Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé

Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé (1813-1899) was born into the royal Khyung clan to the yogini Tashi Tso in the hidden valley of Rongyap, in Kongpo, East Tibet. Often referred to as Jamgön Kongtrül the Great, he was one of the greatest ecumenical scholars of Tibet. His impressive scholarly compilation totaling ninety volumes is traditionally known as the Five Treasuries. Four of the five were inspired by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, whom Kongtrul credited with providing the conceptual framework of “five treasuries,” something that Khyentse apparently saw in a dream.

Jamgön Kongtrul wrote Chokgyur Lingpa a letter of introduction to Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, advising that Khyentse investigate whether or not the young tertön’s revelations were authentic. Khyentse Wangpo did so and thus within a few years, these three lamas began a close collaboration. Together, they opened sacred sites, revealed treasures, composed liturgies, and taught widely. In this way, they collectively came to be known as the “Trio of Khyentse, Kongtrul, and Chokling” (mkhyen kong mchog sde gsum).

In the Words of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Vairocana Actually Manifest, Lodrö Thayé

Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé is considered to be an emanation of the great translator Vairocana who, in turn, was regarded as an emanation of Buddha Vairocana.

The Great Tertön: The Life and Activities of Chokgyur Lingpa, Lhasey Lotsawa Translations, 2016, p. 362.

Supplication to Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé

ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་གཟིགས་ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་གཏེར། །
sheja künzik yönten gyatsö ter
Seer of all, ocean treasure of qualities;

རྒྱལ་བས་ལུང་བསྟན་བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་སྡེ། །
gyelwé lungten lodrö tayé dé
prophesied by the victors, Lodrö Tayé;

རིགས་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་བདག་པདྨ་གར་གྱི་དབང༌། །
rik kün khyap dak pema gar gyi wang
universal family lord, Pema Garwang:

འཛམ་གླིང་ཤིང་རྟ་ཆེན་པོར་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །
dzamling shingta chenpor sölwa dep
great charioteer of the world, I supplicate you.

མཉྫུ་གྷོ་ཥའི་གསུང་ངོ༌། །
Composed by Mañjughoṣa (Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo).

From Supplications to the Chokling Tersar Lineage Gurus, Rangjung Yeshe & Lhasey Lotsawa Translations (trans. Erik Pema Kunsang, checked against the Tibetan by Laura Dainty and Oriane Sherap Lhamo, and ed. by Libby Hogg), June 2020.