| Tashi Lhunpo Mahayana Buddhist Temple |
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JE TSONGKAPA (1357-1419), also known as Je Rinpoche Lobsang Drakpa, is the single greatest commentator in the 2,500 year history of Buddhism. He was born in the district of Tsongka in eastern Tibet and took his first vows at a tender age. As a teenager he had already mastered much of the teachings of Buddhism and was sent by his tutors to the great monastic universities of central Tibet. Here he studied under the leading Buddhist scholars of his day; it is said as well that he enjoyed mystic visions in which he met and learned from different forms of the Buddha himself. The 18 volumes of Je Tsongkapa's collected works contain eloquent and incisive commentaries on virtually every major classic of ancient Buddhism, as well as his famed treatises on the "Steps of the Path to Buddhahood." His students, who included the first Dalai Lama of Tibet, contributed hundreds of their own expositions of Buddhist philosophy and practice.
Je Tsongkapa founded the Great Three monasteries of Tibet, where by custom nearly 25,000 monks have studied the scriptures of Buddhism over the centuries. He also instituted the great Monlam festival, a period of religious study and celebration for the entire Tibetan nation. Je Tsongkapa passed away in his 62nd year, at his home monastery of Ganden in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. |
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| PABONGKA RINPOCHE (1878-1941), also known as Jampa Tenzin Trinley Gyatso, was born into a leading family in the state of Tsang in north-central Tibet. As a boy he entered the Gyalrong House of Sera Mey, one of the colleges of the great Sera Monastic University, and attained the rank of geshe, or master of Buddhist philosophy. His powerful public teachings soon made him the leading spiritual figure of his day, and his collected works on every facet of Buddhist thought and practice comprise some 15 volumes. Pabongka Rinpoche passed away at the age of 63 in the Hloka district of south Tibet. |
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| KYABJE TRIJANG RINPOCHE (1901-1981), Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang was His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama's philosophical assistant and personal tutor for fifty years. A direct disciple of the great Pabongka Rinpoche, Trijang Rinpoche edited Pabongka Rinpoche's "Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand", one of the most-studied Lam-Rim texts in the Gelugpa lineage. |
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| KHENSUR LOBSANG THARCHIN RINPOCHE (1921-2004) was born in Lhasa, and as a boy also entered the Gyalrong House of Sera Mey. He studied under both Pabongka Rinpoche and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, and after a rigorous 25-year course in the Buddhist classics was awarded the highest rank of the geshe degree. He graduated from the Gyumey Tantric College of Lhasa in 1958 with the position of administrator. Since 1959 he taught Buddhist philosophy at various institutions in Asia and the United States, and in 1975 completed studies in English at Georgetown University. He served as the abbot of Rashi Gempil Ling, a Kalmuk Mongolian temple in New Jersey. He was the founder of the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Centers of New Jersey and Washington D.C., and author of numerous translations of major Buddhist texts. In 1977 he directed the development of the first computerized Tibetan word processor, and played a leading role in the re-establishment of Sera Mey Monastic College, of which he was a lifetime director. |
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| GESHE MICHAEL ROACH is a fully ordained American monk who received his geshe (doctor of Theology) degree from Sera Mey Monastery in India after 22 years of study there and in the United States with his root Lama, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin. Geshe Michael has been teaching Buddhism since 1981. He is a scholar of Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Russian, and has translated and published numerous works. He is the founder of the Asian Classics Institute, the Asian Classics Input Project, and Diamond Mountain University. |
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