- ༡. དཀར་ཆག i
- ༢. གླེང་བརྗོད། Preface iii
- ༣. ངོ་སྤྲོད། Introduction 1
- ༤. སྐྱོ་སྟོན་རྣམ་ཐར་ལྷུན་པོ་རིན་ཆེན་བཞི་པའི་མཛེས་རྒྱན། 63
- ༥. སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་གསན་ཡིག 133
- ༦. མཆིམས་ནམ་མཁའ་གྲགས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་རིན་ཆེན་གཏེར་མཛོད། 161
- ༧. མཆིམས་ནམ་མཁའ་གྲཊ་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་ཡྟོན་བསྔགས་པའི་ཕྲེང་བ། 183
- ༨. ཆོས་འཆད་ཉན་ལ་འཇུག་པ་སྣང་བྱེད་འོད་ཟེར། 244
- ༩. མདོ་སྡེ་རྒྱན་གྱི་མན་ངག 276
- ༡༠. དབུས་མཐའི་མན་ངག 285
- ༡༡. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་མན་ངག་གསལ་བའི་མེ་ཏོག 303
- ༡༢. མངོན་རྟོགས་རྒྱན་འགྲེལ་ལེགས་བཤད་སྐྱེས་བུའི་དོན་སྒྲུབ། 320
- ༡༣. ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་བཞག་ས། 601
- ༡༤. འོད་གསལ་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན། 611
- ༡༥. སྐྱེས་བུ་གསུམ་གྱི་ལམ་ཁྲིད་། 615
- ༡༦. སྙིན་ཞག་རེའི་གསག་སྦྱང་གི་རིམ་པ། 628
- ༡༧. སྡེ་སྣོད་བཅུད་བསྡུས་མང་ངག་སྙིང་པོ། 630
- ༡༨. རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ལག་ལེན་དུ་དྲིལ་བ། 637
- ༡༩. གདམས་ངག་ཁ་གཏམ་ལོ་རྒྱུས། 681
- ༢༠. ལག་ཁྲིད་ཀྱི་གདམས་པ་བཅུ་གཉིས། 686
- ༢༡. ཞི་བ་ལྷའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཀྱི་ཆོ་ག 690
- ༢༢. ཞི་ལྷ་ནས་བརྒྱུད་པའི་བྱང་སེམས་སྦྱོང་ཐབས། 698
- ༢༣. སྤྱོད་འཇུག་གི་འཁོར་ལོ་ལྟ་བུའི་སྒོམ་དོན། 705
- ༢༤. བསླླབ་བཏུས་ཀྱི་གདམས་པ། 717
- ༢༥. མར་མེ་མཛད་ཀྱི་དབུ་མའི་མན་ངག 719
- ༢༦. མར་མེ་མཛད་ཀྱི་དབུ་མའི་མང་ངག་བསྡུས་པ། 725
- ༢༧. ཐེག་ཆེན་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་གདམས་པ། 729
- ༢༨. ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཁྲིད་། 742
- ༢༩. འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་འཆི་ཁ་མའི་མན་ངག 750
- ༣༠. མི་གཡོ་བའི་དམིགས་པ་སྐོར་གསུམ། 755
- ༣༡. རོ་སྙོམས་གསུམ་གྱི་གདམས་ངག 759
- ༣༢. ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་མུན་པ་རྣམ་སེལ། 778
Preface
Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim, the abbot who led Narthang monastery
at the peak of its history, was an illustrious figure of his time
in Central Tibet. A resolute monk, a meditation master, a learned
scholar, author, and public figure, he epitomized the high ideals,
practices, and approaches of the Kadam school and championed
its traditions of scriptural exegesis and meditation instructions. A
Kadam luminary, he also left behind religious writings which hold
great significance for Tibetan Buddhist scholarship and practice today.
It was his short works on buddha-nature which initially drew
the interest of modern scholars and my own attention as I began
my work as writer-in-digital residence for the Tsadra Foundation.
These short tracts, like the rest of his writings, were discovered
about two decades ago in the library of Drepung and published by
Paltsek Bodyig Penying Zhibjugkhang (Dpal brtsegs bod yig dpe
rnying zhib ’jug khang, དཔལ་བགས་ད་ག་ད་ང་བ་འག་ཁང་) under
the aegis of Alak Zengkar Rinpoche. At the invitation of Karma
Delek, who was at that time leading the project on the ground, I
witnessed the work of listing and scanning these books in Drepung
in 2002 during my first trip to Tibet. Without their massive
and sustained initiative to preserve and make accessible the literary
wealth of Tibet, which has suffered colossal damage and destruction
in the twentieth century, we would not have much knowledge
of Kyotön and many other masters of Tibet.
The writings of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim appear in volume 50 of
the second batch and volume 61 of the third batch of the Collected
Works of Kadam series published in 2007 and 2009 by Paltsek
Bodyig Penying Zhibjugkhang and Sichuan People’s Publishing
House. Volume 50 contains most of his writings, making up a full
book containing 24 titles with 425 pages, and volume 61 in the
third batch contains only five titles ranging from pages 117–166.
