Evaluación

In an article derived from his 2000 presentation at the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Jan-Ulrich Sobisch remarked that “one of the most neglected genres is a historical record that is, for its wealth of data, perhaps second to none, namely, records of teachings received (Tib. gsan yig or thob yig). These constitute veritable goldmines for anyone engaged in the study of Tibetan literature from literary, bibliographical, or historical perspectives.”¹⁵⁰

147 The passage on the rNgog: dGe ye History, 48 (f. 30v). See blog entry by Dan Martin: http: //tibeto-logic.blogspot.fr/2007/04/latest-thing-in-old-histories.html (accessed 28.04.2017)

148 Examples are the Karma bka’ brgyud religious history by Si tu Paṅ chen, the Zla ba chu shel gyi phreng ba, 1: 71-72, and mKhas btsun bzang po’s Biographical Dictionary of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, 7: 7-10. Most histories which contain a biography of Mar pa also refers to rNgog Chos rdor, and sometimes to his lineage and Mar pa’s other disciples. For reference to these works, see the bibliography in Ducher 2017. For the presentation of Mar pa and his other disciples, see Chapter II.1.3.

149 These are not mentioned in detail here but in the course of the description of each rNgog’s masters and disciples.

150 Sobisch 2002, 161, specifies on p. 164 that gsan yig, litt. “record of teachings heard,” is the honorific form of thob yig “list of teachings obtained.” Hence, Tibetans talk about their thob yig, but others’ gsan yig, especially in the case of a student recording the gsan yig of his master in his own thob yig. In that case, which is quite

The present dissertation has this goal, namely understanding the rNgog tradition from a philological and historical perspective.¹⁵¹ This is why I have made use of several records of teachings received by masters related at one point or another to the rNgog, as they are a great help in assessing the teacher and disciple relationships and tracing the evolution of the tradition throughout time. I often used them to supplement incomplete data, especially with regards to masters and disciples of the rNgog whose identity and background is not clarified by the main histories. One of the reasons why gsan yig are useful is that from the rNgog pa’s own perspective (in the Rosaries for instance), the lineage and the family are considered as one, and outsiders are only rarely mentioned. In non-rNgog pa lineages on the other hand, there are more alternative lineages, and consequently more information on disciples outside of the family.

The records of teachings received by the following masters are used in this work:

- Bu ston Rin chen grub (1290-1364): he received several transmissions from rNgog Don grub dpal and from a lineage coming out of the rNgog family after Zhe sdang rdo rje, via Ngo tsha Chos sku.¹⁵² His account is therefore particularly useful to assess lineages outside of the family.

- Ngor chen Kun dga’ bzang po (1382-1452): he held a few lineages initially coming from the rNgog but had no direct relationship with them, and his account is therefore also used for outer lineages.

- Gong dkar ba Kun dga’ rnam rgyal (1432-1496): he received the seven maṇḍalas from rNgog Byang chub dpal and from his cousin rNgog bSod nams don grub.¹⁵³ His account directly relies on notes he obtained from sPre’u zhing.

- Zhwa dmar 04 Chos grags ye shes (1453-1524): he received the seven maṇḍalas and other transmissions from ’Gos Lo tsā ba and Lo chen bSod nams rgya mtsho, themselves disciples of rNgog Byang chub dpal, and he played a great role in the later spread of the rNgog pa lineage.¹⁵⁴

- The 5^th Dalai Lama Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho (1617-1682): he held several rNgog transmissions, foremost among them that of Dud sol ma.¹⁵⁵

Among these, the most detailed is the record of teachings received by the 5^th Dalai Lama. This huge four-volume record includes, among others, the records of Gong dkar ba Kun dga’ rnam

widespread, the student includes the gsan yig of his various master and adds his own name in the end of each lineage.

151 Other articles dealing with the subject of gsan yig are Van der Kuijp 1995 and Kramer 2008. Sangseraima Ujeed (University of Oxford) prepares a dissertation on the Thob yig gsal ba’i me long, which records his teachings received in more than 1000 folios (defended in September 2017).

