Lha Lama Yeshe Ö (ལྷ་བླ་མ་ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད། lha bla ma ye shes 'od Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, born Khorre - འཁོར་རེ། 'khor re Khorre, rendered in Sanskrit as देवगुरुज्ञानप्रभ - Devagurujñānaprabha, and universally revered across Tibet, India, Nepal, Ladakh, Spiti, Kinnaur, and the Himalayas as the Royal Lama of Guge), acclaimed throughout Indo-Tibetan Buddhist history as the heroic 10th century and 11th century dharma-king who sparked the Chidar (Second Dissemination of the Dharma) in western Tibet, stands as one of the most self-sacrificing royal patrons in the history of Buddhism. With his year of birth in 947 (or 959) and his year of death in 1019 (or 1024/1036), Lha Lama Yeshe Ö was born into the royal Yarlung imperial lineage in Ngari (western Tibet), descending directly from Kyide Nyimagon and the ancient Dharma-kings Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Detsen, and Ralpachen. Ascending the throne of the Guge-Purang kingdom while still young, he witnessed the fractured spiritual landscape of post-imperial Tibet—where monastic discipline had collapsed after Langdarma's persecution and corrupted, unauthentic literalist practices distorted Tantra—inspiring him to recognize the pervasive reality of anicca and dukkha and dedicate his royal sovereignty entirely to purifying and restoring authentic Buddhism.
Driven by fervent devotion to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö eventually abdicated his royal throne in favor of his younger brother Songnge so that he could practice fearless renunciation, take formal refuge, and receive monastic ordination—assuming the renowned title Lha Lama (Royal Lama) while upholding strict monastic precepts and ethical conduct. Determined to re-establish direct, unbroken scriptural and contemplative lineages from India and Kashmir, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö selected twenty-one of the brightest young scholars in western Tibet—led by Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055) and Legpai Sherab—and dispatched them across the treacherous Himalayas loaded with royal gold to study Sanskrit and translate the Tripitaka.
Upon the triumphant return of Rinchen Zangpo and Legpai Sherab accompanied by thirty-two master Kashmiri artists, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö channeled the vast wealth of the Guge kingdom into constructing magnificent monastic complexes across western Tibet, Ladakh, Spiti, and Kinnaur—most famously founding Tholing Monastery (མཐོ་ལྡིང་དགོན་པ། mtho lding dgon pa Tholding Gönpa) in 996 as the premier translation academy and spiritual capital of western Tibet, alongside Tabo Monastery and Nyarma Monastery, enshrining transcendent mandalas of Vairocana Buddha and fostering single-pointed meditation, mindfulness, and concentration among hundreds of newly ordained monks.
Deeply concerned by the persistence of antinomian misunderstandings regarding Anuttarayoga Tantra in Tibet, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö resolved to invite the supreme Indian scholar-mahasiddha Atisha (Dipamkara Shrijnana, 982–1054) from Vikramashila Monastery in India to clarify the seamless harmony of Sutra and Tantra. When his initial royal envoys returned from India reporting that Atisha had declined the invitation due to his heavy responsibilities as chief abbot of Vikramashila, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö personally led a military-diplomatic expedition toward the northern borderlands of Garlog (Qarluq) in 1019 (or 1036) to collect sufficient gold to persuade the Indian monastic elders to release Atisha.
During this expedition in Garlog, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö was ambushed, defeated, and thrown into a dark underground dungeon by the anti-Buddhist king of Garlog, who demanded a ransom equal to Lha Lama Yeshe Ö's entire body weight in solid gold—specifically stipulating that even the head must be matched in gold—or else the royal lama would never be released. When his loyal grand-nephew Jangchub Ö (བྱང་ཆུབ་འོད། byang chub 'od Jangchub Ö, 984–1078) desperately gathered gold from across Guge and Purang and arrived at the prison wall with an amount matching the king's torso and limbs, lacking only the gold for his head, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö called out from his cell with supreme, heroic bodhicitta.
Refusing to allow a single grain of precious gold to be wasted on ransoming his own aging, impermanent body—which he declared was already worn out and useless—Lha Lama Yeshe Ö commanded Jangchub Ö to send every ounce of that gold directly to Vikramashila in India as an offering to invite Atisha to Tibet, asking his nephew to inform Atisha that the king of Guge had gladly sacrificed his life for the sake of the Dharma and the liberation of Tibetan beings. Moved to tears by this staggering act of generosity and renunciation, Atisha accepted the invitation immediately upon hearing of Lha Lama Yeshe Ö's martyrdom in prison, crossing the Himalayas to Tholing Monastery in 1042 and composing his immortal masterpiece, the Bodhipathapradipa (Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, Toh Number 3947 in the Tibetan Tripitaka).
Literarily and doctrinally, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö authored his celebrated royal decree and doctrinal epistle, the Bka'-shog Chen-mo (བཀའ་ཤོག་ཆེན་མོ། bka' shog chen mo Kashok Chenmo, Great Royal Ordinance), alongside his epistle to the tantric practitioners of Tibet (Sngags-log Sun-'byin), calling for strict adherence to Shakyamuni Buddha's Vinaya Pitaka (such as the Vinayavastu, Toh Number 1 in the Tibetan Tripitaka, and Taisho Number 1442 in the Chinese Tripitaka) and authentic Indian treatises such as Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika (Toh Number 3824, and Taisho Number 1564), Maitreya's Uttaratantra Shastra (Toh Number 4024, and Taisho Number 1611), and the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha Tantra (Toh Number 479, and Taisho Number 865). Harmonizing pure ethical conduct with Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka dialectics regarding emptiness (शून्यता - śūnyatā; སྟོང་པ་ཉིད། stong pa nyid Tongpanyid) and dependent origination, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö demonstrated how right view, loving-kindness, compassion, equanimity, and non-attachment dissolve clinging to the five aggregates, anatta, emptiness of self, karma, and rebirth across samsara and nirvana, uprooting the three poisons across the six realms.
Passing into final parinirvana inside the dark dungeon of Garlog around 1019 (or 1036) in serene, unshakeable meditation and radiant awakening, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö offered his very life as the sacrificial foundation upon which Atisha, Rinchen Zangpo, Dromtonpa, and Jangchub Ö rebuilt Tibetan Buddhism for the next millennium. Revered across every school of Tibet and the Himalayas as a true bodhisattva king whose supreme skillful means and merit brought the lamp of the Dharma back to the Land of Snows, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö stands forever alongside Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Detsen, Shantarakshita, Rinchen Zangpo, and Atisha as a supreme guardian of the Middle Way.