facts, particularly as far as quantitative aspects are concerned, remains an underinvestigated field of research with regard to pre-twentieth-century Tibet. Multiple factors have contributed to this situation: the small number of documents, limited access to them, and the fact that any relevant figures are scattered here and there and are, above all, difficult to interpret.
[Show full text]
Tibet: a History/Sam Van Schaik
1 2 3 4 5 6 TIBET 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 37R 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 37R 1 2 3 4 SAM VAN SCHAIK 5 6 7 8 9 TIBET 10 A HISTORY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 6 NEW HAVEN AND LONDON 37R 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Copyright © 2011 Sam van Schaik 9 20 All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and 1 except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers. 2 For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact: 3 U.S. Ofﬁce: [email protected] www.yalebooks.com 4 Europe Ofﬁce: [email protected] www.yalebooks.co.uk 5 Set in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd 6 Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall 7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 8 9 Van Schaik, Sam.
[Show full text]
Naming and Forgetting Sowa Rigpa and the Territory of Asian Medical Systems
ARTICLE Naming and forgetting Sowa Rigpa and the territory of Asian medical systems Sienna R. Craig and Barbara Gerke Abstract Sowa Rigpa is generally translated as ‘the science of healing’ and often used synonymously for ‘Tibetan medicine’. Historically, Sowa Rigpa can be considered a borrowed term from Sanskrit, accompanied by an adopted sense of ‘science’, which initially signified all forms of medicine known to the Tibetan world, regardless of their place of origin. Over the centuries, Sowa Rigpa became linked to local, indigenous, and ‘enskilled’ practices; later, to nationalist political sensibilities; and of late to cultural belonging. The term evokes territoriality, claims to ownership of knowledge, concerns over sustaining national identities, and considerations about how place-based healing practices and material resources relate to the globalizing ideas about traditional Asian medicines. Textual and ethnographic analyses and interviews with practitioners from China, India, and Nepal show how Sowa Rigpa exists at once as a marker of shared intellectual and cultural histories and forms of medical practice and as a label for a globally circulating medical system with distinct interpretations. Looking at Sowa Rigpa as operating in de- and reterritorialized global spaces makes visible how, why, and to what end modernity forgets (Connerton 2009), thereby allowing for broader conclusions applicable to other medical contexts. Keywords Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa), Asian medicine, globalization, recognition, identity, naming Medicine
[Show full text]
9-Schneider Final
Self-Representation and Stories Told: the Life and Vicissitudes of Khandro Choechen Nicola Schneider (Centre de Recherche sur les Civilisations d’Asie Orientale)1 n Tibetan Buddhism, the female figure of the khandroma (mkha’ ’gro ma) is an elusive one, especially in her divine I form,2 but also when applied to a particular woman. Most often, khandroma refers to a lama’s wife (or his consort)—who is usually addressed by this title—, but there are also other female religious specialists known as such. Some are nuns, like the famous Mumtsho (Mu mtsho, short for Mu med ye shes mtsho mo, b. 1966) from Serthar,3 yet others are neither nuns nor consorts. All can be considered, in varying degrees, as holy women or female saints. However, Tibetans distinguish them also according to their respective religious realisations, thus saying that only some are full- fledged khandromas whereas others are not.4 Even though frequently revered by their followers, these women are usually only locally known, that is in a given religious community.5 Merely a few have reached fame in the wider Tibetan region and even rarer still are those who have been the subject of written texts, be it biographies, autobiographies or be they just mentioned a few times in other texts.6 The purpose of this article is to document the life and the vicissitudes of a contemporary khandroma, Khandro Choechen. Born in c. 1961 in Kham, she fled from Tibet only recently, in 2004. Since then, she first settled in India, Dharamsala, and then migrated to 1 This paper could not have been written without the financial help of the Centre de Recherche sur les Civilisations de l’Asie Orientale and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, to whom I owe special thanks.
