- Dondup Tseten Dorje
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Dondup Tseten Dorje (Don grub ts'e brtan rdo rje) (fl. 16th century) was the penultimate prince of the Rinpungpa Dynasty which held power in Tsang (West Central Tibet) between 1435 and 1565.
Dondup Tseten Dorje was the second son of the Rinpungpa lord Ngawang Namgyal. He succeeded his father as the prince of Tsang at an uncertain date in the mid-sixteenth century, since his elder brother had died young. He was reputedly a valiant warrior.[1] Like his predecessors he was a patron of the Karmapa sect of Buddhism. He assisted the Karmapa hierarch Mikyö Dorje (1507-54) to build the Sungrap Ling monastery. He also established a preceptor-patron relationship with the lama Kunkhyen Pema Karpo (1527-92) of the Drukpa Kagyu sect, who visited Dondup Tseten Dorje in his castle in 1549.[2] The prince had good religious knowledge and received instruction in Vajrayanasikhara mysticism in the school of the lama Tashi Palzang. Even before the death of his father he expanded Rinpungpa territory by gaining possession of the fief Lhundrubtse in the Nam region.[3] The dynasty tried unsuccessfully to continue the westward expansion initiated by Ngawang Namgyal. Either Dondup Tseten Dorje or his successor suffered a notable defeat in 1554 when the Rinpungpa vainly attacked the Gungthang kingdom in western Tibet.[4] The prince himself died in an unknown year in the 1550s or 1560s and was succeeded by the last ruler of the dynasty, his brother Ngawang Jigme Drakpa.
References
- ^ Sarat Chandra Das, 'Contributions on the Religion, History, etc., of Tibet', Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 51-1, 1881, p. 246.
- ^ Tsepon W.D. Shakabpa, One Hundred Thousand Moons, Leiden 2009, p. 279.
- ^ Ngag-dBang Blo-bZang rGya-mTSHo, A History of Tibet, Bloomington 1995, p. 164. Giuseppe Tucci, Tibetan Painted Scrolls, Rome 1949, p. 642, translates this passage in the chronicle to mean that he conquered Lhundrubtse which not even his father and grandfather had done.
- ^ K.H. Everding, Das Königreich Mangyul Gungthang, Vol. I, Bonn 2000, p. 577.
Categories:- Phagmodrupa dynasty
- 16th-century rulers
- 16th-century Tibetan people
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