1. ma yin dgag.
2. med dgag.
3. Thor bu gnyis pa.
4. sngags pa; “tantric practitioner.”
5. gter ston.
6. Kirti Rinpoche, Dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi rab byed zhabs btags ma, pp. 96–97. For an English translation, see Kirti Rinpoche, Gendün Chöphel, p. 50.
7. On Griebenow, see Paul Nietupski, Labrang.
8. tha snyad pa.
9. Kirti Rinpoche, pp. 95–96. For an English translation, see Kirti Rinpoche, Gendün Chöphel, p. 55.
10. On the period of warfare surrounding Labrang, see Nietupski, Labrang, pp. 81–93.
11. Gendun Chopel would publish a brief account of his journey (in English), entitled “My Journey from Khumbum to Lhassa” in the July 1940 issue of The Maha-Bodhi. There, on page 241, he writes, “So at dawn on the 6th day of the month of the Dragon (March) in the year of the Dragon (1927 A.D.) our caravan left Khumbum, in a cheerful mood, on its long pilgrimage.” The third month of the Tibetan calendar would fall around May; the year of the Dragon was 1928, rather than 1927.
12. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, pp. 44–45. The poem is based on the Pabongkha’s personal name, Jampa Tenzin Tinley Gyatso, literally “Kindness, Upholder of the Teaching, Deeds, Ocean,” terms that appear in order in the four lines of the poem.
13. For a biography of Sankrityayan, see Alaka Atreya Chudal, A Freethinking Cultural Nationalist.
14. Rahul Sankrityayan, Meri Jeevan Yatra, p. 160.
15. Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, pp. 31–32.
16. Ibid., pp. 29–57.
17. Ibid., p. 39.
18. Ibid., p. 57.
19. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, p. 117.
20. Rgya gar gyi gnas chen khag la ’grod pa’i lam yig. For an edition and fully annotated translation of the text, with a detailed introduction, see Toni Huber, The Guide to India.
21. dag snang.
22. For an excellent study of India and pilgrimage to India in the Tibetan imagination, see Toni Huber, The Holy Land Reborn. An insightful analysis of Gendun Chopel’s Guide to the Sacred Sites of India appears on pp. 317–35.
23. Ibid., pp. 322–24.
24. Huber, The Guide to India, p. 101.
25. Ibid., p. 86; my translation.
26. Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, p. 111.
27. Huber, The Guide to India, pp. 42 and 44; my translation.
28. Ibid., p. 86; my translation.
29. Ibid., p. 104; my translation.
30. ’bras ljongs skad.
31. Gendun Chopel and Rakra Trathong, Gsar bsgyur Rā ma yā ṇa’i rtog brjod.
32. Gendun Chopel translated the second, third, fourth, and twelfth chapters, with the twelfth chapter being published in a bilingual Tibetan-Sanskrit edition in 1941 by the Ramakrishna Vedanta Ashrama in Darjeeling. See The Gita: Bhakti-Yoga Chap. XII. I am grateful to Paul Hackett for providing me with one of the few surviving copies of this publication. For a description of how he found it, see Paul Hackett, “Looking for a Lost Gītā,” pp. 41–45.
33. Legs sbyar bang mdzod.
34. See Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, p. 77.
35. See Richard Davis, The Bhagavad Gita.
36. See Huber, The Holy Land Reborn, p. 323.
37. dbu can.
38. Yul phyogs so so’i gsar ’gyur me long.
39. This was the La dwags kyi āg bar, published by the Moravian missionary, August Hermann Francke, from 1904 to 1907. For a study, with facsimiles of the issues, see Hartmut Walravens, ed., The First Tibetan Serial.
40. Melong, vol. 8, no. 3–4, p. 3.
41. Gendun Chopel also copied a number of Dunhuang documents related to Tibetan history. They are published in his collected writing as Dge ’dun chos ’phel gyis bsdu rub gnang ba tun hong yig cha (Dunhuang Documents Assembled by Gendun Chopel). See ’Dzam gling rig pa’i dpa’ bo mkhas dbang dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi gsung ’bum, vol. 1, pp. 243–308.
42. Deb ther dkar po.
43. See Paul Hackett, Theos Bernard, the White Lama, pp. 135–36. The discussion of Bernard that follows is drawn from Hackett’s meticulously researched biography of Theos Bernard.
44. Cited in Ibid., p. 323.
45. For an English translation of his Hindi account, see Rahul Sankrityayan, My Third Expedition to Tibet. Another account was published in two parts in The Maha-Bodhi. The first, called “On Way to Tibet,” appeared in vol. 44, nos. 10 and 11 (October–November 1936): 82–113. The second part was called “On the Way to Tibet” and appeared in vol. 45, no. 1 (January 1937): 141–54.
