“One of the temples built at that time was the chapel at the rooftop of the Great Assembly Hall [in Drepung monastery] called the Temple of the Sixteen Arhats (Gnas bcu lha khang). It was named after the sandalwood statues of the 16 disciples of Buddha Śākyamuni that were initially housed in the Karma Kagyu monastery Tse Lhagang (Rtse lha sgang) in Kongpo and brought to Drepung when their initial home was taken over by Gelug -led forces after 1642.”
“There are various rumours that it was not a so-called secret library, but a storeroom of books put under lock. The exact fact remains somehow murky, however, and a lot of questions understandably surround the collection….Still, however, many of the texts in the Sixteen Arhats Temple indeed came from schools (especially the Karma Kagyu and Jo nang) that were seen as the opposition [by Gelugpas] when the Ganden Phodrang came to office, and it cannot be denied that storing them in a library within a Gelug monastery corresponded to a de facto suppression of many of these texts.”
“The monastery of Tāranātha, Tagten Phuntsog Ling was seized by the [Gelugpa] government in 1650 and turned into a Gelug monastery in 1658. It is most probably the origin of the many volumes of the Jonang tradition held in the Sixteen Arhats Temple.” –Cecile Ducher (2013)
“The Truth will first p**s you off, but then it will set you free!” –Gloria Steinem
Today, 25th March (the 28th day of the third lunar month) is the parinirvāṇa (passing away) commemoration of the great Shangpa Kagyu and Jonang Vajrayana Buddhist master, Je Tāranātha, who is one of the greatest Sanskrit-Tibetan translators, historians of Indian Buddhism, and a Vajrayana tantric lineage holder and master of both Shangpa Kagyu and Jonang. In particular, his important and profound works on Kālacakra are still studied and read to this day by anyone wanting to study and practice Kālacakra (see below).
For this commemoration day, I offer this brief overview of my prior research and translations on Tāranātha, and a new short article on the hundreds of texts by Je Tāranātha (and many other Jonang masters and other lineages) discovered recently in the so called ‘secret’ library of the 5th Dalai Lama. These masses of texts were effectively suppressed and censored as they were kept hidden/locked up in the Drepung monastery for centuries, after the Gelug-Mongolian forces violently took over Tibet and stole and destroyed the property and texts of the other main Tibetan Buddhist lineages in the 17th Century.
Je Tāranātha’s Commentary on the Heart Sutra: Study and Translation
For those who read and follow my work, they will know I have a prior and deep connection with Je Tāranātha’s life and work.
In particular, my postgraduate degree (2017) was a study and translation of Je Tāranātha’s brilliant “Word for Word Commentary on the Heart Sutra” (with a foreword by eminent Professor Matthew Kapstein) A text which explains why the second wheel Sutra teaching, is “indirectly” still a teaching on the ultimate Buddha Nature view of Zhen-tong (Empty of Other). A text which explains why the second wheel Sutra teaching, is still a teaching on the ultimate Buddha Nature view of Zhen-tong (Empty of Other).
For those who would like to read more about Je Tāranātha’s life and view of emptiness, I recommend they read the introduction to my book (which can be bought online on Amazon outlets) or the introduction to the thesis itself (available for free download here).
A Dro Kālacakra lineage holder and composer of Kālacakra instruction and practice texts
At the request of a Jonang Rinpoche in exile, I also translated two of Tāranātha’s texts on Kālacakra in 2017, Meaningful to See and Hundreds of Blazing Lights (the extensive commentary by Tāranātha on that root text), the common preliminary sections only.
The head of Jonang in Tibet has forbidden the translation of the six yogas of Kālacakra for public or commercial use. However, as many know, Jamgon Kongtrul the First, a great fan and admirer of Je Tāranātha and Jonang (who received the entire transmission of Jonang in Dzamthang, Tibet) almost copied some of Tāranātha’s works word-for-word when compiling his Treasuries of texts, as I wrote about here.
For the hijacking and misuse of the Dro Kālacakra teachings by the Gelugpas since the time of 9th Panchen Lama, see here.
Tāranātha’s Collected Works and his vajra consort and Zhen-tong lineage holder Kunga Trinley Wangmo
I also created and translated a website page (funded by a Jonang Buddhist community in the US) of Je Tāranātha’s Collected Works, see here: A SHINING MASS OF DHARMA: The Extraordinary and Vast Collected Works of Jetsun Tāranātha. New website and translation on his Life and Works. With links included to any translations I have done of his works.
