Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo

Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo (bo|t=རོང་ཟོམ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བཟང་པོ|w=rong zom chos kyi bzang po) (1012-1088) widely known as Rongzom Mahapandita or simply as Rongzompa, was one of the most important scholars of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Together with Longchenpa and Mipham, he is often considered to one of the three "omnscient" writers of the school. His elder contemporary Atiśa (980-1054) considered Rongzompa to be an incarnation of the Indian ācārya Kṛṣṇapāda, the Great. [Roerich (1949) p.160] [གཞན་ཕན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ནང་བ p.25] The Tibetan historian Gö Lotsawa (1392-1481) said of Rongzom that no scholar in Tibet was his equal. A.W. Barber writes that Rongzom was the first to receive the entire Dzogchen teachings of both Vimalamitra and Vairocana after the time of those two masters [Barber, 1990 p.301]

David Germano writes "In the eleventh century, Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo was without doubt the greatest Nyingma author, with extensive exoteric and esoteric commentaries." [Germano (2002)]

Writings

According a catalog of the books he wrote, the collected works of Rongzompa amounted to over 100 volumes, unfortunately most of these texts have been now been lost. In the 19th Century Ju Mipham, who was particularly influenced by Rongzompa's writings [Mipham also wrote a short Guru Yoga practice focusing on Rongzom bo|t=དཔལ་རོང་ཟོམ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཆེན་པོའི་བླ་མའི་རྣལ་བྱོར་བྱིན་རླབ་ཆར་འབེབས།|w= ] , attempted to gather the surviving works together.

Important surviving works of Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo include:

*"Entering the Approach of the Middle Way" (bo|t=ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཚུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་བསྟན་བཅོས|w=theg chen tshul 'jug) - which presents a defense and explanation of the Dzogchen tradition in the context of the Mahayana.
* A commentary on Padmasambhava's "Key Instructions: A Rosary of Views" (bo|t=མན་ངག་ལྟ་ཕྲེང་གི་འགྲེལ་པ|w=man ngag lta phreng gi 'grel pa) presenting the view of the Nyingma school's nine yanas.
* A commentary on the Manjusrinama-Samgiti (bo|t=མཚན་ཡང་དག་པར་བརྗོད་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་རྣམ་གསུམ་བཤད་པ|w=)
* A commentary on the "Guhyagarbha Tantra" (bo|t=རྒྱུད་རྒྱལ་གསང་བ་སྙིང་པོ་དཀོན་ཅོག་འགྲེལ|w=)
*"Establishing the Divinity of Appearances" (Tib: snang ba lhar grub), a short text presenting the logical grounds for the pure view of Buddhist tantra

Notes & References

ources

*Citation
first = Orna
last = Almogi
author-link =
editor-last = Blezer
editor-first = Henk
contribution = Sources on the Life and Works of the Eleventh Century Tibetan Scholar "Rong Zom Chos Kyi Bzang Po": A Brief Survey
contribution-url =
title = Tibet, Past and Present. Tibetan Studies I: Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies
year =2002
pages = 67-80
place = Leiden
publisher = Brill
url =
doi =
id =
isbn =9004127755

*cite journal
last = Barber
first = A. W.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Unifying of Rdzogs Pa Chen Po and Ch'an
journal = Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal
volume = 3
issue =
pages = 301-317
publisher =
location =
date = 1990
url = http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ001/barber.htm
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2007-11-30

*Citation
last =Dudjom
first = Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje
author-link =Dudjom Rinpoche
last2 = Dorje
first2 = Gyurme
author2-link = Gyurme Dorje
title = The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Its Fundamentals and History
place = Boston
publisher = Wisdom
year = 1991
volume =
edition = 1
pages =703–9
url =
doi =
id =
isbn =0861710878

*Citation
last =Dudjom
first = Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje
author-link =Dudjom Rinpoche
last2 = Dorje
first2 = Gyurme
author2-link = Gyurme Dorje
title = The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Its Fundamentals and History
place = Boston
publisher = Wisdom Publications
year = 2005
volume =
edition = 2
url =
doi =
id =
isbn =0861711998

* cite web
last = Ray
first = Gary L.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Northern Ch'an School and Sudden Versus Gradual Enlightenment Debates In China And Tibet
work =
publisher = thezensite
date = 2002
url = http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/HistoricalZen/Sudden_vs_Gradual_Ray.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-11-30

*cite book
last = Roerich
first = George N.
authorlink = George Roerich
coauthors = Gö Lotsawa Zhönnupal
title = The Blue Annals
publisher =Motilal Banarsidass
date = 1949
edition = 1998 reprint
location = Delhi
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 8120804716

* cite web
last = Germano
first = David
authorlink = David Germano
coauthors =
title = A Brief History of Nyingma Literature
work =
publisher = THDL
date = 2002
url = http://www.thdl.org/collections/literature/nyingma.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-01-15

*Citation
first =
last = གཞན་ཕན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ནང་བ།
contribution =དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ཆེན་པོ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་་བཟང་པོའི་རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ།
title = རོང་ཟོམ་ཆོས་བཟང་གི་གསུང་འབུམ།
year =
volume= v1
pages = 23-30
place =
publisher = སི་ཁྲོན་མི་རིགས་དཔེ་སྐྲུན་ཁང་།
isbn =

Further Reading

External Links

* [http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Rongzom_Ch%C3%B6kyi_Zangpo| Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo]
* [http://www.tbrc.org/kb/tbrc-detail.xq;?RID=P3816 TBRC P3816 chos kyi bzang po]

Persondata
NAME=Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Rongzom Mahapandita, Rongdzom Chozang, Rong Zom Chos Kyi Bzang Po
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Tibetan Buddhist llama and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH=1012
PLACE OF BIRTH=khungs rong, gtsang, Tibet
DATE OF DEATH=1088
PLACE OF DEATH=