Rahul Sankrityayan made a total of four trips to Tibet, contributing scholarly reports on the second, third, and fourth to The Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society. The first, describing the expedition during which he first met Gendun Chopel, is Rāhula Sānkṛityāyana, “Sanskrit Palm-leaf MSS. in Tibet,” in The Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, vol. 21, part 1 (March 1935): 21–43. The second, describing an expedition that began on February 16, 1936 (in which Gendun Chopel did not participate), is Rāhula Sānkṛityāyana, “Second Search of Sanskrit Palm-Leaf MSS. in Tibet,” in The Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, vol. 23, part 1 (1937): 1–57. The third describes the expedition that began on May 4, 1938, and included Gendun Chopel; he writes on the opening page, “At the beginning our party consisted of three members viz.—the Tibetan Scholar Gendun Chhomphel, the photo-artist Mr. Fany Mockerjee and myself.” See Rāhula Sānkṛityāyana, “Search for Sanskrit Palm-Leaf MSS. in Tibet,” in The Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, vol. 24, part 4 (1938): 137–63.
46. See Sir Edwin Arnold, East and West, p. 311.
47. For a biography of Dharmapala, see Steven Kemper, Rescued from the Nation.
48. The articles are “Kumbum, the Mystic City” (August 1939), “Lhassa, The Capital of the Land of Snow” (April 1940), “My Journey from Khumbum to Lhasa” (July 1940), “An Ill-Starred Dalai Lama” (October 1940) about the Sixth Dalai Lama, and “Two Famous Bengali Pandits in Tibet” (January 1941) about Śāntarakṣita and Vanaratna. The four poems all appear in the August 1941 issue.
49. “Lama Geshe Chompell,” p. 3.
50. Deb ther sngon po.
51. See Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, p. 69.
52. Ibid., p. 107. The final two stanzas seem to describe the experience of watching a motion picture. The “golden haired monkeys” are the British.
53. Gendun Chopel, The Passion Book, p. 112.
54. An important exception in this case, both for the detail it provides and for the fact that it was composed by a woman, is the autobiography of Sera Kandro (1892–1940). See Sarah Jacoby, Love and Liberation.
55. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, pp. 65–67.
56. See Donald S. Lopez Jr., Gendun Chopel, p. 46.
57. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, p. 79.
58. Ibid., p. 71.
59. See, for example, the recollections of Gendun Chopel’s sometime traveling companion, Golok Jigme, in Luc Schaedler’s 2005 documentary Angry Monk.
60. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, p. 69.
61. Those paintings have been published in Lopez, Gendun Chopel.
62. Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, p. 414 and Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, pp. 80–83.
63. “Lama Geshe Chompell,” p. 3.
64. Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, pp. 344–45.
65. Ibid., p. 346.
66. sbom po’i ltung ba.
67. Thun drug gi rnal ’byor, p. 31.
68. See George Roerich, Biography of Dharmasvāmin, pp. 18–19. My translation.
69. grub mtha’.
70. phar phyin.
71. dge ’dun nyi shu.
72. See Jacob Dalton, The Gathering of Intentions.
73. See, for example, Benjamin Bogin, “Locating the Copper-Colored Mountain,” pp. 3–17.
74. Gendun Chopel is referring here to the famous Pānadure Debate of 1873. The Buddhists were represented by Migeṭṭuwattē Guṇānanda Thera (1823–1890), whom Gendun Chopel mistakenly calls Guṇaratna.
75. Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, pp. 343–44.
76. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, p. 79. This is the second colophon to his translation of the Dhammapada, added when the blocks were carved in Sikkim in 1945.
77. Quoted in the biography of Gendun Chopel by his friend Lachung Apo, also known as Shes rab rgya mtsho. See Shes rab rgya mtsho “Dge ’dun chos ’phel,” pp. 639–40.
78. Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, p. 347.
79. Ibid., pp. 313–14.
80. Ibid., p. 318.
81. See Bkras mthong thub bstan chos dar, Dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi lo rgyus, p. 57.
82. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, pp. 117–23.
83. Bkras mthong thub bstan chos dar, Dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi lo rgyus, p. 56.
84. Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, pp. 319–20.
85. Ibid., pp. 346–47.
86. Stephen Wootton Bushell, “Early History of Tibet from Chinese Sources,” pp. 435–541. Gendun Chopel translated substantial Chinese materials related to Tibet into Tibetan. These appear in his collected writings as Rgya’i lo rgyus las byung ba’i bod kyi rgyal rabs skor (On the Dynastic History of Tibet That Appears in Chinese Histories). See ’Dzam gling rig pa’i dpa’ bo mkhas dbang dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi gsung ’bum, vol. 3, pp. 185–282. The last of these is signed and dated the twenty-fifth day of the third Tibetan month of 1943.
