Sakya Trizin (Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་ཁྲི་འཛིན།, Wylie: sa skya khri 'dzin "Sakya Throne-Holder") is the traditional title of the head of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism.[1]
The Sakya school was founded in 1073 CE,[2] when Khön Könchog Gyalpo (Tibetan: འཁོན་དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་པོ།, Wylie: 'khon dkon mchog rgyal po; 1034–1102), a member of Tibet's noble Khön family, established a monastery in the region of Sakya, Tibet, which became the headquarters of the Sakya order.[3] Since that time, its leadership has descended within the Khön family.
The 41st Sakya Trizin, whose reign spanned more than fifty years, was the longest reigning Sakya Trizin.[4] The current Sakya Trizin is Gyana Vajra Rinpoche, officially known as Kyabgon Gongma Trizin Rinpoche,[5] the 43rd Sakya Trizin Gyana Vajra Rinpoche.
Origin of Khön
Lharig, the divine generation
According to legend Ciring descended from the Rupadhatu (Realm of Clear Light) to earth.
Ciring
Yuse
Yuring
Masang Cije
Togsa Pawo Tag
Tagpo Ochen
Yapang Kye
Khön family, the royal generation
Because previous generations subjugated the rakshasas (demons), the family became the Family of Conquerors (Wylie: khon gyi dung, shortened to Khön)[6] and therefore a royal family.
Tibetan: ངག་དབང་ཀུན་དགའ་ཐེག་ཆེན་དཔལ་འབར་འཕྲིན་ལས་བསམ་འཕེལ་དབང་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།, Wylie: ngag dbang kun dga' theg chen dpal 'bar trin lé sam pel wang gyi gyel po
Tibetan: ངག་དབང་ཀུན་དགའ་བློ་གྲོས་དབང་ཕྱུག་རིན་ཆེན་འཇིགས་མེད་འཕྲིན་ལས།, Wylie: nNgag dBang Kun dGa' Blo Gros Rin Chen 'Jigs Med 'Phrin Las
43.
Gyana Vajra Rinpoche
1979
2022–present
Tibetan: ཀུན་དགའ་རིན་ཆེན་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་རྡོ་རྗེ།, Wylie: Kun dGa' Rin Chen mKhyen brTse rDo rJe
The 42nd Sakya Trizin, Ratna Vajra Rinpoche, The first to be enthroned under the new systemThe 43rd Sakya Trizin, Gyana Vajra Rinpoche
New succession system
On 11 December 2014, a new throne holder succession system was announced during the 23rd Great Sakya Mönlam prayer festival on a resolution passed by the Dolma Phodrang and Phuntsok Phodrang, where members of both Phodrang will serve the role of Sakya Trizin in one three-year term, according to their seniority and qualification.[10][11]
Ratna Vajra Rinpoche was enthroned on 9 March 2017 as the 42nd Sakya Trizin, the first to be enthroned under the new system.[5] Due to the COVID Pandemic, the 43rd Sakya Trizin Gyana Vajra Rinpoche was enthroned on 16 March 2022, five years after the enthronement of the 42nd Sakya Trizin. He is the current throne holder of the Sakya school.
Footnotes
^Holy Biographies of the Great Founders of the Glorious Sakya Order, translated by Venerable Lama Kalsang Gyaltsen, Ani Kunga Chodron and Victoria Huckenpahler. Published by Sakya Phuntsok Ling Publications, Silver Spring MD. June 2000.
^A བ༹ཕྱོང་རྒྱས་པ།/琼结巴 or from ས་ཧོར།/萨护罗国/萨霍尔国. Son of 达玛惹扎, grandson of 夏扎布达,(ISBN7800575462) or son of ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ།/恰那多吉? [1]
^"Archived copy"(PDF). www.hhthesakyatrizin.org. Archived from the original(PDF) on 6 June 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Penny-Dimri, Sandra. (1995). "The Lineage of His Holiness Sakya Trizin Ngawang Kunga." The Tibet Journal. Vol. XX, No. 4 Winter 1995, pp. 64–92. ISSN0970-5368.
Trizin, Sakya. Parting from the Four Attachments. Shang Shung Publications, 1999.