Some have even suggested I might be an incarnation of Jetsunma Kung Trinley Wangmo (Tāranātha’s secret consort and also one of the only Jonang female lineage holders of the Zhen-tong Madhyamaka (Empty-of Other) view. I personally do not think so, I feel more a kinda Gedun Chophel type energy, but never say never, as they say! ha ha. For an article I wrote about her, see here.
You can read all my original research and translations on Tāranātha in the dedicated website section here.
Hundreds of “hidden” texts discovered in Drepung Monastery
As we can read now in the Drepung Monastery Catalogue produced in 2004, expertly analysed and explained by scholar Prof. Cecile Ducher (2013), literally thousands of precious texts were kept hidden for hundreds of years by the Gelugpas, and unable to be taught or published while they ruled Tibet with an iron authoritarian fist of Gelug sectarianism. The Gelugpas also took over Je Tāranātha’s Jonang monastery, and forcibly converted that to a Gelug monastery, stealing all the property and books in it. Hardly a force for unity, peace, compassion and love, is it? Yet the Gelug sectarian narratives wrongly and inaccurately tell the history of that era, even to this day. These texts were protected from even the destruction of the Cultural Revolution communists (unlike the monks’ quarters at Drepung which were destroyed). A karmic result (and Dharma Protection at work) if ever there was one.
Considering Ducher’s research alone, which is relatively understated on the topic, one can conclude with scholarly backing and factual evidence that the Gelugpa rule for three centuries in Tibet, with the imposition by the Mongolian invaders of their political and spiritual leader 5th Dalai Lama, was not about unity at all, it was about mass murder, destruction, suppression and dominance over the other main Tibetan Buddhist lineage monasteries, texts, property and leaders. A dominance and falsely imposed sense of superiority and Gelugpa sectarianism that continues in Tibetan exile to this day.
However as all those familiar with issues of censorship and intellectual control know, if morally or intellectually corrupt people with political or religious power are not offended by, or trying to silence/ban your writing in one way or another, then you are not really speaking truth to their power. You may sound, look and even speak like a writer but your ideas are perpetuating that status quo. There is nothing admirable about silencing a human being, or as we say: “Don’t kill the messenger, you might miss the message.”
Dedicated to the flourishing textual legacy and revival of Je Tāranātha, Jonang, Kālacakra, Kagyu, the Karmapas and all the other lineages whose texts were kept hidden in the dark for a long time in this Drepung “stolen stash” library.
Written and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 25th May 2025
Je Tāranātha’s masses of texts hidden in Drepung Monastery for centuries (along with thousands of others)
Je Tāranātha’s scholar-biographer, David Templeman
The main biographer in the English language of Je Tāranātha’s life and works, scholar-translator, David Templeman (Monash University, Australia). His PhD on Tāranātha’s life is soon to be published as a book too. A few months ago, Templeman informed me in a series of email discussions about Tāranātha that he had been doing some research on the stash of texts in the Drepung Monastery catalogue, and that hundreds of them were by Jonang masters, like Tāranātha, Dolpopa, and Kunga Drolchog. I was intrigued by this and asked him to send me the catalogue entries of Tāranātha. I reproduce some of them below here for the public view and interest (see Appendix ).
Dr. Cecile Ducher’s important research on the Drepung Monastery Catalogue (2004) of the Sixteen Arhats’ Temple, Drepung Monastery
The work of scholar-translator, Dr. Cecile Ducher on the recently published Drepung catalogue is key to understanding the contents and origin of these hidden (until recently) and massive collections of texts. See Ducher’s downloadable article Goldmine of Knowledge: The Collections of the Nechu Templ in Drepung Monastery (2013) from academia.edu, here.
As Ducher explains in her introduction:
“Many of these texts were concealed at the time of upheaval in Central Tibet in the mid-17th century and revealed in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution in the Sixteen Arhats Temple (Gnas bcu lha khang) within Drepung Monastery…. Many historical, philosophical, and doctrinal texts—sometimes never heard of, sometimes only rumoured to exist—became available and a new chapter in Tibet’s historiography was open.
Today, many scholars work with these texts, but their history, though crucial to understanding the context in which these volumes were written, remains mysterious….What became public with the publication of the Drepung Catalogue in 2004 is that it was not only statues and a few books that were housed in the temple but a complete library of non-orthodox literature that was kept secret for centuries.”
In an interesting (and no doubt) karmic result, Ducher further explains that when the Chinese communist forces invaded and destroyed over forty percent of monastic living quarters at Drepung monastery, the sixteen arhats temple remained intact. I also noted a similar “karmic result” in Lijiang, Yunnan recently, the place where the 10th Karmapa and other Karma Kagyu masters had to flee when threatened with murder, and being kicked out of Tsurphu Monastery for years. Now, those Karma Kagyu monasteries are intact and flourishing monastic institutions, whereas the nearby Little Potala of the 5th Dalai/Gelugpa imposed leaders, was a rather cheap and tacky “Disneyland” type tourist attraction, with many Chinese tourists dressed in Tibetan costume taking selfie photos (see here).