[Show full text]
Physical Culture in Dzogchen As Revealed in Tibet's Lukhang
29 MovingtowardsPerfection:PhysicalCultureinDzogchenasRevealedinTibet’s LukhangMurals Ian A. Baker A set of murals created in Lhasa at the end of the 17th the Vajrayāna2 Buddhist path to ‘pure and total presence’ century reveal mind-body practices within Tibetan (byang chub kyi sems), Dzogchen is held to liberate con- Buddhism that have traditionally been kept hidden from sciousness from latent discontent through ever-present non-initiates, in part because of the practices’ perceived awareness (rig pa) of the ultimately non-dual (gnyis med) threat to monastic and clerical conventions. The body- nature of mental experience. As explicated in the ‘Six based disciplines depicted on the walls of what was once Vajra Verses’ (Rig pa’i khu byug), one of Dzogchen’s earliest a private meditation chamber for Tibet’s Sixth Dalai Lama known literary sources: are part of the Dzogchen (rdzogs chen), or ‘Great Perfection’ Recognising that everything is self-perfected from the very teachings that developed within Tibet’s earliest transmis- beginning and beyond the constraints of conceptualising sion of tantric Buddhism. Commissioned by Tibet’s then mind, the malady of striving is spontaneously relinquished. ruling political regent Desi Sangye Gyatso (Sde srid sangs One remains immaculately at ease in innate perfection.3 rgyas rgya mtsho) (1653–1705), the Lukhang murals’ artistic virtuosity reflects intellectual, doctrinal, and political concerns during one of Tibet’s greatest periods of cultural production and innovation. This chapter explores the diverse motivations that in- formed the creation of the Lukhang murals, but focuses the Vajrayāna, or third turning of the wheel of doctrine, but are more specif ically on the murals’ enduring didactic content: still dualistic in their orientation.
[Show full text]
Ganden Phodrang (1642 – 1951/59)
Ganden Phodrang (1642 – 1951/59) Foir Major Schools of Tibetan Buddhism The end of Mongol overlordship (1642-1644) Relationship with Ming China (before 1644) Relationship with Qing China (1644 – 1911) Sino-Nepalese War (1788-1789) Special topic: Tibetan medicine Four Major schools of Tibetan Buddhism The four main ones overlap markedly, such that "about eighty percent or more of the features of the Tibetan schools are the same". Differences include the use of apparently, but not actually, contradictory terminology, opening dedications of texts to different deities and whether phenomena are described from the viewpoint of an unenlightened practitioner or of a Buddha. On questions of philosophy they have no fundamental differences, according to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. The Tibetan adjectival suffix -pa is translatable as "-ist" in English. Another common but trivial differentiation is into the Yellow Hat (Gelug) and Red Hat (non-Gelug) sects, a division that mirrors the distinction between the schools. Nyingma "The Ancient Ones" are the oldest Buddhist school, the original order founded by Padmasambhava and Śāntarakṣita. Whereas other schools categorize their teachings into the two yānas or "vehicles", Hinayana and Mahayana a, the Nyingma tradition classifies its teachings into Nine Yānas. Kagyu “Lineage of the (Buddha's) Word”. This is an oral tradition which is very much concerned with the experiential dimension of meditation. Its most famous exponent was Milarepa, an 11th-century mystic. In the 20th century it was represented by the teacher Kalu Rinpoche. Sakya The "Grey Earth" school represents the scholarly tradition. Headed by the Sakya Trizin, this tradition was founded by Khön Könchok Gyelpo (1034–1102), a disciple of the great lotsāwa Drogmi Shākya and traces its lineage to the mahasiddha Virūpa.
