ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༢ ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ལྡན།

b.1642 – d.1714

Incarnations: Changkya ལྕང་སྐྱ།
Tradition: Gelug དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: China ཨ་མདོ།
Historical Period: 17^th and 18^th Century ༡༨ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Drepung Monastery འབྲས་སྤུངས་།; Tashilhunpo བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ།; Kumbum Jampa Ling སྐུ་འབུམ་བྱམས་པ་གླིང།; Labrang Tashikhyil བླ་བྲང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འཁྱིལ།; Gonlung Jampa Ling དགོན་ལུང།; Tangring Monastery ཐང་རིང་དགོན་པ།; Drepung Gomang Dratsang སྒོ་མང་གྲྭ་ཚང།; Tashilhunpo Shartse Dratsang ཤར་རྩེ་གྲྭ་ཚང།; Zungchu Zi ཟུང་ཅུ་ཟི།
Offices Held: Throne Holder of Gonlung Jampa Ling
Name Variants: Gendun Kyab; Lobzang Choden; Ngawang Choden; Tendzin Lekshe Gyatso

The Second Changkya, Ngawang Lobzang Choden (lcang skya 02 ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan) was born in a township named Yigei Tachuk (g.yi dge’i rta phyug) in Tsongkha, Amdo in 1642, the water-horse year of the eleventh sexagenary cycle. His father was a Chinese man named Kewachang Ehar (khe ba cang e har) or Jang Yehar (jang ye hwar) and his mother was a Tibetan named Loza Tarmotso (lo bza thar mo mtsho). According to his hagiographies, the boy did not speak other than to declare that he was a lama named Changkya; his parents initially thought he was mute. Partly as a remedy, at the age of four he was given the name Gendun Kyab (dge ‘dun skyab) by a priest known as Bopa Lagen (bod pa bla rgan), after which he gradually began to speak.

The eighth abbot of Gonlung Monastery (dgon lung dgon), Tsultrim Gyatso (dgon lung khri 08 tshul khrims rgya mtsho, 1587-1664) and the Fourth Paṇchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen (paN chen blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan, 1570-1662) recognized him as the reincarnation of Changkya Drakpa Ozer (lcang skya grags pa ‘od zer, d. 1641). He was brought to Tangring Tarpa Ling (thang ring thar pa gling), where his previous incarnation had spent some of the last years of his life.

At Tangring he was given lay vows by Tsultrim Gyatso and the abbot of the monastery at the time, Puntsok Zangpo (phun tshogs bzang po, d.u.). They gave him the name Tendzin Lekshe Gyatso (bstan ‘dzin legs bshad rgya mtsho). At Tangring he began basic reading, writing, and the memorizations of daily prayer texts under the guidance of the two abbots and a teacher named Kyati Rabjampa (skya thi rab ‘byams pa)

At age of nine, he enrolled in Gonlung’s monastic university and commenced his studies of both the tantric and sutra traditions under the abbot, Tarmo Tashi Gyeltsen (thar mo bkra shis rgyal mtshan, d.u.). Two years later he met the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 05 ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho 1617-1682) at a place called Tsongkato Karma Tangchen (tsong kha’i stod skar ma’i thang chen), while the Fifth Dalai Lama was en route to Beijing. The Dalai Lama gave him a Mahākaruṇā empowerment.

At the age of twenty he went to Lhasa and again had an audience with the Fifth Dalai Lama, who offered him novice monastic lows and the name Ngawang Lobzang Choden, by which he was henceforth known. While with the Dalai Lama he received teachings from Gyelse Lobzang Tendzin (rgyal sras blo bzang bstan ‘dzin, d.u.). He then went to Tashilhunpo in Zhigatse and met the Fourth Paṇchen Lama, to whom he offered a variety of gifts.

