Zong Lobzang Tsondru Tubten Gyeltsen
H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche. Click on image to enlarge.
b.1904 – d.1984
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: India
Historical Period: 20th Century ༢༠ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Gyuto Dratsang རྒྱུད་སྟོད་གྲྭ་ཚང།; Ganden Shartse College དགའ་ལྡན་ཤར་རྩེ་གྲྭ་ཚང།; Tsari ཙཱ་རི།
Name Variants: Lobzang Tsondru Tubten Gyeltsen བློ་བཟང་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།; Zong Rinpoche ཟོང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།
Zong Lobzang Tsondru (zong blo bzang brtson ‘grus) was born in Mangsang (mang sang), Kham, in 1905. His father’s name was Jampa (byams pa) and his mother’s was Sonam Yangdzom (bsod names dbyangs ‘dzoms). Lobzang Tsondru was born into a Nyingma family; both his father and grandfathers were ngakpas. Nevertheless, as a child he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Geluk master Zongtrul Tenpa Chopel (zong sprul brtan pa chos ‘phel, 1836-1899).
Lobzang Tsondru was enrolled in the local monastery and already at a young age his skill in the study and memorization of texts was impressive. In 1916, he travelled to U-Tsang and joined the Shartse College (shar rtse grwa tshang) of Ganden Monastery (dga’ ldan) where he began his study of Pramana, Madhyamaka, Prajnaparamita, Vinaya and Abhidharma. It was at this time that Lobzang Tsondru met the young Third Trijang Rinpoche, Lobzang Yeshe Tendzin Gyatso (khri byang 03 blo bzang ye shes bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho, 1901-1981), who would eventually become his root guru.
In 1928 Lobzang Tsondru debated in front of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 13 thub bstan rgya mtsho, 1876-1933) in Lhasa and was subsequently awarded the Geshe Lharampa (dge bshes lha rams pa) degree following the Monlam (smon lam) festival examinations. It was also from the Thirteenth Dalai Lama that Lobzang Tsondru received his full monastic ordination in the early years of his stay in Ganden. Following the award of his degree he entered Gyuto Monastery (rgyu gtod) where he engaged in advanced tantric studies.
Following the completion of his studies he was appointed the abbot of Ganden Shartse in 1937 by the regent Reting Rinpoche Tubten Jampel Yeshe Gyeltsen (rwa sgreng rin po che thub bstan ‘jam dpal ye shes rgyal mtshan, 1911-1947), and continued in this position for almost ten years. By this time Lobzang Tsondru had a reputation for being extremely skillful in debate and in his knowledge of Madhyamaka.
Another photo of H.H Kyabje Zong Rinpoche. Click on image to enlarge.
Following his abbotship, Lobzang Tsondru went on an extensive pilgrimage around Tibet, travelling to the holy mountain of Dakpa Shelri in Tsari (tsa ri) and also returning to his homeland in Kham where he gave teachings and initiations to the local populations. Lobzang Tsondru is still well-known in the Geluk tradition for his vast knowledge of tantric practice. Particularly during his travels in the 1940s and 1950s he is attributed with a number of miraculous events such as subduing local deities and spirits through wrathful rituals, curing physical ailments and the ability to control the weather.
Following the violent upheavals in Lhasa in 1959, Zong Rinpoche, like many Tibetans, followed the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tendzin Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 14 bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho, b.1935) to India. In India he settled in Buxa, Assam, where the main Geluk monasteries had been re-established in an old British concentration camp. Although the tropical conditions were harsh and many monks died during this period in India, Lobzang Tsondru continued to give teachings to train a new generation of Geluk scholars and practitioners. In 1965, at the request of the Dalai Lama, Lobzang Tsondru became the director of the Tibetan Schools Teachers Training Program in Mussoorie, and, in 1967, the Dalai Lama appointed him as the first principal of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi.
In 1971 Lobzang Tsondru moved to Ganden Shartse in the newly established Tibetan settlement in Mundgod, Karnataka and retired from his position in Varanasi. Although he spent his later years engaging in practice he also continued to teach. He made three journeys to the West, travelling around North America and Europe. The first of these journeys was made after repeated requests from Lama Tubten Yeshe (bla ma thub bstan ye shes, 1935–1984) of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) in 1978, with the last being in 1983. During his travels he gave teachings on both sutra and tantra, including teachings on the Chod (gcod) of the Ganden Ear-Whispered Lineage (dga’ ldan snyan rgyud), a practice he is well-known for, as well as the life-entrustment (srog gtad) of the controversial protector Dorje Shugden (rdo rje shugs ldan).
H.H Kyabje Zong Rinpoche performing the chod ritual. Click on image to enlarge.
