OCTOBER THIRTEENTH = 666 = 70+3+9+70+2+5+200 + 9+5+10+200+9+5+5+50+9+5
WILLIAM SHATNER IN SPACE = 666 = 6+10+30+30+10+1+40 + 60+5+1+9+50+5+200 + 10+50 + 60+80+1+3+5
PENIS SPACE ROCKET = 666 = 80+5+50+10+60 + 60+80+1+8+5 + 200+70+3+20+5+9
TEN THIRTEEN SPACE SHIP = 666 = 9+5+50 + 9+5+10+200+9+5+5+50 + 60+80+1+8+5 + 60+5+10+80
The Artemis program is a Moon exploration program that is led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and was formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. The Artemis program is intended to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 Moon mission in 1972 (Apollo program: 1961–1972). The program's stated long-term goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon to facilitate human missions to Mars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program
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Αρτεμις = 656. Goddess of nature, childbirth, wildlife, healing, the hunt, sudden death, animals, virginity, young women, and archery. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis)
See also Liber Artemis Iota vel de Coitu Scholia Triviæ sub figura DCLXVI (656 + Iota, 10) by Aleister Crowley (https://hermetic.com/crowley/libers/lib666)
- On October 13, 2021, Dr Chrispy AKA Dr Chris Boshuizen flew to space on Blue Origin's NS-18 mission. He carried with him a Star Trek USB thumb drive containing over 400 songs artists from all around the world. Reaching apogee of 106km, here are the songs that have been to space!
https://soundcloud.com/drchrispy/sets/songs-for-space
- There is also an episode of Star Trek, called The Apple (Season 2, Episode 5) which aired on October 13, 1967. In the episode, the crew of the Enterprise visits a planet whose inhabitants live only to serve a machine.
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Ten Chief Disciples:
Śāriputra (Sanskrit: शारिपुत्र, romanized: Śāriputra; Tibetan: ཤཱ་རིའི་བུ་, Pali: Sāriputta, Khmer: សិរីបុត្រ) (lit. "the son of Śāri"); born Upatiṣya (Pali: Upatissa); was one of the top disciples of the Buddha. He is considered the first of the Buddha's two chief disciples, together with Maudgalyāyana (Pali: Moggallāna).
Maudgalyāyana (Pali: Moggallāna), also known as Mahāmaudgalyāyana or by his birth name Kolita, was one of the Buddha's closest disciples. He is considered the second of the Buddha's two foremost male disciples, together with Śāriputra.
Mahākāśyapa (Pali: Mahākassapa) is regarded in Buddhism as an enlightened disciple, being foremost in ascetic practice. Mahākāśyapa assumed leadership of the monastic community following the paranirvāṇa (death) of the Buddha, presiding over the First Buddhist Council. He was considered to be the first patriarch in a number of early Buddhist schools and continued to have an important role as patriarch in the Chan and Zen tradition.
Subhūti (Pali: Subhūti; Chinese: 須菩提/须菩提; pinyin: Xūpútí) was one of the ten principal disciples of the Buddha. In Theravada Buddhism he is considered the disciple who was foremost in being "worthy of gifts" (Pali: dakkhiṇeyyānaṃ) and "living remote and in peace" (Pali: araṇavihārīnaṃ aggo).[75][76][77] In Mahayana Buddhism, he is considered foremost in understanding emptiness (Sanskrit: Śūnyatā).
Pūrṇa Maitrāyaniputra (Sk.) or Puṇṇa Mantānīputta (Pl.). He was also called Purna for short. He was the greatest teacher of the Law out of all the disciples. He was the top master of preaching.
Kātyāyana or Mahākātyāyana (Sk.) or Mahākaccāna (Pl.). He understood Shakyamuni Buddha's lecture the best. Although he had only five master in the rural areas, he was permitted to learn Vinaya by the Buddha.
Anuruddha (Pl.) or Aniruddha (Sk.) was a top master of clairvoyance and the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness (satipatthana). Aniruddha was a cousin of Shakyamuni Buddha. He and Ananda became monks at the same time. He was foremost in divine insight. He lost his sight because he swore not to sleep after getting criticized by Lord Buddha. And later he got another pair of eyes that is believed to have the power to see the truth.
Upāli (Sanskrit and Pāli) was, according to early Buddhist texts, mainly responsible for the reciting and reviewing monastic discipline (Pāli and Sanskrit: vinaya) on the First Buddhist Council.
Rāhula (Pāli and Sanskrit) was the only son of Siddhārtha Gautama, and his wife, princess Yaśodharā. He is mentioned in numerous Buddhist texts, from the early period onward. Accounts about Rāhula indicate a mutual impact between Prince Siddhārtha's life and those of his family members.[ According to the Pāli tradition, Rāhula is born on the day of Prince Siddhārta's renunciation, and is therefore named Rāhula, meaning a fetter on the path to enlightenment.
Ānanda was the primary attendant of the Buddha and one of his ten principal disciples. Among the Buddha's many disciples, Ānanda stood out for having the best memory. Most of the texts of the early Buddhist Sutta-Piṭaka (Pāli; Sanskrit: Sūtra-Piṭaka) are attributed to his recollection of the Buddha's teachings during the First Buddhist Council. For that reason, he is known as the "Treasurer of the Dhamma", with Dhamma (Sanskrit: Dharma) referring to the Buddha's teaching. In Early Buddhist Texts, Ānanda is the first cousin of the Buddha. Although the texts do not agree on most things about Ānanda's early life, they do agree that Ānanda is ordained as a monk and that Puṇṇa Mantānīputta (Sanskrit: Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra) becomes his teacher.
Other Disciples:
Bhadda Kapilani was a Buddhist bhikkhuni and a leading disciple of Gautama Buddha. Among the bhikkhunis she was regarded as the foremost in analysing the previous reincarnations of beings and their previous karma, as described in the Jataka of the Pali Canon. Before they both entered the sangha, she was the wife of Mahakassapa, the arahant who led the sangha after the paranibbana of the Buddha and his two chief disciples Sariputta and Mahamoggallana.
Bimbisāra (in Buddhist tradition) or Shrenika (Śreṇika) and Seniya (Seṇiya) in the Jain histories (c. 558 – c. 491 BCE or c. 472 – c. 405 BCE)
Āmrapālī also known as "Ambapālika", "Ambapali", or "Amra" was a celebrated nagarvadhu (royal courtesan) of the Republic of Vaishali (located in present-day Bihar) in ancient India around 500 BC. Amrapali also won the title of rajnartaki (court dancer). Following the Buddha's teachings, she became an arahant. – c 500 BCE
Anathapindika (born Sudatta) was a wealthy merchant, banker, and philanthropist, believed to have been the wealthiest merchant in Savatthi in the time of Gautama Buddha. He is considered to have been the chief male patron of the Buddha. – ?
Aṅgulimāla (Pali; lit. 'finger necklace') is an important figure in Buddhism, particularly within the Theravāda tradition. Depicted as a ruthless brigand who completely transforms after a conversion to Buddhism, he is seen as the example par excellence of the redemptive power of the Buddha's teaching and the Buddha's skill as a teacher. – ?
Assaji (Pali: Assaji, Sanskrit: Aśvajit) was one of the first five arahants of Gautama Buddha. He is known for his conversion of Sariputta and Mahamoggallana, the Buddha's two chief male disciples, counterparts to the nuns Khema and Uppalavanna, the chief female disciples. – 6th Century BCE
Channa - The Divine Charioteer (Pali: Channa; Sanskrit: Chandaka) – 6th century BCE
Cunda Kammāraputta was a smith who gave Gautama Buddha his last meal as an offering while he visited his mango grove in Pāvā on his way to Kuśīnagara. Shortly after having Cunda's meal, the Buddha suffered from fatal dysentery. – ?
Devadatta was by tradition a Buddhist monk, cousin and brother-in-law of Gautama Siddhārtha. – ?
Gavāṃpati is a disciple of the Buddha, one of the first ten to be ordained and to have known the state of Arhat. – ?
Pasenadi (Pali: पसेनदि, romanized: Pasenadi; Sanskrit: प्रसेनजित्, romanized: Prasenajit; c. 6th century BCE) was an Aikṣvāka ruler of Kosala. Sāvatthī was his capital. He succeeded after Sanjaya Mahākosala. He was a prominent Upāsaka (lay follower) of Gautama Buddha, and built many Buddhist monasteries for the Buddha.
Pindola Bharadvaja (Piṇḍola Bhāradvāja) is an Arhat in Buddhism. According to the earliest Indian Buddhist sutras, Pindola Bharadvaja was one of four Arhats asked by the Buddha to remain in the world (Chinese: 住世) to propagate Buddhist law (Dharma). Each of the four was associated with one of the four cardinal directions. Pindola is associated with West.
Rohiṇī was a princess of the Śākyas and sister of Anuruddha. She is a Sotāpanna.
Suddhipanthaka (Chn: 周利槃陀伽) was a disciple of the Buddha. He was known for being the most dim-witted of the Buddha's disciples, unable to understand the Buddha's teachings, and almost completely forgetting everything the Buddha said.
Sunita was a highly accomplished disciple of the Buddha. He was born in a family of untouchables whose job was of sweeping around the temple area.
Velukandakiya was a lay female disciple of the Buddha. Velukandakiya is also known as Uttara and Nandamata (lit. 'mother of Nanda', not to be confused with the stepbrother of Buddha with the same name).
Yasa was a bhikkhu during the time of Gautama Buddha. He was the sixth bhikkhu in the Buddha's sangha and was the sixth to achieve arahanthood. Yasa lived in the 6th century BCE in what is now Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in northern India.
Five Arahants of Gautama Buddha:
Assaji (Pali: Assaji, Sanskrit: Aśvajit) was one of the first five arahants of Gautama Buddha. He is known for his conversion of Sariputta and Mahamoggallana, the Buddha's two chief male disciples, counterparts to the nuns Khema and Uppalavanna, the chief female disciples. 6th Century BCE.
Kaundinya (Sanskrit कौण्डिन्य), also known as Ājñātakauṇḍinya, Pali: Añña Koṇḍañña), was one of the first five Buddhist monks (Pancavaggiya), disciple of Gautama Buddha and the first to attain the fruit of Arahant. He lived during the 5th century BCE in what are now Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, India. According to traditional accounts, at the time of Gautama Buddha's birth, he predicted his future destination as an enlightened teacher. Kaundinya Gotra is Hindu Gotra or clan name, named after the rishi Kaundinya.
Other Figures:
Yasa was a bhikkhu during the time of Gautama Buddha. He was the sixth bhikkhu in the Buddha's sangha and was the sixth to achieve arahanthood. Yasa lived in the 6th century BCE in what is now Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in northern India. The Buddha was pacing up and down in an open space near where Yasa was muttering “Distressed am I, oppressed am I”, and called Yasa over to him, inviting him to sit down. Yasa took off his golden sandals, saluted and sat down. The Buddha gave a dharma discourse, and Yasa achieved the first stage of arahanthood, sotapanna.
Śāṇavāsa (Śānakavāsin, Sambhūta Śāṇavāsi or Sanakavasa) was a disciple of Ananda, and is considered the fourth Indian Patriarch in Zen Buddhism after Shakyamuni, Mahakashyapa and Ananda.
Asita or Kaladevala or Kanhasiri was a hermit ascetic depicted in Buddhist sources as having lived in ancient India. He was a teacher and advisor of Suddhodana, a sage and seer, the father of the Buddha, and is best known for having predicted that prince Siddhartha of Kapilavastu would either become a great chakravartin or become a supreme religious leader; Siddhartha was later known as Gautama Buddha.
Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī (Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī) or Pajapati was the foster-mother, step-mother and maternal aunt (mother's sister) of the Buddha. In Buddhist tradition, she was the first woman to seek ordination for women, which she did from Gautama Buddha directly, and she became the first bhikkhuni (Buddhist nun).
Princess Sundarī Nandā of Shakya, also known simply as Sundarī, was the daughter of King Suddhodana and Queen Mahapajapati Gotami. She was the half-sister of Siddhartha Gautama, who later became a Buddha. She became a nun after the enlightenment of her half-brother and became an arhat. She was the foremost among bhikkhunis in the practice of jhana (total meditative absorption). She lived during the 6th century BCE in what is now Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in India.
Maliyadeva was a monk who is said to have lived in Sri Lanka during the 2nd century BCE and to have attained nirvana. According to the Mahavamsa, part of Theravādin tradition, Maliyadeva was the last well-known arhat who had high psychic powers ( Abigngnalabhi: in Sinhala:අභිඥ්ඥාලාභී අරහතුන් වහන්සේ ) in Sri Lanka and Buddhism in Sri Lanka declined after this period. A legend says he brought four Buddha statues from India to Sri Lanka.
Daoji (Chinese: 道濟, 22 December 1130 – 16 May 1209, born Li Xiuyuan), popularly known as Ji Gong (Chinese: 濟公), was a Chan Buddhist monk who lived in the Southern Song. He purportedly possessed supernatural powers through Buddhist practice, which he used to help the poor and stand up to injustice. However, he was also known for his wild and eccentric behavior and didn't follow Buddhist monastic rules by consuming alcohol and meat. By the time of his death, Daoji had become a legend in Chinese culture and a deity in Chinese folk religion. He is mentioned by Buddhists in folktales and kōans, and sometimes invoked by oracles to assist in worldly affairs.
Kisa Gotami was the wife of a wealthy man of Savatthi. Her story is one of the most famous ones in Buddhism. After losing her only child, Kisa Gotami became desperate and asked if anyone could help her. Her sorrow was so great that many thought she had lost her mind. An old man told her to see the Buddha. The Buddha told her that he could bring the child back to life if she could find white mustard seeds from a family where no one had died. She desperately went from house to house, but to her disappointment, she could not find a house that had not suffered the death of a family member. Finally the realization struck her that there is no house free from mortality. She returned to the Buddha, who comforted her and preached to her the truth. She was awakened and entered the first stage of enlightenment. Eventually, she became an Arahat.
Bhadda Kundalakesa was a former Jain ascetic who was converted to Buddhism by Śāriputra, one of the two chief disciples of Gautama Buddha. She attained arahantship faster than any other nun and lived in the 6th century BCE in what is now Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in India.
