The Rimé Activities of Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol, Rachel Pang

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"The Rimé Activities of Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol (1781-1851)", Rachel H. Pang, (Davidson College), Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines , 2014

Non-sectarianism (ris med), especially in the Tibetan Buddhist context, is most often associated with the lives and works of a group of nineteenth-century religious luminaries from the Kham region of eastern Tibet. Referred to collectively as the “nonsectarian movement” by contemporary scholars, this group consisted of Jamgön Kongtrül, Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo, Chokgyur Lingpa, Dza Patrul, Ju Mipham, and others. Yet, approximately three decades prior to the non-sectarian activities of Jamgön Kongtrül and his contemporaries, there was a figure fervently advocating nonsectarianism in north-eastern, central and western Tibet: the renowned poet-saint Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol (1781-1851). While both Tibetan studies scholars and Tibetan Buddhists alike have noted Shabkar’s non-sectarian tendencies in general, this topic has remained largely unexplored in the scholarly literature. Because Shabkar’s non-sectarian activities were so prolific, I argue that it is necessary to take serious consideration of Shabkar’s non-sectarian activities as a part of the history, nature, and extent of non-sectarianism in Tibetan Buddhist history as a whole.