Dromtön, Drom TonpaorDromtönpa Gyelwé Jungné (Tibetan: འབྲོམ་སྟོན་པ་རྒྱལ་བའི་འབྱུང་གནས་, 1004 or 1005–1064) was the chief disciple of the Buddhist master Atiśa, the initiator of the Kadam schoolofTibetan Buddhism and the founder of Reting Monastery.
Dromtönpa was born in Tolung at the beginning of the period of the second propagation of Buddhism in Tibet. "His father was Kushen Yaksherpen (sku gshen yag gsher 'phen) and his mother was Kuoza Lenchikma (khu 'od bza' lan gcig ma)."[1] His father's title skugshen indicates he was an important figure in the Bon tradition. He began preaching in Tibet in 1042.
Dromtön is considered to be the 45th incarnation of Avalokiteśvara, an important bodhisattva and thus a member of the early lineage of the Dalai Lamas (the First Dalai Lama is said to have been the 51st incarnation).[2]
Dromtön founded Reting Monastery in 1056 in the Reting Tsampo Valley north of Lhasa which became the seat of the Kadampa lineage and brought some relics of Atisha there.[3]
It was Dromtönpa's student Chekawa Yeshe Dorje who first compiled Atiśa's core teachings on the practice Lojong for developing of bodhicitta in written form, as The Seven Point Mind Training.[citation needed]
^Gardner, Alexander (February 2010). "Dromton Gyelwa Jungne". The Treasury of Lives: Biographies of Himalayan Religious Masters. Retrieved 2013-10-29.
^Stein, R. A. (1988). Tibetan Civilization ([Nachdr.] ed.). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press. p. 139. ISBN978-0-8047-0806-7. The First Dalai Lama, Gedün-trup (1391-1474), was already the 51st incarnation; the teacher Dromtön, Atiśa's disciple (11th century), the 45th; whilst with the 26th, one Gesar king of India, and the 27th, a hare, we are in pure legend
^Dowman, Keith. (1988). The Power-Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide, p. 93. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. ISBN0-7102-1370-0.
