Jonang
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The Jonang or Jonangpa school of Tibetan Buddhism became widely known at the end of the 13th century. Its origins in Tibet can be traced to early 12th century master Yumo Mikyo Dorje, but became much wider known with the help of Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen, a monk originally trained in the Sakyapa school. The Jonangpa school was widely thought to have become extinct in the late 17th century at the hands of the Fifth Dalai Lama who forcibly annexed the Jonangpa monasteries to his Gelugpa school. Recently, however, it was discovered that some remote Jonangpa monasteries escaped this fate and have continued practicing uninterrupted to this day. An estimated 5,000 monks and nuns of the Jonangpa tradition practice today in areas at the edge of historic Gelugpa influence.
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History of the Jonangpa
In 1294, the monk Kunpang Tukje Tsondru established the Puntsok Choling monastery at 'Jomonang', about 160 km northwest of the Tashilhunpo monastery in Shigatse, and since then, the sprititual tradition became known as Jonang.
The Jonang tradition combines two specific teachings; the so-called Shentong philosophy of emptiness, and the 'Dro-lineage' of the Kalachakra tantra. The origin of this combination in Tibet can be found with the master Yumo Mikyo Dorje - an 11th/12th century pupil of the Kashmiri master Somanatha.
The Jonangpa school has generated a number of renowned Buddhist scholars, like Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen (1292-1361), but the most famous was Jetsun Taranatha (1575-1634). Taranatha placed great emphasis on the Kalachakra system of tantra which became an important part of Gelugpa teaching after the Gelugpa absorbed the Jonangpa monasteries. Taranatha's influence on Gelugpa thinking continues even to this day in the teaching of the present 14th Dalai Lama who actively promotes initiation into Kalachakra.
After several centuries of independence, however, in the late 17th century the Jonangpa order came under attack by the Fifth Dalai Lama who forcibly converted their monasteries to the Gelugpa order.
Some monasteries that exist to this day are considered to be Gelugpa, but given the ban on the school of Jonang, none of them can be wholly Gelugpa in origin, as the Jonangpas were originally one of the Sakya branch-sects. These present monasteries are thus mainly either Gelugpa-converted monasteries, no longer linked by tradition to Sakya (it having been banned by the Gelugs), or else disconnected from either Gelug or Sakya (by isolation or else by the influence of modern, anti-Dalai-Lama propaganda).
Sakya's main sects are its majority branch of Ngor, the smaller branch of Tsar, the small branch of Sakya itself (the royal branch of its head-lamas, consisting mainly of its sole royal palace-temple and monastery.), Bodong and Jonang.
Stated reason for Jonangpa suppression: the Shentong heresy
While the Gelugpa embraced the Jonangpa teaching on the Kalachakra, they ultimately opposed the Jonangpa for another set of teachings. Yumo Mikio Dorje (11th/12th century), Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen (1292-1361 and subsequent lamas maintained a teaching known as Shentong, which is closely tied to the Indian Yogacara school and held that the external world is completely empty. The Gelugpa school held the distinct but related Rangtong view. The Jonangpa interpreted Shentong to imply that there is a value in inaction and non-striving, which is associated with the teachings of medieval Chan Buddhism in China (which also gave rise to Zen Buddhism in Japan). This association with Chinese Buddhism tainted the Jonangpa in the eyes of the Gelugpa who considered the true teachings to derive from the Indian saints, particularly Atisha. An additional motivation in criticizing the Jonangpa sect as Chan-followers was that it enabled the Gelugpa to lay claim to the high moral ground previously held only by the rival Nyingmapa sect who were proud of their ancient and unsullied transmission from the Indian saints (and being sullied by later transmissions as were the Sakyapa, Kagyupa, and Gelugpa).
Additional reasons: monastery financial reform and Tibetan geopolitics
Modern historians have identified two other reasons which likely led the Gelugpa to suppress the Jonangpa:
First, the Jonangpa taught that large gifts of property to monasteries did not help one achieve enlightenment. This undercut the financial practices of the Gelugpa who were growing rapidly through exactly those means at the time.
Second, and more significantly, the Jonangpa had political ties that were very vexing to the Gelugpa. The Jonangpa, along with the Kagyupa, were historical allies with the powerful house of Tsang which was vying with the Dalai Lama and his Gelugpa school for control of central Tibet. This was bad enough, but soon after the death of Taranatha an even more ominous event occurred: Taranatha's reincarnation was discovered to be a young boy named Zanabazar the son of Prince Tosiyetu Khan, ruler of the Khan Uula district of Outer Mongolia. Tosiyetu and his son were of Khalkha lineage, meaning they had the birth authority to become Khan. When the young boy was declared the spiritual leader of all of Mongolia, suddenly the Gelugpa were faced with the possibility of war with the former military superpower of Asia. While the Mongol Empire was long past its zenith, this was nonetheless a frightening prospect and the Dalai Lama sought the first possible moment of Mongol distraction to take control of the Jonangpa monasteries.
Current status and rediscovery by the outside world
In accordance with the observation that "victors write history" the Jonangpa were until recently thought to be an extinct heretical sect. Thus, Tibetologists were astonished when fieldwork turned up several active Jonangpa monasteries, including the main monastery called Tsangwa located in Tibet, Dzamthang County, Sichuan, China. Almost 40 monasteries, comprising about 5000 monks, have been subsequently been found, including some in the Amdo and Gyarong districts of Qinghai and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Presumably these remnant survived because they were far from the Gelugpa capital at Lhasa and closer to sympathetic powers in Qing Dynasty China.
Interestingly, one of the primary supporters of the Jonang lineage in exile has been the 14th Dalai Lama of the Gelugpa. The Dalai Lama donated buildings in Himachal Pradesh state in India for use as a Jonang monastery and has visited there during one of His recent teaching tours. The Karmapa of the Karma Kagyu lineage has visited there as well.
The Jonang tradition has recently officially registered with the Tibetan Government in exile to be recognized as the fifth living Buddhist tradition of Tibet.
References
- Gruschke, A. (2000). The Jonangpa Order - Causes for the downfall, conditions of the survival and current situation of a presumably extinct Tibetan-Buddhist School. Ninth Seminar of The International Association for Tibetan Studies
- Stearns, Cyrus (1999). The Buddha from Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-4191-1 (hc); ISBN 0-7914-4192-X (pbk).
External links
- [1] Abstract for Gruschke, A. (2000). The Jonangpa Order - Causes for the downfall, conditions of the survival and current situation of a presumably extinct Tibetan-Buddhist School. Ninth Seminar of The International Association for Tibetan Studies
- Jonang Foundation
- Tibetan Buddhist Rime Institute - Holder of Kalachakra Jonangde:Jonangpa