Shin Upagutta (Burmese: ရှင်ဥပဂုတ္တ or ရှင်ဥပဂုတ် [ʃɪ̀ɰ̃ ṵpəɡoʊʔ]; also spelt Shin Upagot, Shin Upagote or Shin U Pagoke) is an arahant commonly venerated by Buddhists in Myanmar. He is believed to protect worshipers from danger, including floods and storms. He is also venerated in Cambodia, Northern Thailand and Laos, where he is known as Upakhut (Thai: อุปคุต; RTGS: Uppakhut). He is commonly depicted sitting cross-legged, dressed in monk's robes and with a hand tilted into an alms bowl called a thabeik, and is associated with nāga, water serpents. He is believed to be either Moggaliputta-Tissa, a Buddhist monk who presided the Third Buddhist council, Upagupta, a Mahayana arhat, or a creation of Mahayana Buddhism, because he is not described in the Pali Canon and only mentioned in the Burmese historical chronicle Maha Yazawin.
Figures I couldn’t date/place:
Dhammapāla was the name of two or moregreat Theravada Buddhist commentators. The earlier, born in Kanchipuram, is known to us from both the Gandhavamsa and the writings of Xuanzang to have lived at Badara Tittha Vihara south of modern Chennai, and to have written the commentaries on seven of the shorter canonical books (consisting almost entirely of verses) and also the commentary on the Netti, perhaps the oldest Pali work outside the canon. Extracts from the latter work, and the whole of three out of the seven others, have been published in Pali by the Pali Text Society. These works show great learning, exegetical skill and sound judgment. But as to the meaning of words, or to discussions of the ethical import of his texts, very little can be gathered from his writings of value for the social history of his time. Though in all probability a Tamil by birth, he declares, in the opening lines of those of his works that have been edited, that he followed the tradition of the Great Monastery (Maha Vihara) at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, and the works themselves confirm this in every respect. Another writer, probably also called Dhammapala, since he was supposed by the 12th century to be the same, though scholars do not accept this, wrote subcommentaries on the commentaries on the Digha, Majjhima and Samyutta Nikayas. A third Dhammapala wrote Saccasankhepa, a handbook of abhidhamma.
Kumārāyana (also Kiu-mo-yen) was a Buddhist monk. Kumārāyana renounced his wealth to become a Buddhist monk. He left India, crossing to the Pamirs in order to spread the teachings of Buddhism to the countries east of Central Asia, namely China.
Tonpa Shenrab (Tibetan: སྟོན་པ་གཤེན་རབ་མི་བོ་།, Wylie: ston pa gshen rab་ mi bo, lit. 'Teacher Shenrab'), also known as Shenrab Miwo (Wylie: gshen rab mi bo), Buddha Shenrab, Guru Shenrab and a number of other titles, is the legendary founder of the Bon religious tradition of Tibet. The story of Tonpa Shenrab was revealed in a fourteenth century terma of Loden Nyingpo. According to Bon doctrine, Tonpa Shenrab lived 18,000 years ago, predating Gautama Buddha. Practitioners of Bon believe that he first studied the Bon doctrine in Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, at the end of which he pledged to Shenlha Okar, the god of compassion, that he would guide the peoples of this world to liberation.
Historical Figures and Translators:
Moggaliputtatissa (ca. 327–247 BCE), was a Buddhist monk and scholar who was born in Pataliputra, Magadha (now Patna, India) and lived in the 3rd century BCE. He is associated with the Third Buddhist council, the Mauryan emperor Ashoka and the Buddhist missionary activities which took place during his reign.
Ashoka, also known as Asoka or Aśoka, c. 304 – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was Emperor of Magadha in the Indian subcontinent from c. 268 until 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynasty. A patron of Buddhism, he is credited with playing an important role in the spread of Buddhism across ancient Asia.
Sima Qian (司馬遷; (c. 145 – c. 86 BC) was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his Records of the Grand Historian, a general history of China covering more than two thousand years beginning from the rise of the legendary Yellow Emperor and the formation of the first Chinese polity to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, during which Sima wrote. As the first universal history of the world as it was known to the ancient Chinese, the Records of the Grand Historian served as a model for official history-writing for subsequent Chinese dynasties and the Sinosphere in general until the 20th century.
Nāgasena was a Sarvāstivādan Buddhist sage who lived around 150 BC. His answers to questions about Buddhism posed by Menander I (Pali: Milinda), the Indo-Greek king of northwestern India, are recorded in the Milindapañhā and the Sanskrit Nāgasenabhiksusūtra. According to Pali accounts, he was born into a Brahmin family in the Himalayas and was well-versed in the Vedas at an early age. However, he later converted to Buddhism.
Lokakṣema (लोकक्षेम, Chinese: 支婁迦讖; pinyin: Zhī Lóujiāchèn) (flourished 147–189) was a Kushan Buddhist monk from Gandhara who traveled to China during the Han dynasty and translated Buddhist texts into Chinese, and, as such, is an important figure in Chinese Buddhism.
Nagarjuna (Sanskrit: नागार्जुन/ Nāgārjuna) (c. 150 – c. 250 CE) was an Indian monk and Mahāyāna Buddhist philosopher of the Madhyamaka (Centrism, Middle Way) school. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers. Jan Westerhoff considers him to be "one of the greatest thinkers in the history of Asian philosophy."
Aśvaghoṣa, also transliterated Ashvaghosha (Sanskrit: [ˌɐɕʋɐˈɡʱoːʂɐ], अश्वघोष; lit. "Having a Horse-Voice"; Tibetan: སློབ་དཔོན་དཔའ་བོ།, Wylie: slob dpon dpa' bo; Chinese: 馬鳴菩薩; pinyin: Mǎmíng púsà; lit. 'Bodhisattva with a Horse-Voice') (c. 80 – c. 150 CE), was a Buddhist philosopher, dramatist, poet, musician, and orator from India.
Arahant Upatissa (1st century CE – 2nd century CE) was a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk and the author of The Path to Freedom, or Vimuttimagga, which serves as a Buddhist meditation manual, broadly considered a great and important work. It is similar to the Path of Purification, or Visuddhimagga by Buddhaghosa, but less analytical and more practical in its treatment of the traditional meditation objects.
An Shigao (Chinese: 安世高; pinyin: Ān Shìgāo; Wade–Giles: An Shih-kao, Korean: An Sego, Japanese: An Seikō, Vietnamese: An Thế Cao) (fl. c. 148-180 CE)
Āryadeva (fl. 3rd century CE) (IAST: Āryadeva; Tibetan: འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་, Wylie: 'phags pa lha, Chinese: 提婆 菩薩 Tipo pusa meaning Deva Bodhisattva), was a Mahayana Buddhist monk, a disciple of Nagarjuna and a Madhyamaka philosopher.
Asaṅga (Sanskrit: असंग, Tibetan: ཐོགས་མེད།, Wylie: thogs med, traditional Chinese: 無著; ; pinyin: Wúzhuó; Romaji: Mujaku) (fl. 4th century C.E.) was one of the most important spiritual figures of Mahayana Buddhism and the founder of the Yogachara school.
Buddhayaśas was a Dharmaguptaka monk and translator. He is recorded as having learned both Theravada and Mahāyāna treatises. He translated the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, the Dīrgha Āgama, and other Mahāyāna texts including the Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva Sūtra. Buddhayaśas' preface for his translation of the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya states that the Dharmaguptakas had assimilated the body of Mahāyāna sutras. 4th Century ?
Zhuang Zhou, commonly known as Zhuangzi (Chinese: 莊子; literally "Master Zhuang"; also rendered in the Wade–Giles romanization as Chuang Tzu), was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States period, a period of great development in Chinese philosophy, the Hundred Schools of Thought. He is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name, the Zhuangzi, which is one of two foundational texts of Taoism, alongside the Tao Te Ching.
Buddhasvāmin was a Sarvastivadan Buddhist monk and famous scholar from the kingdom of Kucha. During part of the 4th century CE, he presideded over all Buddhist temples and nunneries in Kucha.
Lushan Huiyuan (simplified Chinese: 庐山慧远; traditional Chinese: 廬山慧遠; pinyin: Lúshān Huìyuǎn; Wade–Giles: Lushan Hui-yüan; 334–416 AD), meaning "Huiyuan of Mount Lu", was a Chinese Buddhist teacher who founded Donglin Temple at the foot of Mount Lu in Jiujiang province and wrote the text On Why Monks Do Not Bow Down Before Kings in 404 AD. He was born in Shanxi province but moved to Jiujiang, where he died in 416. Although he was born in the north, he moved south to live within the bounds of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Kumārajīva (Sanskrit: कुमारजीव; traditional Chinese: 鳩摩羅什; simplified Chinese: 鸠摩罗什; pinyin: Jiūmóluóshí; Wade–Giles: Chiu mo lo shih, 344–413 CE) was a Buddhist monk, scholar, missionary and translator from Kucha (present-day Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, China). Kumārajīva is seen as one of the greatest translators of Chinese Buddhism. According to Lu Cheng, Kumarajiva's translations are "unparalleled either in terms of translation technique or degree of fidelity".
Sengzhao (or Seng-Chao) (Chinese: 僧肇; pinyin: Sēngzhào; Wade–Giles: Seng-chao; Japanese: 僧肇, Sōjō; 384–414) was a Chinese Buddhist philosopher from Later Qin. Born to a poor family in Jingzhao, he acquired literary skills, apparently including the capacity to read Pali, and became a scribe. This exposed him to a variety of uncommon documents. He was influenced by Taoists, Laozi and Zhuangzi, and although we are told he enjoyed Lao Tzu’s Daodejing (Tao-te ching, Dotokyu-kyo), he was overjoyed when he discovered the Vimalakirti Sutra. This encounter transformed his life and he became a Buddhist. He was known as being among the ablest of the disciples of Kumārajīva.
Vasubandhu (traditional Chinese: 世親; ; pinyin: Shìqīn; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ Wylie: dbyig gnyen; fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential Buddhist monk and scholar from Gandhara or Central India. He was a philosopher who wrote commentary on the Abhidharma, from the perspectives of the Sarvastivada and Sautrāntika schools. After his conversion to Mahayana Buddhism, along with his half-[citation needed]brother, Asanga, he was also one of the main founders of the Yogacara school.
Sengyou (Chinese: 僧祐; pinyin: Sēngyòu; 445–518 AD) was a Buddhist monk and early medieval Chinese bibliographer and noted chiefly for being the author of Collected Records Concerning the Tripitaka (出三藏記集 Chu sanzang ji ji, T2145), a catalogue of Buddhist texts translated into Chinese.
Kālidāsa (Sanskrit: कालिदास, "Servant of Kali"; 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on Hindu Puranas and philosophy. His surviving works consist of three plays, two epic poems and two shorter poems.
Buddhadatta Thera was a 5th-century Theravada Buddhist writer from the town of Uragapura in the Chola kingdom of South India. He wrote many of his works in the Bhūtamangalagāma monastery and his patron was Accutavikkanta of the Kalamba dynasty (Kalambhakulavamsa jāte Accutavikkamanāme Colarājini Colarattham samanusāsante). Buddhadatta traveled to Sri Lanka's Mahāvihāra in Anurādhapura to study and translate the commentaries on the Buddha's teachings from Sinhalese to Pali. He is said to have met Buddhagosa at sea while returning to India, his work unfinished. Buddhadatta asked Buddhagosa to send him his translations and commentaries and used them in the writing of his Abhidhammāvatāra.
Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Indian Theravada Buddhist commentator, translator and philosopher. He worked in the Great Monastery (Mahāvihāra) at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajjavāda school and in the lineage of the Sinhalese Mahāvihāra.
Jnanasutra (There appear to be two Jnanasutras, with different Tibetan orthographies for their names.) The first, Wylie: ye shes mdo, flourished from the 5th-6th centuries. According to Dzogchen legends, he was an early Dzogchen practitioner of Vajrayāna Buddhism and a disciple of Sri Singha. This Jnanasutra was a spiritual brother of Vimalamitra, another principal disciple of Sri Singha. According to Tarthang Tulku (1980), the second Jnanasutra was the principal lotsawa (Wylie: ye shes sde) of the 8th-9th century of the first wave of translations from Sanskrit to Tibetan. In Jigme Lingpa's terma of the ngöndro of the Longchen Nyingthig he writes what approximates the phonemic Sanskrit of 'Jnanasutra' in Tibetan script as Tibetan: ཛྙཱ་ན་སཱུ་ཏྲ, Wylie: dznyā na sū tra, rather than his name in Tibetan and this comes just after a sentence to Sri Singha and before mentioning Vimalamitra.
Buddhapālita (Chinese: 佛護; Tibetan: སངས་རྒྱས་བསྐྱངས་, Wylie: sangs rgyas bskyangs, fl. 5th-6th centuries CE) was an Indian Mahayana Buddhist commentator on the works of Nagarjuna and Aryadeva. His Mūlamadhyamaka-vṛtti is an influential commentary to the Mūlamadhyamakakarikā. Buddhapālita's commentarial approach works was criticised by his contemporary Bhāviveka, and then defended by the later Candrakīrti (c. 600–650).
Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and is regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. He is known as Dámó in China and as Daruma in Japan. His name means "dharma of awakening (bodhi)" in Sanskrit.
Dignāga (also known as Diṅnāga, c. 480 – c. 540 CE) was an Indian Buddhist philosopher and logician. He is credited as one of the Buddhist founders of Indian logic (hetu vidyā) and atomism. Dignāga's work laid the groundwork for the development of deductive logic in India and created the first system of Buddhist logic and epistemology (pramāṇa).
Paramārtha (Sanskrit, Devanagari: परमार्थ; traditional Chinese: 真諦; simplified Chinese: 真谛; pinyin: Zhēndì) (499-569 CE) was an Indian monk from Ujjain, who is best known for his prolific Chinese translations of Buddhist texts during the Six Dynasties era. He is known as one of the four great translators in Chinese Buddhist history (along with Kumārajīva and Xuanzang). He is also known for the various oral commentaries he gave on his translations which were written down by his disciples (and now only survive in fragmentary form). Some of Paramārtha's influential translations include Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa, Asaṅga’s Mahāyānasaṃgraha, and Dignāga's Ālambanaparīkṣā & Hastavālaprakaraṇa.
Zhiyi (Chinese: 智顗; pinyin: Zhìyǐ; Wade–Giles: Chih-i; Japanese pronunciation: Chigi; Korean: 지의; 538–597 CE) also Chen De'an (陳德安), is the fourth patriarch of the Tiantai tradition of Buddhism in China. His standard title was Śramaṇa Zhiyi (沙門智顗), linking him to the broad tradition of Indian asceticism. Zhiyi is famous for being the first in the history of Chinese Buddhism to elaborate a complete, critical and systematic classification of the Buddhist teachings. He is also regarded as the first major figure to make a significant break from the Indian tradition, to form an indigenous Chinese system.
