Building Place and Shaping Lives: Nartang Monastery from the 12th through 15th Centuries Michael D Schuman Charlottesville, Virginia B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2006 M.T.S., Harvard University, 2009 A dissertation presented to the graduate faculty of the University of Virginia in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Religious Studies, History of Religions University of Virginia April, 2016 © Copyright by Michael D. Schuman All Rights Reserved, April, 2016 ABSTRACT This thesis is a study of Nartang monastery in the Tsang region of Central Tibet. Nartang monastery was founded in 1153 and was one of the most influential monastic institutions of the Kadam school until the fifteenth century. In its initial construction, Nartang monastery was a small enclave with limited members. By the mid-thirteenth century the place had significantly grown in physical size, membership, and reputation. This study explores the steady growth and decline of the monastery by examining the lives of the people in charge and their real and symbolic relations within and without the monastic community. This thesis begins with the Kadam school in the Penyül valley of Central Tibet. Here Nartang’s founder Tumtön Lodrö Drakpa (Gtum ston blo gros grags pa, 1106-1166) was educated and inspired to return to his native land in Tsang to build Nartang monastery. I then turn to the effective campaign strategies of Nartang’s fourth, fifth, and sixth abbot, who traveled throughout Central Tibet to raise funds for the monastery and to acquire new monastic recruits. Nartang monastery was at its best during the tenure of the seventh abbot Chim Namkha Drak (Mchims nam mkha’ grags, 1210-1285). It was during his tenure that the political events on the Eastern Steppe could no longer be ignored in Central Tibet. I show how Chim Namkha Drak and the Nartang community effectively navigated through the Mongolian (re)organization of Central Tibet. I also trace how the Nartang abbots, specifically the eight abbot Kyotön Mönlam Tsültrim (Skyon ston smon lam tshul krims, 1219-1299), projected and guided the increasing importance of their monastery at the center of the Buddhist world. I then study the life of Nartang’s tenth abbot, his time spent at the Mongol court and his eventual return to Nartang. Finally, I look to Nartang when Gendün Drupa (Dge ’dun grub pa, 1391-1474), posthumously the First Dalai Lama, entered the monastery at the age of seven in 1398. By this time Nartang monastery had well established a standardized curriculum and built a reputation for itself as a preeminent Kadam scholastic institution. I also explore the various factors that left Nartang monastery in a precarious state by the fifteenth century, such as the burgeoning reformist movement in Central Tibet lead by Tsongkhapa Lozang Drakpa (Tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357-1419), the building of Tashi Lhünpo monastery by Gendün Drupa in 1449, and a decline in Sakya power and the rise of the Pakmodrupa. Table of Contents Acknowledgments iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1. The Makings of Nartang Monastery 10 Chapter 2. Branching Out 34 Chapter 3. Coming of Age: Nartang with Chim Namkha Drak 73 Chapter 4. Securing the Fort: Kyotön Mönlam Tsültrim 109 Chapter 5. The Emperor, the Abbot and the Monastery 144 Chapter 6. A Beginning to an End: Gendün Drupa at Nartang Monastery 176 Conclusion and Epilogue: Changing the Guard 204 Appendix 1. The Register (gsan yig) of Nartang’s Fourth Abbot Dromochewa Dütsi Drak (Gro mo che ba bdud rtsi grags, 1153-1232) 213 Appendix 2. A Partial Register (gsan yig) of Nartang’s Eighth Abbot Kyotön Mönlam Tsültrim (Skyon ston smon lam tshul krims, 1219-1299) 222 Appendix 3. A Translation of the Biography of Nartang’s Tenth Abbot Ze’u Tsünpa Dülzin Drakpa Tsöndrü (Ze’u ’Dul ’dzin grags pa brtson ’grus, 1253-1316) 234 Bibliography 258 Tibetan Language Sources 258 Western Language Sources and Translations 263 !iv Acknowledgments A great number of people have helped me complete these chapters over the years. My fascination with the Kadam tradition of yore began more than a decade ago. For this, and so much more, I offer thanks to the late Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen (1924-2009) and Kaybje Lati Rinpoche (1922-2010), whose life embodied scholastic excellence and caring devotion to others. I wish to thank the wonderful support of my advisors Kurtis R. Schaeffer, David F. Germano, Karen C. Lang, and David Vander Meulen from the University of Virginia. Schaeffer was a strong supporter of this thesis from the start and was invaluable in shaping my ideas into tangible research. Germano showed me ways to think about the research in ways that were beyond my conceptual frame of mind, and Lang was always the consummate scholar that helped to focus the research. Vander Meulen reinforced my love of printed