87. The story appears in an unpublished brief biography of Gendun Chopel by Hor khang bsod nams dpal ’bar, dated 1990, entitled “Mkhas pa’i dbang po dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi rnam thar yang zhun gser gyi thigs pa,” pp. 7–8.
88. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, p. 143.
89. For a translation, see Gedun Chos-’phel, The White Annals (Deb-ther dkar-po). For Hugh Richardson’s review of the translation, see “Dge-’dun chos-’phel’s ‘Unfinished’ ” in Hugh Richardson, High Peaks, Pure Earth, pp. 82–88. As Richardson notes, Samten Norboo’s translation contains many errors.
90. Shes rab rgya mtsho, “Dge ’dun chos ’phel,” p. 644. See also Irmgard Mengele, dGe-’dun-chos-’phel, pp. 33, 62.
91. Ibid., pp. 647–48. See also Mengele, pp. 36–37, 65–66.
92. Dge bshes chos kyi grags pas brtsams pa’i brda dag ming tshig gsal ba, 1949.
93. Harrer’s papers are found in the Himalayan Collection of the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich (Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich). At the present time, his diaries have no shelf number. I am most grateful to Isrun Engelhardt for locating this diary entry and providing a translation.
94. Ngo mtshar rin po che’i phreng ba.
95. Sir Charles Bell, Portrait of the Dalai Lama, p. 16.
96. Heather Stoddard, Le mendiant de l’Amdo, p. 102 and note 162.
97. Harrer papers, Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich, diary entry of November 26, 1946.
98. A biography of Kashöpa by his son, in which this story does not appear, portrays the famous figure as a constant admirer and friend of Gendun Chopel, who did not intercede after his arrest for political reasons, reporting that Kashöpa instructed Gendun Chopel’s jailers to flog him in such a way that he was not injured. See Jamyang Choegyal Kasho, In the Service of the 13th and the 14th Dalai Lamas.
99. Cited in Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, p. 459. See pp. 449–63 for a detailed discussion of the Tibet Improvement Party and its demise; the full document cited here appears in pp. 458–59.
100. Alexandre Andreyev, The Myth of the Masters Revived, p. 200.
101. Kirti Rinpoche, Dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi rab byed zhabs btags ma, pp. 252–53. For an English translation, see Kirti Rinpoche, Gendün Chöphel, p. 134.
102. Ibid., 253–54; English translation, p. 135.
103. This report occurs twice in the “Declassified Files of Ministry of External Affairs” (EAD) of the National Archives of India (NAI), North Eastern Frontier (NEF), under ID 30308 and ID 30311. “Ceishe Cholak” is the Mongolian monk Geshé Chodrak. Both documents carry the title “Reports regarding Gedun Chompel La, alleged to be a Communist and al. Agent of Soviet Russia and Ceishe Cholak of Tibet.” Gendun Chopel figures in another report in the same archive, again appearing twice, under ID 32952 and ID 36466. Both documents carry the title (original spelling preserved), “Reports regarding Gedun Chhompallal, Alleged to be a Communist and an Agent of Soviet Russ a regent to P.O. in Siim to keep an eye on him.” “P.O. in Siim” refers to “Political Office in Sikkim.” This report is dated 1949, when Gendun Chopel was in Lhasa and likely still in prison.
104. Kirti Rinpoche, Gendün Chöphel, p. 145.
105. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, p. 462. The date of the letter from J. E. Hopkinson is July 11, 1946, but he is quoting a letter from Richardson to Gould of January 4, 1946. I am grateful to Isrun Engelhardt for pointing this out to me.
106. srid lugs.
107. Btson nas hor khang la gnang ba’i phyag bris, in ’Dzam gling rig pa’i dpa’ bo mkhas dbang dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi gsung ’bum, vol. 5, p. 82.
108. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, p. 147.
109. Ibid., p. 91. See note 49 on that page for the poem that he committed to memory.
110. Sankrityayan, My Third Expedition to Tibet, pp. 6–7.
111. Sankrityayan, Meri Jeevan Yatra, p. 168.
112. The Japanese spy Kimura Hisao, who traveled in Tibet disguised as a Mongolian monk named Dawa Sangpo, says that he met Gendun Chopel in 1948, delivering a letter from Dorje Tharchin. He states in his account of his travels in Tibet that Gendun Chopel “was only in prison for a year, but sometime during that year his brilliant but always erratic mind snapped.” See Hisao Kimura, Japanese Agent in Tibet, p. 194.
113. In Luc Schaedler’s documentary Angry Monk, Gendun Chopel’s wife, Tseten Yudron, says that he lived for two years after his release. However, Tharchin’s obituary of Gendun Chopel in Melong, published on December 1, 1951 (and translated in full at the end of this chapter) states that he was released one year ago, thus supporting the November 1950 date.
