Vajradhara in Human Form: The Life and Times of Ngor chen Kun dga' bzang po

📖 The Scoop

The book deals with the life story of the strong advocate of vegetarianism and tantric expert Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (1382-1456), who was one of the most outstanding and influential Sakya masters of fifteenth-century Tibet. Among his manifold influential activities, Ngorchen is most of all remembered for his founding, in 1429, of Ngor Ewam Choden Monastery. Withdrawing from the worldly distractions of the bustling town of Sakya as well as from sectarian conflicts, he left his traditional alma mater of Sakya Monastery and set up his new monastic seat in the remote Ngor valley, located about 30 kilometres southwest of Samdruptse (present-day Shigatse) in Tsang Province, where, based on the observance of a strict monastic discipline, he hoped to go back to traditional Sakya teaching and practice in a more supportive environment. Immediately Ngor became a new centre for tantric training within the monastic circles of the Sakya school. Ngorchen, as the leading tantric expert, trained a whole new generation of young students, producing some of the schoo’'s brightest minds. Grounded on his distinctive understanding of tantric ritual and practice, Ngorchen became the founding father of the Ngor tradition, which quickly developed into the most prominent subdivision of the Sakya school.

Genre: Religion / Buddhism / Tibetan (fancy, right?)