Kushok Bakula Rinpoche (Tibetan: སྐུཤོག་བ་ཀུ་ལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།) is nowadays the head of Pethup Gompa in Spituk, Ladakh, India. According to his followers he is an emanation of the Buddha Amitabha and was one of the 16 disciples of Buddha (Naytan Chudrug, or the 16 Arhats). They also claim that his first 19 incarnations have been documented in the Tibetan text Naytan Chagchot (Wylie: gNas hrtan phyag mchod).
There are two different explanations for his name.
According to Tibetan chronicles, he was fond of doing meditation and praying and was very simple. After renouncing all wordly comforts he used pakula grass in his everyday life, especially as a sitting and sleeping mat.
The Manorathapurani and the Pali version of Milindapanha maintain him as being born at Kaushambi in a minister's family and then having been swallowed by a fish in the Yamuna river that was later caught by an angler. The angler sold it to another minister's wife, Upon cutting pen, the child was found unharmed and alive. The minister's wife adopted him. However, a dispute with his natural parents, about who should take care of him was resolved by the king, who judged that both should have custody of him. Thus, he became known as Dva Kula (Two Families).
2nd Incarnation of Kushok Bakula Rinpoche – TilopaThe second incarnation of Bakula was an Indian Mahasiddha Tilopa (Tibetan:
ཏི་ལོ་པ,
Wylie:
Ti lo pa), or Sherab Zangpo (Tibetan:
ཤེས་རབ་བཟང་པོ, Wylie:
Shes rab bzang po) (Prajnabhadra). In order to spread the Buddha dharma. The king of Visnunagar offered Tilopa, a learned guru, 500 gold coins a day, if he would live at his court. Tilopa, however, wanted rather to live as a yogi and he quietly departed from the court and retreated near a cemetery to meditate. During that time,
Naropa came to serve him. And through the practice of the six famous yoga lams (paths) he attained the mahamudra siddhi. After preaching extensively, he entered the heavenly abode of
Amitābha during his lifetime.
3rd Incarnation of Kushok Bakula Rinpoche – LuipaThe third incarnation of Bakula manifested as the Indian Mahasiddha Luipa (Wylie:
Laa wa pa). He abandoned his kingdom in Sri Lanka and journeyed to Ramesvaram, where he became a
Bhikkhu. A
Dakini at Dorje Dan (Tibetan:
རྡོ་རྗེ་གདན, Wylie:
rDo rje gdan) (
Bodh Gaya) revealed to him an
upaya for realising Buddhahood -- and in this way he continued practising for many years in a cemetery. Dakinis at
Pataliputra further instructed him to remove his royal pride about the purity of foods, after which he sat in meditation for twelve years near river
Ganges, where he lived on the minute guts of fish rejected by the fishermen.
4th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheThe fourth incarnation was a king. He appears in the religious book 'Kadam Buchos'.
5th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheThe fifth incarnation was Aryasura (Lopon Pawo, Wylie:
sLob dpon dpa' bo), the disciple of
Nagarjuna (Gonbo Ludup, Wylie:
mGon po klu grub).
6th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheThe sixth incarnation was Gyalwa Chogyangs, (Wylie:
rGyal ba mchog dbyangs), one of Lopon Padma's twenty-five disciples.
7th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheThe seventh incarnation was Ratna Udam (Nyamet Rinchen Chondus, Wylie:
mNyam med rin chen brtson 'grus), the disciple of Kasdup Kyungpo, (Wylie:
mKhas grub 'khyung po).
8th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheThe eighth incarnation, was Yeshe Dzin, dharmaguru of King Gedun Bang.
9th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheLotsawa Rinchen Sangpo, 954 - 1055.
10th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheThe tenth incarnation, was Geshe Chagpa Thrichog of the Kadmapa tradition.
11th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula Rinpoche – Rechung Dorje Drakpa, 1083/4 – 116112th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheSthavira Lodros Choskyong was Khedrup Rinpoche's main disciple.
13th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheDrupchen Choskyi Dorje (Mahasiddha Dharmavajra) was the pupil of Basco Chokyi Gyaltsen (Dharmadhvaja).
14th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheLobzang Jinpa (Sumatidana) was the main disciple of
Lobsang Palden Yeshe, 6th Panchen Lama.
15th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheYongdzin Yeshe Gyaltsen was the tutor of Jamphel Gyatso, 8th Dalai Lama.
16th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheJetsun Ngawang Jampek Yeshe Gyatso, Khempo of Loseling.
17th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula RinpocheKongchog Rangdrol Nyima was the first Incarnation to appear in
Ladakh, he appeared in
Lamayuru Monastery.
18th Incarnation of Kushok Bakula Rinpoche19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, 21 May 1917 – 4 November 200320th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, Thubstan Nawang, born 24 November 2005
