Jonang Lotsāwa Lodro Pel

The great translator Lodro Pel (blo gros dpal) was born in 1299 in Dome (mdo smad). At the age of seven he began to study under the master Wang Dzongpa (dbang rdzong pa, d.u.).

He quickly learned to read and memorized the Condensed Verses on the Perfection of Wisdom (sdud pa), and gained a clear understanding of the Hevajra Tantra and the teaching cycle of Yamari (gshed skor). From the age of eight he mastered the Vajrapanjara Tantra and the Samputa Tantra, which are the two explanatory tantras of the Hevajra system, the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, and the monastic code.

At nine years of age he traveled to Tanak (rta nag) monastery and received the vows of a novice monk. Next he went to Sangpu (gsang phu), where he stayed until the age of fifteen, studying Prajñāpāramitā, epistemology, and Abhidharma under the abbot Tsultrim Sang (tshul khrims bzang, d.u.).

Lodro Pel then traveled to the great monastery of Sakya (sa skya), where he studied under Tonpa Namkha Yeshe (ston pa nam mkha' ye shes, d.u.), mastering the monastic code and the literary works of sutra, tantra, and the perfection of wisdom. He also traveled to many monasteries in U and Tsang to further his studies, impressing everyone in those areas with his vast learning at such an early age.

When he was twenty-five years old, Lodro Pel traveled to Drakram (brag ram), where he mastered Sanskrit grammar and language under the instruction of the great translator Pang Lotsāwa Lodro Tenpa (dpang lo tsA ba blo gros brtan pa, 1276-1342). After some time Pang Lotsāwa commented that since Lodro Pel was now very learned, he should learn the profound inner teachings, and for that purpose there was no master (even in India) more qualified than Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan) at Jonang monastery.

Lodro Pel traveled to Jonang, carrying offerings such as a white conch shell, and arrived while Dolpopa was teaching the Vimalaprabhā to about one hundred expert masters. When he actually met Dolpopa and engaged in conversation, he felt like he was just a mandarava flower in the presence of Mount Meru. From that point on, he stayed with Dolpopa, eventually receiving from him the transmission of all the tantric initiations, scriptures, and commentaries, as well as all the teachings of the literature of the vehicle of the perfections, epistemology, abhidharma, and the monastic code that had been translated into the Tibetan language.

At the age of twenty-seven he received from Dolpopa the vows of a completely ordained monk. On that occasion, Dolpopa bestowed special gifts and insisted that Lodro Pel begin to teach in the great assembly at Jonang. To about one thousand experts, he then taught various topics, such as the literature of the vehicle of the perfections, epistemology, abhidharma, the monastic code, the  Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakra Tantra, and the profound guiding instructions of the six-branch yoga of Kālacakra.

In about 1334 Lodro Pel and Dolpopa's disciple Sabzang Mati Panchen Lodro Gyeltsen (sa bzang ma ti paN chen blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1294-1376) made a revision of the Tibetan translation of the Kālacakra Tantra and the Vimalaprabhā, which came to be known as the “new Jonang translation.” In 1339, when Lodro Pel was forty-one years old, Dolpopa offered him several sacred objects and enthroned him on the monastic seat of Jonang. In this role as Dolpopa's appointed heir, Lodro Pel taught at Jonang monastery for the next fifteen years.

Lodro Pel also commissioned sculpted images of the sixteen arhats in the Nāgā Temple of the Jonang stupa. In the main dome of the stupa, he constructed thirty-two long pillars representing the essence of the thirty-two major marks of a buddha and, representing the essence of the eighty minor characteristics of a buddha, he built eighty short pillars to support the ceiling beams in the podium of the great stupa. Dolpopa was delighted by this and performed the consecrations himself.

When Lodro Pel passed away, it is said that thousands of people gathered for his cremation ceremony, which was accompanied by many miracles, such as glorious rainbows, a rain of flowers, celestial music, and earthquakes. Various wonderful relics manifested in his bones after the cremation.

Sources

Ggyal ba jo bzang dpal bzang po. 1992. Chos kyi rje kun mkhyen chen po yab sras bco lnga'i rnam thar nye bar bsdus pa ngo mtshar rab gsal. In The 'Dzam-thang Edition of the Collected Works (Gsung-'bum) of Kun-mkhyen Dol-po-pa Shes-rab rgyal-mtshan, Delhi: Shedrup Books, vol. 1: 559–629, pp. 573–77. The same work has also been published in Byang sems rgyal ba ye shes. 2004. Dpal ldan dus kyi 'khor lo jo nang pa'i lugs kyi bla ma brgyud pa'i rnam thar. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2004, 143–209.

Ngag dbang blo gros grags pa. 1992. Dpal ldan jo nang pa'i chos 'byung rgyal ba'i chos tshul gsal byed zla ba'i sgron me. Koko Nor: Krung go'i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, 1992, p. 33.

Cyrus Stearns
August 2008