The 3rd Changkya, Rolpai Dorje. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

b.1717 – d.1786

Incarnations: Changkya ལྕང་སྐྱ།
Tradition: Gelug དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Amdo ཨ་མདོ།
Historical Period: 18^th Century ༡༨ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Tashilhunpo བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ།; Gonlung Jampa Ling དགོན་ལུང།; Wutai Shan རི་བོ་རྩེ་ལྔ།; Nub Padmo De ནུབ་པདམོའི་སྡེ་།
Name Variants: Changkya 03 Rolpai Dorje ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༣ རོལ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ།; Changkya Yeshe Tenpai Dronme ལྕང་སྐྱ་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསྟན་པའི་སྒྲོན་མེ།; Rolpai Dorje རོལ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ།

The Third Changkya, Rolpai Dorje (lcang skya 03 rol pa’i rdo rje) was born in 1717 in the Drakkar territory of Nub Padmo De Monastery (nub padmo’i sde dgon) outside Liangzhou (lang gru), modern-day Wuwei. Nub Padmo De was one of four monasteries that Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen (sa skya paN+Di ta kun dga’ rgyal mtshan, 1182-1251) and Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen (‘phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1235-1280) established in the region in the thirteenth century. His father was Tsangpa Guru Tenzin (tshangs pa gu ru bstan ‘dzin, d.u.) and his mother was called Bukyi (bu skyid). His family was of Monguor descent.

Rolpai Dorje was recognized as a reincarnation of the Second Changkya, Ngawang Lobzang Choden (lcang skya 02 ngag dbang blo bzang chos ldan, 1642-1714) in 1720 and brought to his monastic seat, Gonlung Jampa Ling (dgon lung byams pa gling), one of the four most important Geluk monasteries in Amdo.

He was taken to the Qing imperial court in 1724, after his home monastery was destroyed by Qing troops in response to the rebellion led by Lobzang Danjin (blo bzang dan jin, d.u.). Rolpai Dorje was later identified as an incarnation of the great Sakya scholar and statesman, Pakpa Lodro Gyeltsen (‘phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1235-1280) as well.

At the Yongzheng Emperor’s court, Rolpai Dorje was educated in close proximity to the prince who eventually became the Qianlong Emperor (乾隆, r. 1735-1796). This relationship proved extremely significant; Changkya served as Qianlong’s main Buddhist teacher and advisor in matters related to Buddhism, including art, literature, religious initiations and practices, and diplomacy. His education included training in most of the languages in use under the Qing, including Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan as well as the various Buddhist topics suited to his role as a lama.

A thangka of H.H. the 7th Dalai lama. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

In 1734 Changkya made his first trip to Lhasa when Yongzheng permitted him to accompany the Seventh Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso (tA la’i bla ma bskal bzang rgya mtsho, 1708-1757) to the Tibetan capital. This trip gave Changkya the opportunity to study with the Dalai Lama as well as to make offerings to Lhasa‘s major monasteries and present gifts from the Qing emperor. In 1735 Changkya traveled to Shigatse, where he met the Fifth Panchen Lama Lobzang Yeshe (paN chen bla ma 05 blo bzang ye shes, 1663-1737) at Tashilhunpo Monastery. Changkya took the vows of a novice with the Panchen Lama, who named him Yeshe Tenpai Dronme (ye shes bstan pa’i sgron me). A few days later, he took the vows of a fully ordained monk, under the supervision of the Panchen Lama and other high lamas. When Yongzheng died in 1736, Changkya had to give up his plans to study under the Panchen Lama and returned to Beijing. The Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama offered religious statues and other significant gifts as parting presents.

