The Drukpa Kargyu Lineage
After the initial spread of Lord Buddha's teaching in Tibet and its subsequent suppression, the 11th century came as a period of progress and renewal for the Buddha-dharma. Tibetans underwent great hardships in traveling to study with teachers in India at then famous institutes like Nalanda and Vikramashila. Great masters from India such as Atisha came to teach in Tibet.
All the known lineages of Tibetan Buddhism are originated from Vajradhara - the root of all the manifestations of enlightenment. The source of the Kagyu tradition is the great translator Marpa (1012-1097), who made several visits to India and Nepal, and learned under the mahasiddhas of India like Naropa and Matripa, and brought back the pure lineage to Tibet.
Since then, Lama Marpa’s lineage was transmitted through a successive lineage holders until Phagmo Drupa’s eight main disciples, who established the eight major branches of the Kagyu Lineage. One of them is Lingre Pema Dorje (1128-1188), also renown as the Saraha of Tibet. He was the source of our lineage Lingre Kagyu, cited under his name, Lingchen Repa.
Later, Lingre Kargyu evolved to be known as Drukpa Kargyu under the direction of Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (1161-1211) whom was Lingchen Repa's only disciple. Tsangpa Gyare had the vision of nine roaring dragons in the sky when he arrived at Ralung, which inspired the name “Drukpa Kagyu", Druk means dragon in Tibetan.
Tsangpa Gyare’s lineage spread far and wide through his three main disciples: Sangye Onchen Repa, Godtsangpa Gonpo Dorje, and Lorepa Dharma Wangchuk. Following the transmission lines of these three masters, three branches of the Drukpa Kargyu Lineage came into existence based upon the location of their seats, and later being known as The Middle Drukpa Kargyu, Bar-Druk (བར་འབྲུག།) by Sanggye Onchen Repa (1177-1237) at Ralung; The Upper Drukpa Kargyu, Tod-Druk (སྟོད་འབྲུག) by Gotsangpa Gonpo Dorje (1189-1258) in West Tibet and Ladakh; and The Lower Drukpa Kargyu, Med-Druk (སྨད་འབྲུག) by Lorepa Wangchuk Tsondru (1187-1250) at Uri (དབུ་རི།) and Karpo Choe Lung (དཀར་པོ་ཆོས་ལུང་།).
From these three incomparable great masters, many precious teachings and the profound-and-vast View, Meditation, and Conduct were taught at their respective place of abode. Later, the essence teachings of the Upper and the Lower Drukpa Kargyu merged into the Middle Drukpa Kargyu, and transmitted under the banner of Middle Drukpa Kargyu through a line of extraordinary realized golden rosary masters unbrokenly for centuries until the present day. Today’s Drukpa Kargyu is the direct continuation of the sole lineage of the Bar-Druk.
1) Buddha vajradhara
Vajradhara or Dorje Chang in Tibetan, is the primordial Buddha, the Dharmakaya Buddha. Vajradhara represents the essence of the historical Buddha's realization of the wisdom enlightenment.
The Dharmakaya Buddha is the source of all the manifestations of enlightenment. Vajradhara is central to the Kagyu lineage because Tilopa received the Tantrayana teachings directly from Dharmakaya Vajradhara. Thus, the Kagyu lineage is originated from the very nature of buddhahood.
The realization of the ultimate nature was in turn transmitted within the Golden Rosary by Tilopa.
2) Mahasiddha Tilopa (988-1069)
Tilopa was born a brahmin in India, but he renounced the world while still quite young to become an ascetic. At a later stage, while meditating in seclusion in a tiny grass hut, he came face-to-face with the Dharmakaya Buddha Vajradhara and received teachings directly from Him. The Kagyu denomination holds the Mahamudra teachings that were received directly from Vajradhara via Tilopa.
He is one of the most authoritative and renowned Indian Mahasiddhas and masters of Mahamudra and Tantra.
3) Naropa (1016-1100)
Naropa himself had abandoned his prestigious position as head of great Nalanda University to spend twelve arduous years training with the great Indian Mahasiddha Tilopa.
4) Marpa Lotsawa (1012-1097)
Marpa, sometimes known fully as Lhodak Marpa Chokyi Lodro or commonly as Marpa the Translator was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher credited with the transmission of the complete buddhadharma to Tibet from India, including the teachings and lineages of Vajrayana and Mahamudra. Thus, he is the very source of the Kagyu school.
After his second visit to India, Milarepa became his disciple, who inherited his lineage in full.
5) Jetsun Milarepa (1040-1123)
Milarepa, the famous yogi, poet and saint, is one of the highest realized masters in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. His life of meditation has been an enduring source of inspiration for Buddhist practitioners for centuries. Milarepa's life story and songs -'Hundred Thousand Songs' are classics in the world's spiritual literature. He is the greatest yogi of Tibet.
6) Gampopa (1079-1153)
Gampopa, the sun-like heart-son of Milarepa, was prophesized by Buddha himself in numerous sutras as the propagator of ultimate Dharma in the Land of Snow. He was a physician and highly learned. He brought together the Kadam tradition of Atisha and the oral instructions of Mahamudra tradition of Milarepa. He authored many scholastic works, including the famous 'Jewel Ornament of Liberation'. It is from him that all Kagyu schools are traced. The main practices include, Mahamudra, Six Yogas of Naropa, Inner Heat-Tummo, Illusory Body, Luminosity, Bardo, Phowa - the transference of consciousness, Lojong - training the mind for cultivating loving-kindness.
