Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé (1813 to 1899) was born in the Derge kingdom of eastern Tibet. He was first educated in a Bon monastery, studied with Nyingma teachers at Shechen Monastery, and was ordained there in 1832. In 1833 he moved to the Karma Kagyu monastery of Pelpung, where he took ordination again and was recognised as a tulku. The name Kongtrul is a contraction of the title of the incarnation he was identified with.

He is best known for the Five Treasuries, a very large body of compiled and original writing. They include the Treasury of Kagyu Tantras, the Treasury of Revelations (a collection of treasure cycles from more than a hundred revealers), the Treasury of Knowledge, the Treasury of Instructions and his Expansive Treasury, a collected works. Treasury of Lives records that Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo inspired four of the five and supplied the idea of five treasuries, which Khyentse is said to have seen in a dream.

He built a hermitage above Pelpung, Tsādra Rinchen Drak, which became a centre for three-year retreats, and he wrote the retreat manual used there. Shambhala’s description of Alexander Gardner’s biography calls him a polymath, dedicated retreatant, writer and teacher.

In 1840 he met Khyentse Wangpo, and the two worked together for decades. In 1853 the treasure revealer Chokgyur Lingpa came to Pelpung seeking recognition. Kongtrul and his colleague Dabzang Tulku gave him vows but did not at first approve his revelations, and Kongtrul wrote a letter of introduction to Khyentse Wangpo, who investigated them. Within a few years the three were working closely. At Rongme Karmo Taktsang in 1866 Chokgyur Lingpa revealed a cycle that produced a text on which Kongtrul wrote his well-known commentary, The Light of Wisdom, and in 1867 the other two formally gave Kongtrul a treasure revealer’s name. His own account of his life, A Gem of Many Colors, has been translated by Richard Barron.

Kongtrul taught many lamas of different traditions, including Ju Mipham Gyatso. After his death several incarnation lines were recognised, among them the Jamgön Kongtrul line at Pelpung and the Dzigar Kongtrul line.