The Sixteen Arhats Temple library, Drepung Monastery: Name and origin in the stolen property and texts of the Karma Kagyu Monastery, Tse Lhagang (Divine Peak)
Ducher (2013) describes the origin of the Sixteen Arhats Temple Library at Drepung monastery [1], created after the Gelug-led military forces stole sixteen precious sandalwood statues of the disciples of Buddha (a gift from the Ming Chinese Emperor) from the Karma Kagyu monastery, Tse Lhagang:
“After the takeover of the 5th Dalai Lama, Drepung developed significantly; most importantly the Great Assembly Hall (Tshogs chen) was rebuilt and the Ganden (Dga’ ldan) Palace enlarged. One of the temples built at that time was the chapel at the rooftop of the Great Assembly Hall, called the Temple of the Sixteen Arhats (Gnas bcu lha khang). It was named after the sandalwood statues of the 16 disciples of Buddha Śākyamuni that were initially housed in the Karma Kagyu monastery Tse Lhagang (Rtse lha sgang) in Kongpo and brought to Drepung when their initial home was taken over by Gelug -led forces after 1642.”
For more on the importance of the Tse Lhagang and its housing of the Black Treasury (Ngag Dzo) by the 3rd Karmapa (containing the liberation story and songs of Milarepa), see the extensive footnote to this article below [2] and my prior article about it here. I was unable to find any photo of the Tselhagang monastery though.
Ducher also describes the origin of the sixteen clay statues, which were used as a practice support by the Gyalwang Karmapas after being gifted by Chinese Ming Emperor:
“The Ming Emperor [in fact Khubilai Khan] offered them to the Protector of Beings, Chogyal Phagpa (Chos rgyal ’phags pa) (1235–1286), and they later became a practice support of the Gyalwang Karmapa in his Tse Lhagang [Monastery] in Kongpo. “
A library of stolen texts censored and suppressed under lock and key for centuries?
The origin and housing of these thousands of other lineage texts in the Drepung collection is not clear. Main reason being the Gelugpas who stole and hid these texts have created their own narrative about them. However, as Ducher (2013) explains, however they were stored, the texts were clearly suppressed and hidden, and their use made almost impossible by the Gelugpas:
“There are various rumours that it was not a so-called secret library, but a storeroom of books put under lock. The exact fact remains somehow murky, however, and a lot of questions understandably surround the collection….however, many of the texts in the Sixteen Arhats Temple indeed came from schools (especially the Karma Kagyu and Jo nang) that were seen as the opposition [by Gelugpas] when the Ganden Phodrang came to office, and it cannot be denied that storing them in a library within a Gelug monastery corresponded to a de facto suppression of many of these texts…many of the complete works of authors and coherent collections were disbanded and reorganized, which effectively concealed their origin and complicated their potential use, even more so as neither a catalogue nor a description of the collections was found within the Sixteen Arhats Temple.”
The Drepung catalogue of 2004: contents and collections of other lineages
The books housed in the temple were only recently revealed and catalogued in Tibet. In 2004, a two-volume, 2483-page catalogue (Drepung Catalogue) listing the titles of texts housed in Drepung Monastery was published in China by the Paltsek Tibetan Rare Texts Research Centre (Dpal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib ’jug khang). Ducher (2013) explains:
” With the progressive publication of these volumes, many rare or seemingly lost texts have become available again, and the editors of the catalogue and of many of the ensuing collections therefore compare the importance of this discovery for the history of pre–17th century Tibet to that of the Dunhuang library-cave for pre–11th century Central Asia.”
Ducher then lists some important collections of other lineage texts and the percentage of those texts that came from the Drepung Sixteen Arhats Temple, including those of Jonang and Je Tāranātha (which probably came from Tāranātha’s former monastery, Tagten Phuntsog Ling:
“The monastery of Tāranātha, Tagten Phuntshog Line (Rtag brtan phun tshogs gling), was seized by the [Gelugpa] government in 1650 and turned into a Gelug (Dge lugs) monastery in 1658. It is most probably the origin of the many volumes of the Jonang tradition held in the Sixteen Arhats Temple.” [2013: 15]
Here are some examples of collections in the Drepung catalogue (and the percentage of texts that came from the Drepung “stash”)
Jonang and Je Tāranātha: 70 percent of over 110 volumes
Jo nang tā ra na tha’i gsung ’bum phyogs bsgrigs par blangs par ma (10 vols) and other complete works of Jo nang masters (more than 100 volumes): 70% stem from the Sixteen Arhats Temple.
