by Ben Deitle
| Type | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Dechen (བདེ་ཆེན་) |
| Variant names | bde chen stengs |
| Period | |
| Transliteration form | bde chen |
| Pronunciation | Dechen |
| Etymology | literally: “bliss-great” |
| Sectarian affiliation | kaM tshang bka’ bgyud |
| Source of information | George Roerich, trans., The Blue Annals (Delhi: Motialal Banarsidass, 1976). |
| Location | |
| Nation | China |
| Province | Tibet Autonomous Region |
| District | Lhasa (lha sa) |
| County | Tölung Dechen Dzong (stod lung bde chen rdzong)? |
| Cultural location | Central Tibet |
| Location's language | Central Tibetan dialect (dbus skad) |
| Location description | |
| Date founded | unknown |
| Founder | Götsangpa (rgod tshang pa, 1189-1258) or Rangjung Dorjé (rang byung rdo rje, 1284-1339), the Third Karmapa (kar ma pa) |
| Abbots | unknown |
| Blue Annals References | bde chen: 499, 500, 504, 526, 528, 529, 531, 541; bde chen stengs: 491, 525, 537, 538, 686, 698, 699 |
Within the Blue Annals chapter on the Kagyü school, two similarly named monastic institutions, Dechen and Dechen Teng, appear a handful of times. Both names occur in the context of the same small group of people, including the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé (1284-1339), his students Drakpa Senggé (grags pa seng+ge, 1283-1349) and Khedrup Dargyelwa (mkhas grub dar rgyal ba, d. 1385), and the Fourth Karmapa Rölpé Dorjé (rol pa’i rdo rje, 1340-1383). Other people are mentioned in connection with just one or the other of the monastery names (Dechen or Dechen Teng), but they in turn all have a relationship with the above figures. For example, Götsangpa (1189-1258) and his student Urgyenpa (u rgyan pa, 1229/1230-1309) are only mentioned in connection with “Dechen Teng,” and Urgyenpa was the one who identified Rangjung Dorjé as the reincarnation of Karma Pakshi. With such close connections and similar monastic activities taking place in both contexts, it would seem prudent to assume that these are in fact one and the same monastery.
The monastery is described as being near Lhasa (Roerich, 499). This would make a strong case for the monastery being named after the locality of Dechen (or vice versa) located to the northwest of Lhasa along the Tölung river valley (the present day township and county by the name of Tölung Dechen, for which see the THDL Gazetteer). None of the abbots are ever mentioned in the Blue Annals, but there is an episode when Drakpa Senggé narrarrates the attmept by Rölpé Dorjé to force him to take the seat of Dechen: “The Dharmasvāmin when he was going to found the monastery of nags phu in kong po, appointed me, against my wish, abbot of the bde chen monastery. But I refused to comply with his command” (བདེ་ཆེན་གྱི་གདན་སར་ནན་གྱིས་བསྐོས་པ་ལ།) (Roerich, 529; Chengdu, 626). Rangjung Dorjé is the figure most commonly associated with the monastery, and there are numerous accounts of his coming or going from Dechen, or other people coming to meet him there.
There is a problem, however, when we consider the founding of the monastery. Within the Blue Annals, both Götsangpa and Rangjung Dorjé are given credit for the founding of Dechen Teng. In the account of Rangjung Dorjé’s life, we are told: “After that he founded the monastery of bde chen stengs, where he had many visions” (དེ་ནས་ཡང་བདེ་ཆེན་སྟེངས་ཀྱི་དགོན་པ་བཏབ།) (Roerich, 491; Chengdu, 584). He is again attributed with its founding of Dechen in the section on Drakpa Senggé (Roerich, 525). In the case of Götsangpa, the Blue Annals informs us: “In his later life he founded numerous monasteries, such as steng gro, spung dra, byang gling, bde chen stengs, bar 'brog rdo rje gling, and others, and from each of these monasteries there originated many thousands of monk adepts (sādhaka)” (།དེ་ནས་སྐུ་ཚེའི་སྨད་ལ་སྟེང་གྲོ་དང༌། སྤུད་དྲ་དང༌། བྱང་གླིང༌། བདེ་ཆེན་སྟེངས། བར་འབྲོག་རྡོ་རྗེ་གླིང་ལ་སོགས་པའི་[803]དགོན་པ་མང་དུ་བཏབ།) (Roerich, 686; Chengdu, 802-3). Since they lived at different times, we can assume that they did not collaborate on the project. So what is the story of Dechen's founding? Are these in fact two different monasteries founded by two different people? Or are the contradicting accounts in the Blue Annals a mistake? Perhaps the monastery was founded by Götsangpa and later improved or re-founded by Rangjung Dorjé. Hopefully, further analysis in the future can bring resolution to these questions.
499: rol pa’i rdo rje (a.k.a. kar ma pa IV)
“After that he proceeded towards bde chen near lha sa.”
500: rol pa’i rdo rje (a.k.a. kar ma pa IV)
“After that he journeyed to se mo do, as well as towards the North, to mtsho mo ru khyung [R:500] and other localities. Then at bde chen he gave to the mahā-ācārya a description of the Imperial Palace at ta'i tu (Tai tu), stating the number of inhabitants, etc. He said: "Keep this in your mind, and later when you will reach there, you will find it to be true!"”
504: rol pa’i rdo rje (a.k.a. kar ma pa IV)
“The offerings, which had been gathered in these places, were spent in offering seven tea ceremonies to monasteries, which had at least ten monks, in dbus and gtsang. He despatched the bla ma ri po sgang pa to supervise the distribution of offerings. In [F:44b] this manner he served the Doctrine. He offered a votive lamp made of eleven large measures of silver to the image of the Lord (jo bo) in lha sa. To the great image of 'tshur phu he offered several golden leaves made of five measures (bre chen) of gold. He also presented five lamps made of thirty one silver measures. To dge 'dun sgang pa he offered a lamp made of three measures of silver. To bde chen he offered a lamp made of three [R:505] measures of silver. Further, he offered silver lamps and a considerable sum of money for the maintenance of eternal votive lamps in the vihāras of Lower khams, such as the monastery of kar ma and others.”