When Changkya Rolpai Dorje arrived in Beijing, his childhood peer, the Qianlong Emperor, newly installed on the throne, named him chief administrative lama in the capital. Early in his career as administrator, Changkya urged the Qianlong to grant disputed border areas to the Dalai Lama. Although the emperor refused to grant the land, he did follow Rolpai Dorje’s advice in part, by granting the Dalai Lama a sizable yearly allowance. After internal political tensions in Lhasa came to a climax in 1751 with the execution of the secular leader Gyurme Namgyel (‘gyur med rnam rgyal), Qianlong officially named the Dalai Lama the political and religious leader of Tibet. Rolpai Dorje’s disciple and biographer, the Third Tukwan Lobzang Chokyi Nyima (thu’u bkwan 03 blo bzang chos kyi nyi ma, 1737-1802) asserts that this significant decision was largely due to Rolpai Dorje’s advice. Apparently the Qianlong Emperor, enraged by the assasination of his representatives in Lhasa, the ambans, was preparing to give full administrative power in Tibet to Manchu representatives. Changkya knelt before the Emperor and pleaded that he not do so, but instead invest the Dalai Lama with political power.

After the death of the Seventh Dalai Lama, Qianlong sent Changkya on a second mission to Lhasa. There was debate among Tibetan officials over whether the new Dalai Lama’s regent would have both religious and secular power. The Kalon (bka’ blon) or cabinet members aimed to take over secular control and let the Dalai Lama manage religious matters only. Changkya advised the emperor to entrust the regent with full religious and secular authority in order to avoid conflict among the cabinet members. The emperor granted the regent religious authority and relied on the ambans (ambassadors from the Qing court in Lhasa) to limit the power of the lay elite cabinet members.

Another depiction of the 3rd Changkya, Rolpai Dorje. Image credit: Treasury of Lives. Click on image to enlarge.

In 1757, Changkya departed for Lhasa again, this time with a large entourage including a minister, several officials, and two Imperial physicians. During this stay, Changkya performed various religious and political tasks for the emperor, keeping Qianlong apprised of the situation in various Inner Asian locales, as far west as Ladakh. He was closely involved with identifying the Eighth Dalai Lama, Jampel Gyatso (ta lai bla ma 08 ‘jam dpal rgya mtsho, 1758-1604) and wrote the Seventh Dalai lama’s biography. At the same time, Changkya studied under major lamas, most significantly the Sixth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Pelden Yeshe (paN chen bla ma 06 blo bzang dpal ldan ye shes, 1738-1780). In 1779, Changkya arranged for the Panchen Lama to undertake a trip to Beijing to celebrate Qianlong’s birthday. A monastery modeled after Tashilhunpo was built in Jehol in honor of the visit. During the Panchen Lama’s visit Changkya Rolpai Dorje performed religious and diplomatic functions such as instructing the lama on how to approach the emperor and translating Dharma teachings between the two. The Panchen Lama contracted smallpox and passed away during this visit.

Some of Rolpai Dorje’s main teachers were Lobzang Yeshe (blo bzang ye shes, 1663-1737), Ngawang Jampa (ngag dbang byams pa, 1682-1762), Lobzang Chodzin (blo bzang chos ‘dzin, 1717-1786). In addition to Qianlong and the Third Tukwan, Rolpai Dorje’s students included Konchok Jigme Wangpo (dkon mchog ‘jigs med dbang po, 1728-1791), and Kelsang Tubten Jigme Gyatso (skal bzang thub bstan ‘jigs med rgya mtsho, 1743-1811). His collected works contain more than two hundred titles.

Changkya’s work as a translator was by no means limited to oral translations although that was one of his primary duties at court. He also oversaw the creation of (Mongolian, Tibetan, Manchu, Chinese, and Chagatay language) dictionaries and translations of Buddhist teachings in textual form. As a Buddhist administrator in Beijing, he played an important role in founding Yonghegong, a monastic college for Mongol, Manchu, and Chinese monks. Like Wutai Shan (ri bo rtse lnga, 清凉山), this college combined an Imperial palace and a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. He was also instrumental in developing the systems of iconography, cataloguing, and inscribing that would prove so important to the Qianlong emperor’s projects in Buddhist art.

