Sanggye Yeshe
Sanggye Yeshe. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.
b.1525 – d.1591
Tradition: Geluk ལྷ་ས།
Geography: U-Tsang དབུས་གཙང་།
Historical Period: 16th Century ༡༦ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Tashilhunpo བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ།; Pelkhor Chode དཔལ་འཁོར་ཆོས་སྡེ།; Wensa Monastery དབེན་ས་དགོན།; Lekdrub Dratsang ལེགས་གྲུབ་གྲྭ་ཚང་།; Gyume Dratsang རྒྱུད་སྨད་གྲྭ་ཚང་།; Riwo Gepel རི་བོ་དགེ་འཕེལ།; Gangchen Chopel གངས་ཅན་ཆོས་འཕེལ།; Rong Jamchen རོང་བྱམས་ཆེན་དགོན།
Name Variants: Chokyab Dorje ཆོས་སྐྱབས་རྡོ་རྗེ།; Kedrub Sanggye Yeshe མཁས་གྲུབ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡེ་ཤེས།; Wensapa Sanggye Yeshe དབེན་ས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡེ་ཤེས།
Sanggye Yeshe (sangs rgyas ye shes) was born in the Tsang Valley (gtsang rong) in Tibet in 1525, in a town called Drukgya (drug brgya), the youngest of four sons. His father’s name was Lama Rinchen (bla ma rin chen) and his mother was called Choten (chos bstan).
Sanggye Yeshe encountered his future master, Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub (dben sa pa blo bzang don grub, 1505-1556), soon after birth, and the latter encouraged his parents to care for him well. But it was with Lama Yonten Zangpo (bla ma yon tan bzang po), of Baso Lhundrub Dechen Monastery (bas so lhun grub bde chen dgon) that he took refuge at the age of ten, receiving the name Chokyab Dorje (chos skyabs rdo rje). Soon after he took novice vows with Yonten Sangpo, receiving the name Sanggye Yeshe, and receiving instruction in Guhyasamaja, Aksobhya, Vajrabhairava, and other teachings of the Geluk tradition.
At the age of fifteen Sanggye Yeshe entered Tashilhunpo Monastery (bkra shis lhun po), studying with Tsondru Gyeltsen (brtson ‘grus rgyal mtshan), the abbot of Tosom Ling College (thos bsam gling). The following year he went with companions to Lekdrub Dratsang (legs grub grwa tshang) in Nyangto (myang stod) to study under Jamyang Gendun Lobzang (jam dbyang dge ‘dun blo bzang) a master teacher of Dharmakirti’s Pramanavarttika. After studying Madhyamaka for the next several years Sanggye Yeshe became a formidable debater at Tashilhunpo. Finally, at the age of twenty-five, he earned his Geshe (dge bshes) degree at Pelkhor Chode (dpal ‘khor chos sde) in Gyantse (rgyal rtse). The following year he served as the chief disciplinarian at Tashilhunpo.
Sanggye Yeshe later traveled to Gangchen Chopel Monastery (gangs can chos ‘phel) to study with Panchen Donyo Gyeltsen (paN chen don yod rgyal mtshan) and then finally entered Gyume Tantric College (rgyud smad gwra tshang) in Lhasa to deepen his knowledge and understanding of the tantras. There he studied Guhyasamaja, Cakrasamvara, and Vajrabhairava.
Wensa Monastery, founded in the fifteenth century by Sonam Chokyi Langpo, is an important Geluk hermitage in the Tsang region. Image credit: Treasury of Lives.
On his way to Lhasa, Sanggye Yeshe had stopped at Wensa Monastery (dben sa) and took refuge in Gyelwa Wensapa himself. Completing extensive study and practice at Gyume, Sanggye Yeshe returned to the home of Wensapa. At this point in his life he received instructions, oral transmissions, initiations, and practices of the lineage. During this time Sanggye Yeshe developed true renunciation, and took the vows of a fully ordained monk at Riwo Gempel Monastery (ri bo dge ‘phel), with Chokle Nampar Gyelwa (phyogs las rnam par rgyal ba) serving as abbot. When Wensapa passed away, Sanggye Yeshe took responsibility for his relics and commissioned the creation of a great many holy objects at Wensa.
At Wensa Monastery Sanggye Yeshe encountered Sonam Gyatso (bsod nam rgya mtsho, 1543-1588), who was soon to depart for Mongolia where he would be given the title of Third Dalai Lama. Sanggye Yeshe accompanied him to Tashilhunpo, acting as his servant, and received numerous teachings from the lamas in Sonam Gyatso’s entourage prior to their leaving for Mongolia, including Langmika (glang mig pa) and Rikpai Sengge (rig pa’i seng ge).