Lobzang Tsondru also taught numerous western students in India and participated in giving teachings and empowerments during the FPMT’s First Dharma Celebration in Dharamsala in 1981, along with other high-ranking Geluk teachers such as the Dalai Lama, Ling Rinpoche Tubten Lungtok Tendzin Trinle (gling rin po che thub bstan lung rtogs bstan ‘dzin ‘phrin las, 1903-1983), Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche Ngawang Lobzang Tubten Tobjor (mtshan zhabs ser kong rin po che ngag dbang blo bzang thub bstan stobs ‘byor, 1914-1983) as well as Lama Tubten Zopa (bla ma thub bstan bzod pa, b.1946) and Lama Yeshe.
It was also in 1981 that Lobzang Tsondru’s root guru, Trijang Rinpoche, passed away in Mundgod. It was from Trijang Rinpoche that Lobzang Tsondru had received numerous important lineages such as those of Cittamani Tara, Vajrayogini Naro Kechari, and Heruka Cakrasamvara. Lobzang Tsondru passed these lineages to his own students, many of whom were also Trijang Rinpoche’s students.
After a series of teachings and empowerments in Mundgod in 1983, which included Cittamani Tara and Hayagriva, Zong Rinpoche fell ill. Following requests from his students and Dharma protector, communicating through a medium, Lobzang Tsondru became better. In the wake of his illness Zong Rinpoche engaged in intensive practice and also was able to assist in the search for his root guru’s reincarnation. However, in 1984, despite showing no signs of illness, Lobzang Tsondru suddenly passed away, much to the shock of everyone. Ceremonies such as ganacakra, and the self-entry initiations (bdag ‘jug) of Cittamani Tara, Vajrayogini and Vajrabhairava were performed, along with other rituals. Following the cremation of his body after the end of his tukdam (thugs dam) death-period meditation, a number of relics were found, some of which were enshrined in a stupa, completed in 1986, which stands today at Ganden Monastery in Lama Camp No.1 in Mundgod.
ཟོང་བློ་བཟང་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
ཟོང་བློ་བཟང་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ནི་ཟོང་སྤྲུལ་བསྟན་པ་ཆོས་འཕེལ་གྱི་ཡང་སྲིད་དུ་ངོས་འཛིན་བྱས། དགའ་ལྡན་ཤར་རྩེ་དང་རྒྱུད་སྟོད་བཅས་སུ་གསན་བསམ་སློབ་གཉེར་མཛད་དེ་མཁས་པ་དང་གྲུབ་པ་འཛིན་པའི་སྐྱེས་ཆེན་མཚན་སྙན་ཡོངས་སུ་གྲགས་པར་གྱུར། ཁྲི་བྱང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་སྲས་ཀྱི་ཐུ་བོར་བསྔགས་ཤིང་། ཕ་བོང་ཁ་བདེ་ཆེན་སྙིང་པོ་ལས་མཆེད་པའི་བརྒྱུད་པ་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་འཆད་སྤེལ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་མཛད། ཁོང་ནི་འཛམ་གླིང་ནུབ་ཕྱོགས་ཡུལ་གྲུ་ཁག་ཏུ་ནང་པའི་བསྟན་པ་འཆད་སྤེལ་མཛད་མཁན་བོད་ཀྱི་སྐྱེས་ཆེན་ཐོག་མའི་གྲས་ཡིན།
Teachers
- The Second Pabongkha, Dechen Nyingpo ཕ་བོང་ཁ ༠༢ བདེ་ཆེན་སྙིང་པོ། b.1878 – d.1941
- The Third Trijang, Lobzang Yeshe Tendzin Gyatso ཁྲི་བྱང ༠༣ བློ་བཟང་ཡེ་ཤེས་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1901 – d.1981
Bibliography
- Zasep Tulku. 1981. Kyabje Song Rinpoche: A Biography. Martin Willson, trans. London: Wisdom Publications.
- Kyabje Zong Rinpoche. 2006. Chöd in the Ganden Tradition: The Oral Instructions of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche. David Molk, ed. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications.
- Kyabje Song Rinpoche. 1979. “Birth, Death and Bardo” in Dreloma, Drepung Loseling Magazine. Lobzang Norbu Tsonawa, Michael Richards et al., trans.
Source: Joona Repo, “Zong Lobzang Tsondru Tubten Gyeltsen,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 22, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Zong-Lobzang-Tsondru-Tubten-Gyeltsen/8612.
Joona Repo is currently a researcher at the Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki.
Published August 2011
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Zong-Lobzang-Tsondru-Tubten-Gyeltsen/P6037. Click on image to enlarge.
