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The Yellow Book of Dzemé Rinpoché

Translated by Christopher Bell

Dzemé Losang Palden, Christopher Bell

Journal of Tibetan Literature (2023) 2 (1): 125-179.


Issue Section Translations

Keywords Shukden, Dzemé Rinpoché, Buddhist controversy, Dharma protector, Dorjé Shukden, wrathful deity

Abstract

In 1970 a text infamously known as the Yellow Book was composed by Dzemé Rinpoché. This book discusses several Tibetan Geluk masters that were harmed or killed by the wrathful deity Dorjé Shukden over the last several centuries. The reason for such violence is said to be because these masters corrupted the Geluk teachings by being initiated into the cycles of other Tibetan lineages, especially Nyingma, which goes against the strict sectarianism that this deity has represented in some Geluk circles in the early twentieth cen- tury. This is the first full and complete translation of the Yellow Book and its prefatory textual context discusses the justifications given for such supernatural violence through divine attribution and foundational Mahāyāna doctrines. Given his continued controversial nature, Dorjé Shukden and Dzemé Rinpoché’s historic treatise concerning him provide a ready case study for exploring religion and violence in modern Tibetan Buddhism.

ཆིག་སྟོང་དགུ་བརྒྱ་བདུན་བཅུའི་ནང་དེབ་ཐེར་སེར་པོ་ཞེས་ངན་གྲགས་སུ་སོང་བ་དེ་རྫེ་སྨད་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་བརྩམས་གནང་མཛད། དེབ་དེར་དེ་སྔའི་དུས་རབས་འགའི་རིང་དྲག་པོའི་སྲུང་མ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན་གྱིས་དགེ་ལུགས་པའི་སྐྱེ་ཆེན་དུ་མའི་སྐུར་ཉེར་འཚེའི་བར་ཆད་བཏང་བའི་སྐོར་བཤད་ཡོད། དེ་ལྟར་མཐོ་འཚམ་པར་སྤྱད་པའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་གཙོ་བོ་ནི་སྐྱེས་ཆེན་དེ་དག་གིས་རྙིང་མ་གཙོས་ཆོས་བརྒྱུད་གཞན་པའི་ཆོས་སྤྱོད་ལ་སློབ་སྦྱོང་དང་ཉམས་ལེན་གནང་སྟེ་དགེ་ལུགས་པའི་ཆོས་རྒྱུད་དྲི་མས་སྦགས་པར་བྱས་པ་དང་། དེ་ནི་དུས་རབས་ཉི་ཤུ་པའི་འགོ་སྟོད་དུ་སྲུང་མ་དེས་དགེ་ལུགས་པའི་ཆོས་བརྒྱུད་གཞན་དང་མ་འདྲེས་པར་ལྷད་མེད་གཙང་མར་ཉར་དགོས་པའི་འདོད་ཚུལ་དང་རྒྱབ་འགལ་དུ་ཕྱིན་པས་སྲུང་མ་ཁྲོས་པར་བཤད། རྩོམ་ཡིག་འདི་ནི་དེབ་ཐེར་སེར་པོ་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྒྱུར་བ་ཐེངས་དང་པོ་དང་དེའི་སྔོན་གླེང་གི་བརྗོད་བྱའི་ནང་དོན་དུ་ཐེག་ཆེན་གྱི་གྲུབ་མཐའི་རྩ་བ་དང་ལྷའི་ནུས་མཐུ་སོགས་རྒྱུ་མཚན་དུ་དྲངས་ཏེ་རང་བཞིན་མ་ཡིན་པའི་དེ་ལྟའི་འཚེ་བའི་སྦྱོར་བ་བརྩམས་པ་ནོར་མེད་པར་དག་སྐྱེལ་བྱེད་ཚུལ་ཁག་གླེང་བ་དང་། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན་ནི་ཞོད་འཇགས་མེད་པར་རྩོད་རྙོགས་ཅན་དུ་གནས་མུས་ཐོག  ཁོ་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་མཛེ་སྨད་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཀྱི་གནད་འགག་ཡོད་པའི་དཔེ་ཆ་འདིས་དེང་གི་བོད་བརྒྱུད་ནང་བསྟན་དུ་བྱུང་བའི་ཆོས་ལུགས་དང་དྲག་སྤྱོད་ལ་ཞིབ་འཇུག་བྱེད་པར་ཤིན་ཏུ་འཇུག་སླ་བའི་བརྗོད་བྱ་གནད་འགག་ཅན་ཞིག་བཏོན་ཡོད།། །།

Authors

Dzemé Losang Palden

Christopher Bell

Published 2023-07-26

How to Cite

Palden, Dzemé Losang, and Christopher Bell. 2023. “The Yellow Book of Dzemé Rinpoché: Translated by Christopher Bell”. Journal of Tibetan Literature 2 (1):125-79. https://doi.org/10.58371/jtl.2023.53.

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