7) Phagmo Drupa (1110-1170)
Phagmo Drupa, a disciple of Gampopa, founded the first Kagyupa Monastery in Southern Tibet and spread Gampopa's teachings like wildfire. Since then Kagyupa School has became the largest practitioners in history of Tibetan Buddhism to produce highest number of Mahasiddhas - the great enlightened beings.
8) Lingchen Repa (1128-1188)
Lingchen Repa or Lingre Pema Dorje, is one of Phagmo Drupa eight main disciples, also known as the Saraha of Tibet, was an incomparable realized master.
He was the source of our lineage Lingre Kagyu, cited under his name, Lingchen Repa. Later, Lingre Kagyu evolved to be known as the Drukpa Kargyu.
9) Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (1161-1211)
Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje or Jana Vajra in Sanskrit, was Lingchen Repa's only disciple and founded the lineage of Drukpa Kagyu. He had the vision of nine roaring dragons in the sky when he arrived at the future site of his main monastery, which inspired the name of this lineage - the "Drukpa Kagyu". Later, he established the lineage centered at Ralung.
Tsangpa Gyare’s lineage spread far and wide through his three main disciples: Godtsangpa Gonpo Dorje, Lorepa Dharma Wangchuk, Sangye Onchen Repa.
Following the transmission lines of these three masters, three branches of the Drukpa Kargyu Lineage came into existence based upon the location of their seats, and later being known as:
1) The Bar-Druk (བར་འབྲུག།): The Middle or Central Drukpa Kargyu Lineage by Sanggye Onchen Repa (སངས་རྒྱས་དཔོན་ཆེན་རས་པ།) (1177-1237) at Ralung;
2) The Tod-Druk (སྟོད་འབྲུག): The Upper Drukpa Kargyu Lineage by Gotsangpa Gonpo Dorje (རྒོད་ཚང་པ་མགོན་པོ་རྡོ་རྗེ།) (1189-1258) in West Tibet and Ladakh;
3) The Med-Druk (སྨད་འབྲུག): The Lower Drukpa Kargyu Lineage by Lorepa Wangchuk Tsondru ( ལོ་རས་པ་དབང་ཕྱུག་བརྩོན་འགྲུས།) (1187-1250) at Uri (དབུ་རི།) and Karpo Choe Lung (དཀར་པོ་ཆོས་ལུང་།).
From these three incomparable great masters, many precious teachings and the profound-and-vast View, Meditation, and Conduct were taught at their respective place of abode. Later, the essence teachings of the Upper and the Lower Drukpa Kargyu merged into the Middle Drukpa Kargyu, and transmitted under the banner of Middle Drukpa Kargyu unbrokenly for centuries until the present day. Today’s Drukpa Kargyu is the direct continuation of the sole lineage of the Bar-Druk.
(10) - (25) The 16 Golden Rosary Masters
The sixteen throne holders of Drukpa Kargyu before Pema Karpo are: 10) Sanggye Onchen Repa; 11) Choeje Shyonnu Sengge; 12) Jangsem Nyima Sengge; 13) Choegyal Dorje Lingpa; 14) Tshenden Poekyapa Chenpo; 15) Chusumpa Sengge Gyalpo; 16) Jamyang Kunga Sengge; 17) Drinchen Vajra Ratna; 18) Jamyang Lodroe Sengge; 19) Nyammed Khyentse Tokden; 20) Drupchen Lodroe Chokden; 21) Trulshik Namkhai Naljor; 22) Gyalwang Kunga Paljor; 23) Ngawang Choekyi Gyalpo; 24) Jamyang Choekyi Drakpa; 25) Kunpang Sherab Gyatso.
26) Kunkhyen Pema Karpo (1527-1592)
After Tsangpa Gyare, another sixteen masters held the lineage until Pema Karpo became the throne holder. Pema Karpo's root gurus were Ngawang Choekyi Gyalpo and Shabdrung Druk Choekyi Gonpo (the 1st Drukpa Choegon Rinpoche). Pema Karpo contributed a huge 24 volumes of collected works on Buddhist literature, logic, history and astrology. He constructed the monastery of Druk Sang-Ngak Choeling (The Dharma Abode of Mantrayana) in southern Tibet which became the main monastery of the Gyalwang Drukpas.
27) The Beginning of The Shab-Yong Lineage
Kunkhyen Pema Karpo and Shabdrung Choekyi Gonpo's main disciple was Lhatsewa Ngawang Zangpo - the 1st Drukpa Yongzin Rinpoche. He brought about a huge renaissance in the Drukpa Kargyu tradition.
Under his tutelage a great number of mahasiddhas and panditas were produced. Forty five of them were known to have obtained the state of non-meditation - the highest realization state in the practice of Mahamudra as prophesized by Vajrayogini. Each of whom has set up their own monastic institutions, retreat practices and their own lineages.
Thus it was said that the Drukpa Kagyu tradition flourish once again like the brilliant midday sun rays - spread far and wide. Among Lhatsewa Ngawang Zangpo’s disciples include the 5th Gyalwang Drukpa Paksam Wangpo, the 2nd Drukpa Choegon Dudjom Dorje, the 1st Khamtrul Ngawang Tenphel, the 1st Taktsang Repa, the 1st Dorzong Konchok Gyalpo, Pandita Sanggye Dorjee, Drubchok Mipham Lodroe, Gampopa Zangpo Dorje, and Rigdzin Jatson Nyingpo.