For more interesting information:
- The Dorje Shugden category on my blog
- The Tsongkhapa category on my blog
- The Great Lamas and Masters category on my blog
- Kyabje Zong Rinpoche: Birth, Death & Bardo
- Kyabje Zong Rinpoche’s Advice on Dorje Shugden’s Practice
- Gurus love their students
- Short sharing about Kyabje Zong Rinpoche | 关于嘉杰宋仁波切的简短分享 | ༧སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ཟོང་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་གི་སྐོར་བགོ་འགྲེམས་མདོར་བསྡུས།
- Kyabje Zong Rinpoche Cuts My Hair
- The Cowshed That Was My Home in Gaden
- Small Plant Growing on Zong Rinpoche’s Statue
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Beautiful short yet interesting biography of Zong Rinpoche Lobzang Tsondru . As a child he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Gelug master Zongtrul Tenpa Chopel (1836-1899). At a young age , he showed impressive skill in studies as well as memorization of texts.
Being a powerful tantrician and he gave many empowerments and teachings in his later years, travelled tremendously and giving teachings as well. He was well-known in the Geluk tradition for his vast knowledge of tantric practice. Amazing during his travels in the he did attributed with a number of miraculous events. Following the violent Chinese invasion in Lhasa, Zong Rinpoche, left Tibet for India, and continued giving teachings. He well remembered as an highly accomplished spiritual master and also known as a talented astrologer and artist.
Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting sharing of a GREAT Master.
Be loyal to your guru. Be close to your guru. Be honest with your guru. Never give your guru excuses but always accomplish your assignments that your guru has given you. Be loving, devoted and sincere with your guru. If you conduct yourself in this way, you will see positive transformations in your mind. ~ Tsem Rinpoche
Please ‘enjoy’ these beautiful images of His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche and His Holiness Ling Rinpoche, the precious tutors of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. These masters shared a very special, close relationship; it was well-known that when in Trijang Rinpoche’s company, Ling Rinpoche was often seen to be laughing. After Trijang Rinpoche’s passing, Ling Rinpoche remarked many times how much he missed Trijang Rinpoche due to the unique and close relationship that they shared.
Please ‘enjoy’ these beautiful images of His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche and His Holiness Ling Rinpoche, the precious tutors of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. These masters shared a very special, close relationship; it was well-known that when in Trijang Rinpoche’s company, Ling Rinpoche was often seen to be laughing. After Trijang Rinpoche’s passing, Ling Rinpoche remarked many times how much he missed Trijang Rinpoche due to the unique and close relationship that they shared.
Be blessed with these rare videos featuring explanation and advice about Dorje Shugden practice by His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche in his own voice. The teaching was requested by Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen, one of the earliest masters who taught Tibetan Buddhism in the West.
Video 1: H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche Explains Dorje Shugden Initiation and Benefits (With English Subtitles)
Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was an erudite scholar, ritual master and practitioner of the highest degree from Tibet. At the request of Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen, one of the pioneers who taught Tibetan Buddhism in America, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche gives clear explanation and advice about the life-entrustment initiation of Dorje Shugden and how to go about the practice and get the maximum benefits in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzFMvlxAqtc&feature=youtu.be
Video 2: H.H. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche speaks on the History and Lineage of Dorje Shugden (With English Subtitles)
In this video, an erudite scholar, ritual master and practitioner of the highest degree from Tibet, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche talks about the incarnation lineage of Dorje Shugden and how the practice arose, with examples of Dorje Shugden’s previous lives that reveal his powerful spiritual attainments and contributions. This very rare teaching was given at the request of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche’s student, Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen, one of the pioneers who taught Buddhism in the West to many disciples since the 1970s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzKSJgK618&feature=youtu.be
For more information: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/great-lamas-masters/kyabje-zong-rinpoches-advice-on-dorje-shugdens-practice.html
Zong Rinpoche Lobzang Tsondru, was born in Nangsang, Kham. As a child he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Gelug master Zongtrul Tenpa Chopel. At a young age ,he was enrolled in one of the Tibet’s great monastic universities and was guided by the fourteen-year-old Trijang Rinpoche. Later to become Zong Rinpoche’s chief mentor. The young Zong Rinpoche Lobzang Tsondru lived a simple lifestyle and extremely diligent in studies and excellent debater who possessed an extraordinary memory. During the Chinese invasion , Zong Rinpoche Lobzang Tsondru left Tibet and sought asylum in India. In India, Lobzang Tsondru continued to give Dharma teachings ,travelling to many countries until the very last days of his life. He well remembered as an highly accomplished spiritual master.
Thank you Rinpoche for this brief sharing of a great Master.
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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