Dharma Protectors of Tibetan Buddhism

A common question that is often asked by those who are not familiar with Tibetan Buddhism relates to the practice of Dharmapalas or Dharma Protectors. These are actually beings who support our practice through a number of methods. Primarily they are propitiated in order to remove obstacles and difficulties that block spiritual progress.

Read more
Tagpu Pemavajra and Visions from Gaden Heaven

Tagpu Pemavajra was a highly attained lama who had many authentic visions of the Buddhas and even received direct teachings from them. Upon Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche’s request, Tagpu Pemavajra travelled to Tushita, the heavenly abode of Lama Tsongkhapa where he received the complete cycle of teachings on Dorje Shugden.

Read more
Dorje Shugden’s Golden Domed Hat

Dorje Shugden’s golden domed hat is a representation of the protection he grants to practitioners and upholders of Madhyamaka, Nagarjuna’s special view of Emptiness as embodied perfectly in Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings.

Read more
Mahasiddhas and Marriage

The Mahasiddhas of Buddhism have led very different and controversial lives in times both ancient and modern. They often exhibit what has come to be commonly known as “crazy wisdom”, which is wisdom so unconventional that it borders on the edge of madness.

Read more
Dorje Shugden’s Sword

Manjushri is most often depicted as a male Bodhisattva wielding a flaming sword in his right hand. The sword represents the realisation of transcendent wisdom which cuts down ignorance and duality which binds sentient beings to a cycle of suffering and unhappiness.

Read more
The Advantages of Propitiating Dorje Shugden: Part 2

In general, a Dharma Protector serves to protect the Dharma, its precepts and precious teachings as well as the practitioners. To be specific, it is not the Dharma itself that requires protection but its availability, proper understanding and practice that have to be safeguarded.

Read more
The Advantages of Propitiating Dorje Shugden: Part 1

According to His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden is a fully enlightened Buddha who appears in the form of a worldly god so that beings in this era can access his blessings quicker and more powerfully.

Read more
Never Before Seen Footage of Dorje Shugden Oracles

These videos contain rare and never-seen-before footage of oracular monks who mysteriously took spontaneous trance in the presence of Tsem Rinpoche during a pilgrimage to Tibet.

Read more
The Powerful Qualities of Dorje Shugden (Tibetan) | དཔེ་རིས་དེར་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་དུ་འཕགས་པའི་ཁྱད་ཆོས་རྣམས།

ཆོས་སྐྱོང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན་ནི་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དཔལ་དབྱངས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་སྤྲུལ་ཞིག་ཡིན། ས་ཀྱ་དང་དགེ་ལུགས་པའི་རྩ་ཆེན་བླ་མ་དང་མཁས་དབང་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤུགས་ལྡན་ནི་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་ཡིན་པ་ལོ་བརྒྱ་འཕྲག་གསུམ་དངོས་གནས་གཏན་ལ་འབེབས།

Read more
Dorje Shugden in the Sakya Tradition

Before Dorje Shugden was widely practised in the Gelugpa tradition, he was enthroned as a Protector of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Sakya reliance on Dorje Shugden began with the supreme Sakya throneholder, the 30th Sakya Trizin Sonam Rinchen.

Read more
Commentary: A Sakya Praise to Dorje Shugden

This is a commentary by His Eminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche on the Praise to Dorje Shugden called duelzin choe ki gyalpo choepai choka phuentsog doe gu yong khil she jawa, composed by the 31st Sakya Trizin Kunkhyen Ngawang Kunga Lodro.

Read more
The Hidden Name of Dorje Shugden in the Kangyur

Recently, exciting information has come to light of Dorje Shugden’s name written in the Kangyur, hidden in a passage about the names of Manjushri, as discovered by Dragyab Chocktrul Ngawang Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen.

Read more
Dorje Shugden’s Life Entrustment Initiation

Serious practitioners who wish to establish a deeper connection with Dorje Shugden can receive the life entrustment initiation, also known as sogtae. It greatly supports our spiritual progress as Dorje Shugden guides us not only in this lifetime, but in all future lives.

Read more
Nagarjuna of the Middle Way Philosophy

Arya Nagarjuna lived after the Buddha’s time and became the founder of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition in ancient India. It was from this great being that the lineage on wisdom, or the teachings on the profound view of Emptiness.

Read more
How to Rely upon Dorje Shugden

Relying on a Dharma Protector is an essential and beneficial practice within Vajrayana Buddhism. There are two ways to rely upon Dorje Shugden: in thought and in deed.

Read more
The Importance of Supporting Dharma Institutions

Sponsoring the institutions of the Sangha, namely monasteries and Dharma centres, is not only a generous way to serve others, but a compassionate one too as the sponsor provides the Sangha the means to preserve and spread the Dharma for the benefit of future generations.

Read more
Gaden Monastery’s Dorje Shugden Statue

This particular Dorje Shugden statue was formerly housed in the private Protector chapel of Gaden Lachi, the prayer hall for Gaden Monastery’s two colleges – Gaden Shartse and Gaden Jangtse, alongside statues of other important Protectors.

Read more
Chöd in the Gaden Nyengyu Tradition

Chöd refers to cutting through the self-grasping mind that is at the very root of samsara. The lineage of Chöd was established by a female Tibetan master, Machig Labdrön, who received these teachings from her teacher Padampa Sangye.

Read more
Dorje Shugden Cham Dance in Nyemo Gyelche Monastery

The Dorje Shugden cham dance by and large encompasses the essence of what His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang has written about Dorje Shugden, relating the events leading to his manifestation as a Dharma Protector.

Read more
Dorje Shugden’s Divination

There are currently two authentic divination texts that are in use to contact Dorje Shugden. One is from the writings of H.E. Kyabje Dagom Rinpoche and the other is from Dorje Shugden himself who composed it while in trance of the Choyang Duldzin Oracle.

Read more