Back in U he enrolled at Gomang (sgo mang) college of Drepung monastic university where for three years he studied Prajñāpāramitā under Trinle Lhundrub (‘phrin las lhun grub, d. 1699), the twenty-seventh abbot of Gomang. At the end of the three years, at the age of twenty-three, he received full ordination from the Fifth Dalai Lama. The following year he began studying the standard Geluk monastic curriculum of the five major subjects: Abhisamayālaṃkāra, Madhyamaka, Abhidharmakośa, Pramāṇavārttika and Vinaya under the instruction of Ngawang Lodro Gyatso, who was the twenty-eighth abbot of Gomang and who later served as the Forty-fourth Ganden Tripa, Ngawang Lodro Gyatso (dga’ ldan khri pa 44 ngag dbang blo gros rgya mtsho, 1635-1688). He engaged in debates in various Drepung colleges at the age of twenty-seven, and again at the age of twenty-nine during the Lhasa Monlam Chenmo. At Gomang he met Jamyang Zhepai Dorje (‘jam dbyangs bzhad pa’i rdo rje, 1648-1721/1722), who would remain a close collaborator throughout his life.

At the age thirty-three Ngawang Lobzang Choden went again to Shigatse to have an audience with the young Fifth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Yeshe (paN chen bla ma 05 blo bzang ye shes, 1663-1737). At Tashilhunpo he received teachings on the collected works of Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa (tsong kha pa blo bzang drags pa, 1357-1417) and the Fourth Paṇchen Lama from the abbot of Shartse College, Lobzang Pema (shar rtse mkhan po blo bzang padma, circa 18^th c.) and Gendun Dondrub (dge ‘dun don grub, d.u.) and others. He later studied tantra under the fourth abbot of Tashilhunpo’s tantric college, Konchok Gyeltsen (dkon mchog rgyal mtshan, 1612-1887), who gave him extensive empowerments.

In 1683, at the age of forty-two, he returned to Amdo. He spent a year in solitary meditation at a Gonlung hermitage called Jangchub Ling (byang chub gling), after which he visited Tangring and Kumbum (sku ‘bum).

In 1687, at age of forty-six, he accompanied Trichen Ngawang Lodro Gyatsho to Beijing. They had two meetings with the Kangxi Emperor (康熙, r. 1661-1722), who greeted them warmly; during the second meeting the Trichen and the Emperor conversed like old friends, and the emperor gave him a soldier’s scarf (dpa’ dar) as an honor. The Emperor asked them to stay, but the following year they returned to Amdo; the Trichen passed away en route back to Lhasa. That same year Ngawang Lobzang Choden was appointed the abbot of Gonlung Monastery.

In 1690 he sat a retreat in his hermitage, Jangchub Ling.

Three years later, in 1693, at age of fifty-two, Ngawang Lobzang Choden was again invited by the Emperor to Beijing. He remained for four years, giving extensive teachings and empowerments, until being sent to Lhasa as the Emperor’s representative at the enthronement of the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (tshang dbyangs rgya tsho, 1683-1746). He returned to Beijing the following year, where he remained for the rest of his life, save for one short trip to Amdo and Mongolia in 1710-1711. At Gonlung he met with Jamyang Zhepa, whom he charged with establishing a tantric study center. This was the year after Jamyang Zhepa established Labrang Monastery.

In 1706 the Emperor gave him the title All Kind and Compassionate, Universally Consecrated, Omniscient Lama (byams brtses kun gyi spyi bo nas dbang bskur ba’i kun mkhyen bla ma chen po; Chinese: guan ding pu shan guan zi da guo shi). The title came with eighty-eight measures of gold, and a golden seal, the gold of which is recorded as eight zho and eight karma (a skar ma being one tenth of a zho).

In 1711, at the age seventy, he is said to have established a monastery in Beijing named, in Tibetan transliteration, Padur Jin (pA dur jin). The Yongzhen Emperor 雍正, r. 1723-1735) later changed the name to Songzhu Si (嵩祝寺 Tibetan: zung gru zi, zung cu zi). Over one hundred monks from across the Tibetan and Mongolian cultural sphere are said to have participated in its consecration. There is some confusion about the history of this temple, as many sources give the date of its establishment as 1733, by the Yongzheng Emperor, on behalf of Changkya; it is likely that the temple was in fact established by the Third Changkya, Rolpai Dorje (lcang skya 03 rol pa’i rdo rje, 1717-1786), who spent his youth in Beijing.

Ngawang Lobzang Choden passed away at the age of seventy three, in 1714, the wood-horse year of the twelfth sexagenary cycle. His compositions were collected in seven volumes.