Sanggye Yeshe served as abbot of Riwo Gempel Monastery twice in his life, and eventually became the teacher of the reincarnation of Wensapa, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen (blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan), who would be given the title Paṇchen Lama.
Sanggye Yeshe passed away in 1591 at the age of sixty-seven, at Rong Jamchen (rong byams chen). The numerous relics that remained from the cremation of his body were returned to Wensa Monastery.
སངས་རྒྱས་ཡེ་ཤེས།
སངས་རྒྱས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ནི་དགའ་ལྡན་སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཆོས་རྒྱུད་འཛིན་པའི་བླ་མ་གྲགས་ཅན་ཞིག་ཡིན་ལ། རྒྱལ་བ་དབེན་ས་པའི་བུ་སློབ་ཡིན། རི་བོ་དགེ་འཕེལ་དགོན་དུ་ཐེངས་གཉིས་ལ་ཁྲི་པར་བཞུགས་ཤིང་། པཎ་ཆེན་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་བཞི་པའི་ཡོངས་འཛིན་མཛད།
Teachers
- dge ‘dun blo bzang དགེ་འདུན་བློ་བཟང་།
- rig pa’i seng+ge རིག་པའི་སེངྒེ།
- skyabs mchog dpal bzang སྐྱབས་མཆོག་དཔལ་བཟང་།
- phyogs las rnam rgyal ཕྱོགས་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ།
- lhun grub bde chen ལྷུན་གྲུབ་བདེ་ཆེན།
- dge ba seng+ge དགེ་བ་སེངྒེ།
- yon tan bzang po ཡོན་ཏན་བཟང་པོ།
- brtson ‘grus rgyal mtshan བརྩོན་འགྲུས་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
- The Third Panchen Lama, Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༣ དབེན་ས་པ་བློ་བཟང་དོན་གྲུབ། b.1505 – d.1556
Students
- The Fourth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༤ བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1570 – d.1662
Bibliography
- Willis, Janice D. 1995. Enlightened Beings: Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition. Boston: Wisdom Publications, pp. 73-82.
- Grags pa ‘byung gnas and Rgyal ba blo bzang mkhas grub. 1992. Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon ming mdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 226-228.
- Willis, Janice D. 1985. “Preliminary Remarks on the Nature of rNam-thar: Early dGe-lugs-pa Siddha Biographies.” In Soundings in Tibetan Civilizations. Barbara Aziz and Matthew Kapstein, eds. Delhi: Manohar.
- Tshe mchog gling Yongs ‘dzin Ye shes rgyal mtshan. 1970. Biographies of Eminent Gurus in the Transmission Lineages of the teachings of the Graduated Path, being the text of: Byang chub Lam gyi Rim pa’i Bla ma Brgyud pa’i Rnam par Thar pa Rgyal mtshan Mdzes pa’i Rgyan Mchog Phul byung Nor bu’i Phreng ba (1787). New Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo, vol 2, pp. 57-88.
Source: Miranda Adams, “Sanggye Yeshe,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 12, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Sanggye-Yeshe/12521.
Melinda Adams
Published December 2008
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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Sanggye Yeshe was born in the Tsang Valley, Tibet. Sanggye Yeshe met, Wensapa Lobzang Dondrub, his future master soon after birth. At a young age he received many teachings of the Geluk tradition from many great teachers. In his later life he received many instructions, oral transmissions, initiations, and practices of the lineage. He was one of the twenty-five principal students of Guru Padmasambhava who was the founder of the Nyingma school of Tibetan. When Wensapa passed away, Sanggye Yeshe took responsibility for his relics and commissioned the creation of a great many holy objects . He is renowned for having preserved a number of tantric lineages. Sanggye Yeshe is viewed as the second of the greatest ancient Tibetan Masters to have preserved the Buddhist tantric teachings in Tibet . Amazing Sanggye Yeshe’s teaching-tradition can be traced in many lineages, both Nyingmapa and Kagyu, up to the present day.
Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting sharing of a great master.
Nice short video of a new LED signage reminding us of who we can go to for blessings in case of need: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwrkaKUoH0
Listening to the chanting of sacred words, melodies, mantras, sutras and prayers has a very powerful healing effect on our outer and inner environments. It clears the chakras, spiritual toxins, the paths where our ‘chi’ travels within our bodies for health as well as for clearing the mind. It is soothing and relaxing but at the same time invigorates us with positive energy. The sacred sounds invite positive beings to inhabit our environment, expels negative beings and brings the sound of growth to the land, animals, water and plants. Sacred chants bless all living beings on our land as well as inanimate objects. Do download and play while in traffic to relax, when you are about to sleep, during meditation, during stress or just anytime. Great to play for animals and children. Share with friends the blessing of a full Dorje Shugden puja performed at Kechara Forest Retreat by our puja department for the benefit of others. Tsem Rinpoche
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbzgskLKxT8&t=5821s