Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava
Statue of Padmasambhava 123 ft. (37.5 m) high in mist overlooking Rewalsar Lake, Himachal Pradesh, India

Padmasambhava (lit. "Lotus-Born"), also known as Guru Rinpoche, was an 8th-century Indian Buddhist master. Although there was a historical Padmasambhava, nothing is known of him apart from helping the construction of the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet at Samye, at the behest of Trisong Detsen, and shortly thereafter leaving Tibet due to court intrigues.

A number of legends have grown around Padmasambhava's life and deeds, and he is widely venerated as a 'second Buddha' across Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Himalayan states of India.

In Tibetan Buddhism, he is a character of a genre of literature called terma, an emanation of Amitābha that is said to appear to tertöns in visionary encounters and a focus of guru yoga practice, particularly in the Rimé schools. The Nyingma school considers Padmasambhava to be a founder of their tradition.

Nyangrel Nyima Özer (1136-1204) was the principal architect of the Padmasambhava mythos according to Janet Gyatso. Guru Chöwang (1212–1270) was the next major contributor to the mythos.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries there were several competing terma traditions surrounding Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra, Songtsän Gampo, and Vairotsana. At the end of the 12th century, there was the "victory of the Padmasambhava cult," in which a much greater role is assigned to the role of Padmasambhava in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet.

According to tradition, Padmasambhava was incarnated as an eight-year-old child appearing in a lotus blossom floating in Lake Dhanakosha, in the kingdom of Oddiyana. While some scholars locate this kingdom in the Swat Valley area of modern-day Pakistan, a case on literary, archaeological, and iconographical grounds can be made for placing it in the present-day state of Odisha in India. Padmasambhava's special nature was recognized by the childless local king of Oḍḍiyāna and was chosen to take over the kingdom, but he left Oddiyana for northern parts of India.