Prophesies and Childhood

Tsongkhapa’s birth was prophesied by both Buddha Shakyamuni and Guru Rinpoche. And before Tsongkhapa’s birth there were several indications that he would be a great being: His parents had very auspicious dreams that the child would be an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, and Vajrapani, which is what Tsongkhapa is always considered. And his future teacher, when he was quite young (his name was Choje Dondrub Rinchen) he received a vision of Yamantaka—that’s the furious form of Manjushri—that he, Yamantaka, would come to Amdo in a certain year and become his disciple. This teacher had some sort of vision that this disciple was going to be born; a very special disciple.

Tsongkhapa was born in the area called Tsongkha. Actually it comes from the word “onion.” He was born in “Onion Land”; it’s the place where a lot of “tsong” (onions) grow. That doesn’t sound very nice in English, does it—the man from Onion Land. Very arbitrary. And this is in Amdo, northeastern Tibet. He was born in the year 1357, the fourth of six sons. The day after his birth, this teacher who had this vision that this disciple would be born there, Choje Dondrub Rinchen, sent his main disciple to the parents with gifts, and a statue, and a letter. He really had this strong feeling that this child would be really special.

Now this is not so fantastic, actually, if you think about it. I mean, it is fantastic from one point of view, but it’s not so uncommon. Because often His Holiness the Dalai Lama has various dreams of where different high lamas are reborn; and, based on those dreams, they usually go looking for the reincarnations. And so this is a common occurrence among very, very highly-developed teachers. I think that Lama Zopa also has had some dreams like that, hasn’t he, of finding incarnations.

Tsongkhapa was not like any ordinary child. He never misbehaved; he instinctively engaged in bodhisattva types of actions; he was extremely intelligent and always wanted to learn everything. And we do come across, occasionally, little children like that, don’t we? And at the age of three, he took the lay vows from the Fourth Karmapa.

Again, I think of the example of the young Serkong Rinpoche. As soon as he could talk, he would point to the picture of the old Serkong Rinpoche in his family’s house and say, “That was me.” And when the people from his old household came—based on His Holiness saying where to look for him—he recognized somebody by their name, and all he wanted to do was to go with them back to Dharamsala; back to his monastery. He was only three years old. He never ever asked for his parents after he left; never. I mean, you come across many fantastic things among the Tibetans, but for them it’s fairly commonplace.

So it is not so fantastic that he wanted to take lay vows and took them when he was three. And soon after he took these vows, his father invited this teacher, Choje Dondrub Rinchen, to their home. And the lama said he would educate the boy, and the father agreed. So this lama stayed at their house and educated the boy until he was seven. Just seeing the lama read, he instinctively knew how to read; he didn’t have to be taught how to read. And again, this is not so fantastic. The son of my nephew is like that. Nobody had to teach him how to read. He could read when he was three. He just knew how to read. So it does happen.

During this time, this teacher gave the boy various empowerments to Five-Deity Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, Yamantaka, and Vajrapani. By the age of seven, he had already memorized—and this is quite fantastic—at the age of seven he had already memorized the complete rituals of all of these, and had done the Chakrasamvara retreat, and was already doing the self-initiation. At seven. That’s pretty good. He already had visions of Vajrapani, and he dreamt of Atisha, and so on. But also you find among the young tulkus and with the Tibetans that some of them have extraordinary memories. Able to memorize really quite extraordinarily when they were young. Tsongkhapa surpassed everybody in that.

At the age of seven, he received novice vows from the same lama, Choje Dondrub Rinchen, and he got the ordination name Lozang-dragpa. That’s the name he is usually known by. And he continued to study in Amdo with this lama until he was sixteen, and then he went to Central Tibet to continue his studies and he never returned to his homeland.

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