Dampa Sangye

Who was Dampa Sangye?

Dampa Sangye often known as Pha Dhampa Sangye. or 'Father Dampa Sangye', was a Buddhist Mahasiddha of the Indian Tantric Movement who transmitted many teachings based on both Sutrayana and Tantrayana to Buddhist practitioners in Tibet in the late 11th Century. He travelled to Tibet more than five times. It was on his third trip from India to Tibet that he met Machig Labdrön. Dampa Sangye appears in many of the lineages of Chöd and so in Tibet he is known as the Father of Chod, however perhaps his best known teaching is the 'Pacifying Suffering' teaching known variously as: Shee Ché, Shijed, Zibyed and Zhi-je (Tibetan: ཞི་བྱེད།, Wylie: Zhi-byed). This teaching became an element of the Mahamudra Chöd lineages founded by Machig Labdron.

His Tibetan name Pha dam pa Sangs rgyas, translates into Sanskrit as Buddha Paramapitri, literally "Buddha Excellent Father". He often was identified by the descriptive name Nagpopa, meaning "Black One".

According to a prediction of Padmasambhava he himself would be reborn in the life of Machig Lapdron as Phadampa Sangye. His outer skincolour was black then.

Another text says: "Padampa Sangye (known in India as Paramabuddha) was from southern India, and traveled widely in India, Tibet and China, until his death around 1117 AD. It is widely believed that Padampa Sangye was a mindstream 'emanation' (tulku) of the 8th century monk Kamalaśīla, one of the early teachers of the Dharma in Tibet. He spent much time teaching in the Tingri valley, located between Tibet and Nepal, where he founded a monastery.,.