526: grags pa seng ge (dbang gu ras pa ) (1283-1349)
“He spent the winter meditating at bde chen, and developed the faculty of training in dreams and of (manifesting) his illusory body.”
528: grags pa seng ge (dbang gu ras pa ) (1283-1349) goes to meet Dharmasvāmin rang byung rdo rje.
“After that he proceeded to bde chen to interview the Dharmasvāmin. He spent five full years meditating at bde chen and heard many doctrines. He received final monastic ordination in the presence of the mahā-upādhyāya gzhon nu byang chub and the acāryā bkra shis rin chen. He also heard several doctrines from the upādhyāya. Then during a Tantric feast (tshogs gral), he saw the mountains of dags lha sgam po through his prabhāsvara, and dags po lha rje residing inside a sphere of rainbows, and he recollected former states.”
529: grags pa seng ge (dbang gu ras pa ) (1283-1349) “He used to say "The Dharmasvāmin when he was going to found the monastery of nags phu in kong po, appointed me, against my wish, abbot of the bde chen monastery. But I refused to comply with his command. Because of this, in later life my own disciples disobeyed my words."” བདེ་ཆེན་གྱི་གདན་སར་ནན་གྱིས་བསྐོས་པ་ལ། (Chengdu, 626)
531: grags pa seng ge (dbang gu ras pa ) (1283-1349)
“After that he received a message from the Precious Dharmasvāmin from the Imperial Palace (Peking), saying that he should take up residence at bde chen. He therefore settled at bde chen. Here he built a spacious mansion and spent a summer. Then he felt slightly indisposed, and thought that gnas nang was a healthier place. He moved there and soon recovered. In the Hare year (yos lo 1339 A.D.), while he was staying in strict seclusion at bde chen, he perceived that the Precious Dharmasvāmin had passed away at the Imperial Palace.”
541: mkha' spyod dbang po (1350-1405)
“At bde chen he was ordained by the mahā-upādhyāya rin po che don grub dpal ba and the Dharmasvāmin rol pa'i rdo rje, who acted as upādhyāya and ācārya.”
491: kar ma pa III rang byung rdo rje (1284-1339)
“After that he founded the monastery of bde chen stengs, where he had many visions. On his way to snying khung and other hermitages of kha rag shar, he also had many visions. At bde chen stengs he discovered that the signs of the "Outer" and ''Inner" spheres had been purified and composed a treatise called "the Hidden inner Meaning" [R:492] (zab mo nang don).”
525: grags pa seng ge (dbang gu ras pa ) (1283-1349) goes to visit the Dharmasvāmin rang byung rdo rje.
“As he grew weary of the disputes between the followers of the "New" and "Old" schools, he proceeded to skungs, where resided the Dharmasvāmin accompanied by ten disciples. The Dharmasvāmin said to him: "Last night ber nag can appeared here! You seem to be escorted by a religious protector!" In that year the Dharmasvāmin founded the (monastery) of bde chen stengs. While his hut was being built, he obtained instruction in the "Six Doctrines" of nA ro and during the summer practised meditation at seng ge lung, and achieved success. He had a vision that the valley was filled with water and related it to the [F:54b] Dharmasvāmin who said: "Indeed you have caught the [R:526] breath of water" (chu'i rlung).”
537: mkhas grub dar rgyal ba (d. 1385) mets Dharmasvāmin rang byung rdo rje.
“One day, accompanied by many children friends, he went to gather flowers and play. He fell down, and the pain from the sore caused him to believe that the Buddha was the only protector, and he accordingly took refuge in the Buddha. Remembering his former lives, he felt sad and composed songs about them, which caused amazement among some people. Others thought that he was inspired by some devils. Soon after, he met the Dharmasvāmin rang byung rdo rje and saw him in the form of Ārya Avalokiteśvara. A strong faith was produced in him and he accompanied him as attendant to bde chen stengs.”
538: mkhas grub dar rgyal ba (d. 1385) accompanies grags pa seng ge to bde chen.
“He spent much time at the hermitage of thang lha and other places. When he became a disciple of the Dharmasvāmin grags pa seng ge at the hermitage of phug mo, he attended on him and accompanied him to bde chen stengs, the residence of the siddha sgom, to gnas nang and other monasteries.”
686: rgod tshang pa (1189-1258)
“In his later life he founded numerous monasteries, such as steng gro, spung dra, byang gling, bde chen stengs, bar 'brog rdo rje gling, and others, and from each of these monasteries there originated many thousands of monk adepts (sādhaka).” Places rgod tshang pa (1189-1258) lived. “Nine whole years at bde chen stengs and dga' ldan—sixty-seven, years.”
698:
“Then the Dharmasvāmin rgod tshang pa, Journeying from bde chen stengs to spyang lung, came to go lung phu on his way. The Dharmasvāmin prophesied, saying: "Today a fortunate one will be coming to meet me!"”
699: U rgyan pa meets rgod tshang pa.
“After completing (his studies), he proceeded towards bde chen stengs to meet the Dharmasvāmin rgod tshang pa. As soon as he reached the monastery, an understanding of the "one flavour" doctrine (ekarasa) was produced in him. He heard all the hidden precepts of bka' brgyud pas in the presence of the Dharmasvāmin (rgod tshang pa), and their results were properly imprinted on his mind.”