Kongpo (Tibetan : ཀོང་པོ་, Wylie : kong po) is a region of central-eastern Tibet, centered in modern Gongbo'gyamda County, Nyingchi Prefecture. It is situated on the Nyang River, a northern tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo River.
Kongpo Drula Gonpa is the oldest and largest monastery in the region, founded by Khenchen Dawa Sangpo in 14th century. Kongpo Drula Khenchen is the highest Lama of Kongpo. Kongpo was an area of southeastern Tibet in the premodern period. Tsagong was one of the holy places of Kongpo and still is. Thang Tong Gyalpo, a famous architect and yogi, founded Manmogang Monastery, where the original Samding Dorje Phagmo died. Nearby are the mines from which Thang Tong Gyalpo obtained the iron for some of his bridges. [1]
Old Tsari is now part of the modern country in the southeast of the Tibet Autonomous Region and including parts of neighboring areas of India, and New Tsari is located farther east. [2]
Gendün Drubpa was considered posthumously to be the 1st Dalai Lama.
The Kagyu school, also transliterated as, Kagyü, or Kagyud, which translates to "Oral Lineage" or "Whispered Transmission" school, is one of the main schools of Himalayan or Tibetan Buddhism. The Kagyu lineages trace themselves back to the 11th century Indian Mahasiddhas Naropa, Maitripa and the yogini Niguma, via their student Marpa Lotsawa (1012–1097), who brought their teachings to Tibet. Marpa's student Milarepa was also an influential poet and teacher.
Nyêmo is a county in the Lhasa west of the main center of Chengguan, Tibet. It lies on the north bank of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, the northern part of the Brahmaputra. The county has an area of 3,276 square kilometres (1,265 sq mi), and as of 2011 had a population of 30,844 people, mostly engaged in agriculture or herding.
Yamdrok Lake is a freshwater lake in Tibet, it is one of the three largest sacred lakes in Tibet. It is over 72 km (45 mi) long. The lake is surrounded by many snow-capped mountains and is fed by numerous small streams. The lake has an outlet stream at its far western end and means turquoise in English due to its color.
Vajrayoginī is a Tantric Buddhist female Buddha and a ḍākiṇī. Vajrayoginī's essence is "great passion" (maharaga), a transcendent passion that is free of selfishness and illusion—she intensely works for the well-being of others and for the destruction of ego clinging. She is seen as being ideally suited for people with strong passions, providing the way to transform those passions into enlightened virtues.
Ngamring County is a county of Xigazê in the Tibet Autonomous Region. "Ngamring County, sometimes referred to as the gateway to Mount Kailash and Far West Tibet, is the barren area which divides the Raga Tsangpo and the Brahmaputra."
The new town of Lhatse or Lhatse Xian, also known as Quxar (Tibetan: ཆུ་ཤར་ , Quxia, or Chusar, is a small town of a few thousand people in the Tibet Autonomous Region in the valley of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Lhatse County, 151 kilometres southwest of Shigatse and just west of the mountain pass leading to it. Lhatse is 4,050 metres above sea-level.
Gyamda or Ngapo Zampa is a village in modern day Gongbo'gyamda County of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China on the upper Nyang River at an altitude of 3,200 metres.
Thangtong Gyalpo, also known as Chakzampa, the "Iron Bridge Maker", Tsöndrü Zangpo "Excellent Persistence", and the King of the Empty Plain. He was also known by a variation of this name, Madman of the Empty Valley. He was a great Buddhist adept, a Chöd master, yogi, physician, blacksmith, architect, and a pioneering civil engineer. He is considered a mind emanation of Padmasambhava and a reincarnation of Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen. He founded the Iron Chain lineage of the Shangpa Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, and he recognized the first Samding Dorje Phagmo, Chökyi Drönma (1422–1455), the female incarnation lineage of Vajravārāhī.
Lhamo, or Ache Lhamo, is a classical secular theatre of Tibet with music and dance that has been performed for centuries, whose nearest western equivalent is opera. Performances have a narrative and simple dialogue interspersed with comedy and satire; characters wear colorful masks. The core stories of these theatrical plays are drawn mostly from ancient Indian Buddhist folk tales, lives of important people and historical events from Tibetan civilization. However the ceremonial, dance and ritual spectacles strongly reflects the Tibetan Royal Dynastic period.
Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo [1110-1170], was one of the three main disciples of Gampopa Sonam Rinchen who established the Dagpo Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism; and a disciple of Sachen Kunga Nyingpo [1092-1158] one of the founders of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the elder brother of Kathog Dampa Deshek [1122-1192], who founded Kathog monastery and the Kathog branch of the Nyingma school.
Samding Monastery "The Temple of Soaring Meditation" is a gompa built on a hill on a peninsula jutting into Yamdrok Lake about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of Nangkatse. It is located 112 kilometres (70 mi) southwest of Lhasa, at an altitude of 4,423 metres (14,511 ft), on a barren hill about 90 metres (300 ft) above the lake at the neck of a narrow peninsula jutting out into the water. It is associated with the Bodong and Shangpa Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
In Tibetan Buddhism, Vajravārāhī is a wrathful form of Vajrayogini associated particularly with the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra, where she is paired in yab-yum with the Heruka Cakrasaṃvara. Judith Simmer-Brown writes that "Vajravārāhī's iconography is very similar to that of Vajrayoginī, but she often has more prominent fangs and a more wrathful expression, and she prominently displays a sow's head above her right ear."
The Samding Dorje Phagmo is the highest female incarnation in Tibet and the third highest-ranking person in the hierarchy after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. She was listed among the highest-ranking reincarnations at the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, recognized by the Tibetan government and acknowledged by the emperors of Qing China. In her first incarnation, as Chökyi Drönma, she was the student and consort of the famous polymath Thang Tong Gyalpo, who first identified her as an emanation of Vajravārāhī, and the consort of Bodong Panchen. The seat of the Samding Dorje Phagmo is at Samding Monastery, in Tibet.
Mangyül Gungthang, simplified Chinese: 芒域贡堂; traditional Chinese: 芒域貢堂; pinyin: mángyù gòngtáng) alternatively known as Ngari Me is the name of a Tibetan kingdom established under Sakya overlordship in Southwest Tibet around 1265. Historically it lies in an area that was an important transit point between the north and south Himalayas, and it was through this route that Padmasambhava and Śāntarakṣita arrived in Tibet. It was founded by a descendant of the Tibetan royal house, Bumdegon (1253–1280) It was one of the thirteen myriarchies ruled by a Sakya lama viceroy appointed by the Yuan court of China.
The term Nyönpa may refer to a group of Tibetan Buddhist yogis or a single individual belonging to this group. They were mainly known for their unusual style of teaching, to which they owed their names.
The Bodongpa or Bodong tradition, is one of the smaller traditions of Tibetan Buddhism falling outside the classification of the four main schools.
Nyêmo Chekar monastery ཉེ་མོ་ཆེ་དཀར་དགོན། is a small Buddhist monastery of the Bodongpa tradition in Nyêmo County, Lhasa, Tibet. It is known for its mural paintings of reincarnations of the Samding Dorje Phagmo.
The Phagmo Drupa Kagyu or Phagdru Kagyu (ཕག་གྲུ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད) is a subschool of the Tibetan Kagyu school.
Chökyi Drönma (1422-1455) was a Tibetan princess and Buddhist leader. She was the main consort of Thang Tong Gyalpo, who recognized her as an incarnation of Machig Labdrön through the lineage of Vajravārāhī and appointed her as the first Samding Dorje Phagmo.