152 Bu ston gSan yig (Zhol par khang version), pp. 23, 54-56, 74-75, 80, 107-114. See also searchable text on Dan Martin’s Tiblical: https: //sites.google.com/site/tiblical/bu-ston-gsan-yig and Van der Kuijp, 2016, 292-297.

153 See Fermer 2009. Gong dkar gsan yig, 413-423.

154 ZH4 gSung ’bum, 6: 705-874. See the gsan yigs of ’Gos lo, pp. 766-792 and Khrims khang lo chen, pp. 792-814. Thanks to Kamilla Mojzes (Universität Bonn), who prepares a dissertation on the 4th Zhwa dmar for this reference.

155 DL5 thob yig. See Ehrhard 2012.

rgyal (1432-1496) who was rNgog Byang chub dpal’s disciple, that of Tshar chen bLo gsal rgya mtsho (1502-1566/7), who received rNgog transmissions from rNgog bSod nams bstan

’dzin, and that of mGon po bSod nams mchog ldan (1603-1659), who received teachings from the last known rNgog, ’Jam dbyang ’od zer. The 5th Dalai Lama also made extensive use of the writings of ’Gos Lo tsā ba, Lo chen bSod nams rgya mtsho and the Fourth Zhwa dmar pa, who were important holders of the rNgog lineage.¹⁵⁶ The record is therefore generally considered to be quite accurate although the 5^th Dalai Lama did not have any direct link with the rNgog, and is particularly useful as it goes beyond simple descriptions of lineages to address the history and controversies surrounding each transmission.

In this regard, it must be noted that there are of course many more records of teachings received containing lineages of rNgog traditions and not all have been used in the present research. One reason for this is that this kind of record is often repetitive; if several masters are successive holders of the same lineage, the lineage is repeated in both versions with more or less masters depending on the position of the master in the lineage. In the case of masters post-dating rNgog Byang chub dpal, the 4^th Zhwa dmar and Padma dkar po for instance, the rNgog lineages only diverge after Byang chub dpal, and the two have therefore not been systematically checked. Another reason for inclusion of specific records is that a digital copy was available, rendering access much more convenient (this is especially the case of Gong dkar ba Kun dga’ rnam rgyal’s and the 5^th Dalai Lama’s records).¹⁵⁷ Lastly, in order to compile the bKa’ brgyud sngags mdzod, Kong sprul received many lineages and accounted for them in the introductory catalogue of the collection, enumerating the alternative lineages, often with an identification of their source. Although it would have been necessary to check original accounts, this was not systematically possible. I therefore generally proceeded with the information provided by Kong sprul, which proved accurate each time it was compared with older material.

In addition to records of teachings received, I have also relied on the histories of various transmissions which, at one point or another, were received by the rNgog, especially with regards to traditions not generally associated with them. Among these, Bu ston’s yogatantra history is the most detailed presentation of the gSang ldan tradition of the Nāmasaṃgīti.

Although this is one of the rNgog’s main maṇḍalas, the history of its transmission is somehow neglected in the rNgog accounts as Chos rdor did not receive it from Mar pa. Bu ston’s history of the Guhyasamājatantra¹⁵⁸ and rGod tshang ras pa sNa tshogs rang grol’s (1482-1559) account of the Cakrasaṃvaratantra also proved useful to clarify some of the relationships of the rNgog with other masters.

156 Ehrhard 2012, 81.

157 Thanks to Mathias Fermer who shared his files with me. His dissertation on the Yar rgyab family and its activity in South Central Tibet (lHo ka) in the 15^th and 16^th century largely uses the biographies and records of teachings received by some of the masters active in the rNgog lineage, and it will therefore be a welcome addition to the present research.

158 See bibliography for Bu ston’s Yogatantra and gSang ’dus chos ’byung.