Drokmi Lotsawa
Drokmi Lotsawa Shakya Yeshe (བྲོག་མི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཤཱཀྱ་ཡེ་ཤེས་, Wyl. brog mi lo tsA wa shAkya ye shes) aka Drogmi Lotsawa (brog mi lo tsa ba) (992-1072/1074) — a great translator of the early Sarma period, and an important master in the transmission of the Lamdré teachings to Tibet.
Tibetan translator who went to India and received the Lamdre teaching lineage of Virupa and transmitted them to the founder of the Sakya tradition, Khon Konchok Gyalpo.
One of the most important sources of the Sakya teachings is the great Indian master Virupa (9th century), who was one of the eighty-four mahasiddhas. His lineage passed through Gayadhara (994-1043) to his Tibetan disciple, Drokmi Lotsawa.
In turn, Drokmi Lotsawa passed the lineage to his main disciple, Khön Könchok Gyalpo (1034-1102), founder of the Sakya school.
Marpa Lotsawa also studied for fifteen years under the guidance of Drokmi Lotsawa, learning Sanskrit and other subjects.
Drogmi Lotsawa (993-1050) was the first historical master in the Sakya Lineage that is passed down from father to son;
he had received the transmissions of Virupa, a pious monk living at Somapuri Monastery before he became a wandering yogi and master of the historical lineage of the patriarchs.
Marpa mastered the Tibetan arts, language and literature, and Sanskrit under Drogmi Lotsawa’s tutelage in 3 years (other texts state in 15 years). Drogmi Lotsawa lived at Mang Khar.
Khon Konchog Gyalpo met Drogmi Lotsawa and received all the profound tantric teachings from him.
It was due to Drogmi's tutorship in Sanskrit and his guidance that many Tibetans became renowned translators, including Marpa and Goe Lotsawa.
In the eleventh century, due to the obscurations of beings, Dharma practice became very lax in Tsang. It was decided by the head of the family, Sherab Tsultrim, that it was time to seek out the new Tantras from India .
Guru Padmasambhava wrote; "an emanation of the Indian Virupa - Drogmi Lotsawa will appear."
The younger brother, Konchog Gyalpo, went to study with Drogmi Lotsawa (992-1074). Khon Konchog Gyalpo (1034-1102) founded the Sakya Monastery there 33 years later in 1073. He was a disciple of Drogmi Lotsawa from whom he received many deep teachings - especially the precious Lamdre.
The profound teaching itself originated from the India teachers Virupa, Avadhuti, Gayadhara and Shakyamitra, and was first brought to Tibet by Drogmi Lotsawa, who also rendered it into Tibetan.
The Sakya Tradition largely depends upon the work of Drogmi Lotsawa Shakya Yeshe, one of the most famous of the eleventh century translators whose work was so crucial in restoring authentic Buddhadharma to Tibet after the collapse of the Tibetan Empire in the mid-9th century.
Drogmi's found in the Fifth Dalai Lama's hagiography of the famed eclectic yogi and scholar, Tsarchen Losal Gyatso:
The sayings of Drogmi Lotsawa state, "Even if one's Guru has gone to hell, if one supplicates him thinking he is a Buddha, the blessings of a Buddha will enter one's mind.
Since there is also an inseparable interconnection in the ultimate nature of both of them Guru and disciple, it is certainly true."
Further Reading
- Cyrus Stearns, Luminous Lives: The Story of the Early Masters of the Lam 'bras Tradition in Tibet, Wisdom Publications, 2001.
