The Amazing Treasury of the Sakya Lineage: Volume 2

A lucid and landmark translation that offers an intriguing glimpse into Tibetan history and the spiritual development and remarkable lives of the early luminaries of the Sakya lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

Ameshab Ngakwang Kunga Sonam (1597-1659), a member of the Khon aristocracy and the twenty-seventh throne holder of Sakya Monastery, gives a thorough history of the major Sakya lineage holders up to the time of his writing in the seventeenth century. Where the first volume of this history, published last year, focused on the celestial origins and the founders of the Khon lineage, as well as their interactions with the Mongol Empire, volume 2 tells the stories of the major figures of the four monastic residences, or labrang, from the early fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, and how they persevered through a time of religious and political reorientation in Inner Asia and were able to strengthen the Sakya lineage after a period of waning influence. The biographies here tell of extraordinary scholarship and spiritual practice, highlighting not only the Sakya leadership genealogy but what such leadership entailed--and the remarkable blessings that have been passed down through time.

Celebrated translator and scholar Cyrus Stearns said of volume 1, "As the definitive genealogy of the Khon family from its legendary origins, and as one of the greatest historical masterpieces of the Sakya tradition, Ameshab's book is a work of remarkable traditional scholarship. This volume is a noteworthy event in the translation into English of the Buddhist historical literature of Tibet."

Contents

Foreword by His Holiness the Sakya Trichen
Acknowledgments
List of Conventions
Illustrations
Translators' Introduction

The Wondrous Precious Treasury Fulfilling All Wishes:
Biographies of the Precious Lineage of the Glorious Sakya, the Great Regents of the Buddha in the North of Jambudvipa

Part 3: An Explanation of the Succession History of the Four Labrangs
1. An Explanation of the Succession Lineage of Shithok Labrang
Sailen Wang Sonam Sangpo
Guoshi Ratnasri
The Imperial Preceptor Lachen Kunga Lodro Gyaltsen
Kunting Guoshi, the Great Khetsun Namkha Lekpai Gyaltsen
Namkha Shenyen
Guoshi Namkha Gyaltsen
Tiling Kyahosi Tawen Guoshi Kunga Rinchen
Guoshi Lodro Gyaltsen
Mahaguru Drakpa Lodro
Mahaguru Kunga Lodro Gyaltsen
Mahaguru Kunga Wangchuk
Mahaguru Chumikpa Lodro Wangchuk
Conclusion

2. An Explanation of the Succession Lineage of Rinchen Labrang
Tawen Guoshi Kunga Nyima
Tawen Guoshi Jamyang Donyo Gyaltsen
Guoshi Palden Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen
Nyima Gyaltsen
Lachen Kunga Gyaltsen
The Mahatma Great Manjugho?a Namkha Gyaltsen
The Shalu Mahatma Thutop Wangchuk Sonam Gyaltsen
Gyakar Sherab Gyaltsen
Mahatma Lodro Gyaltsen
The Mahaguru Drakpa Gyaltsen

3. The Explanation of the Succession Lineage of Lhakhang Labrang
Dishi Kunga Lekpai Jungne Gyaltsen
Dishi Kunga Gyaltsen
Tholing Teho Tawen Chokyi Gyaltsen
Tawen Guoshi Lodro Gyaltsen
Dishi Thekchen Chokyi Gyalpo Kunga Tashi
Dharmadhvaja
Dorje Rinchen Gyaltsen
Mahaguru Sonam Tashi
Mahaguru Delek Tashi
Acarya Sonam Gyaltsen and His Siblings Shakya Senge, Dondrup Gyaltsen, and Samten Gyaltsen
The Great Learned and Righteous Kunga Tashi and His Siblings Kunga Gyaltsen and Kunga Nyingpo
Mahatma Rinchen Gyaltsen
A Supplement to the Succession History of Lhakhang Labrang
Mahatma Chokyi Gyaltsen
Jampaiyang Kunga Lodro Lekpai Jungne Gyaltsen

4. An Explanation of the Succession History of Ducho Labrang
Mahaguru Nyima Pal
Kunga Lekpai Jungne
Tisri Sonam Lodro
Sailen Wang Drakpa Gyaltsen
Tawen Guoshi Kunga Lekpai Lodro
Wang Namse Gyaltsen
Mahatma Chokyi Gyaltsen
Mahaguru Kunga Lodro Gyaltsen
Tukyaho Wang Namkha Lekpai Gyaltsen
Tukya Wang Wang Namkha Gyaltsen
Namkha Rinchen Gyaltsen
Namkha Tashi Gyaltsen
Mahatma Sa Lotsawa Jampaiyang Kunga Sonam
Mahatma Ngaki Wangchuk Drakpa Gyaltsen
Jampal Drakpa
Jamyang Tseten Tashi
Jamyang Kunga Samdrup
The Great Mantra Holder Ngakwang Kunga Rinchen
A Supplement to the Succession History of Ducho Labrang
Jamyang Sonam Wangpo
Ngakchang Drakpa Lodro Gyaltsen
Glorious Jamyang Thutop Wangchuk Drakpa Gyaltsen
Ngakwang Kunga Wangyal
Jamgon Ame Ngakwang Kunga Sonam

Part 4: An Explanation of Other Relevant Topics

Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Authors

Ameshab Ngakwang Kunga Sonam (A myes zhabs ngag dbang kun dga’ bsod nams, 1597–1659) was the long-serving twenty-seventh throne holder of the Sakya lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Deeply trained in his tradition, Ameshab was ordained as a monk around 1618 and undertook extensive scholastic study. After the death of his father and brother, however, in 1620 Ameshab returned his vows and was enthroned as Sakya Trizin. In the decades that followed, Ameshab widely promoted the transmission of the Sakya tradition and mediated peace amid rising military conflict in Central Tibet. A prodigious historian, Ameshab wrote impactful histories of the Sakya school; the Lamdré, or “Path and Result,” tradition; and the Hevajra Tantra, which were read for centuries in Tibet and across the Inner Asian Buddhist world.

Khenpo Kunga Sherab was born in Lhoka, Tibet, and is a monastic scholar and teacher. He is the author of several studies in Tibetan on Abhidharma and Middle Way philosophy. Khenpo has extensive experience teaching Buddhist meditation and philosophy in various settings, including traditional Tibetan monastic colleges, interfaith institutes, Dharma centers across North America and Asia, and university classrooms. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto. Since 2017, he has served as a Buddhist chaplain in four major prisons in southwestern Ontario, Canada.

Matthew W. King is professor of transnational Buddhism at the University of California, Riverside. A historian of Inner Asian Buddhism, his published work has focused on scholastic and tantric engagements with the Mongol Empire, biomedical modernity, the Qing Empire, humanism and Orientalism, and socialist state repression. His first book, Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing Empire (Columbia University Press, 2019), won several awards, including the American Academy of Religion’s 2020 award for Best Book in Textual Study. His most recent book is In the Forest of the Blind: The Eurasian Journey of Faxian’s Record of Buddhist Kingdoms (Columbia University Press, 2022).