Teachers

• The Fifth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Yeshe པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༥ བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས། b.1663 – d.1737
• The First Purchok, Ngawang Jampa ཕུར་ལྕོག ༠༡ ངག་དབང་བྱམས་པ། b.1682 – d.1762
• blo bzang chos ‘dzin བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་འཛིན།
• blo bzang bstan ‘dzin rgyal mtshan བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
• blo bzang ‘phrin las བློ་བཟང་འཕྲིན་ལས། b.1698 – d.1764
• ngag dbang don grub ངག་དབང་དོན་གྲུབ།

Students

• blo bzang ‘phrin las བློ་བཟང་འཕྲིན་ལས། b.1698 – d.1764
• The Second Jamyang Zhepa, Konchok Jigme Wangpo འཇམ་དབྱངས་བཞད་པ ༠༢ དཀོན་མཆོག་འཇིགས་མེད་དབང་པོ། b.1728 – d.1791
• The Third Tukwan, Lobzang Chokyi Nyima ཐུའུ་བཀྭན ༠༣ བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ། b.1737 – d.1802
• The Fifth Kirti, Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen ཀིརྟི ༠༥ བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1712 – d.1771
• The Fifth On Gyelse, Kelzang Tubten Jigme འོན་རྒྱལ་སྲས ༠༥ སྐལ་བཟང་ཐུབ་བསྟན་འཇིགས་མེད་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1743 – d.1811
• ngag dbang blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1770 – d.1845
• The Eighth Tatsak Jedrung, Yeshe Lobzang Tenpai Gonpo རྟ་ཚག་རྗེ་དྲུང ༠༨ ཡེ་ཤེས་བསྟན་པའི་མགོན་པོ། b.1760 – d.1810
• The Third Rongpo Drubchen, Gendun Trinle Rabgye རོང་པོ་གྲུབ་ཆེན ༠༣ དགེ་འདུན་འཕྲིན་ལས་རབ་རྒྱས། b.1740- d.1794
• ye shes bstan pa’i nyi ma ཡེ་ཤེས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ། b.1758 – d.1773
• The Fifty-Seventh Ganden Tripa, Samten Puntsok དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༥༧ བསམ་གཏན་ཕུན་ཚོགས། b.1703 – d.1770
• dge legs nam mkha’ དགེ་ལེགས་ནམ་མཁའ།
• ‘gyur med tshe dbang mchog grub འགྱུར་མེད་ཚེ་དབང་མཆོག་གྲུབ། b.1761 – d.1829
• The Second Detri, Jigme Lungrik Gyatso སྡེ་ཁྲི ༠༢ འཇིགས་མེད་ལུང་རིགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1748 – d.1778
• skal bzang mthu stobs dpal ‘bar སྐལ་བཟང་མཐུ་སྟོབས་དཔལ་འབར། b.1747 – d.1796
• The First Nyendrak, Lobzang Nyendrak སྙན་གྲགས ༠༡ བློ་བཟང་སྙན་གྲགས། b.1718 – d.1800

Previous Incarnations

• The First Changkya, Drakpa Ozer ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༡ གྲགས་པ་འོད་ཟེར། b.late 16th cent. – d.1641
• The Second Changkya, Ngawang Lobzang Choden ལྕང་སྐྱ ༠༢ ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ལྡན། b.1642 – d.1714

Subsequent Incarnations

• 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

• Berger, Patricia. 2003. Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
• Dung dkar blo bzang ‘phrin las. 2002. Dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo. Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House.
• 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.
• Illich, Marina. 2006. “Selections from the life of a Tibetan Buddhist polymath: Changkya Rolpai Dorje (lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje), 1717-1786.” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University.
• Tuttle, Gray. 2005.T ibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China. New York: Columbia University Press.
• van Schaik, Sam. 2011. Tibet; A History. New Haven: Yale, p. 152.
• Wang Xiangyun. “The Qing Court’s Tibet Connection: Lcang skya Rolpa’i rdo rje and the Qianlong Emperor.” In HJAS vol. 60 no. 1. June, 2000.

Source: Dominique Townsend, “The Third Changkya, Rolpai Dorje,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 22, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Chankya-Rolpai-Dorje/3141.

Dominique Townsend has a PhD in Tibetan Studies from Columbia University and is currently teaching at Barnard College.

Published March 2010

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.

Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Third-Changkya,-Rolpai-Dorje/TBRC_P182. Click on image to enlarge.

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