[Show full text]
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Previously Published Works
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Previously Published Works Title Medicine as Impartial Knowledge: The Fifth Dalai Lama, the Tsarong School, and Debates of Tibetan Medical Orthodoxy Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/80k5z9qp ISBN 1932476814 Author Van Vleet, Stacey Publication Date 2016-06-01 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California 11 Medicine as Impartial Knowledge The Fifth Dalai Lama, the Tsarong School, and Debates of Tibetan Medical Orthodoxy1 Stacey Van Vleet University of California Berkeley When the bloody Mongol-Tsang war concluded in 1642, Gušri (Gushri) Khan’s conquest of the Tibetan plateau raised the Gelukpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism to power over the Kagyü and Jonang traditions favored by the defeated King of Tsang. The Qošot Mongol prince turned to the Fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang Lopzang Gyatso (Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, 1617–1682) to design the institutions for his rule, and one of the hierarch’s first and primary ongoing projects was the creation of a state system of medicine. The Fifth Dalai Lama supported medical teachers from family lineages and monasteries throughout Central Tibet, established new medical institutions at the centers of his government, Drepung Monastery and the Potala Palace, and offered an examination testing physicians on their knowledge of the Four Tantras (Rgyud bzhi), the root text of theory, diagnosis, and treatment in Tibetan medicine.2 He 1. This research was made possible by support from the Social Science Research Council, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Special thanks also to Tashi Tsering of the Amnye Machen Institute, for generously sharing his knowledge of the source material.
[Show full text]
An Introduction to Music to Delight All the Sages, the Medical History of Drakkar Taso Trulku Chökyi Wangchuk (1775-1837)1
AN INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC TO DELIGHT ALL THE SAGES 55 AN INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC TO DELIGHT ALL THE SAGES, THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF DRAKKAR TaSO TRULKU CHÖKYI WANGCHUK (1775-1837)1 STACEY VAN VLEET, Columbia University On the auspicious occasion of their 50th anniversary celebration, the Dharamsala Men-tsee-khang published a previously unavailable manuscript entitled A Briefly Stated Framework of Instructions for the Glorious Field of Medicine: Music to Delight All the Sages.2 Part of the genre associated with polemics on the origin and development of medicine (khog ’bubs or khog ’bugs), this text – hereafter referred to as Music to Delight All the Sages – was written between 1816-17 in Kyirong by Drakkar Taso Trulku Chökyi Wangchuk (1775-1837).3 Since available medical history texts are rare, this one represents a new source of great interest documenting the dynamism of Tibetan medicine between the 18th and early 19th centuries, a lesser-known period in the history of medicine in Tibet. Music to Delight All the Sages presents a historical argument concerned with reconciling the author’s various received medical lineages and traditions. Some 1 This article is drawn from a more extensive treatment of this and related 18th and 19th century medical histories in my forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Tashi Tsering of the Amnye Machen Institute for sharing a copy of the handwritten manuscript of Music to Delight All the Sages with me and for his encouragement and assistance of this work over its duration. This publication was made possible by support from the Social Science Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship, with funds provided by the Andrew W.
[Show full text]
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Previously Published Works
UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Previously Published Works Title An Introduction to 'Music to Delight All the Sages,' the Medical History of Drakkar Taso Trulku Chökyi Wangchuk (1775-1837) Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4vz1s49j Journal Bulletin of Tibetology, 48(2) Author Van Vleet, Stacey Publication Date 2012 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California I AN iNTRODUCTION TO MUSIC TO DELIGHT ALL THE SAGES, THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF DRAKKAR TASO TRULKU CHOKYI WANGCRUK (1775-1837)’ STACEY VAN VLEET, Columbia University On the auspicious occasion of theft 50th anniversary celebration, the Dharamsala Men-tsee-khang published a previously unavailable manuscript entitled A Briefly Stated framework ofInstructions for the Glorious field of Medicine: Music to Delight All the Sages.2 Part of the genre associated with polemics on the origin and development of medicine (khog ‘bubs or khog ‘bugs), this text — hereafter referred to as Music to Delight All the Sages — was written between 1816-17 in Kyirong by Drakkar Taso Truilcu Chokyi Wangchuk (1775-1837). Since available medical history texts are rare, this one represents a new source of great interest documenting the dynamism of Tibetan medicine between the 1 $th and early 19th centuries, a lesser-known period in the history of medicine in Tibet. Music to Delight All the Sages presents a historical argument concerned with reconciling the author’s various received medical lineages and traditions. Some 1 This article is drawn from a more extensive treatment of this and related W” and 1 9th century medical histories in my forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation.
[Show full text]