Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

RINCHEN TSÖNDRU
The Shangpa lineage forms part of what we call the later spread
of Buddhism in Tibet. The great scholar Butön marks the beginning
of that period as 973, when a man called Lachen Gongpa Rabsal took
monk’s vows; Dromtön, Atisha’s main disciple, considered that it began in
978, when Gongpa Rabsal granted ordination to ten men from central
and western Tibet. 39 The event of that ordination is important both for the
continuation of the monastic vows’ lineage and for the fact that the ten
returned to central Tibet and founded monasteries throughout the region.
What happened later to these second-wave institutions is a story rarely
told, but I believe it had an impact on the development of the Shangpa lineage.
Here is an account told by a modern Tibetan historian:
The [ten monks] gradually returned to central and western Tibet
but were unable to stay in Lhasa, so they journeyed to [Tibet’s first
monastery] Samyé, where Lumé Tsultrim Shérab took possession
of the Kachung Temple, Rakshi and his brother took possession of
the Gégyé Jéma Ling Temple, Dring Yeshé Yönten took possession
of the Kamsum Zangkang Ling Temple, and Ba Tsultrim Lodrö
and his brother took possession of Samyé’s central temple.
Later, they gradually traveled to Lhasa. In upper central Tibet,
Lumé constructed a temple called Morchak-déu and he resided
there. (The Collected Works of Dungkar Lozang Trinlé, p. 533)
Four of Lumé’s disciples each constructed temples and monastic residences;
together they were known as Lumé’s group. Among the three other
men from central Tibet who first stayed at Samyé, Ba Tsultrim Lodrö and
Dring Yeshé Yönten each constructed a monastery in Penpo, near where
Kyungpo Naljor meditated in retreat when Rahula visited him. The last of
the group of four, Rakshi Tsultrim Jungné, also founded a monastery.
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