The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great'

H-Buddhism Deroche on Gardner, 'The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great'

Review published on Monday, August 9, 2021

Alexander Gardner. The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great. Boulder: Snow Lion, 2019. Maps. 520 pp. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-61180-421-8.

Reviewed by Marc-Henri Deroche (Kyoto University) Published on H-Buddhism (August, 2021) Commissioned by Lucia Galli

Printable Version: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=56568

Alexander Gardner’s The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great provides the most complete and insightful historical study of Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye (’Jam mgon kong sprul Blo gros mtha’ yas, 1813-99), a key figure of the so-called impartial, ecumenical, nonsectarian, orrimay (Tib. ris med) approach in nineteenth-century Eastern Tibet (Kham). Having dedicated his doctoral thesis (2007) to the connection between sacred sites in Kham and the activities of nineteenth-century rimay teachers, Gardner was perfectly prepared to offer a balanced methodology in this book, resituating Kongtrul’s spiritual legacy, including his vast textual output, within the scope of the very “physicality of his activity” characterized by the “centrality of ritual” (p. 350). As a result, the work reveals what is a very human itinerary with great sensibility and care, elucidating Kongtrul’s ecumenical ideals as the symbolic resources that he elaborated to navigate through the hardships of his time, places, and communities. Taking Kongtrul’s autobiography as the main thread, Gardner, with all the skills and resources developed as the director and chief editor of the Treasury of Lives project, retraces the master’s life story by integrating a rich array of Tibetan sources into a lively and penetrating narrative, guiding the reader across the natural and cultural landscape of Tibet in general, and of Kham in particular, and into the depths of the Buddhist path followed by Kongtrul.

In the pioneer paper that introduced Tibetan studies to Kongtrul and the “nonsectarian movement” (or rather with Gardner, “period”), E. Gene Smith pointed out the importance of the relationship between Kongtrul and his friend and teacher, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (’Jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse’i dbang po, 1820-92), for understanding this epoch of Tibetan history.[1] Thanks to Gardner’s book, a considerable advancement has been made in this regard. Since a previous review by Renée L. Ford has already considered the fine literary characteristics of the book, I will focus here on some key aspects of Gardner’s narration of Kongtrul’s life that especially illuminate his ecumenicalism.[2]

The book is divided into twenty-seven chapters, organized in three parts—“Training,” “Collaborations,” and “Deaths”—followed by a timeline, maps, and notes. In part 1, Gardner covers the first thirty years of the master, showing his gradual evolution away from the Bon tradition of which his family was a part. Pivotal in this process is the figure of Khyungpo Neldjor (Khyung po rnal ’byor, circa 1050-1127), founder of the Shangpa Kagyu lineage, who seems to have later appealed to Kongtrul as alternatively ancestor (of the same Bonpo Khyungpo clan), previous incarnation, role model for his move both from Bon to Buddhism and from ancient to new traditions, and holder of a yogic lineage that was by Kongtrul’s time not identified with a single school and thus appeared beyond narrowly defined sectarian identities. Be as it may, the question of the complex relation of

Kongtrul with Bon still remains largely open for further research, since more could be said, for example, regarding his disputed inclusion of Bon revelations in hisTreasury of Revelations; his activity as Bonpo revealer under the name and double Bonpo-Buddhist identity of Tenyi Yundrung Lingpa (bsTan gnyis g.yung drung gling pa); or his relationships with Bonpo monasteries in Kham, in which major revivals also happened during the same period, led by such figures as Shardza Tashi Gyeltsen (Shar rdza bKra shis rgyal mtshan, 1859-1933).[3]

