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| Karma Chagme | |
|---|---|
| Name | Karma Chagme |
| Birth date | 1613 |
| Birth place | Kham |
| Death date | 1678 |
| Death place | Lhasa |
| Religion | Tibetan Buddhism |
| School | Kagyü |
| Title | Lama, Tertön |
Karma Chagme is a 17th-century Tibetan lama and tertön associated with the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma traditions who produced influential ritual texts, terma revelations, and commentaries that impacted Tibetan religious practice. He is remembered for synthesis of visionary treasure literature with scholastic commentaries and for establishing liturgical cycles that circulated across Kham, Lhasa, and Himalayan polities. His work influenced monastic institutions, lay practice, and later tertöns within the networks of Tibetan, Bhutanese, and Mongol patrons.
Born in eastern Kham in 1613 during the decline of the Phagmodrupa dynasty and the rise of the Tsangpa dynasty, he came of age amid sectarian competition between Karma Kagyu and Gelug centers. He traveled to central Tibet, engaging with teachers from Lhasa, visiting monasteries such as Tsurphu Monastery and consulting with figures tied to the Fifth Dalai Lama’s era. His life intersected with patrons from Derge, Chamdo, and Himalayan polities like Bhutan and Mongolia, and he died in 1678 after establishing ritual cycles that circulated through networks connected to Palpung Monastery and other Kagyü institutions.
He received transmission from masters in the Karma Kagyu lineage and studied tantras associated with Nyingma revelation, receiving empowerments and instructions that connected him to figures in both traditions. His teachers included lineage holders linked to Shamarpa hierarchs and to Nyingma treasure revealers active during the post-Tibetan civil war period, embedding him in transmission chains recognized by Rinpoches and abbots of major monasteries. Through exchanges with scholastic and tantric communities, he incorporated practices tied to the propagation efforts of figures associated with the Fifth Dalai Lama, the Karmapa hierarchy, and tertön networks reaching Tibet and the Khams region.
He authored revealed texts, commentaries, and ritual manuals that blended terma revelation with established tantras such as those found in the traditions of Padmasambhava and the corpus revered at Tibetan monasteries like Samye and Sera Monastery. His collected works include liturgies and sadhanas that entered the repertoires of monasteries influenced by Karma Kagyu and Nyingma practice; these texts circulated alongside works by contemporaries such as Mödrök Gyatso and later tertöns. Through composition of ritual commentaries and revealed cycles, his writings interfaced with devotional traditions honored by patrons including rulers of Derge and abbots of Palpung, shaping liturgical repertoires used in Himalayan Buddhist courts and monastic seminaries.
He systematized ritual cycles for protector practices, long-life sadhanas, and preliminary practices that were adopted in household and monastic settings across regions influenced by Karma Kagyu and Nyingma institutions. His ritual manuals were used in ceremonies attended by officials connected to the Tsangpa dynasty and later integrated into the liturgical programs of monasteries with ties to the Karmapa and Shamarpa lineages. The rites he composed addressed issues of health, geopolitical crisis, and ordination contexts, becoming part of festival observances related to temples frequented by pilgrims from Bhutan and Mongolia.
His disciples included abbots and rinpoches who transmitted his revealed cycles to successive generations, forming transmission lines that linked to prominent monastic houses such as Palpung Monastery and lineage holders associated with the Karmapa institution. Those students acted as intermediaries between his terma corpus and later tertöns, enabling his practices to be taken up by figures active in the networks of Tibet, Bhutan, and Mongolia. Over time, custodians from these lines preserved his ritual texts in monastic libraries alongside collections curated by patrons from Derge and other Himalayan polities.
His synthesis of terma revelation and established tantric transmission contributed to the resilience and adaptability of Tibetan ritual culture during a period of political realignment involving houses like the Phagmodrupa dynasty and the Tsangpa dynasty. His works influenced later tertöns, ritualists, and monastic curricula in Kham, Lhasa, and across Himalayan regions, entering the liturgical repertoires of Karma Kagyu and Nyingma centers. Manuscripts and ritual cycles attributed to him continued to circulate in monastic libraries associated with the Karmapa and Shamarpa networks, affecting devotional practice among lay and monastic communities linked to courts in Derge and pilgrimage circuits that included Samye and Tsurphu Monastery.
Category:Tibetan lamas Category:17th-century Buddhists