Saṃghabhadra (5th century CE, Sanskrit: संघभद्र, Ch. 僧伽跋陀羅・衆賢, Japanese: Sōgyabaddara or Shugen): was an Indian scholar monk of the Sarvāstivāda Vaibhāṣika and "undoubtedly one of the most brilliant Abhidharma masters in India". Born in Kashmir, he was a contemporary of the Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu. According to K.L. Dhammajoti, his work forms the most mature and refined form of Vaibhāṣika philosophy. His two main works, the *Nyāyānusāra (Shun zhengli lun 順正理論, "In Accordance with the Truth") and the *Abhidharmasamayapradīpikā (Apidamo xian zong lun 阿毘達磨顯宗論), are very important sources for late Vaibhāṣika thought. He is referenced by various important Buddhist figures, such as Xuanzang, Kuiji, Sthiramati, and Śāntarakṣita who see him as the most authoritative of the Vaibhāṣika Abhidharmikas.
Bhāviveka, also called Bhāvaviveka (traditional Chinese: 清辯; ; pinyin: Qīngbiàn; Wylie: slob dpon bha bya, skal ldan, legs ldan), and Bhavya was a sixth-century (c. 500 – c. 570) madhyamaka Buddhist philosopher. Alternative names for this figure also include Bhavyaviveka, Bhāvin, Bhāviviveka, Bhagavadviveka and Bhavya. In Tibetan Buddhism Bhāviveka is regarded as the founder of the svātantrika tradition of mādhyamaka, as opposed to the prāsaṅgika madhyamaka of Chandrakirti.
Bodhiruci (Chinese: 菩提流支; pinyin: pú tí liú zhī) was a Buddhist monk from North India (6th century CE) active in the area of Luoyang, China. He was appointed as master translator at Yongning (永寧寺) temple by emperor Xuanwu of the Northern Wei.
Zhiyi (Chinese: 智顗; pinyin: Zhìyǐ; Wade–Giles: Chih-i; Japanese pronunciation: Chigi; Korean: 지의; 538–597 CE) also Chen De'an (陳德安), is the fourth patriarch of the Tiantai tradition of Buddhism in China. His standard title was Śramaṇa Zhiyi (沙門智顗), linking him to the broad tradition of Indian asceticism. Zhiyi is famous for being the first in the history of Chinese Buddhism to elaborate a complete, critical and systematic classification of the Buddhist teachings. He is also regarded as the first major figure to make a significant break from the Indian tradition, to form an indigenous Chinese system.
Emperor Wen of Sui (隋文帝; 21 July 541 – 13 August 604), personal name Yang Jian (楊堅), Xianbei name Puliuru Jian (普六茹堅), alias Narayana (Chinese: 那羅延; pinyin: Nàluóyán) deriving from Buddhist terms, was the founding emperor of the Chinese Sui dynasty. As a Buddhist, he encouraged the spread of Buddhism through the state. He is regarded as one of the most important emperors in Chinese history, reunifying China proper in 589 after centuries of division since the independence of the Cheng-Han and Han-Zhao dynasties from the Western Jin dynasty in 304. During his reign, the construction of the Grand Canal began.
Songtsen Gampo (Classical Tibetan: [sroŋpʦan zɡampo], pronounced [sɔ́ŋʦɛ̃ ɡʌ̀mpo]) (Tibetan: སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོ, Wylie: srong btsan sgam po, ZYPY: Songzän Gambo; 569–649/650), also Songzan Ganbu (Chinese: 松贊干布; pinyin: Sōngzàn Gānbù), was the 33rd Tibetan king of the Yarlung dynasty and he established the Tibetan Empire. As the first of three Dharma Kings of Tibet, he formally introduced Buddhism to Tibet, and built the Jokhang with the influence of his Nepali queen Bhrikuti, of Nepal's Licchavi dynasty. He unified several Tibetan kingdoms, conquered lands adjacent to Tibet, and moved the capital to the Red Fort in Lhasa. His minister Thonmi Sambhota created the Tibetan script and Classical Tibetan, the first literary and spoken language of Tibet.
Daoxuan (Chinese: 道宣; pinyin: Dàoxuān; Wade–Giles: Tao-hsüan; 596–667) was an eminent Tang dynasty Chinese Buddhist monk. He is perhaps best known as the patriarch of the four-part Vinaya school (Chinese: 四分律宗). Daoxuan wrote both the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks (Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳 ) and the Standard Design for Buddhist Temple Construction. Legends retold in his biographies also associate him to a relic of the Buddha which came to be called Daoxuan's tooth (Daoxuan foya 道宣佛牙), one of the four tooth relics enshrined in the capital of Chang'an during the Tang dynasty. He is said to have received the relic from Nezha (Chinese: 那吒; Sanskrit: Naṭa), a divinity associated with Indra.
Dharmakīrti (fl. c. 6th or 7th century; Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་; Wylie: chos kyi grags pa), was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher who worked at Nālandā. He was one of the key scholars of epistemology (pramāṇa) in Buddhist philosophy, and is associated with the Yogācāra and Sautrāntika schools. He was also one of the primary theorists of Buddhist atomism. His works influenced the scholars of Mīmāṃsā, Nyaya and Shaivism schools of Hindu philosophy as well as scholars of Jainism. Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika, his largest and most important work, was very influential in India and Tibet as a central text on pramana ('valid knowledge instruments') and was widely commented on by various Indian and Tibetan scholars. His texts remain part of studies in the monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism.
Sthiramati (Sanskrit; Chinese: Anhui 安慧, and Jianhui 堅慧; Tibetan: Blo gros brtan pa) was a 6th-century Indian Buddhist scholar-monk. Sthiramati was a student of a Yogācāra scholar named Gunamati, and he was also a contemporary of another 6th century Yogācāra scholar, Dharmapala of Nālandā. Sthiramati is connected with Valābhi university (present-day Gujarat), and also with Nālandā. Evidence from two inscriptions indicate that a figure named Sthiramati founded a monastery at Valābhi.
Thonmi Sambhota (Thönmi Sambhoṭa, aka Tonmi Sambhodha;, Tib. ཐོན་མི་སམ་བྷོ་ཊ།, Wyl. thon mi sam+b+ho Ta; b. 7th cent.) is the Tibetan minister that invented the Tibetan script, and the author of the Sum cu pa and Rtags kyi 'jug pa in the 7th century CE during the reign of King Songsten Gampo. Thonmi Sambhota is not mentioned in the few uncovered Old Tibetan Annals or later ancient texts, although the Annals does mention Tibetan writing shortly after 650. The two treaties attributed to him postdate the 13th century.
Chandrakirti (IAST: Candrakīrti; Sanskrit: चंद्रकीर्ति; traditional Chinese: 月稱; c. 600 – c. 650, meaning "glory of the moon" in Sanskrit) or "Chandra" was a Buddhist scholar of the Madhyamaka school and a noted commentator on the works of Nagarjuna (c. 150 – c. 250 CE) and those of his main disciple, Aryadeva. He wrote two influential works on madhyamaka, the Prasannapadā and the Madhyamakāvatāra.
Daman Hongren (Chinese: 弘忍; pinyin: Hóngrěn; Wade–Giles: Hung2-jen3, 601–674), posthumous name Daman, was the 5th Patriarch of Chan Buddhism (Chinese: 禪宗五祖).
Xuanzang ([ɕɥɛ̌n.tsâŋ], (Hsüen Tsang) Chinese: 玄奘; 6 April 602 – 5 February 664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (陳褘 / 陳禕), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of his journey to India in 629–645 CE, his efforts to bring over 657 Indian texts to China, and his translations of some of these texts. He was only able to translate 75 distinct sections of a total of 1335 chapters, but his translations included some of the most important Mahayana scriptures.
Shandao (simplified Chinese: 善导大师; traditional Chinese: 善導大師; pinyin: shàndǎo dàshī; Japanese: Zendō Daishi; 613–681) was a Chinese Buddhist scholar monk and an influential figure of East Asian Pure Land Buddhism. Shandao was the first Pure land author who outright stated that ordinary people can be reborn in the Pure Land primarily by relying on the power of Amitābha Buddha's vows. Due to this, several modern scholars consider Shandao to be the true founder of Chinese Pure Land. According to Alfred Bloom, Shandao "systematized Pure Land thought and brought it to its highest peak of development in China." Shandao was also the first Pure Land author to state that mere oral recitation of Amitabha's name was sufficient for rebirth in the Pure Land. Shandao's writings had a strong influence on later Pure Land masters, including the Japanese pure land founders Hōnen and Shinran. In Jōdo Shinshū, he is considered the Fifth Patriarch, while in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, he is considered the second patriarch after Lushan Huiyuan.
Woncheuk (Korean: 원측; MR: Wŏnch'ŭk, c. 613–696) was a Korean Buddhist monk who worked in seventh century China. Woncheuk was a follower of Paramārtha (499-569) and the Shelun school of Yogacara. This school defended the view that there was a ninth consciousness called the "pure consciousness" (amalavijñāna), as opposed to just the eight consciousnesses of classical Yogacara. This position had been rejected by Xuanzang and Kuiji. Woncheuk later became a student of Xuanzang (ca. 600–664) and worked in his translation team. Woncheuk's works attempt to reconcile the two traditions of East Asian Yogacara and often diverges from the interpretations of Xuanzang and Kuiji in favor of the views of Paramārtha.
Wŏnhyo (Korean: 원효; Chinese: 元曉; 617 – 686, meaning: "Dawnbreak") was one of the most important philosophers and commentators in East Asian Buddhism and the most prolific scholar in Korean Buddhism. As one of the most eminent scholar-monks in East Asian history, his extensive literary output runs to over 80 works in 240 fascicles. His most influential commentaries are those on buddha-nature texts like the *Vajrasamādhisūtra, the Awakening of Faith, and the Mahāparinivāṇasūtra. These works became classics widely respected throughout Korea, China and Japan.
Kuījī (traditional Chinese: 窺基; simplified Chinese: 窥基; Japanese: Kiki; Korean: Kyugi; 632–682), also known as Ji (Chinese: 基), an exponent of Yogācāra, was a Chinese monk and a prominent disciple of Xuanzang. His posthumous name was Cí'ēn dàshī (慈恩大師; 'Master Ci'en'), The Great Teacher of Cien Monastery, after the Daci'en Temple or Great Monastery of Compassionate Grace, which was located in Chang'an, the main capital of the Tang Dynasty. The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda was built in Daci'en Temple in 652. According to biographies, he was sent to the imperial translation bureau headed by Xuanzang, from whom he later would learn Sanskrit, Abhidharma, and Yogācāra.
Śubhakarasiṃha (637–735 CE) (traditional Chinese: 善無畏; ; pinyin: Shànwúwèi; Japanese pronunciation: Zenmui; Korean: 선무외; romaja: Seonmuoe; Vietnamese: Thiện Vô Uý) was an eminent Indian Buddhist monk and master of Esoteric Buddhism, who originally studied in Nalanda monastery and later arrived in the Chinese capital Chang'an (now Xi'an) in 716 CE and translated the Mahāvairocana Abhisaṃbodhi Tantra, better known as the Mahāvairocana Sūtra. Four years later another master, Vajrabodhi (670–741 CE), and his pupil Amoghavajra (705–775 CE), would arrive and proceeded to translate other scriptures, thus establishing a second esoteric tradition. Along with these other masters, Śubhakarasiṃha was responsible for bringing Esoteric Buddhism to the height of its popularity in China.
Vajrabodhi (Sanskrit: वज्रबोधि, Chinese: 金剛智; pinyin: Jīngāng Zhì, 671–741 CE) was an Indian esoteric Buddhist monk and teacher in Nalanda and later in Tang China. He is one of the eight patriarchs in Shingon Buddhism. He is notable for introducing Vajrayana Buddhism in the territories of the Srivijaya Empire which subsequently evolved into a distinct form known as Indonesian Esoteric Buddhism.
Shantideva (685 CE – 763 CE) (Sanskrit: Śāntideva; Chinese: 寂天; Tibetan: ཞི་བ་ལྷ།, THL: Zhiwa Lha; Mongolian: Шантидэва гэгээн; Vietnamese: Tịch Thiên) was an 8th-century CE Indian philosopher, Buddhist monk, poet, and scholar at the mahavihara of Nalanda. He was an adherent of the Mādhyamaka philosophy of Nāgārjuna. He is also considered to be one of the 84 mahasiddhas and is known as Bhusuku Pa (布苏固巴).
Vimalamitra (Tibetan: དྲི་མེད་བཤེས་གཉེན་, Wylie: dri med bshes gnyen) was an 8th-century Indian Buddhist monk. His teachers were Buddhaguhya, Jñānasūtra and Śrī Siṃha. He was supposed to have vowed to take rebirth every hundred years, with the most notable figures being Rigzin Jigme Lingpa, Khenchen Ngagchung, Kyabje Drubwang Penor Rinpoche and Kyabje Yangthang Rinpoche. He was one of the eight teachers of the great Indian adept Guru Padmasambhava. Centuries later, terma and various works were attributed to him. Chatral Sangye Dorji (1913-2016) was said to have received a mala rosary from a man who was at the time dressed as an Indian Sadhu. It was only later that Rinpoche told his attendants that he received a mala on that day from Vimalamitra in reality. The attendants were curious and returned to the place where they had met a sadhu only to be left dumbstruck. The sadhu was not to be found anywhere. One scholar remarked that the historical Vimalamitra "would have been astonished to find himself the focus of such a tradition."
Bhavabhūti (Devanagari: भवभूति) was an 8th-century scholar of India noted for his plays and poetry, written in Sanskrit. His plays are considered the equal of the works of Kalidasa. He is known as "Poet of Karun Rasa" for his work named as Uttararamacarita. Also author of Mahaviracharita.
Saraha, Sarahapa, Sarahapāda (or, in the Tibetan language མདའ་བསྣུན་, [danün], Wyl. mda' bsnun The Archer), (circa 8th century CE) was known as the first sahajiya and one of the Mahasiddhas. The name Saraha means "the one who has shot the arrow.". According to one, scholar, "This is an explicit reference to an incident in many versions of his biography when he studied with a dakini disguised as a low-caste arrow smith. Metaphorically, it refers to one who has shot the arrow of non duality into the heart of duality." Saraha is considered to be one of the founders of Vajrayana Buddhism, particularly the Mahāmudrā tradition associated with the mind teachings of Tibet. Saraha was originally known as Rāhula or Rāhulbhadra and was born in Roli, a region of the city-state of Rajni in eastern India, into a Shakya family and studied at the Buddhist monastic university Nalanda.