114. The story appears in Lachung Apo’s biography of Gendun Chopel. See Shes rab rgya mtsho, p. 651, and Mengele, pp. 40 and 69. See also Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, p. 107.
115. Rten ’brel bstod pa.
116. ’Jam dpal rdzogs pa chen po gzhi lam ’bras bu dbyer med pa’i don la smon pa.
117. Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, p. 352.
118. phyi rol mu stegs pa.
119. Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, p. 100.
120. Ibid., p. 104.
121. Ibid., p. 402.
122. Ibid., pp. 265–68.
123. Ibid., pp. 150–51.
124. Ibid., p. 143.
125. Ibid., p. 276.
126. Ibid., pp. 246–47.
127. Ibid., p. 318.
128. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, p. 25.
129. See Kirti Rinpoche Lobsang Tenzin, Dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi rab byed zhabs btags ma, p. 93. For an English translation, see Kirti Rinpoche, Gendün Chöphel, pp. 48–49.
130. See, for example, Huber, The Guide to India, p. 87.
131. Sems tsam pa’i grub mtha’i rnam bzhag.
132. Dbu tshad kyi dka’ ba’i gnad.
133. Shin tu dka’ ba’i rigs lam.
134. For a useful annotated list of Gendun Chopel’s works, both published and rumored, see Irmgard Mengele, dGe-’dun-chos-’phel, pp. 85–113. The list of his “Attributed and Unpublished Works” begins on p. 105.
135. David Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, p. 179.
136. ’Jam dpal dgyes pa’i gtam gyis rgol ngan phye mar ’thag pa reg gcod ral gri’i ’phrul ’khor. Cited in Kirti Rinpoche, Dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi rab byed zhabs btags ma, p. 3.
137. Dbu ma’i zab gnad snying por dril ba’i legs bzhad klu sgrub dgongs rgyan.
138. Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Madman’s Middle Way, p. 53.
139. bsam gyis mi khyab pa.
140. Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, p. 36.
141. Lopez, The Madman’s Middle Way, pp. 48–49.
142. blo ldan.
143. Ibid., p. 69.
144. Ibid., p. 68.
145. Gendun Chopel, The Passion Book, p. 105.
146. The translation is taken from Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, pp. 29–32.
147. Ibid., pp. 59–62.
148. Translated from the Tibetan text in Huber, The Guide to India, pp. 44–48.
149. Huber, The Guide to India, pp. 56–58.
150. For the original Tibetan, see “ ’Jigs rten ril mo ’am zlum po,” in ’Dzam gling rig pa’i dpa’ bo mkhas dbang dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi gsung ’bum, vol. 5, pp. 299–300.
151. Gendun Chopel, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom, pp. 22–25. This collection of Gendun Chopel’s poetry provides information about the poem in the note at the end of each poem. See those notes for this poem and the others in this chapter.
152. Ibid., pp. 26–29.
153. Ibid., pp. 32–33.
154. Ibid., pp. 34–35.
155. Ibid., pp. 36–37.
156. Ibid., pp. 42–45.
157. Ibid., pp. 46–47.
158. Ibid.
159. Ibid.
160. Ibid., pp. 48–49.
161. Ibid., pp. 58–61.
162. Ibid., pp. 64–67.
163. Ibid., pp. 66–71.
164. Ibid., pp. 72–75.
165. Ibid., pp. 76–77.
166. Ibid., pp. 83–87.
167. Ibid., pp. 98–101.
168. Ibid., pp. 162–65.
169. Ibid., pp. 137–39.
170. The translation is taken from Gendun Chopel, The Passion Book. Stanza numbers are provided for ease of reference.
171. The translation is taken from Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, pp. 268–74.
172. Ibid., pp. 311–25.
173. Pāli: Udena and Vāsuladattā.
174. Pāli: Ambapālī.
175. Pāli: Padumāvatī in Ujjenī.
176. Pāli: Jīvaka Komāra and Sirimā.
177. The translation is taken from Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, pp. 397–416. Please see this version for annotations to the translation.
178. Pramāṇavārttika, chapter 1, verse 221.
179. Illustration is not extant.
180. gaṇacakra.
181. dhūtaguṇa.
182. ekāsanika.
183. Rba bzhad.
184. For the Tibetan text, see ’Dzam gling rig pa’i dpa’ bo mkhas dbang dge ’dun chos ’phel gyi gsung ’bum, vol. 1, pp. 168–70.
185. The translation is taken from Lopez, The Madman’s Middle Way, pp. 47–64. See that translation for annotations.
186. Samādhirāja Sūtra IX.23.
187. Madhyamakāvatāra XII.39d.
188. Bka’ gdams glegs bam.
189. Pramāṇavārttika III.219.