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Lochen Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055; ), also known as Mahaguru, was a principal

lotsawa Lotsawa () is a Tibetan word used as a title to refer to the native Tibetan translators, such as Vairotsana, Rinchen Zangpo, Marpa Lotsawa, Tropu Lotsawa Jampa Pel and others, who worked alongside Indian scholars or panditas to translate Budd ...

or translator of Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Tibetan during the second diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet, variously called the New Translation School, New Mantra School or New Tantra Tradition School. He was a student of the famous Indian master, Atisha. His associates included (Locheng) Legpai Sherab. Zangpo's disciple Guge Kyithangpa Yeshepal wrote Zangpo's biography.Roberto Vitali, in McKay 2003, pp. 71-72 He is said to have built over one hundred monasteries in Western Tibet, including the famous

Tabo Monastery Tabo Monastery (or Tabo Chos-Khor Monastery) is located in the Tabo village of Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, northern India. It was founded in 996 CE in the Tibetan year of the Fire Ape by the Tibetan Buddhist ''lotsawa'' (translator) Rinche ...

Spiti Spiti (pronounced as Piti in Bhoti language) is a high-altitude region of the Himalayas, located in the north-eastern part of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The name "Spiti" means "The middle land", i.e. the land between Tib ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

, Poo in

Kinnaur Kinnaur is one of the twelve administrative districts of the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. The district is divided into three administrative areas (Kalpa, Nichar (Bhabanagar), and Pooh) and has six tehsils. The administrative he ...

and

Rinchenling monastery Rinchenling Gompa (monastery) is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Nepal located in Limi Valley of Humla district near the Tibet border at an altitude of about 3500 m msl. History The monastery was founded by Rinchen Zangpo during 10th ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

. Rinchen Zangpo had been sent as a young man by King Yeshe-Ö, the ruler of

Zanskar Zanskar, Zahar (locally) or Zangskar, is a tehsil of Kargil district, in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. The administrative centre is Padum (former Capital of Zanskar). Zanskar, together with the neighboring region of Ladakh, was brie ...

, Guge, Spiti and

, with other young scholars to Kashmir and other Buddhist centres to study and bring back Buddhist teachings to Western Tibet. He was possibly the single most important person for the 'Second Propagation of Buddhism' in Tibet. Some sources conflate him with his patron Yeshe-Ö as king of the western Himalayan Kingdom of Guge. Among his translations are the ''Viśeṣastavaṭikā'' by Prajñāvarman, which he undertook together with Janārdhana.Schneider, Johannes (1993). Der Lobpreis der Vorzüglichkeit des Buddha. Bonn: Indica et Tibetica Verlag. p. 21

Notes

References

Bibliography

*Handa, O. C. (1987). ''Buddhist Monasteries in Himachal Pradesh''. Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi. *Kapadia, Harish. (1999). ''Spiti: Adventures in the Trans-Himalaya''. Second Edition. Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi. . *McKay, Alex (ed.). (2003). ''Tibet and Her Neighbors: A History''. Walther Konig. *Rizvi, Janet. (1996). ''Ladakh: Crossroads of High Asia''. Second Revised Edition. Oxford University Press. . *Tucci, Giuseppe. (1988). ''Rin-chen-bzan-po and the Renaissance of Buddhism in Tibet Around the Millennium''. First Italian Edition 1932. First draft English translation by Nancy Kipp Smith, under the direction of Thomas J. Pritzker. Edited by Lokesh Chandra. English version of ''Indo-Tibetica II''. Aditya Rakashan, New Delhi. .

External links

Rinchen Zangpo - Rigpa Wiki
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Mural of Rinchen Zangpo

Tibetan Medical & Astrology Institute of the Dalai Lama

Tibetanmedicine.com

Central Council of Tibetan Medicine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zangpo, Rinchen Scholars of Buddhism from Tibet Tibetan Buddhist spiritual teachers Kadampa lamas Tibetan Buddhists from Tibet 1055 deaths 958 births 10th-century Tibetan people 11th-century Tibetan people Translators to Tibetan Translators from Sanskrit 10th-century Buddhists 11th-century Buddhists People related to Lahaul and Spiti district