Table Of ContentTHE HISTORY OF THE
SAKYA TRADITION
(G angs-ljongs mdo-sngags kyi bstan-pa'i
shing-rta dpal-Idan sa-skya-pa'i
chos-'byung mdor-bsdus skal-bzang
yid-kyi dga'- ston)
His Holiness the Sakya Trizin Ngawang Kunga Thegchen Palb ar Thinley Samphel
Wang Gi Gyalpo The Forty-First Patriarch oft he Sakya Order
THE HISTORY OF THE SAKY A TRADITION
A Feast for the Minds of the Fortunate
CHOGAY TRICHEN RINPOCHE
Translated from Tibetan into French
by
Yen. Phende Rinpoche and Jamyang Khandro
Translated from French into English
by
Jennifer Stott
Introduced and Annotated by
David Stott
1983
GANESHA PRESS
BRISTOL
Ganesha Press
Sakya Thinley Rinchen Ling
27 Lilymead A venue
Knowle BRISTOL BS42BY
Copyright c 1983 Ganesha Press
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any
information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without
permission in writing froll) the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to
quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a
magazine, newspaper or broadcast.
British Library Cataloging in Publication Data
Thubten Legshay Gyamtsho, Chogay Trichen
The History of the Sakya Tradition
1. Sa-skya-pa (SectrHistory
I. Title
294.3'923 BQ7666
ISBN 0 9509119 0 9
Printed in the United Kingdom
by The Manchester Free Press.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations viii
Introduction ix
Translators Preface xii
CHAPTER I
The Coming of the Great Sakyapa 1
CHAPTER II
The Revelation of Countless Sutra and Tantra.
Teachings to the Great Lamas 5
Sachen KungaNyingpo 7
SonamTsemo 16
Drakpa Gyaltshan 16
Sakya Pandita 17
ChogyalPhakpa 20
Dromgon Channa 21
Dharmapala 21
CHAPTER ill
The Succession of the Great Holders of the
Doctrine 25
Influence of the Sakya Tradition 25
Ngor Ewam Choden and Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo 28
Nalendra and Rongton Sheja Kunzig 30
TbeTshar Tradition 33
Other Important Monasteries 37
CHAPTER IV
The Outstanding Characteristics of this
Tradition 41
Chogay Trichen's Bibliography 44
Notes for the English Translation 47
Glossary 59
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
His Holiness Sakya Trizin iv
The Five Masters 4
Yirupa 9
His Eminence Sakya Dagchen Rinpoche 23
Arya Manjushri 24
Yen Phende Shabdrung Rinpoche 29
Yen Chogay Trichen Rinpoche 35
Yen Karma Thinley Rinpoche 37
ShakyrununiBuddha 40
Arya Avalokiteshvara 57
Une drawings by
and
Jean Veasey Sarah Bushman
viii
Introduction
The publication of this English translation of Chogay Trichen Rin
poche's The History oft he Sakya Tradition se.rves as an introduction to
the Sakyapa school, hitherto the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism least
well-known in the West.1 The Author is eminently qualified for this
task, being not only the Head of the Tshar branch of the tradition but,
in ~ddition, a renowned tantric master, scholar and poet~ Indeed, Cho
gay Trichen Rinpoche is recognized as one of the greatest tantric mas
ters alive today.
The Sakyapa tradition takes its name from the monastery founded in
1073 at Sakya ('the place of grey earth') in south-western Tibet by Kon
chog Gyalpo, a member of the Khon clan. This influential family had
previously owed allegiance to the Nyingmapa tradition but Konchog
Gyalpo studied the theories and methods of the new diffusion of tantras
current in eleventh century Tibet. The most important of the teachings
which he received from his teacher Drokmi Lotsava, a disciple of the
Indian scholar Gayadhara, was the meditational system known as the
Path and Its Fruit (Lam-'bras).
In the twelfth and thirteen~h centuries, the Sakya tradition rose to
a position of prominence in the religious and .cultural life of Tibet. This
was due largely to the endeavours of the five great masters: Sachen
Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158); Sonam Tsemo (1142-1182); Drakpa Gyalt
shan (1147-1216); Sakya Pandita (1182-1251)i and Chogyal Phakpa
'
(1235-1280). Since that time the tradition and its two principal sub-
sects, the Ngor sub-sect founded by Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382-
1457) and the Tshar sub-set founded by Tsarchen Losal Gyamtsho
(1502-1556) have been adorned by the labours and spiritual blessings
of numerous illustrious yogins and scholars. Now the Sakya tradition
under the compassionate guidance of His Holiness Sakya Trizin (b.
1945), magnificent incarnation of the Khon line, is putting down roots
outside Tibet in India, Sputh-East Asia, North America and Europe.
The most important doCtrinal and meditational cycle of the Sakyapa
tradition is The Path and Its Fruit (Lam-'bras) orginally enunciated by
Virupa, a ninth century Indian tantric saint. The Path and Its Fruit rep
resents a systematization for practice of the entire range of sutra and
tantra teachings given by Lord Buddha. Its most profound spiritual
methods derive from the H evajra Tantra. From the time of the fifteenth
century master M_uchen onwards, two differing presentations of the
Path and Its Fruit have been transmitted side-by-side. The Tshogshay
(Tshogs-bshad) is the exoteric presentation of the teaching while the
Lobshay (sLob-bshad) is the esoteric preseqtation, containing very de
tailed and secret points of instruction.
The philosophical viewpoint which informs the Path and Its Fruit is
the notion of the inseparability of samsara and nirvana (Khorday Yer
may "khor-'das dbyer-med). It is said: 'By abandoning samsara one
will not realize nirvana·. Mind itself, the union of luminosity and emp
tiness, is the root of samsara and nirvana. When obscured it takes the
form of samsara and when freed of obscurations it is nirvana. The key
to Buddhalfood, the ultimate source of benefit for all beings, lies in this
realization.
The History of the Sakya Tradition is a work of the chos-'byung
genre-that is to say, a history dealing with the origins and develop
ment of a particular branch of Buddhism-in this case, the Sakyapa
school. The fundamental theme that underlies this present work and all
:works of this genre is the importance of transmission. The Sakyapa tra
dition, its sub-sects and its array of textual and meditational lineages
are the structures through which the transmission of the liberating
teachings flow.
This transmission is the movement of knowledge, ·in the form of an
immense variety of techniques for direct insight into reality, from
teacher to student in unbroken succession. It is precisely this uninter
rupted nature ofthe transmission that guarantees its spiritual efficacy.
With this point in mind one can quite easily understand the reason why
so much attention is paid in this history to details such as each master's
receipt of empowerments, textual transmissions, oral instructions and
so on. However, this testimony to the unbroken transmission of the
teaching is only one of the values present in a work such as this.
In this history we are confronted by the magnificent example provi
ded by the masters of the tradition, whose lives were irradiated by the
X