artifacts and taught me new ways to read their texts. I wish to thank José Ignacio Cabezón at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for his steady counsel from the start of my academic vocation. I also wish to thank Vesna A. Wallace, whose knoweldge and insight were invaluable to my education. I am indebted to Leonard van der Kuijp for his constant encouragement and support during my time at Harvard University and the years beyond, and for making the text of the biography of Nartang’s tenth abbot accessible to me. I am further grateful to Ulrike Roesler at the University of Oxford, who generously shared with me her expertise of the Kadam tradition. There are many individuals in Tibet whose help should be acknowledge. First thanks go to my Chamdo in-laws. To my late Ama Trinlé Drölka whose consideration, kindness, and !v encouragement were bar none. To Aku Jamyang Jampa who joyfully and willingly assisted my stay and research in every-way possible, from driving me all around the Tibetan Plateau to sitting and talking over coffee, tsampa, and snuff. For their warm hospitality in Chamdo and Lhasa I also want to thank Azhé Jampa Chökyi, Azhé Jampa Tsomo, Azhé Tséchu, Azhé Jampa Yangzom, Penpa Tséring, and Gaga Tséring. Further thanks go to Lozang Chöpel who helped secure safe travel in Tibet. Other individuals in Tibet that I am much obliged to are Tundrup Tendzin and Kelsang Wangmo, who were always on standby to help during my stay in Lhasa; the Chamdo Lama, Jampa Chöpel, who took time from his busy monastic life to help read through texts and take my kids shopping; and to the Tsang native Tenzin Norbu for carting me around Tsang and for scaling ladders to measure crumbling walls. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my immediate family. To my grandparents Dorothy and Mike Derderian and my mother Christine, whose ever-kind support enabled me to go down this winding path and whose assistance allowed me to trip without falling. I would also like express my gratitude to my aunt Andrea and uncle Dan for their unwavering support, and to my sister and partner in crime Michelle, who always believed in me more than I did myself. To my sister-in-law Tashi Chokey, who has been a reliable source for care and kindness. I am forever indebted to my loving partner Tenzin Pelmo, whose support has been a source of strength and perseverance. Finally, I am always deeply appreciative of my adoring children, Tenzin and Yeshe, who can’t believe that their father is still in school! Introduction The tenth to twelfth century was a period of renewed religious fervor in Tibet. The influx of newly translated Buddhist texts from India, the reformulation of previously existing forms of practice, and the transformation and adaptation of Indian materials to Tibetan cultural context, created an environment of abundant creativity that flowed through the medium of art, architecture, literature, rituals, monastic and lay networks, pilgrim and trade routes, divergent doctrines and new philosophies. Part and parcel of this changing cultural landscape was the lack of a central polity. Fragmented political management, local clans and charismatic figures filled the geopolitical landscape throughout most of the Tibetan plateau. Toward the end of the twelfth century, regional and sectarian identities began to be formulated along more rigid dichotomies. Monastic principalities and their local clan-based powers began to move beyond their immediate locality in search for territory and influence by forging new alliances and making new nemeses. This reorganization of the geopolitical landscape did not, however, damper the religious fervor of the two prior centuries. Rather, perhaps for the first time since the Late Imperial Period (ca. 610-910), a growing self-confidence emerged in the late twelfth century that would blossom in the thirteenth and fourteenth century as many Tibetans reckoned their importance as not purely a repository and protectorate of Indian Buddhism but as a developed Buddhist land in its own right. Central to this growing confidence were the ever-expanding monastic institutions, intellectual and patron-clan networks, generous literary and ritual output, and the capacious production of art and architecture of the Kadam (Bka’ gdams) school. While the general Introduction !2 importance of the Kadampa’s role in shaping the Tibetan religious culture scene from the eleventh through fifteenth century has come to be acknowledged by modern scholarship, either for their influence in the fields of Tibetan scholasticism or in the arena of “popular” forms of religion, to date there is not one detailed study of the important monastic institutions of the tradition, such as Radreng (Rwa sgreng), Sangpu (Gsang phu), and Nartang (Snar thang). The purpose of this thesis is to fill this gap in scholarship through an assessment of such a place: Nartang monastery.