Virupa (Sanskrit: Virūpa; Tib. bi ru pa or bir wa pa,lit. 'ugly one'), also known as Virupaksa and Tutop Wangchuk, was an 8th-9th century Indian mahasiddha and yogi, and the source of important cycles of teachings in tantric Buddhism. He is especially known as the source of the Lamdré ("path-fruit", Skt. mārga-phala) system held by the Sakya school and is thus seen as the Indian founder of their lineage. A series of verses called the Vajra verses, which are pith instructions on the Hevajra tantra, are also attributed to him.
Buddhaguhya (also known as Buddhagupta) (fl. c.700 CE) was a Vajrayana Buddhist scholar-monk. He taught at Nālandā and Vārāṇasī, and spent time in meditation near Mount Kailash. Vimalamitra was one of his students.
Amoghavajra (Sanskrit: अमोघवज्र Amoghavajra; Chinese: 不空; pinyin: Bùkōng; Japanese: Fukū; Korean: 불공; Vietnamese: Bất Không, 705–774)
Zhanran (Chinese: 湛然; pinyin: Zhànrán; Wade–Giles: Chan-jan; 711-782), Jingxi Zhanran, sometimes called Miao-le (or Miaolo) was the sixth patriarch of the Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism and helped to revive the school's proéminence after a period of decline. His lay surname was Qi 戚 and he was also known as Jingqi 荊溪 after his birthplace (in modern-day Yixing 宜興 county, Jiangsu province). Early in his monastic training, traditional biographies stated that he thoroughly studied the Vinaya in Four Parts before being ordained by precepts master T'an-i (曇一, 692-771). As head of the Tiantai order, Zhanran spent much time and energy writing commentaries on the works of Zhiyi, and writing defenses of the Tiantai school against the newer Faxiang and Huayan schools. Zhanran is best known for his scriptural exegesis of such works as Zhiyi's Mohe Zhiguan (The Great Calming and Contemplation), as well as his promotion of the doctrine of universal Buddha-nature. He is the author of The Adamantine Scalpel (金剛錍 Jin'gang Pi) among other works.
Śāntarakṣita (Sanskrit: शान्तरक्षित; Tibetan: ཞི་བ་འཚོ, Wylie: zhi ba tsho, 725–788), whose name translates into English as "protected by the One who is at peace" was an important and influential Indian Buddhist philosopher, particularly for the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Śāntarakṣita was a philosopher of the Madhyamaka school who studied at Nalanda monastery under Jñānagarbha, and became the founder of Samye, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet.
Mañjuśrīmitra (d. 740 CE) (Tibetan: Jampalshenyen, འཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་, Wylie: Jam-dpal-bshes-gnyen) was an Indian Buddhist scholar. He became the main student of Garab Dorje and a teacher of Dzogchen.
Tri Songdetsen (Tibetan: ཁྲོ་སྲོང་ལྡེ་བརྩན། ཁྲི་སྲོང་ལྡེ་བཙན, Wylie: khri srong lde brtsan/btsan, ZYPY: Chisong Dêzän, Lhasa dialect: [ʈʂʰisoŋ tetsɛ̃]) was the son of Me Agtsom, the 38th emperor of Tibet. He ruled from AD 755 until 797 or 804. Tri Songdetsen was the second of the Three Dharma Kings of Tibet, playing a pivotal role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet and the establishment of the Nyingma or "Ancient" school of Tibetan Buddhism. Tri Songdetsen is very important to the history of Tibetan Buddhism as one of the three 'Dharma Kings' (Tibetan:chögyel) who established Buddhism in Tibet. The Three Dharma Kings were Songtsen Gampo, Tri Songdetsen, and Ralpacan.
Huiguo (Chinese: 惠果; pinyin: Huìguǒ; Wade–Giles: Hui-kuo) (746–805) was a Buddhist monk of Tang China who studied and taught Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, a Vajrayana tradition recently imported from India. Later Huiguo would become the teacher of Kūkai, founder of Shingon Buddhism, a prominent school of Buddhism in Japan.
Kūkai (空海; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835), born Saeki no Mao (佐伯 眞魚), posthumously called Kōbō Daishi (弘法大師, "The Grand Master who Propagated the Dharma"), was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the esoteric Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) under the monk Huiguo. Upon returning to Japan, he founded Shingon—the Japanese branch of Vajrayana Buddhism.
Yeshe Tsogyal (c. 757 or 777 – 817 CE), also known as "Victorious Ocean of Knowledge", "Knowledge Lake Empress" (Wylie: ye shes mtsho rgyal, ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ), or by her Sanskrit name Jñānasāgara "Knowledge Ocean", or by her clan name "Lady Kharchen", attained enlightenment in her lifetime and is considered the Mother of Tibetan Buddhism. Yeshe Tsogyal is the highest woman in the Nyingma Vajrayana lineage. Some sources say she, as Princess of Karchen, was either a wife or consort of Tri Songdetsen, emperor of Tibet, when she began studying Buddhism with Padmasambhava, who became her main karmamudrā consort. Padmasambhava is a founder-figure of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and is considered as a second buddha of our era. She is known to have revealed terma with Padmasambhava and was also the main scribe for these terma. Later, Yeshe Tsogyal also hid many of Padmasambhava's terma on her own, under the instructions of Padmasambhava for future generations.
Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from medieval India who taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries). According to some early Tibetan sources like the Testament of Ba, he came to Tibet in the 8th century and helped construct Samye Monastery, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet. However, little more is known about the actual historical figure other than his ties to Vajrayana and Indian Buddhism.
Tritsuk Detsen (Tibetan: ཁྲི་གཙུག་ལྡེ་བཙན, Wylie: khri gtsug lde btshan), better known by his nickname Ralpachen (Tibetan: རལ་པ་ཅན, Wylie: ral pa chen) (c. 806 CE–838), was the 40th king of the Yarlung Dynasty of Tibet. He reigned after the death of his father, Sadnalegs, in c. 815, and grew the empire to its largest extent. He was murdered by his younger brother Langdarma in 838. Ralpachen is one of Tibet's three Dharma Kings, and referred to as "son of God" in the ancient Tibetan chronicle Testament of Ba.
Lawapa or Lavapa (Wylie: la ba pa; grub chen la ba pa; wa ba pa) was a figure in Tibetan Buddhism who flourished in the 10th century. He was also known as Kambala and Kambalapada (Sanskrit: Kaṃbalapāda). Lawapa, was a mahasiddha, or accomplished yogi, who travelled to Tsari. Lawapa was a progenitor of the Dream Yoga sādhanā and it was from Lawapa that the mahasiddha Tilopa received the Dream Yoga practice lineage.
Nāropā (Prakrit; Sanskrit: Nāropāda, Naḍapāda or Abhayakirti) or Abhayakirti was an Indian Buddhist Mahasiddha. He was the disciple of Tilopa and brother, or some sources say partner and pupil, of Niguma. As an Indian Mahasiddha, Naropa's instructions inform Vajrayana, particularly his six yogas of Naropa relevant to the completion stage of anuttarayogatantra. He was also one of the "gatekeepers" of Vikramashila monastery which is located in Bihar. Herbert V. Guenther dated Nāropāda to 1016–1100 CE. These dates are based upon Guenther's misunderstanding of dates appearing in the late Tibetan hagiography he translated. These dates are impossible because, e.g., they would make Nāropāda a young man when Atiśa went to Tibet. Turrell V. Wylie argued Nāropā lived 956–1040 CE. John Newman followed Wylie and offered supporting evidence for dating Nāropāda's death to circa 1040 CE, but pointed out that the date for Nāropāda's birth derives from Tibetan sources that calculate dates in the Tibetan element-animal sexagenary cycle chronology, which was never used in India, and he concludes that Wylie's date for Nāropāda's birth is uncertain. Newman observes: "As a rule we must be very skeptical of the miraculously precise dates late Tibetan sources provide for events that occurred hundreds of years earlier in India."
Niguma is considered one of the most important and influential yoginis and Vajrayana teachers of the 10th or 11th century in India. She was a dakini, and one of the two female founders of the Shangpa Kagyu school of Vajrayana Buddhism, along with dakini Sukhasiddhi. Her birth name was Shrijnana (or Palgyi Yéshé in Tibetan). Like many of the mahasiddhas and Tantric practitioners of the time, Niguma was known by several names both during her lifetime and afterwards. She was called Yogini Vimalashri, or Vajradhara Niguma, or Jñana (wisdom) Dakini Adorned with Bone (ornaments), or The Sister referring to her purported relationship to the great Buddhist teacher and adept Naropa. She was also sometimes called Nigupta, which is explained by the historical Buddhist scholar Taranatha as follows: "The name Nigu accords with the Indian language, which is Nigupta, and is said to mean 'truly secret' or 'truly hidden.' In fact, it is the code-language of the dakinis of timeless awareness."
Atīśa (c. 982–1054) was a Buddhist religious leader and master from Bengal. He was one of the major figures in the spread of 11th-century Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Asia and inspired Buddhist thought from Tibet to Sumatra. He is recognised as one of the greatest figures of medieval Buddhism. Atiśa's chief disciple, Dromtön, was the founder of the Kadam school, one of the New Translation schools of Tibetan Buddhism, later supplanted by the Gelug tradition in the 14th century which adopted its teachings and absorbed its monasteries.
Tilopa (Prakrit; Sanskrit: Talika or Tilopadā; 988–1069) was an Indian Buddhist tantric mahasiddha who lived along the Ganges River. He practised Anuttarayoga Tantra, a set of spiritual practices intended to accelerate the process of attaining Buddhahood. He became a holder of all the tantric lineages, possibly the only person in his day to do so. In addition to the way of insight and Mahamudra, Tilopa learned and passed on the Way of Methods (today known as the Six Yogas of Naropa) and guru yoga. Naropa is considered his main student.
Dromtön, Drom Tonpa or
Dromtönpa Gyelwé Jungné (Tibetan: འབྲོམ་སྟོན་པ་རྒྱལ་བའི་འབྱུང་
Marpa Lotsāwa (མར་པ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོ
Jetsun Milarepa (Tibetan: རྗེ་བཙུན་མི་ལ་རས་པ, Wylie: rje btsun mi la ras pa, 1028/40–1111/23) was a Tibetan siddha, who was famously known as a murderer when he was a young man, before turning to Buddhism and becoming a highly accomplished Buddhist disciple. He is generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and spiritual poets, whose teachings are known among several schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is also famous for the feat of climbing Mount Kailash.
Khön Könchok Gyalpo (Tibetan: འཁོན་དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་པོ་, Wylie: 'khon dkon mchog rgyal po, 1034-1102) was the founder of the Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism, and the founder of Sakya Monastery. Khön Könchok Gyalpo was born in Sa'gya, Tsang. He was a member of the Khön family, and his ancestry can be traced back to Khön Dorje Rinpoche, student of Padmasambhava. He followed his father and brother and learned doctrines of the Nyingma School at a young age, but studied newly translated Vajrayāna texts with Drogmi Shakya Yeshe later. Khön Könchok Gyalpo established Sakya Monastery in 1073, where the Sakya Tradition first developed. His son Khön Kunga Nyingpo was regarded as the first leader of Sakya, and Khön Könchok Gyalpo is known as the first Sakya Trizin.
Machig Labdrön (Tibetan: མ་གཅིག་ལབ་སྒྲོན་, Wylie: ma gcig lab sgron, sometimes referred to as Ahdrön Chödron, Tibetan: ཨ་སྒྲོན་ཆོས་སྒྲོན་, Wylie: A sgron Chos sgron), or "Singular Mother Torch from Lab" (1055–1149), was a female Tibetan Buddhist monk believed to be a reincarnation of Yeshe Tsogyal, and the renowned 11th-century Tibetan tantric Buddhist master and yogini that originated several Tibetan lineages of the Vajrayana practice of Chöd (Tibetan: གཅོད་, Wylie: gcod).
Rechung Dorje Drakpa (Tibetan: རས་ཆུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་གྲགས་པ་, Wylie: ras chung rdo rje grags pa, THL: ré chung dor jé drak pa, 1083/4-1161), known as Rechungpa, was one of the two most important students of the 11th century yogi and poet Milarepa and founder of the Rechung Kagyu subtradition of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. (The other student was Gampopa, founder of the Dagpo Kagyu). Rechungpa was particularly important in the transmission of the cycle of esoteric teachings of the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra known as the Demchok Nyéngyü (Wylie: bde mchog snyan brgyud), Réchung Nyéngyü (Wylie: ras chung snyan brgyud).
Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (Tibetan: ས་ཆེན་ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ་, Wylie: Sa-chen Kun-dga’ Snying-po) (1092–1158) was a Tibetan spiritual leader and the first of the Five Venerable Supreme Sakya Masters of Tibet. Sachen Kunga Nyinpo was the 3rd Sakya Trizin and son of Khon Konchok Gyalpo (1034–1102) who was the first Sakya Trizin and founder of the first Sakya Monastery in Tibet in 1073.
Zhangtön Tashi Dorjé (Wylie: zhang ston bkra shis rdo rje, c. 1097 – 1167) was a Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen teacher who was an important treasure revealer (terton) in the Menngagde lineage of Dzogchen. He is particularly known for revealing the Vima Nyingthig, a key Dzogchen cycle of teachings which includes the Seventeen tantras of Dzogchen. Zhangton was born in Yamdrok Tonang and was a disciple of Chetsün Sengé Wangchuk. Traditional Nyingma histories hold that Zhangton had visions of Vimalamitra and discovered the Vima Nyingthig as a hidden treasure (terma) in Chimpu, Central Tibet. Zhangton is also known for his authorship of The Great History of the Dzogchen Nyingtik (rdzogs pa chen po snying thig gi lo rgyus chen mo), a detailed chronological account of the Dzogchen tradition and lineage. Zhangton's main successor was his son Nyibum. Some modern Tibetologists like David Germano and Christopher Hatchell think that Zhangton may have been the main author of the Vima Nyingthig.
