Ngawan Wangyal ( Tib. ངག་ དབང་ དབང་ རྒྱལ་ , Wiley Ngag-dbang Dbang-rgyal ; c. 1901 , Astrakhan province , Russian Empire - 1983 , USA ), more often known with the monastic degree Geshe Wangyal - Kalmyk monk of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions of Galug , one of the first resident teachers of Tibetan Buddhism in the United States . He left behind a number of translations and famous students.
| Ngawan Wangyal | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Birth name | Ligiin Keerab |
| Religion | Gelugpa , Buddhism |
| Title | geshe |
| Date of Birth | 1901 |
| Place of Birth | Astrakhan province |
| Date of death | 1983 |
| Place of death | USA |
Biography
His birth name was Lidjiin Keerab [1] . Kalmyk by nationality, he was a native of the vicinity of Small Derbet [1] in the Astrakhan province . he was the fourth child in the family, and at the age of six he was novice in one of the two Kalmyk Buddhist monasteries. In 1923, twenty-one years old [2] Wangyal went to Tibet . He was elected to continue his education in Tibet by Aghvan Dorzhiev himself and, on his recommendation, was included in the mission of Sergei Borisov , a secret enterprise of the USSR People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and the Comintern . The purpose of Borisov’s expedition was to study the possibilities of the communist movement in Tibet, for this he put on the vestments of a pilgrim and included some genuine Buddhists. Aghavan Dorzhiev convinced his student to leave Borisov’s detachment before he entered Lhasa in order not to be identified there as a member of Borisov’s group [1] . He entered Drepung Goman , the monastic university of the great Drepung Monastery in Lhasa . Here he studied until 1935 , when he decided that he needed to return to his homeland for financial support to complete his studies.
On the way home, he learned about the persecution of religious figures and religion in Soviet Russia, and lingered in Beijing . Here he got a job at a publishing house, where he compared among themselves the various Tibetan editions of Ganjur and Danjur . In 1937 , having accumulated enough funds to defend his Geshe degree, he returned to Tibet through India.
In India, while in Calcutta, he was hired by the translator of Sir Charles Bell , a major British diplomat and researcher. As a translator, he accompanied Bella on a trip to China and Manchuria. After that, he returned to Tibet, successfully defended himself for a Geshe degree in Lhasa, and created a fund to help protect the Geshe degree for monks from Mongolia and Russia, who, like him, were cut off from the support of relatives.
During the annexation of Tibet by the PLA troops, Geshe Wangyal fled to India. In 1955, he left India for the United States, where a priest arose for a new Kalmyk diaspora settled in New Jersey , New York, and Pennsylvania .
In 1958, Geshe Wangyal founded the Labsum Shedrub Ling Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Washington, New Jersey. [3] He was the chief mentor of the monastery until his death in January 1983 . Here many famous people studied with him. The monastery significantly influenced the spread of Tibetan Buddhism in the United States.
After 1973, Geshe Wangyal also taught at Columbia University in New York. In the 1960s and 70s, he sponsored trips to the USA of monks from Tibetan refugee settlements in India and taught them English so that they could serve the Tibetan diaspora in the USA.
On the advice of Geshe Wangyal and the Dalai Lama XIV , the American Institute of Buddhism was founded in 1972 . [four]
Dr. Wangyal translated and published two volumes of Tibetan and Sanskrit legends illustrating Buddhist teachings: The Door of Liberation ( The Door of Liberation ) and The Prince Who Became a Cuckoo ( Cuckoo Prince). He also, together with Brian Kutillo, translated and published the Illuminations of Sakya-Pandita . [five]
Among his students were Tibetologists and Buddhist activists Robert Thurman , [6] , Jeffrey Hopkins , Alexander Berzin and artist Ted Seth Jacobs [7]
Links
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 David Urubshurow. From Russia with Love. The untold story of how Tibetan Buddhism first came to America.
- ↑ So in the source [1] , which means that the year of birth is 1902
- ↑ Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in New Jersey
- ↑ History Archived February 25, 2008.
- ↑ published posthumously, 1988 Novato, CA, USA Lotsawa ISBN 0932156053
- ↑ Faces and Lives of Wangyal, Geshe (1901-1983)
- ↑ The Door of Liberation, Geshe Wangyal, pp xxxi-xxxii