The titles in volume 61 were discovered after publishing the first
set in volume 50 and thus were added later. The original books are
stored in Nechu Lhakhang, the temple in which the statues of the
Buddha and the sixteen arhats are located, in Drepung monastery in Tibet. They are books in loose leaf (poti, ་ ་) format and written
in obscure Ume (dbu med, ད ་ ད་) script, which, in numerous
cases, are abbreviated, faded, or poorly inscribed. The texts also
contain many annotations in small cursive letters, most of them
added after the books were written, inserted between the lines or
al་ong the margins. The books are marked “external” (phyi, ་) to
perhaps indicate that they were brought from outside and housed
in Nechu Lhakhang in Drepung monastery. Apart from this, there
is no information available on the provenance of the books before
they reached the library in Drepung where they have remained sequestered
for several centuries. It is quite likely that these books
along with thousands of other titles, including those that are now
lost, were deposited in Drepung as the Ganden Phodrang rose to
political power in Tibet in the middle of the seventeenth century.
For the recensions of these texts in this book, we used the scanned
copies of the texts as exemplars, as we did not have direct access
to the original manuscripts. We had initially used the scans available
on the Buddhist Digital Resource Center, but due to their poor
resolution we subsequently used the higher resolution scans prepared
by Marcus Perman from the printed copies. The biography of
Chim Namkha Drak in prose by Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim and the
biography of Kyotön himself by Nyima Gyeltsen, however, are not
from the Collected Works of Kadam series. They are reproduced
from the manuscript of the Golden Rosary of Narthang available at
the Buddhist Digital Resource Center. The biographies were written
in clear Uchen script and can be found on pages A279–B384
in that version of the Golden Rosary of Narthang. Although the
scans of the original texts of these two biographies are clear and
easy to read, they have been reproduced here to make this book
comprehensive in presenting the life and works of Kyotön Monlam
Tsultrim.
Our main objective for reproducing the books in Uchen (dbu can,
ད ་ཅན་) typeset is to make the writings easily accessible to readers,
including international researchers and Himalayan readers who do
not have knowledge of Ume script. Having a computerized type set also helps us have searchable texts for various purposes. In
the process of the input and compilation of this volume, we have
also been able to ascertain the true works of Kyotön from those
mistakenly attributed to him by the editors of the Collected Works
of Kadam series and before them by the curators of the archives
at Nechu Lhakhang in Drepung. Close reading of the texts helped
us verify most of the cases, but a few still remain to be confirmed.
Although included in volume 50 containing works attributed to
Kyotön, the biographies of Paldenpa (alias Drotön Dutsi Drak),
Chumikpa, Sangay Gompa, and Zhang Chökyi Lama are excluded
from this book. The versions of these biographies in Ume script in
volume 50 do not have colophons, but the near identical versions
in the Golden Rosary of Narthang have colophons showing Chim
Namkha Drak as their author, and the titles are also listed among
the writings of Chim Namkha Drak by Kyotön. However, the hagiography
of Chim Namkha Drak in verse found in volume 50,
like the long prose biography of Chim Namkha Drak in the Golden
Rosary of Narthang, is undoubtedly a composition of Kyotön. In
volume 61, the short longevity ritual text entitled The Heart of
All Buddhas (Bde gshegs kun gyi snying po, བ་གགས་ན་ི་ང་་) included among Kyotön’s writings has a colophon showing Padmasambhava
as the author, and the two sādhana practice manuals
of Parṇaśavarī are clearly works of Chomden Rikpai Raldri, while
one text entitled A Hundred Verses on the Noble Qualities of the
Followers of Kadam Scriptural Tradition (Bka’ gdams gzhung pa’i
rnam thar tshigs su bcad pa brgya pa, བཀའ་གདམས་གང་པ་མ་ཐར་
གས་་བཅད་པ་བ་པ་) appears to be a work of someone after Kyotön.
Thus, these three texts are not included in this book, although
they are classified as writings of Kyotön in the Collected Works of
Kadam series.
Many other writings attributed to Kyotön may also be only recensions
of texts composed by authors before Kyotön, but we cannot
conclusively ascertain this without further evidence. For example,
the colophon of the Instructions on Perfection (Phar phyin gyi man
ngag, ཕར་ན་ི་མན་ངག་) states that Kyotön, “the great master, the
eighth abbot of Narthang wrote this from/based on the text of Nyen and the monk Chökyi Gyeltsen transcribed and edited it (གཉན་ི་
ད་ལ་བ་དན་ན་་ར་ཐང་པ་བད་པར་ན་པས་ས། ་ལ་བན་པ་ས་་ལ་
མཚན་ིས་ས་ང་ས་་དག་པར་ས་པ།།). It is very likely that this text
was composed by one Nyen and Kyotön merely transcribed it, but
it is also possible that he used the text by Nyen as a basis to write
this text. We also find many other titles such as the Instruction
on the Ultimate Continuum of Mahāyāna (Theg pa chen po rgyud
bla ma’i gdams pa, ག་པ་ན་་ད་་མ་གདམས་པ་), the Repository of
Pristine Wisdom (Ye shes kyi bzhag sa, ་ས་་བཞག་ས་), Instructions
on Reality (Chos nyid kyi khrid, ས་ད་་ད་) and Instructions
for Dying (’Chi kha’i man ngag, འ་ཁ་མན་ངག་) attributed Kyotön,
as explained below in the introduction, although these titles appear
in the list of teachings he received from his teachers and among
the writings of earlier masters. Thus, it is difficult to ascertain if
the texts bearing these titles among Kyotön’s writings are original
compositions of Kyotön with similar titles or merely earlier texts
transcribed or redacted by him. However, the fact that they appear
in different lists suggests their importance and use by the scholars
of the time, and their authorship can be confirmed only when further
evidence comes to light.