Kongtrul’s connection to the Buddhist Nyingma monastery of Zhechen and to Zhechen Wontrul Gyurme Tutob Namgyel (Zhe chen dbon sprul ’Gyur med mthu stobs rnam rgyal, b. 1787), Kongtrul’s “first teacher, whom he loved like a father and remembered tenderly his entire life,” appears central to Gardner’s narrative (p. 21). Although Kongtrul had to leave this monastery—an event he would later always regret—the Dzogchen tradition would remain “Kongtrul’s own path” and its origin may be definitively traced back to his time at Zhechen (p. 223). Zhechen Wontrul Gyurme Tutob Namgyel’s pith instruction at the time of parting appears explicative of such connection and is therefore worth mentioning here: “Always focus your mind, cultivate mindfulness, and do not fall into sectarianism” (dus rgyun du blo sna stungs / dran shes bsten / phyogs ris ma byed) (p. 41).[4] Since this departure was forced by the social pressures and obligations of the young monk toward his lay patrons, the episode exemplifies the very tension between spiritual pursuits and social duties that runs through the entire biography, where the constant interplay between freedom and determinism, retreat from and engagement with social communities, shows the impossibility of simply defining Kongtrul’s nonsectarianism exclusively in external or internal terms.

When criticizing the reduction of Kongtrul’s ecumenicalism as a response to Geluk hegemony, Gardner writes that “Kongtrul was a man who boundlessly embraced all things and yet was still capable of responding to real events with whatever means he had available” (p. 260). Starting with the imprisonment and death of his own father and continuing with his appointments to dangerous expeditions across Tibet, his mediation during the Nyarong war when many lamas were kept as hostages, or the self-exile from Pelpung monastery, just to name a few, the reader is struck, thanks to Gardner’s acute descriptions, by the long list of conflicts and crises that Kongtrul had to live through.

Such disheartening antagonisms go beyond the sole opposition between ancient Tibetan Buddhist schools and the comparatively more recent Geluk sect, which came to lead Tibet’s central government and which Kongtrul also served during his trip to Lhasa. Already in 1833, when moving from the Nyingma monastery of Zhechen to the Karma Kagyu monastery of Pelpung, Kongtrul faced the need to “reconcile his new identity with his Nyingma heritage” (p. 56). Gardner observes then that Kongtrul’s dreams “reflected the mental effort at properly integrating the two and forging a sense of self that could support both” (p. 64). The practice of spiritual retreat is therefore considered instrumental in this process. Gardner rightly observes that in Kongtrul’s writings, “impartiality for him was the heart of the Buddha’s teachings on non-duality,” that is, beyond notions of self and others, transcending attitudes of attachment and aversion (p. 101). The fact that Kongtrul developed his two hermitages, Tsādra Rinchen Drak (situated above Pelpung monastery) and Dzongsho Deshek Dupai Podrang, as Shangpa institutions is interpreted by Gardner as “an opportunity to occupy a space that was neither Nyingma nor Karma Kagyu but which accommodated all the teachings just the same” (p. 110). These places were also to become central abodes in the sacred geography that was enacted by rituals and revelations together with Khyentse and Chogyur Dechen Lingpa (mChog ’gyur bde chen gling pa, 1829-70), the spiritual trio being united by a common Nyingma affiliation and a

In part 2, Gardner resituates the collection and compilation of the various Tibetan transmission lineages for which Kongtrul is celebrated as part of a “vast network of social connections,” in which “lineal bonds were bonds of affection as much as they were the framework of social structures” (pp. 129, 131). It could be also added that in premodern Tibet such social capital had constant ramifications within a larger-than-human cosmos, as illustrated by the importance of geomantic rituals. In his Treasury of Instructions, Kongtrul attempted to compile and preserve the contemplative teachings of the main esoteric lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, and it is interesting to note with Gardner that Khyentse appears as the main source for most transmission lines. It is also Khyentse who, interpreting one of his dreams, pointed out Trengpo Terton Sherab Wozer (’Phreng po gter ston Shes rab ’od zer, 1518-84), the original promulgator of Kongtrul’s favored doxography (the “eight chariots of accomplishment” that organize the Treasury of Instructions), as one of Kongtrul’s eminent past lives (pp. 144-45).

