Sonam Tsemo
Encyclopedia
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.
and was acclaimed as an incarnation of Durjayachandra. He received extensive spiritual training from his father, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo
, the first of the five founding fathers of the Sakya
-tradition. At age 17, he went to Sangphu Neuthok and deepened his studies under the famous scholar Chapa Chokyi Senge. His studies included Paramita
, Madhyamaka
, Pramana
, Vinaya
and Abhidharma
. By the time he was eighteen he had mastered the triple discipline of teaching, debate and composition. After his return to Sakya
, he held the throne of the monastery for three years and then passed the authority to his younger brother, Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen, the third of the five founding fathers. He dedicated the rest of his life to studies and meditation and died in 1182, the water tiger year, at age 41. He is said to have attained the second bhumi
.
Tibetan people
The Tibetan people are an ethnic group that is native to Tibet, which is mostly in the People's Republic of China. They number 5.4 million and are the 10th largest ethnic group in the country. Significant Tibetan minorities also live in India, Nepal, and Bhutan...
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
Sakya
The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...
-tradition.
Life
He was born in the year of the water dog of the second cycle at SakyaSakya
The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...
and was acclaimed as an incarnation of Durjayachandra. He received extensive spiritual training from his father, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo
Sachen Kunga Nyingpo
Sachen Kunga Nyingpo 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 who was the first Sakya Trizin and founder of the first Sakya Monastery in Tibet in 1073.Sachen...
, the first of the five founding fathers of the Sakya
Sakya
The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...
-tradition. At age 17, he went to Sangphu Neuthok and deepened his studies under the famous scholar Chapa Chokyi Senge. His studies included Paramita
Prajnaparamita
Prajñāpāramitā in Buddhism, means "the Perfection of Wisdom." The word Prajñāpāramitā combines the Sanskrit words prajñā with pāramitā . Prajñāpāramitā is a central concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism and its practice and understanding are taken to be indispensable elements of the Bodhisattva Path...
, Madhyamaka
Madhyamaka
Madhyamaka refers primarily to a Mahāyāna Buddhist school of Buddhist philosophy systematized by Nāgārjuna. Nāgārjuna may have arrived at his positions from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis of the Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the āgamas...
, Pramana
Pramana
Pramana is an epistemological term in Hindu and Buddhist dialectic, debate and discourse.Pramāṇavāda and Hetuvidya can be glossed in English as Indian and Buddhist Epistemology and Logic, respectively.-In Hinduism:...
, Vinaya
Vinaya
The Vinaya is the regulatory framework for the Buddhist monastic community, or sangha, based in the canonical texts called Vinaya Pitaka. The teachings of the Buddha, or Buddhadharma can be divided into two broad categories: 'Dharma' or doctrine, and 'Vinaya', or discipline...
and Abhidharma
Abhidharma
Abhidharma or Abhidhamma are ancient Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic and scientific reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist Sutras, according to schematic classifications...
. By the time he was eighteen he had mastered the triple discipline of teaching, debate and composition. After his return to Sakya
Sakya
The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...
, he held the throne of the monastery for three years and then passed the authority to his younger brother, Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen, the third of the five founding fathers. He dedicated the rest of his life to studies and meditation and died in 1182, the water tiger year, at age 41. He is said to have attained the second bhumi
Bhumi (Buddhism)
The bodhisattva's path of awakening in the Mahayana tradition progresses through ten hierarchically arranged stages, referred to as the "bodhisattva bhūmis"...
.
Sources
- Short English Biography
- TBRC-entry on Sonam Tsemo
- Chogay Trichen, 1983, The History of the Sakya Tradition. Ganesha Press, Bristol.