Kushok Bakula Rinpoche (Tibetan : སྐུ་ཤོག་བ་ཀུ་ལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།) is nowadays the head of Pethup Gompa in Spituk, Ladakh, India. According to his followers he is an emanation of the Buddha Amitabha and was one of the 16 disciples of Buddha (Naytan Chudrug, or the Sixteen Arhats). They also claim that his first 19 incarnations have been documented in the Tibetan text Naytan Chagchot (Wylie : gNas hrtan phyag mchod).
There are two different explanations for his name.
According to Tibetan chronicles, he was fond of doing meditation and praying and was very simple. After renouncing all worldly comforts he used pakula grass in his everyday life, especially as a sitting and sleeping mat. [1]
The Manorathapurani and the Pali version of Milindapanha maintain him as being born at Kaushambi in a minister's family and then having been swallowed by a fish in the Yamuna river that was later caught by an angler. The angler sold it to another minister's wife, Upon cutting pen, the child was found unharmed and alive. The minister's wife adopted him. However, a dispute with his natural parents, about who should take care of him was resolved by the king, who judged that both should have custody of him. Thus, he became known as Dva Kula (Two Families). [1]
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