Sengge Gyelpo

Sengge Gyelpo (seng+ge rgyal po, 1277/1289-1314/1325) was the son of Pokyapba Sengge Rinchen (spos skya pa seng ge rin chen, 1242/1258-1297/1313), the fifth abbot of Ralung.

Sengge Gyelpo took ordination under his father, who also taught him Vinaya, Madyamaka, logic, Kadampa mind training (blo  sbyong don bdun ma) and lamrim, Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara and Siksasamuccaya, Dzogchen, and new tantras such as the Chakrasamvara Nyengyu (bde mchog snyan brgyud), Kalachakra and the Namasangirti, as well as the Naro Chodruk (nA ro chos drug)

In 1313, at the age of twenty-five, Sengge Gyelpo went to Ralung (rwa lung), where he constructed the main temple. He remained there, serving as monastery’s sixth abbot, for thirteen years, spreading widely the Drukpa Kagyu teachings.

Sengge Gyelpo died at age thirty-eight, either in 1314 or 1325.

Sources

Grags pa ’byung gnas. 1992. Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon ming mdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp 521-522.

Kun dga’ seng ge. 1975 (1771). Rje bcu gsum pa seng ge rgyal po’i rnam thar. In Rwa lung dkar brgyud gser ’phreng. Pelampur: SNGP, vol 2, pp. 303-361.

Sgrub sprul phrin las rgya mtsho. 2009. Gdams ngag bka’ rgya can lnga yi bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam thar dad gsum chu gter ’phel byed ngo mtshar lza ba’i me long. Swayambhu: Shree Gautam Buddha Vihara, pp. 153-154.

Roerich, George, trans. 1996. The Blue Annals. 2nd ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, p. 671.

Alexander Gardner
March 2010