Buton Rinchen Drub
Buton Rinchen Drub (བུ་སྟོན་རིན་ཆེན་གྲུབ། bu ston rin chen grub Butön Rinchen Drup, universally revered across Tibet, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, Ladakh, Sikkim, China, and the global Buddhist world as Buton Rinpoche, the supreme 14th century encyclopedist, historian, translator, and canonical architect who first systematically organized the Kangyur and Tengyur divisions of the Tibetan Tripitaka), acclaimed throughout Himalayan Buddhist history as the great abbot of Zhalu Monastery whose bibliographic genius gave permanent structure to the entire translated Indian canon, stands as an unmatched titan of world Buddhism. With his year of birth in 1290 at Shabme Gompa in Tsang in southwestern Tibet and his year of death in 1364 at Zhalu Monastery, Buton Rinchen Drub was born to the Nyingma tantric master Drakton Gyaltsen Palzang and the yogini Sonam Bum, awakening early to the pervasive reality of anicca, dukkha, and anatta, practicing fearless renunciation, taking lifelong refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, and receiving full bhikshu ordination in the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya Pitaka lineage while upholding strict monastic precepts and ethical conduct.
Educated across the major scholastic centers of central and western Tibet—including Trophu Monastery, Narthang Monastery, Sakya Monastery, and Zhalu Monastery—Buton Rinchen Drub studied under nearly thirty eminent masters from the Sakya, Kagyu, Kadampa, and Nyingma traditions, attaining comprehensive mastery over Sanskrit grammar and poetics, Pramana logic, Vinaya Pitaka discipline, Abhidharma, Prajnaparamita, Madhyamaka, Yogacara, and all four classes of Tantra—most notably the Kalachakra Tantra (Toh Number 362 in the Tibetan Tripitaka), the Guhyasamaja Tantra (Toh Number 442), and the Chakrasamvara Tantra (Toh Number 368)—before being enthroned in 1320 as the eleventh abbot of Zhalu Monastery near Shigatse, where he founded the influential Zhalu (Bulug) scholastic tradition.
The crowning bibliographic and canonical achievement of Buton Rinchen Drub's life was his monumental editing, cataloging, and codification of the Tibetan Tripitaka at Zhalu Monastery during the 1320s and 1330s—building upon the early 14th century manuscript compilation gathered at Narthang Monastery under Chomden Rigpai Raldri (1227–1305) to rigorously authenticate, classify, and arrange every translated Indian scripture into two definitive collections: the Kangyur (བཀའ་འགྱུར། bka' 'gyur Kangyur, “Translated Words of the Buddha,” now indexed as Toh Number 1 through Toh Number 1108) and the Tengyur (བསྟན་འགྱུར། bstan 'gyur Tengyur, “Translated Treatises” by Indian masters, indexed as Toh Number 1109 through Toh Number 4569).
To accompany his canonical redaction, Buton Rinpoche composed in 1322 his immortal masterpiece Buton's History of Buddhism (བུ་སྟོན་ཆོས་འབྱུང་། bu ston chos 'byung Butön Chöjung), which traces the origin of the Dharma under Shakyamuni Buddha (c. 563–483 BCE) in India, its transmission across the Himalayas into Tibet, and a complete, annotated bibliographic catalog of every Sutra, Vinaya Pitaka, Tantra, and Shastra translated by Indian panditas (such as Shantarakshita, Padmasambhava, Jinamitra, Surendrabodhi, Shilendrabodhi, Danasila, and Atisha) and Tibetan lotsawas (such as Vairotsana, Kawa Paltsek, Chokro Lüi Gyaltsen, Yeshe De, Rinchen Zangpo, and Ngok Loden Sherab).
Literarily and exegetically, Buton Rinchen Drub authored a staggering twenty-six-volume collected works (Sungbum) encompassing definitive commentaries on the Kalachakra Tantra (Toh Number 362), Maitreya's Abhisamayalamkara (Toh Number 3786) and Uttaratantra Shastra (Toh Number 4024, corresponding to Taisho Number 1611 in the Chinese Tripitaka), Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabhasya (Toh Number 4090, and Taisho Number 1558), Gunaprabha's Vinayasutra (Toh Number 4117), Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara (Toh Number 3871, and Taisho Number 1662), and Yoga Tantra cycles such as the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha Tantra (Toh Number 479, and Taisho Number 865), while also translating and revising numerous Sanskrit texts directly into Tibetan.
Through his direct disciples—including his chief successor Rinchen Namgyal (1318–1388), Khyungpo Lhepa, and teachers who directly mentored Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419) in Kalachakra Tantra and Yoga Tantra—Buton Rinpoche shaped the scholastic curricula of every subsequent school of Tibetan Buddhism, while his Zhalu manuscript canon (Zhalu Tengyur) served four centuries later as the direct textual foundation for Situ Panchen Chökyi Jungné (1700–1774) and Zhu-chen Tsultrim Rinchen (1697–1774) in producing the famed Derge woodblock edition of the Tibetan Tripitaka.
Philosophically and contemplatively, Buton Rinchen Drub united rigorous dialectical scholarship with deep tantric meditation, mindfulness, and concentration—harmonizing Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka dialectics regarding emptiness (शून्यता - śūnyatā; སྟོང་པ་ཉིད། stong pa nyid Tongpanyid) and dependent origination, Asanga and Vasubandhu's Yogacara phenomenology, and innate Buddha-nature (tathagatagarbha) aligned with Maitreya's Uttaratantra Shastra (Toh Number 4024, and Taisho Number 1611). Guiding practitioners to sever attachment to the five aggregates, emptiness of self, karma, and rebirth across samsara and nirvana, his treatises anchor every analytical and meditative step in Shakyamuni Buddha's Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, generosity, merit, loving-kindness, compassion, equanimity, right view, non-attachment, skillful means, and universal bodhicitta to extinguish the three poisons across the six realms.
Passing into final parinirvana at Zhalu Monastery in 1364 at the age of seventy-four amidst miraculous signs, Buton Rinchen Drub left an immortal canonical and scholarly monument that continues to govern scriptural study across Tibet, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, and the Western world into the 21st century. Revered forever as the omniscient father of the Kangyur and Tengyur, Buton Rinpoche stands alongside Sakya Pandita, Longchenpa, Tsongkhapa, and Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé as a supreme guardian of the Middle Way to complete Buddhahood.