Khenchen Sonam Pel

Little is known about the teacher named Khen Sonam Pel (mkhan bsod nams dpal) outside of several lineage records and the painting from which this illustration is taken. Most likely active in the thirteenth century, he was a student of Prabhāsvaraśrī, most likely in a transmission line of Prajñāpāramitā, and of a teacher named Khenchen Ozer Pel (mkhan chen 'od zer dpal, d.u.). His only known student was Khenchen Tashi Tsultrim (mkhan chen bkra shis tshul khrims, d.u.).

Nevertheless, there are records of several teachers named Sonam Pel [zang po] active during the early days of the second propagation of Buddhism in Tibet, and sorting them out is a minor desideratum.

Sources

For a brief discussion of several teachers named Sonam Pel, see Leonard W.J. Van der Kuijp, 1995, "Two Biographies of Sakyasribhadra, The Eulogy of Khro phu Lo-tsa-ba and its "Commentary" by bSod-nams-dpal-bzang-po: Texts and Variants from Two Rare Exemplars Preserved in the Bihar Research Society, Patna, a Review Article." Journal of the American Oriental Society.

Alexander Gardner
July 2010