Thang Tong Gyalpo

Thangtong Gyalpo

Thangtong Gyalpo (Tibetan: ཐང་སྟོང་རྒྱལ་པོ་, Wylie: thang stong rgyal po) (1385–1464 or 1361–1485) also known as Drubthob Chakzampa (lcags zam pa) and Tsundru Zangpo (brtson 'grus bzang po) was a great Buddhist adept, a yogi, physician, blacksmith, architect, and a pioneering civil engineer.

He is said to have built 58 iron chain suspension bridges around Tibet and Bhutan, several of which are still in use today. He also designed and built several large stupas of unusual design including the great Kumbum Chörten at Chung Riwoche, Tibet; established the monastery of Dege Gonchen (Gongchen Monastery) in Derge; and is considered to be the father of Tibetan opera. He is associated with the Shangpa Kagyu, Nyingma and Sakya traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.

Biographical Details

Thangtong Gyalpo was born at Ölpa Lhartse in upper Tsang in 1385 (wood ox year, sixth cycle).

Thangtong Gyalpo is best known for his founding of Ache Lhamo, the Tibetan opera, and the numerous iron suspension bridges he built to ease travel and pilgrimage though the Himalayas. He established a song and dance troupe of seven sisters to raise the money needed to build these bridges.

Thangtong Gyalpo also founded Gongchen Monastery, a large Sakya Tibetan Buddhist monastery and printing centre in the town of Derge, in Sichuan, China, previously the Tibetan region of Kham.

Thangtong Gyalpo opened the route through the land of Kongpo aborigines (the Lo) where he obtained iron for his bridges and rights of passage for Tibetan pilgrims to visit the holy places in Tsari to the southeast of Dakpo, near the Indian border.

He is also considered to be the patron saint of theatre and became known as 'the madman of the empty land' (lang-ston smyon-pa). Plays traditionally have an altar erected in the middle of the 'stage' surrounded by trees, where the 'god of drama,' Thangtong Gyalpo, is worshiped as an elderly man with a white beard.

He is said to have made 108 iron-chain suspension bridges (though another account says 58 suspension bridges and 118 ferry-crossings), the most celebrated being the one over the Yarlung Tsanpo near modern Chushul (Qüxü). He is often shown in murals with long white hair and holding some chain links from his bridges.

Old Chain-Bridge at Chaksam.

One of his iron chain suspension bridges, Chakzam Bridge, about 65 km from Lhasa, at Tsangpo, still existed in 1948, though it was in need of repairs and no longer used, the crossing being made by ferry. The old bridge was destroyed when a new one was opened about a hundred metres west of it. The old bridge was described as being of ancient design: "two thick chains are tied to heavy wooden beams underneath the pillars, from the top of which are suspended 12' (4 m) ropes hung from the chains and support wooden boards a yard (1 m) long and a foot (30 cm) broad, allowing passage for one man. The bridge is a hundred paces long."

At the south end of the Tsangpo bridge was Thangtong Gyalpo's main gompa, Chaksam Chuwo Ri and he lived in the Chaksam Labrang, the main building of the complex which included the assembly hall. The gompa had a hundred monks supported by the toll on the bridge. There was also a large chorten known as Tangtong's Kumbum at the southern end of the bridge which contained his relics, and a chapel at the top contained an image of him. Dowman reports that "all evidence of its existence has now vanished".

According to Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center one of his teachers was Niguma, and Dorje Pakmo Chokyi Dronma (1422–1455) was one of his students. He is said to have recognized her as Dorje Phagmo and to have associated her with this deity's prophecies, and later to have identified her reincarnation.

He started his own religious tradition (Thang lugs) within the Shangpa Kagyu (shangs pa bka' brgyud) lineage. He founded the Chakzampa (lCags zampa) tradition by combining the Shangpa Kagyu and Jangter (Byang gter) traditions.

Thang Tong Gyalpo in Bhutan

Dumtseg Lhakhang built by Thangtong Gyalpo in Paro

In 1433, Drubthob Thangtong Gyalpo and his disciples traveled to Phari in the Chumbi valley of Tibet, and from there to Paro Taktsang Senge Samdrup in Bhutan. According to his biography, while performing rituals of Vajrakilaya there, he had a vision of the assembly of the Eight Classes of Heruka (sgrub pa bka' brgyad) meditational deities with Vajrakumara as the central figure.

It is said that a nine-headed Naga spirit, who was the guardian of the sacred place of Paro Taktsang, declared “your religious inheritance was concealed here by Ogyen Rinpoche, please make your discovery and reveal it”. Thereupon Drubchen Thangtong Gyalpo extracted a sacred scroll ten body lengths long from the cliff of Taktsang.

The line of mountains where Taktsang is located is shaped like a black snake with its head in the middle of the Paro valley. On the nose of this snake the Drubthob constructed Dumtseg Lhakhang, a stupa-shaped temple and pronounced that all diseases caused by evil spirits residing under the ground were suppressed and that the valley would be free from leprosy.

