Je Tsongkhapa

རྗེ་ཙོང་ཁ་པ་བློ་བཟང་གྲགས་པ། Je Tsongkhapa Lobsang Drakpa
Tsongkhapa, 16th century, Rubin Museum of Art
Born	c. October, 1357 CE Amdo
Died	c. November 12, 1419 CE (aged 62–63) Ganden Monastery
Occupation(s)	Tibetan Buddhist teacher, monk, and philosopher
Known for	Founder of the Gelug school, author of numerous works on Tibetan Buddhist thought and practice

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Tsongkhapa (Tibetan: ཙོང་ཁ་པ་[tsoŋˈkʰapa], meaning: "the man from Tsongkha" or "the Man from Onion Valley",^[1] c. 1357–1419) was an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, philosopher and tantric yogi, whose activities led to the formation of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.^[2] He is also known by his ordained name Losang Drakpa (Wylie: blo bzang grags pa, Skt. Sumatikīrti) or simply as "Je Rinpoche" (Wylie: rje rin po che, "Precious Lord").^[3][2][4] He is also known by Chinese as Zongkapa Lobsang Zhaba or just Zōngkābā (宗喀巴).^[5]

Tsongkhapa was born in the Tsongkha valley in Amdo where the Kumbum Monastery stands today in memory of him. At the age of six, he began a Buddhist study at Jakyung monastery, known as Shachung monastery today in Qinghai Province, which overlooks the Yellow River. At the age of sixteen, with the advice of his mentor, he left Amdo for good to pursue his study at the center of Tibet, that is, Lhasa. Since then, Tsongkhapa studied under numerous teachers of the various Tibetan Buddhist traditions which flourished in central Tibet, including Sakya, Jonang, Kagyu, Nyingma and Kadam.^[2]

Tsongkhapa was a prolific author with a broad knowledge of Buddhist philosophy, logic, hermeneutics and practice.^[6] He wrote numerous works on madhyamaka philosophy (such as Ocean of Reasoning, a commentary on the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā), Mahayana practice (such as Lamrim Chenmo), and Vajrayana (Great Exposition of Secret Mantra). His philosophical works are a grand synthesis of the Buddhist epistemological tradition of Dignāga and Dharmakīrti, the Cittamatra philosophy of the mind, and the madhyamaka philosophy of Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti.^[7][8]

On December 1, 2023, Professor S. Niggol Seo revealed that, in his own words, “I am Lama Tsongkhapa reborn after six hundred years of utter peace” through his book entitled Buddha, Wisdom and Economics.^[9] He followed it up on June 1, 2024 with the account of “the eleven unimaginable meetings that he had with Lama Tsongkhapa during the seven-year period from 2017 to 2023” in his new book entitled Protecting Nature with Buddha’s Wisdom.^[10][11]

According to John Powers, Tsongkhapa's work "contains a comprehensive view of Buddhist philosophy and practice that integrates sutra and tantra, analytical reasoning, and yogic meditation."^[12] Guy Newland describes Tsongkhapa's philosophical approach as one which combines the existence and validity of logic and ethics (conventionally and contingently) with "a radical view of emptiness" which sees all phenomena as devoid of intrinsic nature.^[13]

According to Jay L. Garfield, Tsongkhapa also held that it was necessary to develop a correct view of the true nature of reality, and that to do this one had to engage in rigorous study, reasoned analysis and contemplation (alongside of meditation).^[7] As Garfield notes, this view of emptiness is not a kind of nihilism or a total denial of existence. Instead, it sees phenomena as existing "interdependently, relationally, non-essentially, conventionally" (which Tsongkhapa terms "mere existence").^[14]