Yet, as Gardner puts it, Kongtrul’s ecumenicalism was paradoxically concomitant with isolation within his own community. The tension with Pelpung monastery eventually led to almost twelve years of self- exile, during which Kongtrul reportedly spent most of his time close to Khyentse, “his sole remaining friend and teacher” (p. 298). Among the various causes of tensions with Pelpung monks, Gardner examines the delicate and intimate issue of the presence of a woman, identified as Tsering Chodron (Tshe ring chos sgron), suggesting that Kongtrul may have been accused of violating his monastic vows. This aspect of the book shall surely be received differently, since sexual yoga, a “highly controversial topic in Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism,” has given rise to various misunderstandings and scandals in convert communities established in the West (p. 59). Indicative of this is the involvement of Kongtrul’s own niece in a tantric ritual, an incident that deeply saddened the master and led him to attempt to protect the girl by all means, including monastic ones. The event, which for Gardner “can only be described as a sexual abuse,” may be seen as the expression in a tantric context of an ethical dilemma, that is, the difficulty to define what to adopt and what to reject (p. 244). It is clear, therefore, that the trouble with ethical maps is not exclusively restricted to cultural differences, as recent events in the West would lead us to believe. This episode of Kongtrul’s life precisely illustrates how the ambivalence regarding such practices, with the possibility of misconduct or pitfall, was felt and recognized in Tibet. As for the question of an actual tantric consort, Gardner remarks that Kongtrul insisted that he “never violated his primary tantric vows” (p. 296). I believe that a complete analysis would require an extensive discussion of the threefold ethics of Tibetan Buddhism (that is, personal liberation, bodhisattva, mantra) according to which lower, or more exoteric, levels are being ruled by higher, or more esoteric, ones. As a matter of fact, the presentation and subtle interpretation of this complex system formed the starting point for Kongtrul’sTreasury of Knowledge, the “best literary articulation” of his ecumenical view, to use Gardner’s words (p. 221).

The work reaches its conclusion in part 3, where the author outlines the last ten years of Kongtrul’s life, a period of losses (first and foremost that of his friend and teacher Khyentse) and systematization, as the master dedicated most of the early 1890s to the completion and transmission of his major collections. In the last chapter, Gardner traces the impact of Kongtrul’s legacy on today’s ecumenicalism, reconstructing the evolution of rimay within an established institutional setting.

Few remarks aside, Gardner’s The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great is a fascinating study,

Citation: H-Net Reviews. Deroche on Gardner, 'The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great'. H-Buddhism. 08-09-2021. https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/reviews/8041627/deroche-gardner-life-jamgon-kongtrul-great Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3 H-Buddhism beautifully written and well documented, that will pave the way for any future research on this nineteenth-century cultural revival in Kham, in order to avoid simplifications and access the deeper roots of an extraordinary legacy of Tibetan Buddhism.

Notes

[1]. Alexander Gardner, interview by Matthew Abrahams, “Jamgon Kongtrul, the Man and the Myth,” Tricycle, December 19, 2019; and E. Gene Smith, Among Tibetan Texts: History and Literature of the Himalayan Plateau (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001), 249.

[2]. Renée L. Ford, review of The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, by Alexander Gardner, Himalaya 40, no. 1 (2020): 125-26.

[3]. On Kongtrul’s name Tenyi Yundrung Lingpa, see Samten Karmay, The Great Perfection (rDzogs chen): A Philosophical and Meditative Teaching of Tibetan Buddhism(Leiden: Brill, 2007), 36. On Shardza Tashi Gyeltsen, see Jean-Luc Achard’s monograph,Enlightened Rainbows: The Life and Works of Shardza Tashi Gyeltsen (Leiden: Brill, 2008).

[4]. For the original passage in Tibetan, see ’Jam mgon kong sprul Blo gros mtha’ yas, “Phyogs med ris med kyi bstan pa la ’dun shing dge sbyong gi gzugs brnyan ’chang ba blo gros mtha’ yas kyi sde’i byung ba brjod pa nor bu sna tshogs mdog can,” inRgya chen bka’ mdzod (Delhi: Shechen Publications, 2002), 10:269.

Citation: Marc-Henri Deroche. Review of Gardner, Alexander,The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great. H-Buddhism, H-Net Reviews. August,URL: 2021. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56568

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.