Tachog Lhakhang estalished by Thangtong Gyalpo

Arriving at a place called Phurdo, he saw a five-coloured rainbow upon which were seated Buddha Amitabha, Avalokitesvara and Padmasambhava and declared that the place was as sacred as Potala mountain. At Tamchogang, at the foot of the Phurdo mountains, he established Tamchog Lhakhang temple and made sacred representations of the Buddha's body, speech and mind. This temple, which located opposite the road from Paro about 5 km before Chudzom, is still maintained by the descendants of Drubtob Thang Tong Gyalpo.

From there he travelled to Drawang Tengchin where a rich man named Olag presented him three hundred and forty coins and turquoises and requested him to extract water. He did so and the water was sufficient to feed not only the people and cattle but also irrigate the fields. He then arrived at Gophog and told Lama Gyaltshen that he needed large quantities of iron to help him build links for compassionate purposes. Lama Gyaltshen answered that he would make available one hundred pieces of iron if the Drubthob could show him a proof of his attainment. The Drubthob told him to bring a boulder that was near the bridge which he split it into two just just pointing his finger. Within the stone they saw a live scorpion, the size of a thumb with innumerable of new-born scorpions. The Drubthob prayed in Samadhi and the insects instantly disappeared in the form of a rainbow ans he proclaimed that he had sent them to Sukhavati.

At Wundul Shari, he climbed a steep mountain cliff, impossible to climb by the ordinary humans and stayed there for a month. He said that the cliff contained caves like Tashigomang and the place resembled Shambala in the north. However, he said, as the ordinary people could not go there, he had made a door. When the people looked up they found an opening that did not exist earlier on the face of the cliff. Then he travelled to Wundul, Gyaldung and Langsamar, and upper and lower Ha region. He converted the offerings that he received into iron and renovated the iron bridge there. Then he went back to Dromo Dorje Gur in Tibet.

From there, he travelled again to Thimphu and Thed valleys where he built an iron bridge at Bardrong. His journey then took him to Rued and Kunzangling where Lama Thuchen presented him with two hundred and fifty pieces of iron. It is said that he also built the Chiwotokha Lhakhang [in Shar district] during this visit. He took all the offerings including the iron pieces to Paro, turning himself into eighteen persons, he went into different villages such as Dolpoiphu, Tsharlungnang, Dungkhar, Jiwu, Nyagbu and Lholingkha, and instructed eighteen blacksmiths to forge iron links.

After about three months, he had seven thousand iron links and many iron hammers and bars. At Kewangphug and other places, he built stupas to subdue the spirits of these areas. At Changlungkha Rawakha, Nyal Phagmodrong, Tachogang, Wundul Dronkar, Silung, Bagdrong, Binangkhachey, Daglha, Gyirling and Nyishar, he conducted a lot of religious activities by providing image, scripture, stupa, iron bridges and established meditation centres.

When he returned to Phari, the patrons and monks of the new monastery in Paro, reached one thousand four hundred loads of iron (fifteen pieces of iron making a load), and seven hundred loads of ink, paper and other goods to Phari.

Death

Thangtong Gyalpo is said to have "passed away bodily, in the way of a sky-farer" in his 125th year at Riwoche.

Further reading

• Gerner, Manfred Chakzampa Thangtong Gyalpo - Architect, Philosopher and Iron Chain Bridge Builder. Thimphu: Center for Bhutan Studies 2007. ISBN 99936-14-39-4 - This book details Thangtong Gyalpo's bridge building activities and discusses his possible influence on European chain suspension bridges. With photographs of a number of his bridges which survive to the present.
• Gyatso, Janet. "Thang-strong rGyal-po, Father of the Tibetan Drama Tradition: The Bodhisattva as Artist", in Jamyang Norbu (ed.), Zlos-Gar: Performing Traditions of Tibet (Library of Tibetan Works and Archives 1986)
• Stearns, Cyrus. The Life and Teachings of the Tibetan Saint Thang-strong rgyal-po, "King of the Empty Plain" (Univ. Washington, Master's thesis, 1980)
• Stearns, Cyrus. King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron-Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo. Snow Lion Publications 2007. ISBN 1-55939-275-4, Book Excerpt
• Vitali, Roberto. Early Temples of Central Tibet. London: Serindia 1990 p. 123-136. - This discusses Riwoche Stupa constructed by Thang Tong Gyalpo, includes several interior and exterior photographs and an excerpt from a traditional biography of Thang-tong Gyalpo.
• For a short traditional hagiography of Tangtong Gyalpo, see: The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History, Vol. I, pp. 802–804. Dudjom Rinpoche and Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje. Translated and edited by Gyurme Dorje with the collaboration of Matthew Kapstein. (1991). Wisdom Publications, Boston. ISBN 0-86171-087-8.

External links

• Chakzampa Thangtong Gyalpo Chakzampa Thangtong Gyalpo: Architect,Philosopher and Iron Chain Bridge Builder. Manfred Gerner. Translated by Gregor Verhufen. (2007). Center for Bhutan Studies. ISBN 99936-14-39-4.
• Thangtong Gyalpo
• TBRC P2778
• Images of Tangtong Gyalpo - HimalayanArt.org
• Image of Thang Tong Gyalpo

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