Achi Chökyi Drölma (Wylie: a phyi chos kyi sgrol ma) is the Dharma Protector (Dharmapāla) of the Drikung Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Achi Chokyi Drolma is the grandmother of Jigten Sumgön, the founder of Drikung Kagyu. She also appears as a protector in the Karma Kagyu refuge tree as Achi Chodron and is a dharmapāla and dakini in the life story of the Nyingma tertön Tsasum Lingpa (Wylie: rtsa gsum gling pa). According to a prophecy in the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra, it is said, "The head of the Karma Dakinis will come to the area of Tidro cave in Drikung. This will be a nirmanakaya manifestation of Vajrayogini". 11th Century ?
Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (Tibetan: ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྒྱལ་པོ, Wylie: phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po) [1110-1170], was one of the three main disciples of Gampopa Sonam Rinchen who established the Dagpo Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism; and a disciple of Sachen Kunga Nyingpo [1092-1158] one of the founders of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the elder brother of Kathog Dampa Deshek [1122-1192], who founded Kathog monastery and the Kathog branch of the Nyingma school.
Düsum Khyenpa (Tibetan: དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པ་, Wylie: dus gsum mkhyen pa, 1110–1193) was the 1st Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Mahākassapa Thera was a 12th-century Sri Lankan forest monk and an abbot of Dimbulagala Raja Maha Vihara, a forest monastery outside of Polonnaruwa. Mahākassapa who was well versed in Vinaya, presided over the Buddhist council convened by King Parakramabahu I (1153-1186) whose main goal was to reorganize, reform and unify the Sangha. An inscription at Gal Vihara states that with Mahākassapa's advice, the council expelled hundreds of corrupt monks and unified the Sangha under one single monastic Nikaya, the Mahavihara sect. Mahākassapa also wrote several works on Vinaya.
Nyangrel Nyima Özer (Nyang ral nyi ma 'od zer, c. 1124–1192) was an important Nyingma tertön, a revealer of terma treasure texts in Tibetan Buddhism.
Yuthok Yonten Gonpo the Younger (Wylie transliteration g.yu thog gsar ma yon tan mgon po) (1126–1202) was a Tibetan doctor and ngakpa (lay, non-monastic tantric practitioner), credited with composing the Four Medical Tantras (rgyud bzhi), a four-book treatise on Traditional Tibetan Medicine which forms the main course of study in the Tibetan medical tradition. He is widely regarded as the main founder of Tibetan medicine, mostly based on his composition of the Four Medical Tantras. His other important contribution to Tibetan culture was the Yuthok Nyingthik, whose full name is the Yuthok Nyingthik Guru Sādhanā, ‘Compassionate Sunlight for Dispersing Suffering’s Darkness’ (g.yu thog snying thig bla sgrub sdug bsngal mun sel nyi ma’i ’od zer), which is the main Tantric Buddhist practice-cycle associated with Tibetan medicine. It is traditionally considered to be an important spiritual component of healing in Tibetan medical culture, and moreover is regarded in all Tibetan Buddhist traditions as a very special method for attaining awakening and realization quickly.
Hōnen (法然, May 13 (April 7), 1133 – February 29, 1212) was the religious reformer and progenitor of the first independent branch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism called Jōdo-shū (浄土宗, "The Pure Land School"). He is also considered the Seventh Jōdo Shinshū Patriarch.
Sonam Tsemo (Tibetan: བསོད་ནམས་རྩེ་མོ, Wylie: bsod nams rtse mo, THL: sönam tsemo; 1142–1182) (or Lobpon Rinpoche Sonam Tsemo), an important Tibetan sprititual leader and Buddhist scholar, was the second of the so-called Five Venerable Supreme Sakya Masters of Tibet, the founding fathers of the Sakya tradition.
Jigten Sumgön or Jigten Gönpo འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་མགོན (1143–1217) was the founder of the Drikung Kagyu lineage and main disciple of Phagmo Drupa. He founded Drikung Thil Monastery in 1179. Jigten Sumgön and the Drikung lineage are best known for the set of teachings known as The Five Profound Paths of Mahāmudrā (phyag chen lnga ldan).
Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen (Tibetan: རྗེ་བཙུན་གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན, Wylie: rje btsun grags pa rgyal mtshan) (1147–1216) was a Tibetan spiritual leader and the third of the Five Sakya Patriarchs (sa skya gong ma rnam lnga) of Tibet. He was also the guru of the famous Sakya Pandita.
The great ascetic Drogon Tsangpa Gyare (1161–1211) was the main disciple of Lingchen Repa Pema Dorje and the founder of the Drukpa Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism the main or central branch of which was, until the 17th century, transmitted by his hereditary family lineage at Ralung in the Tsang region of Tibet. Later, following the birth of Gyalwang Je Kunga Paljor (1428–1476) considered to be the first of his re-incarnations, Tsangpa Gyare was held to be the first of a succession of Gyalwang Drukpa or Drukchen incarnations who, at the time of the fifth Gyalwang Drukpa Pagsam Wangpo (1593—1653), became established as the reincarnate leaders of the Drukpa lineage in Tibet. He is also known to be an emanation of chenrizig ( avalokiteshvara)
Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen
(Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་པཎ་ཌི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན
Shinran (親鸞, May 21, 1173 – January 16, 1263) was a Japanese Buddhist monk, who was born in Hino (now a part of Fushimi, Kyoto) at the turbulent close of the Heian Period and lived during the Kamakura Period. Shinran was a pupil of Hōnen and the founder of what ultimately became the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Japanese Buddhism.
Phajo Drugom Shigpo (Tibetan: ཕ་ཇོ་འབྲུག་སྒོམ་ཞིག་པོ, Wylie: pha jo 'brug sgom zhig po) [1184−1251 / 1208−1275] was a Tibetan Buddhist particularly important in the early spread of the Drukpa school to Bhutan where he is revered as an emanation of Avalokiteśvara. His descendants played a significant role in the history of Bhutan. The Sacred Sites associated with Phajo Drugom Zhigpo and his descendants is listed as a tentative site in Bhutan's Tentative List for UNESCO inclusion.
Sāriputta Thera was a 12th century Sri Lankan scholar monk of Theravada Buddhism. He was the first leader (Mahasvami) of the Sri Lankan Buddhist Sangha after Parakramabahu I's reforms and one of Theravada's greatest exegetes. He was the student of Mahakassapa Thera, who presided over the Buddhist council convened by Parakramabahu I and was likely present at the council himself. He was later abbot of the Jetavana Vihara of Polonnaruwa. He wrote at least five sub-commentaries (tika) on Buddhaghosa's commentaries to the Pali Canon as well as various compendiums and manuals on Vinaya (monastic discipline) and Buddhist Meditation practice. His Sarattha-dipani ("The Essence-Meaning Illustrator"), a sub-commentary on the Vinaya Commentary of Buddhaghosa, explains issues in Buddhaghosa's text and deals with further points from the Pali Canon and other Vinaya texts no longer extant.
Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; 26 January 1200 – 22 September 1253), was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. He is also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師), and Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師). Dōgen is known for his extensive writings like the Shōbōgenzō (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, considered his magnum opus), the Eihei Kōroku (Extensive Record, a collection of his talks), the Eihei Shingi (the first Japanese Zen monastic code), along with his Japanese poetry, and commentaries. Dōgen's writings are one of the most important sources studied in the contemporary Sōtō Zen tradition.
Karma Pakshi (Tibetan: ཀརྨ་པཀྴི་, Wylie: kar ma pak shi; 1204/6–1283) was the 2nd Gyalwa Karmapa. He was a child prodigy who had already acquired a broad understanding of Dharma philosophy and meditation by the age of ten. His teacher, Pomdrakpa, had received the full Kagyu transmission from Drogon Rechen, the first Karmapa's spiritual heir. Pomdrakpa realized, through certain very clear visions, that the child in his charge was the reincarnation of Dusum Khyenpa, as indicated in the letter given to Drogon Rechen.
Nichiren (16 February 1222 – 13 October 1282) was a Japanese Buddhist priest and philosopher of the Kamakura period. His teachings form the basis of Nichiren Buddhism, a branch of Mahayana Buddhism. Nichiren declared that the Lotus Sutra alone contains the highest truth of Buddhist teachings suited for the Third Age of Buddhism, insisting that the sovereign of Japan and its people should support only this form of Buddhism and eradicate all others. He advocated the repeated recitation of its title, Nam(u)-myoho-renge-kyo, as the only path to Buddhahood and held that Shakyamuni Buddha and all other Buddhist deities were extraordinary manifestations of a particular Buddha-nature termed Myoho-Renge that is equally accessible to all. He declared that believers of the Sutra must propagate it even under persecution.
Drogön Chogyal Phagpa (Tibetan: འགྲོ་མགོན་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་འཕགས་པ་, Wylie: ʼgro mgon chos rgyal ʼphags pa; Chinese: 八思巴 ʼphags pa; 1235 – 15 December 1280), was the fifth leader of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was also the first Imperial Preceptor of the Yuan dynasty and was concurrently named the director of the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, serving during the reign of Kublai Khan.
Rinchen Gyaltsen (Tibetan: རིན་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མཚན, Wylie: rin chen rgyal mtshan, THL: rinchen gyaltsen; Chinese: 仁欽堅贊) (1238 – 24 March 1279) was a Tibetan imperial preceptor at the court of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. His tenure lasted from 1274 to his death in either 1279 or 1282.
Nikkō Shōnin (日興上人, 8 March 1246 – 7 February 1333), Buddhist name Hawaki-bō Byakuren Ajari Nikkō (伯耆房白蓮阿闍梨日興), was one of the six senior disciples of Nichiren and was the former Chief Priest of Kuon-ji temple in Mount Minobu, Japan. Various Nichiren sects in Japan claim to have been founded by Nikkō, the most prominent being Nichiren Shōshū and some lineages within Nichiren Shū.
Jamyang Rinchen Gyeltsen (Wylie: jam dbyangs rin chen rgyal mtshan; Chinese: 輦真監藏; c. 1257 - 5 February 1305), was the ruler of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, which had precedence in Tibet under the Yuan dynasty, in 1286–1303. He also held the title of Imperial Preceptor ( Dishi) from 1304 to his demise in 1305.
Zangpo Pal (1261 - 1323), in full Danyi Chenpo Zangpo Pal (Wylie: bDag nyid chen po bzang po dpal; Chinese: 達尼欽波桑波貝), was the ruler of Sakya, which held a precedence position in Tibet under the Yuan dynasty. He ruled nominally from 1298, in reality from 1306 to his death in 1323.
Dharmapala Raksita (Wylie: d+harma pA la rak Shi ta; Chinese: 達瑪巴拉·熱格希達; 1268 – 24 December 1287) was the head of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, which was the most powerful school in Tibet under the Yuan dynasty from 1280 to 1282. He also held the title of Imperial Preceptor (Dishi), from 1282 to 1286.
The 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (Tibetan: རང་འབྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wylie: rang 'byung rdo rje) (1284–1339) was a Karmapa and head of the Karma Kagyu school, the largest school within the Kagyu tradition. He was an important figure in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, who helped to spread Buddha-nature teachings in Tibet.
Butön Rinchen Drup (Tibetan: བུ་སྟོན་རིན་ཆེན་གྲུབ་, Wylie: bu ston rin chen grub), (1290–1364), 11th Abbot of Shalu Monastery, was a 14th-century Sakya master and Tibetan Buddhist leader. Shalu was the first of the major monasteries to be built by noble families of the Tsang dynasty during Tibet's great revival of Buddhism, and was an important center of the Sakya tradition.
Dölpopa Shérap Gyeltsen (Tibetan: དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་, Wylie: dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan) (1292–1361), known simply as Dölpopa, was a Tibetan Buddhist master. Known as "The Buddha from Dölpo," a region in modern Nepal, he was the principal exponent of the shentong teachings, and an influential member of the Jonang tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
Khatsun Namkha Lekpa Gyaltsen (1305 - 1343), orthographic spelling mK'as btsun nam mk'a legs pa'i rgyal mts'an, was a ruler of Sakya, which had a precedence position in Tibet under the Yuan dynasty. He reigned from 1325 to 1341, but was more prominent in religious than in worldly affairs, and his time saw the beginning of the decline of the Sakya hegemony in Tibet.
Longchen Rabjam Drimé Özer
(Tibetan: ཀློང་ཆེན་རབ་འབྱམས་པ་དྲི་མེད་འོ
Jamyang Donyo Gyaltsen (1310 - 1344), in orthographic spelling Jam dbyangs don yod rgyal mts'an, was a ruler of Sakya which had a precedence position in Tibet under the Yuan dynasty. He reigned from 1341 until his death in 1344.
Sönam Gyaltsen, the Sakya Lama Dampa (Wylie: bsod nams rgyal mtshan sa skya pa bla ma dam pa, 16 May 1312 - 23 July 1375) was a ruler of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, which had a precedence position in Tibet under the Yuan dynasty. He is considered the greatest Sakya scholar of the 14th century and served as ruler for a short term in 1344–1347.
Rigdzin Gödem (Tib. རིག་འཛིན་རྒོད་ལྡེམ།, rig 'dzin rgod ldem, 1337–1409). also known as Rigdzin Gokyi Demtru Chen and Ngodrub Gyaltsen, was a major Nyingma tertön (a revealer of treasure texts in Tibetan Buddhism). He revealed an important cycle of termas called the "Northern Treasures" or byanggter (because they were found north of the Yarlung Valley). His revelations include the important Pellucid Transcendent State of Samantabhadra (Kun tu bzang po’i dgongs pa zang thal), commonly known as the Gongpa Zangthal. The Gongpa Zangthal was revealed in 1366 in the Tsang province and contains teachings on tantra and Dzogchen. Gödem's revelations also include the famous Prayer of Samantabhadra (Kun bzang smon lam).
Tsongkhapa (Tibetan: ཙོང་ཁ་པ་[tsoŋˈkʰapa], meaning: "the man from Tsongkha" or "the Man from Onion Valley", c. 1357–1419) was an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, philosopher and tantric yogi, whose activities led to the formation of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is also known by his ordained name Losang Drakpa (Wylie: blo bzang grags pa, Skt. Sumatikīrti) or simply as "Je Rinpoche" (Wylie: rje rin po che, "Precious Lord"). He is also known by Chinese as Zongkapa Lobsang Zhaba or just Zōngkābā (宗喀巴).
