Jamgon Kongtrul

Who is Jamgon Kongtrul?

Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé was one of the most prominent Buddhist masters in Tibet in the 19th century. He is credited as one of the founders of the Rime movement of Tibetan Buddhism and he compiled what is known as the Five Great Treasuries. He achieved great renown as a scholar and writer, and authored more than one hundred volumes of scriptures.

Having seen how the Gelug institutions pushed the other traditions into the corners of Tibet's cultural life, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé compiled together the teachings of the Sakya, Kagyu and Nyingma, including many near-extinct teachings. Without Khyentse and Kongtrul's collecting and printing of rare works, the suppression of Buddhism by the Communists would have been much more final.