Tibetan History: 40 percent of 120 volumes
Bod kyi lo rgyus rnam thar phyogs bsgrigs (120 vols). these historical texts fill more than 500 volumes, and 40% come from the Sixteen Arhats Temple.
Kagyu and Karmapa texts: 60 percent of the 400 volumes
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- 60% of the 400 volumes of Kagyu (Bka’ brgyud) material published recently come from the Sixteen Arhats Temple, including:
o The Collected Works of Marpa Lotsawa (Lho brag mar pa lo tsā’i gsung ’bum (7 vols).
o The Close/Whispered Lineage of Rechungpa (Ras chung snyan brgyud skor (19 vols).
o The Collected Works of Milarepa (Rje btsun mi la ras pa’i gsung ’bum (5 vols).
o The Collected works of Gampopa (Sgam po’i gdan rabs rim byon gyi gsung ’bum (19
vols).
o The collected works of the Gyalwang Karmapas (Dpal rgyal dbang karma pa sku phreng rim byon gyi gsung ’bum) (108 vols), etc.
Kālacakra: 70 percent of 150 volumes
The Great Collection on Kālacakra (Dus ’khor phyogs bsgrigs chen mo) (40 vols); 150 volumes in total, 70% are from the Sixteen Arhats Temple.
In the Drepung catalogue, there were about 250 texts listed by Tāranātha in all and they do not appear in a separate section but appear all throughout the massive two volumes.
Conclusion
Thus, one can conclude with substance that the Gelugpa rule for three centuries in Tibet, with the imposition by the Mongolian invaders of the 5th Dalai Lama, was not about unity at all, it was about the mass murder, destruction, suppression and dominance over the other main Tibetan Buddhist lineage monasteries, texts, property and leaders. A dominance and falsely imposed sense of superiority and sectarianism that continues in Tibetan exile to this day.
Endnotes
[i] Ducher writes that:
“The Karma Kagyu Library of Tse Lhagang (Rtse lha sgang) in Kong po housed a renowned library established by the 1st Karmapa (1110– 1193). In it there was a treasure room called the “Black Treasury” (Mdzod nag ma), containing inter alia a large biography of Mi la ras pa. It is likely that most Kagyu collections published by Paltsek mentioned earlier come from Tse Lhagang.
As said, the name of Drepung Sixteen Arhats Temple derives from the statues of the 16 arhats taken from Tse Lhagang when the monastery was seized. The reason why this monastery in particular was targeted is that its landlord, R Tse Lhagangpa, spearheaded the rebellion against the Central Tibetan forces in 1643. The battle was fierce and the Central Tibetan forces, assisted by Gushri Khan’s army, annihilated the resistance, killing “some five or six thousand pro Karma Kagyü troops from Kongpo.” In all likelihood, the whole library, together with the statues, etc., were brought to Drepung. The fate of the monastery after that date is not clear, but it definitely lost most of its assets.”
I previously did a little research myself on this place for an article I wrote (in 2022) about THE BLACK TREASURY (DZO NAG) 3RD KARMAPA’S EXTENSIVE COMPENDIUM OF MILAREPA’S LIFE AND SONGS. Origin, editions and contents. compiled by the 3rd Karmapa, and also recently found housed in this Drepung monastery ‘hidden’ collection. I wrote:
“As for the origin of the name and place of The Black Treasury, it is from the Tse Lhagang, Kongpo, Tibet (Rtse lha sgang):
“The name Tse Lhagang refers to the contemporary administrative center Menling Dzong in the southern Tibetan region of Kongpo, as well as its neighboring mountain. The locale once housed a renowned library, established by the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, and promoted by subsequent Karmapa hierarchs up to the tenth. It is said to have housed a collection rivaling that of the Karmapa’s seat at Tsurphu, although it was destroyed in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. At present, there are scant historical data about this location.” (Quintman, 2013).
In a footnote, Quintman (2013: 253: n. 71) describes the historical importance of the place and region to the Karmapas:
“According to the Blue Annals, the Fifth Karmapa, Dezhin Shegpa (De bzhin shegs pa) (1384-1415), who was born in the Kongpo region, received both his novice and full ordination vows at Tse Lhagang, and later received teachings there from the Second Zhamar (Zhwa dmar), Khacho Wangpo (Mkha’ spyod dbang po) (1350-1405).
It also records a visit by the Sixth Karmapa, