Butön Rinchen Drup (), (1290–1364), 11th Abbot of

Shalu Monastery Shalu Monastery () is small monastery south of Shigatse in Tibet. Founded in 1040 by Chetsun Sherab Jungnay, for centuries it was renowned as a centre of scholarly learning and psychic training and its mural paintings were considered to be the ...

, was a 14th-century

Sakya The ''Sakya'' (, 'pale earth') school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug. It is one of the Red Hat Orders along with the Nyingma and Kagyu. Origins Virūpa, 16th century. It depict ...

master and

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Darjeeling, Sikkim, and Arunachal Prades ...

leader. Shalu was the first of the major monasteries to be built by noble families of the Tsang dynasty during Tibet's great revival of Buddhism, and was an important center of the Sakya tradition. Butön was not merely a capable administrator but he is remembered to this very day as a prodigious scholar and writer and is

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

's most celebrated historian.

Biography

Buton was born in 1290, "to a family associated with a monastery named Sheme Gomne (shad smad sgom gnas) in the Tropu (khro phu) area of Tsang ... isfather was a prominent Nyingma Lama named Drakton Gyeltsen Pelzang (brag ston rgyal btshan dpal bzang, d.u.). His mother, also a Nyingma master, was called Sonam Bum (bsod nams 'bum, d.u.)." Buton catalogued all of the

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

scriptures Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

at Shalu, some 4,569

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

and

philosophical Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

works and formatted them in a logical, coherent order. He wrote the famous book, the ''

History of Buddhism in India and Tibet ''History of Buddhism in India and its Spread to Tibet'' (''bde gshegs bstan pa'i gsal byed chos hyi 'byung gnas'') () is a historical text by Buton Rinchen Drub, a famous Sakya (Tibetan Buddhist school), Sakya master, written either in 1322 or 1 ...

'' at Shalu which many Tibetan scholars utilize in their study today. After his death he strongly influenced the development of

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as the Western mystery tradition, is a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas and currents are united since they are largely distinct both from orthod ...

studies and

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

in Tibet for centuries. The purpose of his works were not to cultivate

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

magical abilities but to attain

enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

, a belief that all earthly phenonoma are a state of the mind. He remains to this day one of the most important

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

historians A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and

writers in the history of

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and

. Panchen Sönam Drakpa (1478-1554), the fifteenth abbot of

Ganden Ganden Monastery (also Gaden or Gandain) or Ganden Namgyeling or Monastery of Gahlden is one of the "great three" Gelug university monasteries located in Dagzê County, Lhasa, Tibet. The other two are Sera Monastery and Drepung Monastery. Ga ...

monastery, became known as an incarnation of the great lama and historian, Bütön Rinchen Drupa.''Tales of Intrigue from Tibet's Holy City: The Historical Underpinnings of a Modern Buddhist Crisis'' Thesis by Lindsay G. McCune, p. 51
The Florida State University College of Arts and Sciences

Sources

External links

rgyal mtshan dpal bzang ( b. 13th cent. )

TBRC P155 Bu ston Rin chen grubTBRC Outline of the Collected Works of Bu ston Rin chen grub

Buddhism Dictionary: Butön rin-chen-grupButön Rinchen Drup
Rigpa Wiki * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rinchen, Buton Sakya lamas Tibetan Buddhism writers Tibetan historians Tibetan Buddhist monks Tibetan Buddhists from Tibet 13th-century Tibetan people 14th-century Tibetan people 13th-century lamas 14th-century lamas

Biography

See also

Sources

Further reading

External links