Teachers

• dkon mchog rgyal mtshan དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1612 – d.1687
• tshul khrims rgya mtsho ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
• phun tshogs bzang po ཕུན་ཚོགས་བཟང་པོ།
• ngag dbang blo gros rgya mtsho ངག་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
• blo bzang pad+ma བློ་བཟང་པདྨ།
• dge ‘dun don grub དགེ་འདུན་དོན་གྲུབ།
• drung pa rgyal tshab pa དྲུང་པ་རྒྱལ་ཚབ་པ།
• The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༥ ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1617 – d.168
• blo bzang chos ‘phel བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་འཕེལ།
• The Forty-Fourth Ganden Tripa, Lodro Gyatso དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༤༤ བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1635 – d.1688

Students

• blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
• blo bzang chos ‘dzin བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་འཛིན།
• The Second Tukwan, Ngawang Chokyi Gyatso ཐུའུ་བཀྭན ༠༢ ངག་དབང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1680 – d.1736
• The First Jamyang Zhepa, Jamyang Zhepai Dorje འཇམ་དབྱངས་བཞད་པ ༠༡ འཇམ་དབྱངས་བཞད་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ། b.1648 – d.1721/1722
• tshul khrims bkra shis ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་བཀྲ་ཤིས།

Previous Incarnations

• The First Changkya, Drakpa Ozer ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༡ གྲགས་པ་འོད་ཟེར། b.late 16^th cent. – d.1641

Subsequent Incarnations

• The Third Changkya, Rolpai Dorje ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༣ རོལ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ། b.1717 – d.1786
• The Fourth Changkya, Yeshe Tenpai Gyeltsen ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༤ ཡེ་ཤེས་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1787 – d.1846
• The Fifth Changkya, ye shes bstan pa’i nyi ma ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༥ ཡེ་ཤེས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ། b.1849 – d.1874
• The Sixth Changkya, blo bzang bstan ‘dzin rgyal mtshan ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༦ བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1875
• The Seventh Changkya, blo bzang dpal ldan bstan pa’i sgron me ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༧ བློ་བཟང་དཔལ་ལྡན་བསྟན་པའི་སྒྲོན་མེ།
• The Eighth Changkya, bstan ‘dzin don yod ye shes rgya mtsho ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༨ བསྟན་འཛིན་དོན་ཡོད་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1980

Bibliography

• Anon. 1984-1997. Lcang skya ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan gyi lo rgyus nyung bsdus. In Mi rigs dpe mdzod khang gi dpe tho las gsung ‘bum skor gyi dkar chag shes bya’i gter mdzod, vol. 1, pp. 501-503. Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang.TBRC W19837.
• Grags pa ‘byung gnas and Rgyal ba blo bzang mkhas grub. 1992.Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon mingmdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 527-529.TBRC W19801.
• Mgon po dbang rgyal. 2000.Rgyal rabs lo tshigs shes bya mang ‘dus mkhas pa’i spyi nor. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang.TBRC W21015.
• Mi nyag mgon po, et. al. 1996-2000. Lcang skya ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan gyi rnam thar mdor bsdus. In Gangs can mkhas dbang rim byon gyi rnam thar mdor bsdus, vol. 1, pp. 359-363. Beijing: Krung go’i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang.TBRC W25268.
• Ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan. N.d.Ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan dpal bzang po’i rnam thar. In Gsung ‘bum / ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan, vol. 2, pp. 447-518. Beijing.TBRC W1KG1321.
• Ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan. N.d.Ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan dpal bzang po’i rnam thar dad pa’i rol mtsho. In Gsung ‘bum / ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan, vol. 5, pp. 9-88. Lhasa: Zhol par khang chen mo.TBRC W30098.
• Tshe ‘phel. 1993. Lcang skya ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan. In Chen po hor gyi yul du dam pa’i chos ji ltar byung ba’i bshad pa rgyal ba’i bstan pa rin po che gsal bar byed pa’i sgron me, vol. 1, pp. 229-236. Xining: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang.TBRC W21994.

Tsering Namgyal is a scholar in Xining.

Published July 2012

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