'jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse'i dbang po
Collections
2632 texts associated with this figure
Terton Gyatsa Information
| Name in Gyatsa (Tibetan) | པདྨ་འོད་གསལ་མདོ་སྔགས་གླིང་པ་ |
|---|---|
| Name in Gyatsa (Wylie) | pad+ma 'od gsal mdo sngags gling pa |
| Page numbers | Rinchen Terdzö, Volume I, Text #6, Pages 676 to 693, folio 168b2 to 177a3 |
| Biography |
|
The Writings of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo
Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, the famed 19th century Tibetan polymath, was arguably the most prolific member of the Khyentse Lineage. Not only in terms of his own writings, which are presented here in collections that amount to forty-seven Tibetan volumes, but also in terms of the influence he exerted on the religious culture of Tibet and the Himalayan region. In fact, it is difficult to imagine what Tibetan Buddhism might look like today without him. In an era that witnessed a remarkable period of renewal and creativity, replete with the emergence of towering figures, Khyentse Wangpo can still be described as incomparable. Under his auspices, Jamgön Kongtrul and Loter Wangpo produced literary collections that virtually ensured the survival of more than a thousand years of Buddhist scriptural output. Yet without the complete transmissions of the works contained within the hundreds of collective volumes of the Rinchen Terdzö, the Damngak Dzö, the Kagyu Ngak Dzö, Gyude Kuntu and the Drupthab Kuntu, which were painstakingly gathered and embodied by Khyentse Wangpo, those collections might have amounted to little more than dry ink on paper, rather than the life force of a living tradition. Furthermore, his seal of approval brought recognition to figures that would come to shape the tradition we see today. The names Mipham and Chogyur Lingpa might have meant little to us had Khyentse Wangpo not recognized and nurtured their potential early on, thus catapulting them into the spotlight and imbuing their activities with an unassailable authority and stature.
The literary corpus of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo is gathered into two collections, the Khyentse Kabab and the Khyentse Kabum. The first of these is thematically centered on his propagation of the seven authoritative transmissions (bka' babs bdun), which are detailed in Khyentse Wangpo's secret biography (gsang ba'i rnam par thar pa) as recounted by Jamgön Kongtrul. Thus, this collection is mostly concerned with writings that are connected to the visionary life of Khyentse Wangpo. The second is more of a general compendium of his literary works, typical of the Tibetan literary genre of collected works (bka' 'bum or gsung 'bum). Though, considering the sheer breadth of the subject matters Khyentse Wangpo addressed within it, this collection is far from typical.
Collections
2632 texts associated with this figure