Duldzin Dragpa Gyaltsen (1374-1434), the first Kyorlung Ngari Tulku, was one of the principal disciples of Je Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Thangtong Gyalpo (Tibetan: ཐང་སྟོང་རྒྱལ་པོ་, Wylie: thang stong rgyal po) (1385 CE–1464 CE or 1361 CE–1485 CE), also known as Chakzampa, the "Iron Bridge Maker" (Wylie: lcags zam pa), Tsöndrü Zangpo "Excellent Persistence" (Wylie: brtson 'grus bzang po), and the King of the Empty Plain. He was also known by a variation of this name, Madman of the Empty Valley. He was a great Buddhist adept, a Chöd master, yogi, physician, blacksmith, architect, and a pioneering civil engineer. He is considered a mind emanation of Padmasambhava and a reincarnation of Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen. He founded the Iron Chain lineage of the Shangpa Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, and he recognized the first Samding Dorje Phagmo, Chökyi Drönma (1422–1455), the female incarnation lineage of Vajravārāhī.
Serdok Penchen Sakya Chokden (gser mdog pan chen shakya mchog ldan, 1428–1507) (also transliterated as Shakya Chogden) was one of the most important religious thinkers of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a student of Rongtön Shecha Kunrig (1367-1449), Dönyö Pelwa, Künga Zangpo and many other Tibetan scholars. He also received empowerments and studied under several Kagyu lineages. Sakya Chokden's seat was the Thubten Serdogchen monastery in south Shigatse.
Pema Lingpa or Padma Lingpa (Tibetan: པདྨ་གླིང་པ་, Wylie: pad+ma gling pa, 1450–1521) was a Bhutanese saint and siddha of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is considered a terchen or "preeminent tertön" (Wylie: gter chen, discoverer of spiritual treasures) and is considered to be foremost of the "Five Tertön Kings" (Wylie: gter ston rgyal po lnga). In the history of the Nyingma school in Bhutan, Pema Lingpa is second only in importance to Padmasambhava.
Tsangnyön Heruka (Tibetan: གཙང་སྨྱོན་ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་, Wylie: gtsang smyon He ru ka "The Madman Heruka from Tsang", 1452-1507), was an author and a master of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Born in Tsang, he is best known as a biographer and compiler of the Life of Milarepa and The Collections of Songs of Milarepa, both classics of Tibetan literature.
Drukpa Kunley (1455–1529), also known as Kunga Legpai Zangpo, Drukpa Kunleg (Tibetan: འབྲུག་པ་ཀུན་ལེགས་, Wylie: brug pa kun legs), and Kunga Legpa, the Madman of the Dragon Lineage (Tibetan: འབྲུག་སྨྱོན་ཀུན་དགའ་ལེགས་པ་, Wylie: 'brug smyon kun dga' legs pa), was a Tibetan Buddhist monk, missionary, and poet in the Drukpa Kagyu lineage of the Mahamudra tradition. He was trained at Ralung Monastery under siddha Pema Lingpa. However, by the age of 25, he had returned his monastic vows to take a wife, whose name was Tsewang Dzom (tshe dbang 'dzom). He is often counted among the Nyönpa ("mad ones"). He is considered to have been a reincarnation of Saraha.
Panchen Sonam Dragpa (Tibetan: པན་ཆེན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ, Wylie: Pan-chen bSod-nams grags-pa) (1478–1554) was the fifteenth Ganden Tripa or throneholder of Ganden Monastery. His texts form the core curriculum for the Loseling College of Drepung Monastic University, the Shartse College of the Ganden Monastic University, and several other Gelugpa monasteries. He was taught by the second Dalai Lama and in turn later became the teacher of the third Dalai Lama.
Kunkhyen Pema Karpo (Tibetan: ཀུན་མཁྱེན་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་, Wylie: kun-mkhyen pad-ma dkar-po) (1527–1592 CE) was the fourth Gyalwang Drukpa, head of the Drukpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the most famous and learned of all the Gyalwang Drukpas. During his lifetime, he was known as the grand lama amongst all grand lamas, and was a teacher to many lamas and disciples all over Tibet.
Tāranātha (1575–1634) was a Lama of the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is widely considered its most remarkable scholar and exponent. Taranatha was a prolific writer and a renowned scholar. His best known work is the 143-folio History of Buddhism in India (dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho) of 1608, which has been published in English. This work is considered as his magnum opus.
Pagsam Wangpo (dpag bsam dbang po) (1593-1653 CE), a key figure in the history of the Drukpa Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, was born at Chonggye ('phyong rgyas), in the Tsang province of Tibet a natural son of the prince of Chonggye, Ngawang Sonam Dragpa. He was an elder cousin of the 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (1617-1682).
Ngawang Namgyal (1594–1651), known colloquially as The Bearded Lama, was a Tibetan Buddhist Drukpa Kagyu school Rinpoche, and the unifier of Bhutan as a nation-state. He was later granted the honorific title Zhabdrung Rinpoche, approximately "at whose feet one submits") (Tibetan: ཞབས་དྲུང་ངག་དབང་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་, Wylie: zhabs drung ngag dbang rnam rgyal; alternate spellings include Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel). In addition to unifying the various warring fiefdoms for the first time in the 1630s, he also sought to create a distinct Bhutanese cultural identity separate from the Tibetan culture from which it was derived.
Trülku Drakpa Gyeltsen (1619–1656) was an important Gelugpa lama and a contemporary of the 5th Dalai Lama (1617–1682). His Seat was the upper residence (Wylie: gzims khang gong ma) of Drepung Monastery, a famous Gelug gompa located near Lhasa.
Tenzin Rabgye (1638–1696) was the fourth Druk Desi (secular ruler of Bhutan) who ruled from 1680 to 1694. He is believed to have been the first to have categorized formally the zorig chusum (the thirteen traditional arts of Bhutan). In 1688, he renovated Tango Monastery, approximately 14 kilometres from Thimphu. In 1692, he was first formally categorized during the rule of Tenzin Rabgye (1680–1694), the 4th Druk Desi (secular ruler). In 1692, he visited the sacred cave of Taktsang Pelphug during the Tsechu season and founded a temple there devoted to Padmasambhava. The temple is known as Taktsang Lhakhang (the Temple of the Guru with Eight Names) and was completed in 1694.
Mipham Wangpo (Tibetan: མི་ཕམ་དབང་པོ, Wylie: mi pham dbang po, 1641–1717) was considered to be the immediate re-incarnation of Gyalwang Pagsam Wangpo and the sixth Gyalwang Drukchen hierarch of the Northern branch of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
Namchö Mingyur Dorje (Tibetan: གནམ་ཆོས་མི་འགྱུར་རྡོ་རྗེ།, Wylie: gnam chos mi 'gyur rdo rje; 1645–1667) was a Tibetan tertön or "treasure revealer" in Tibetan Buddhism. His extraordinary "pure vision" revelations, which mostly occurred around the age of 16, are known as the Namchö (Wylie: gnam-chos "Sky Dharma" terma. He first transmitted these to his teacher Karma Chagmé (Wylie: karma chags med, 1613-1678), the illustrious Buddhist scholar of the Kagyu school, who wrote them down.
Desi Sangye Gyatso (1653–1705) was the sixth regent (desi) of the 5th Dalai Lama (1617–1682) in the Ganden Phodrang government. He founded the School of Medicine and Astrology called Men-Tsee-Khang on Chagpori ('Iron Mountain') in 1694 and wrote the Blue Beryl (Blue Sapphire) treatise. His name is sometimes written as Sangye Gyamtso and Sans-rGyas rGya-mTsho.
Karma Chagme refers to a 17th-century Tibetan Buddhist (Vajrayāna) lama and to the tülku (reincarnate lama) lineage which he initiated. Including the first, seven Karma Chagme tülkus have been recognized. The Neydo Kagyu (Wylie: gnas mdo bka' brgyud) sub-school of the Karma Kagyu was established by the first Karma Chagme, Rāga Asya.
Situ Panchen (1700–1774),
full name Situ Panchen Chögyi Jungney (Tibetan: སི་ཏུ་པན་ཆེན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འབྱུང་གནས
Historical Scholars
Francis Xavier, SJ (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; Latin: Franciscus Xaverius; Basque: Frantzisko Xabierkoa; French: François Xavier; Spanish: Francisco Javier; Portuguese: Francisco Xavier; 7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552), venerated as Saint Francis Xavier. He was a Catholic missionary and saint who co-founded the Society of Jesus and, as a representative of the Portuguese Empire, led the first Christian mission to Japan.
Ippolito Desideri, SJ (21 December 1684 Pistoia, Grand Duchy of Tuscany – 14 April 1733 Rome, Papal States) was an Italian Jesuit missionary and traveller and the most famous of the early European missionaries who founded Catholic Church in Tibet. He was also the first documented Tibetologist and the first European to have successfully studied both Classical and Standard Tibetan.
Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798) was a Tibetan tertön of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the promulgator of the Longchen Nyingthig, the Heart Essence teachings of Longchenpa, from whom, according to tradition, he received a vision in which the teachings were revealed. The Longchen Nyingthik eventually became the most famous and widely practiced cycle of Dzogchen teachings.
Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy (21 September 1758 – 21 February 1838) was a French nobleman, linguist and orientalist. His son, Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy, became a journalist.
Louis-Mathieu Langlès (23 August 1763 – 28 January 1824) was a French academic, philologist, linguist, translator, author, librarian and orientalist. He was the conservator of the oriental manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Napoleonic France and he held the same position at the renamed Bibliothèque du Roi after the fall of the empire.
Henry Thomas Colebrooke FRS FRSE FLS (15 June 1765 – 10 March 1837) was an English orientalist and botanist. He has been described as "the first great Sanskrit scholar in Europe".
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a German philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1949, the university was named after him and his younger brother, Alexander von Humboldt, a naturalist. He was a linguist who made contributions to the philosophy of language, ethnolinguistics, and to the theory and practice of education. He made a major contribution to the development of liberalism by envisioning education as a means of realizing individual possibility rather than a way of drilling traditional ideas into youth to suit them for an already established occupation or social role.
August Wilhelm Schlegel (8 September 1767 – 12 May 1845) usually cited as August Schlegel, was a German Indologist, poet, translator and critic, and with his brother Friedrich Schlegel the leading influence within Jena Romanticism. His translations of Shakespeare turned the English dramatist's works into German classics. Schlegel was also the professor of Sanskrit in Continental Europe and produced a translation of the Bhagavad Gita.
Antoine-Léonard de Chézy (15 January 1773 – 31 August 1832) was a French orientalist and one of the first European scholars of Sanskrit.
Alexander Johnston (1775– 6 March 1849) was a British colonial official who served as third Chief Justice of Ceylon and second Advocate Fiscal of Ceylon. He introduced a range of administrative reforms in Sri Lanka, introducing numerous liberal ideas and supporting the rights of natives. He was also an orientalist and along with Henry Thomas Colebrooke and others he was a founding member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Horace Hayman Wilson (26 September 1786 – 8 May 1860) was an English orientalist who was elected the first Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University.
Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (5 September 1788 – 2 June 1832) was a French sinologist best known as the first Chair of Sinology at the Collège de France. Rémusat studied medicine as a young man, but his discovery of a Chinese herbal treatise enamored him with the Chinese language, and he spent five years teaching himself to read it. After publishing several well-received articles on Chinese topics, a chair in Chinese was created at the Collège de France in 1814 and Rémusat was placed in it.
Jean-François Champollion (23 December 1790 – 4 March 1832) was a French philologist and orientalist, known primarily as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in the field of Egyptology. Partially raised by his brother, the scholar Jacques Joseph Champollion-Figeac, Champollion was a child prodigy in philology, giving his first public paper on the decipherment of Demotic in his late teens. As a young man he was renowned in scientific circles, and read Coptic, Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic. During the early 19th century, French culture experienced a period of 'Egyptomania', brought on by Napoleon's discoveries in Egypt during his campaign there (1798–1801) which also brought to light the trilingual Rosetta Stone. Scholars debated the age of Egyptian civilization and the function and nature of hieroglyphic script, which language if any it recorded, and the degree to which the signs were phonetic (representing speech sounds) or ideographic (recording semantic concepts directly). Many thought that the script was only used for sacred and ritual functions, and that as such it was unlikely to be decipherable since it was tied to esoteric and philosophical ideas, and did not record historical information. The significance of Champollion's decipherment was that he showed these assumptions to be wrong, and made it possible to begin to retrieve many kinds of information recorded by the ancient Egyptians.
Franz Bopp (14 September 1791 – 23 October 1867) was a German linguist known for extensive and pioneering comparative work on Indo-European languages.
Johann Gottfried Ludwig Kosegarten (10 September 1792 – 18 August 1860) was a German orientalist born in Altenkirchen on the island of Rügen. He was the son of ecclesiastic Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten (1758–1818).
James Prinsep FRS (20 August 1799 – 22 April 1840) was an English scholar, orientalist and antiquary. He was the founding editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and is best remembered for deciphering the Kharosthi and Brahmi scripts of ancient India. He studied, documented and illustrated many aspects of numismatics, metallurgy, meteorology apart from pursuing his career in India as an assay master at the mint in Benares.
George Turnour Jnr, CCS (1799–1843) was a British colonial administrator, scholar and a historian. A member of the Ceylon Civil Service, he served as a Government Agent, Assistant Colonial Secretary and Treasurer of the Colony. He is known for his translation of the Mahavamsa, the Great Chronicle of Sri Lankan history which was published in 1837. Along with James Prinsep and Captain Edward Smith, he began to decipher the inscriptions on the first discovered Pillar of Ashoka.
Brian Houghton Hodgson (1 February 1800 or more likely 1801 – 23 May 1894) was a pioneer naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British Resident. He described numerous species of birds and mammals from the Himalayas, and several birds were named after him by others such as Edward Blyth. He was a scholar of Newar Buddhism and wrote extensively on a range of topics relating to linguistics and religion. He was an opponent of the British proposal to introduce English as the official medium of instruction in Indian schools.
Eugène Burnouf (8 April, 1801 – 28 May, 1852) was a French scholar, an Indologist and orientalist. His notable works include a study of Sanskrit literature, translation of the Hindu text Bhagavata Purana and Buddhist text Lotus Sutra. He wrote a foundational text on Buddhism and also made significant contributions to the deciphering of Old Persian cuneiform.
Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire (19 August 1805 – 24 November 1895) was a French philosopher, journalist, statesman, and possible illegitimate son of Napoleon I of France.
Adolf Friedrich Stenzler (9 July 1807 – February 27, 1887)
Patrul Rinpoche (Tibetan: དཔལ་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ, Wylie: dpal sprul rin po che) (1808–1887) was a teacher and author from the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö
Thayé (Tibetan: འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་བློ་གྲོས་
Nyala Pema Dündul (Tib. ཉག་བླ་པདྨ་བདུད་འདུལ་, Wyl. nyag bla padma bdud 'dul) (1816-1872) — the famous Dzogchen master and tertön from Nyarong who was a teacher of Tertön Sogyal and who attained the rainbow body in 1872.
Sir Monier Monier-Williams KCIE (12 November 1819 – 11 April 1899) was a British scholar who was the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, England. He studied, documented and taught Asian languages, especially Sanskrit, Persian and Hindustani.
Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (Tibetan: འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ, 1820–1892), also known by his tertön title, Pema Ösel Dongak Lingpa, was a teacher, scholar and tertön of 19th-century Tibet. He was a leading figure in the Rimé movement.
Friedrich Max Müller (6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a comparative philologist and Orientalist of German origin. He was one of the founders of the Western academic disciplines of Indology and religious studies. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology. He directed the preparation of the Sacred Books of the East, a 50-volume set of English translations.
Weligama Sri Sumangala (1825 – 13 March 1905) was an outstanding scholar bhikkhu with many important publications -Hitopadsesa Atthadassi, Hitopadsesa Padarthavykanaya, Upadesa Vinischaya, Siddanta Sekaraya. His work Siddhanta Sekharaya of 700 pages was printed at the Government Press in 1897. He established Saugathodaya Vidyalaya at Rankoth Viharaya in Panadura. He was a close associate of Sir Edwin Arnold the author of 'Light of Asia'. He is responsible for encouraging Arnold and Anagarika Dharmapala to advocate for the renovation of Buddhagaya and its return to Buddhist care.
Samuel Beal (27 November 1825, in Devonport, Devon – 20 August 1889, in Greens Norton, Northamptonshire) was an Oriental scholar, and the first Englishman to translate directly from the Chinese the early records of Buddhism, thus illuminating Indian history.
William Dwight Whitney (February 9, 1827 – June 7, 1894) was an American linguist, philologist, and lexicographer known for his work on Sanskrit grammar and Vedic philology as well as his influential view of language as a social institution. He was the first president of the American Philological Association and editor-in-chief of The Century Dictionary.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (12 August 1831 – 8 May 1891) often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian and American mystic and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the leading theoretician of Theosophy.
Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 1832 – 24 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist. He is best known for his 1879 work, The Light of Asia.
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (2 August 1832 – 17 February 1907) was an American military officer, journalist, lawyer, Freemason (member of Huguenot Lodge #448, now #46) and the co-founder and first president of the Theosophical Society. Olcott was the first well-known American of European ancestry to make a formal conversion to Buddhism. His subsequent actions as president of the Theosophical Society helped create a renaissance in the study of Buddhism. Olcott is considered a Buddhist modernist for his efforts in interpreting Buddhism through a Europeanized lens. Olcott was a major revivalist of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and he is still honored in Sri Lanka for these efforts. Vice President of the Ananda College Old Boys Association Samitha Seneviratne has said that "Col. Olcott's contribution towards the betterment of our country, nation, religion, justice and good conduct has been so great that he remains in our hearts forever".
Dudjom Lingpa (1835–1904) was a Tibetan Nyingma school meditation master, spiritual teacher and tertön. He was a recognized reincarnation of Rigdzen Düddul Dorje, and therefore of Khye'u Chung Lotsawa who was among the twenty-five heart students of Guru Padmasambhava. Raised in Amdo, Tibet, he had no formal education, nor did he take ordination as a monk or belong to an established Buddhist monastery. Instead, he received direct teachings through visionary experiences with the Nyingma school masters Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal, and with other Buddhas and realized beings. His subsequent reincarnation is the highly revered Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche.
Robert Caesar Childers (/ˈtʃɪldərz/; 1838 – 25 July 1876) was a British Orientalist and the compiler of the first Pali–English dictionary to be published. He was the father of the Irish nationalist Erskine Childers and the paternal grandfather of the fourth president of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers.
Thomas William Rhys Davids FBA (12 May 1843 – 27 December 1922) was an English scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pāli Text Society. He took an active part in founding the British Academy and London School for Oriental Studies.
Jamgön Ju Mipham Gyatso, or Mipham Jamyang Namgyal Gyamtso (1846–1912) (also known as "Mipham the Great") was a very influential philosopher and polymath of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He wrote over 32 volumes on topics such as painting, poetics, sculpture, alchemy, medicine, logic, philosophy and tantra. Mipham's works are still central to the scholastic curriculum in Nyingma monasteries today. Mipham is also considered to be one of the leading figures in the Rimé (non-sectarian) movement in Tibet.
Wang Yuanlu (simplified Chinese: 王圆箓; traditional Chinese: 王圓籙; pinyin: Wáng Yuánlù; c. 1849 – 1931) was a Taoist priest and abbot of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang during the early 20th century. He is credited with the discovery of the Dunhuang manuscripts and was engaged in the restoration of the site, which he funded with the sale of numerous manuscripts to Western and Japanese explorers.
Miranda de Souza Canavarro (1849-1933) was a wealthy American theosophist notable as the first woman to convert to Buddhism in the United States, in 1897. She later moved to Ceylon and became a Buddhist nun. She became known as Sister Sanghamitta, while in America she was often known as Marie.
Lieutenant Colonel Laurence Austine Waddell, CB, CIE, F.L.S., L.L.D, M.Ch., I.M.S. RAI, F.R.A.S (29 May 1854 – 19 September 1938) was a Scottish explorer, Professor of Tibetan, Professor of Chemistry and Pathology, Indian Army surgeon, collector in Tibet, and amateur archaeologist. Waddell also studied Sumerian and Sanskrit; he made various translations of seals and other inscriptions. His reputation as an Assyriologist gained little to no academic recognition and his books on the history of civilization have caused controversy. Some of his book publications however were popular with the public, and he is regarded by some today to have been a real-life precursor of the fictional character Indiana Jones.
Maurice Bloomfield, Ph.D., LL.D. (February 23, 1855 – June 12, 1928) was an Austrian Empire-born American philologist and Sanskrit scholar.
Tertön Sogyal Lerab
Lingpa (Tibetan: གཏེར་སྟོན་བསོད་རྒྱལ་ལས་རབ་གླི
Myron Henry Phelps (2 April 1856 – 29 December 1916) was a New York lawyer and religious writer. He was known for his interest in Buddhism, and studied and wrote about the Baháʼí Faith and the Radha Soami movement. He traveled to eastern Asia and supported the India House in Manhattan.
Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids (1857–1942) was a British writer and translator. She made a contribution to economics before becoming widely known as an editor, translator, and interpreter of Buddhist texts in the Pāli language. She was honorary secretary of the Pāli Text Society from 1907, and its president from 1923 to 1942.
Robert Chalmers, 1st Baron Chalmers, GCB, PC (Ire) (18 August 1858 – 17 November 1938) was a British civil servant, and a Pali and Buddhist scholar. In later life, he served as the Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge.
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (21 April 1864 – 14 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sciences more generally. His ideas continue to influence social theory and research.
Anagārika Dharmapāla (17 September 1864 – 29 April 1933) was a Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist and a writer. Along with Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Blavatsky, the creators of the Theosophical Society, he was a major reformer and revivalist of Sinhala Buddhism and an important figure in its western transmission. He also inspired a mass movement of South Indian Dalits including Tamils to embrace Buddhism, half a century before B. R. Ambedkar. In his later life, he became a Buddhist monk with the name of Venerable Sri Devamitta Dharmapala.
Mabel Haynes Bode (28 October 1864 – 20 January 1922) was one of the first women to enter the academic fields of Pali, Sanskrit and Buddhist studies.
Takakusu Junjirō (高楠 順次郎, June 29, 1866 – June 28, 1945), who often published as J. Takakusu, was a Japanese academic, an advocate for expanding higher education opportunities, and an internationally known Buddhist scholar. He was an active Esperantist.
Fyodor Ippolitovich Shcherbatskoy or Stcherbatsky (Фёдор Ипполи́тович Щербатско́й) (11 September (N.S.) 1866 – 18 March 1942), often referred to in the literature as F. Th. Stcherbatsky, was a Russian Indologist who, in large part, was responsible for laying the foundations in the Western world for the scholarly study of Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy. He was born in Kielce, Poland (Russian Empire), and died at the Borovoye Resort in northern Kazakhstan.
Alexandra David-Néel (born Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David; 24 October 1868 – 8 September 1969) was a Belgian–French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist, opera singer, and writer. She is most known for her 1924 visit to Lhasa, Tibet, when it was forbidden to foreigners. David-Néel wrote over 30 books about Eastern religion, philosophy, and her travels, including Magic and Mystery in Tibet, which was published in 1929. Her teachings influenced the beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, the popularisers of Eastern philosophy Alan Watts and Ram Dass, and the esotericist Benjamin Creme.
Louis Étienne Joseph Marie de La Vallée-Poussin (1 January 1869 – 18 February 1938) was a Belgian Indologist and scholar of Buddhist Studies.
Edward Joseph Thomas (30 July 1869 – 11 February 1958) was an English classicist, librarian and author of several books on the history of Buddhism.
Mun Bhuridatta (Thai: มั่น ภูริทตฺโต, RTGS: Man Phurithatto; Lao: ຫຼວງປູ່ມັ່ນ ພູຣິທັຕໂຕ; 1870–1949) was a Thai bhikkhu from Isan region who is credited, along with his mentor, Ajahn Sao Kantasīlo, with establishing the Thai Forest Tradition or "Kammaṭṭhāna tradition" that subsequently spread throughout Thailand and to several countries abroad.
Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki (鈴木 大拙 貞太郎, Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō, 18 October 1870 – 12 July 1966)
Wangchen Tenzin, King of
Lingtsang (1872–1942) (Tibetan: གླིང་ཚང་རྒྱལ་པོ་དབང་ཆེན་བསྟན་
Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz (February 2, 1878 – July 17, 1965) was an American anthropologist and writer who was a pioneer in the study of Tibetan Buddhism, and in transmission of Tibetan Buddhism to the Western world, most known for publishing an early English translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead in 1927. He had three other texts translated from the Tibetan: Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa (1928), Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines (1935), and The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation (1954), and wrote the preface to Paramahansa Yogananda's famous spiritual book, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946).
Helena Ivanovna Roerich (Russian: Елена Ивановна Рерих; née Shaposhnikova (Шапошникова); 12 February [O.S. 31 January] 1879 – 5 October 1955) was a Russian theosophist, writer, and public figure. In the early 20th century, she created, in cooperation with the Teachers of the East, a philosophic teaching of Living Ethics ("Agni Yoga"). She was an organizer and participant of cultural activity in the U.S., conducted under the guidance of her husband, Nicholas Roerich. Along with her husband, she took part in expeditions of hard-to-reach and little-investigated regions of Central Asia. She was an Honorary President-Founder of the Institute of Himalayan Studies "Urusvati" in India and co-author of the idea of the International Treaty for Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historical Monuments (Roerich Pact). She translated two volumes of the Secret Doctrine of H. P. Blavatsky, and selected Mahatma's Letters (Cup of the East), from English to Russian.
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (18 November 1888 – 28 February 1989) was an Indian yoga teacher, ayurvedic healer and scholar. He is seen as one of the most important gurus of modern yoga, and is often called "Father of Modern Yoga" for his wide influence on the development of postural yoga. Like earlier pioneers influenced by physical culture such as Yogendra and Kuvalayananda, he contributed to the revival of hatha yoga.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served as Law and Justice minister in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru, and inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement after renouncing Hinduism.
Giuseppe Tucci (5 June 1894 – 5 April 1984) was an Italian orientalist, Indologist and scholar of East Asian studies, specializing in Tibetan culture and the history of Buddhism. During its zenith, Tucci was a supporter of Italian fascism, and he used idealized portrayals of Asian traditions to support Italian ideological campaigns. Tucci was fluent in several European languages, Sanskrit, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit, Chinese and Tibetan and he taught at the University of Rome La Sapienza until his death. He is considered one of the founders of the field of Buddhist Studies.
Charles Luk (1898-1978) (simplified Chinese: 陆宽昱; traditional Chinese: 陸寬昱; pinyin: Lù Kuānyù; Wade–Giles: Lu K'uan Yü; Jyutping: Luhk Fūn-Yūk) was an early translator of Chinese Buddhist texts and commentaries into the English language. He was born in Guangdong province, and moved later to Hong Kong, where he wrote most of his books.
Erich Frauwallner (December 28, 1898 – July 5, 1974) was an Austrian professor, a pioneer in the field of Buddhist studies.
André Migot (1892–1967) was a French doctor, traveler and writer. After the war he went to Indochina, whence in 1947 he made a journey alone through Eastern Tibet and China in order to research aspects of Tibetan Buddhism. During this journey he tried but failed to reach Lhasa disguised as a mendicant lama. As he could speak and write Tibetan, he was able to converse with the lamas, and was initiated into the Karma Kagyu lineage at Shangu Gompa, a lamasery outside modern-day Yushu. This journey is described in his best-known book Caravane vers Bouddha, translated into English by Peter Fleming as Tibetan Marches.
Nalinaksha Dutt (1893–1973), was an Indian scholar of Buddhism, professor of Sanskrit and Pali at the University of Calcutta and chaired The Asiatic Society, among other representative functions, as vice-president of the Maha Bodhi Society. He is the author of numerous books on Buddhism.
Anagarika Govinda (born Ernst Lothar Hoffmann, 17 May 1898 – 14 January 1985) was the founder of the order of the Arya Maitreya Mandala and an expositor of Tibetan Buddhism, Abhidharma, and Buddhist meditation as well as other aspects of Buddhism. He was also a painter and poet.
Eugenie Peterson (Indra Devi) (Latvian: Eiženija Pētersone, Russian: Евгения Васильевна Петерсон; 22 May, 1899 – 25 April 2002) known as Indra Devi, was a pioneering teacher of yoga as exercise, and an early disciple of the "father of modern yoga", Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. She went to India in her twenties, becoming a film star there and acquiring the stage name Indra Devi. She was the first woman to study under the yoga guru Krishnamacharya at the Mysore Palace, alongside B.K.S Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois who went on to become yoga gurus. Moving to China, she taught the first yoga classes in that country at Madame Chiang Kai-shek's house. Her popularization of yoga in America through her many celebrity pupils in Hollywood, and her books advocating yoga for stress relief, earned her the nickname "first lady of yoga". Her biographer, Michelle Goldberg, wrote that Devi "planted the seeds for the yoga boom of the 1990s".
George Nicolas de Roerich (Russian: Юрий Николаевич Рёрих; August 16, 1902, in Okulovka, Novgorod Governorate – May 21, 1960, in Moscow) was a prominent 20th-century Tibetologist. His name at birth was Yuri Nikolaevich Rerikh. George's work encompassed many areas of Tibetan studies, but in particular he is known for his contributions to Tibetan dialectology, his monumental translation of the Blue Annals, and his 11-volume Tibetan-Russian-English dictionary (published posthumously).
Kyabje Dudjom
Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje (Tibetan: བདུད་འཇོམས་འཇིགས་བྲལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ
Edward Conze, born Eberhard Julius Dietrich Conze (1904–1979) was a scholar of Marxism and Buddhism, known primarily for his commentaries and translations of the Prajñāpāramitā literature.
Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu (born Osbert John Salvin Moore; 25 June 1905 – 8 March 1960) was a British Theravada Buddhist monk and translator of Pali literature.
Nirmal Chandra Sinha (1911–1997) was an Indian tibetologist, author, the founder director of Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology (SIRT), presently known as the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Deorali near Gangtok. He was known for his contributions to Buddhism and the documentation of the history of Tibet and other states of Central Asia. He was honoured by the Government of India in 1971 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English writer, speaker, and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy for a Western audience.
Krishna Pattabhi Jois (26 July 1915 – 18 May 2009) was an Indian yoga guru who developed and popularized the flowing style of yoga as exercise known as Ashtanga vinyasa yoga. In 1948, Jois established the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India. Pattabhi Jois is one of a short list of Indians instrumental in establishing modern yoga as exercise in the 20th century, along with B. K. S. Iyengar, another pupil of Krishnamacharya in Mysore. Jois sexually abused some of his yoga students by touching inappropriately during adjustments. Sharath Jois has publicly apologised for his grandfather's "improper adjustments".
Herbert Vighnāntaka Günther (17 March 1917 – 11 March 2006) was a German Buddhist philosopher and Professor and Head of the Department of Far Eastern Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. He held this position from the time he left India in 1964.
Nan Huai-Chin (simplified Chinese: 南怀瑾; traditional Chinese: 南懷瑾; pinyin: Nán Huáijǐn) (March 18, 1918 – September 29, 2012) was a Chinese Buddhist monk, religious scholar, and writer. A well-respected spiritual teacher in contemporary China, he was considered by many to be the major force in the revival of Chinese Buddhism.
Hsuan Hua (Chinese: 宣化; pinyin: Xuānhuà; lit. 'proclaim and transform'; April 26, 1918 – June 7, 1995), also known as An Tzu, Tu Lun and Master Hua by his Western disciples, was a Chinese monk of Chan Buddhism and a contributing figure in bringing Chinese Buddhism to the United States in the late 20th century.
Ajahn Chah (17 June 1918 – 16 January 1992) was a Thai Buddhist monk. He was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition.
Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (14 December 1918 – 20 August 2014) was an Indian teacher of yoga and author. He is the founder of the style of yoga as exercise, known as "Iyengar Yoga", and was considered one of the foremost yoga gurus in the world. He was the author of many books on yoga practice and philosophy including Light on Yoga, Light on Pranayama, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and Light on Life. Iyengar was one of the earliest students of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who is often referred to as "the father of modern yoga". He has been credited with popularizing yoga, first in India and then around the world.
Ñāṇavīra Thera (born Harold Edward Musson; 5 January 1920 – 5 July 1965) was an English Theravāda Buddhist monk, ordained in 1950 in Sri Lanka. He is known as the author of Notes on Dhamma, which were later published by Path Press together with his letters in one volume titled Clearing the Path.
The Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (Tibetan: རང་འབྱུང་རིག་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wylie: Rang 'byung rig pa'i rdo rje; August 14, 1924 – November 5, 1981) was the spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He is of the oldest line of reincarnate lamas in Vajrayana Buddhism known as the Karmapas, whose coming was predicted by the Buddha in the Samadhiraja Sutra. The 16th Karmapa was considered to be a "living Buddha" and was deeply involved in the transmission of the Vajrayana Buddhism to Europe and North America following the Chinese invasion of Tibet. He had many monikers, including "King of the Yogis", and is the subject of numerous books and films.
Anthony Kennedy Warder (8 September 1924 – 8 January 2013) was a British Indologist. His best-known works are Introduction to Pali (1963), Indian Buddhism (1970), and the eight-volume Indian Kāvya Literature (1972–2011).
Dennis Philip Edward Lingwood (26 August 1925 – 30 October 2018), known more commonly as Sangharakshita, was a British spiritual teacher and writer. In 1967, he founded the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO), which was renamed the Triratna Buddhist Community in 2010.
Richard Hugh Robinson (21 June 1926 – 6 August 1970) was a scholar of Buddhism and the founder of the first Buddhist studies program in the United States that awarded a dedicated doctorate degree. In the 1950s he informally studied Sanskrit with Edward Conze.
Thích Nhất Hạnh; born Nguyễn Xuân Bảo; 11 October 1926 – 22 January 2022) was a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, prolific author, poet and teacher, who founded the Plum Village Tradition, historically recognized as the main inspiration for engaged Buddhism. Known as the "father of mindfulness", Nhất Hạnh was a major influence on Western practices of Buddhism.
Lokesh Chandra (born 11 April 1927 in Ambala, India) is a prominent scholar of the Vedic period, Buddhism and the Indian arts. Between 1942 and 2004, he published 576 books and 286 articles. He has also held many official positions in the Indian government and was twice a member of Indian Parliament (during the period 1974-1980 and in 1980-1986).
Turrell Verl "Terry" Wylie (August 20, 1927 – August 25, 1984) was an American scholar, Tibetologist, sinologist and professor known as one of the 20th century's leading scholars of Tibet. He taught as a professor of Tibetan Studies at the University of Washington and served as the first chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Literature. Wylie founded the Tibetan Studies program at the University of Washington, the first of its kind in the United States, setting a major precedent for future programs and research in the field. His system for rendering the Tibetan language in Latin script, known as Wylie transliteration, is the primary system used for transcribing Tibetan in academic and historical contexts.
Stanley Albert Wolpert (December 23, 1927 – February 19, 2019) was an American historian, Indologist, and author on the political and intellectual history of modern India and Pakistan and wrote fiction and nonfiction books on the topics. He taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), from 1959 to 2002.
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (Tibetan: བཀལ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ།, Wylie: bskal bzang rgya mtsho; 4 June 1931 – 17 September 2022) was a Buddhist monk, meditation teacher, scholar, and author. He was the founder and spiritual director of the New Kadampa Tradition-International Kadampa Buddhist Union (Function), a registered non-profit, modern Buddhist organization that came out of the Gelugpa school/lineage. They have 1,300 centres around the world, including temples, city temples and retreat centres that offer an accessible approach to ancient wisdom.
Thrangu Rinpoche (Tibetan: ཁྲ་འགུ་, Wylie: Khra-'gu [ˈtʰran.ɡu ˈrinpotʃe]) (1933 – 4 June 2023) was born in Kham, Tibet. He was deemed to be a prominent tulku (reincarnate lama) in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, the ninth reincarnation in his particular line. His full name and title was the Very Venerable Ninth Khenchen Thrangu Tulku, Karma Lodrö Lungrik Maway Senge. The academic title Khenchen denotes great scholarly accomplishment (English-language analogues include the titles Distinguished Professor and Academic Fellow), and the term Rinpoche ("Precious" or "Precious One") is a Tibetan devotional title which may be accorded to respected teachers and exemplars.
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (full spiritual name: Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, also known as Tenzin Gyatso; né Lhamo Thondup; born 6 July 1935) is, as the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. Before 1959, he served as both the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, and subsequently established and led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India. By the adherents of Tibetan Buddhism, he is considered a living Bodhisattva, an emanation of Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit, and Chenrezig in Tibetan. The Dalai Lama, whose name means "Ocean of Wisdom," is known to Tibetans as Gyalwa Rinpoche, "The Precious Jewel-like Buddha-Master," Kundun, "The Presence," and Yizhin Norbu, "The Wish-Fulfilling Gem." His devotees, as well as much of the Western world, often call him His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the style employed on his website. He is also the leader and a monk of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, formally headed by the Ganden Tripa.
David J. Kalupahana (1936 – 2014) was a Buddhist scholar from Sri Lanka. He was a student of the late K.N. Jayatilleke, who was a student of Wittgenstein. He wrote mainly about epistemology, theory of language, and compared later Buddhist philosophical texts against the earliest texts and tried to present interpretations that were both historically contextualised and also compatible with the earliest texts, and in doing so, he encouraged Theravada Buddhists and scholars to reevaluate the legitimacy of later, Mahayana texts and consider them more sympathetically.
Pema Chödrön (པདྨ་ཆོས་སྒྲོན། padma chos sgron “lotus dharma lamp”; born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, July 14, 1936) is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Chödrön has written several dozen books and audiobooks, and was principal teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia until recently. She retired in 2020.
Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche (Tibetan: དཔལ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་, Wylie: dpal ldan shes rab) (10 May 1938 – 19 June 2010), also known as "Khen Rinpoche," was a teacher, a scholar, a lama, and a Dzogchen master in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was considered by Penor Rinpoche to be one of the most learned living Nyingma scholars. Palden Sherab founded the Orgyen Samye Chokhor Ling Nunnery, the first nunnery in Deer Park (Sarnath).
Roger Corless (6 June 1938– 12 January 2007) made significant contributions to interfaith dialogue, particularly on the subject Buddhist-Christian dual belonging ("co-inherent consciousness").
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Venkata Desikachar (21 June 1938 – 8 August 2016), better known as T. K. V. Desikachar
Namkhai Norbu (Tibetan: ནམ་མཁའི་ནོར་བུ་, Wylie: nam mkha’i nor bu; 8 December 1938 – 27 September 2018) was a Tibetan Buddhist master of Dzogchen and a professor of Tibetan and Mongolian language and literature at Naples Eastern University. He was a leading authority on Tibetan culture, particularly in the fields of history, literature, traditional religions (Tibetan Buddhism and Bon), and Traditional Tibetan medicine, having written numerous books and scholarly articles on these subjects.
Chögyam Trungpa (Wylie: Chos rgyam Drung pa; March 5, 1939 – April 4, 1987)
Bill Porter (Red Pine) (born October 3, 1943) is an American author who translates under the pen-name Red Pine (Chinese: 赤松; pinyin: Chì Sōng). He is a translator of Chinese texts, primarily Taoist and Buddhist, including poetry and sūtras. In 2018, he won the American Academy of Arts & Letters Thornton Wilder Prize for translation.
Sogyal Rinpoche (Tibetan: བསོད་རྒྱལ་, Wylie: Bsod-rgyal; 1947 – 28 August 2019) was a Tibetan Dzogchen lama. He was recognized as the incarnation of a Tibetan master and visionary saint of the 19th century, Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa. Sogyal Rinpoche was the founder and former spiritual director of Rigpa — an international network of over 100 Buddhist centres and groups in 23 countries around the world — and the author of the best-selling book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, which has been printed in 30 languages and 56 countries. Before his retirement, in the wake of abuse allegations in 2017, he had been teaching for 40 years in Europe, America, Asia and Australia.
Thomas Cleary (24 April 1949 – 20 June 2021) was an American translator and author of more than 80 books related to Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Muslim classics, and of The Art of War, a treatise on management, military strategy, and statecraft. He has translated books from Pali, Sanskrit, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Old Irish into English. Cleary lived in Oakland, California.
Modern Scholars & Figures
Lambert Schmithausen (born 17 November 1939 – _) is a retired professor of Buddhist Studies, having served in positions at the University of Münster and the University of Hamburg (Germany).
Jeffrey Hopkins (1940 – July 1, 2024) was an American Tibetologist. He was Emeritus professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he taught for more than three decades beginning in 1973.
Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman (born August 3, 1941) is an American Buddhist author and academic who has written, edited, and translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism. He was the Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, before retiring in June 2019. He was the first endowed chair in Buddhist Studies in the West. He also is the co-founder and president of the Tibet House US New York. He translated the Vimalakirti Sutra from the Tibetan Kanjur into English. He is the father of actress Uma Thurman.
Reginald Ray (born 1942) is an American Buddhist academic and teacher.
Johannes Bronkhorst (born 17 July 1946, in Schiedam) is a Dutch Orientalist and Indologist, specializing in Buddhist studies and early Buddhism. He is emeritus professor at the University of Lausanne.
Father Francis Vincent Tiso (born 19 September 1950) is a Catholic priest, scholar, and writer interested in inter-religious dialogue and Tibetan Buddhism. He teaches Tibetan Buddhism at the Pontifical Gregorian University (Universita' Pontificia Gregoriana: Istituto di Studi Interdisciplinari su Religioni e Culture) in Rome. He translated several early biographies of the Tibetan yogi and poet, Milarepa and studied the rainbow body phenomenon in Tibet. He has led research expeditions in South Asia, Tibet and the Far East, and his teaching interests include Christian theology, history of religions, spirituality, ecumenism and interreligious dialogue.
Donald Sewell Lopez Jr. (1952 – _) is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished university professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures,
Erdne-Basan Ombadykow (Oirat: Омбадһа Эрдн-Басң, romanized: Ombadha Erdn-Basñ, Russian: Эрдни Басангович Омбадыков, romanized: Erdni Basangovich Ombadykov, born 27 October 1972 in Philadelphia), also known as Telo Tulku Rinpoche (Russian: Тэло Тулку Ринпоче), is the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader of the Kalmyk people. He received his formal training as a bhikṣu in India and was recognized by the 14th Dalai Lama as the current reincarnation of mahasiddha Tilopa.
Jan Christoph Westerhoff (1 December 1976 – _) is a German philosopher and orientalist with specific interests in metaphysics and the philosophy of language. He is currently Professor of Buddhist Philosophy in the Faculty of Theology and Religion of the University of Oxford.
Richard Barron (Lama Chökyi Nyima) is a Canadian translator who specializes in the writings of Longchenpa.
Richard G. Salomon is the William P. and Ruth Gerberding University Professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington.
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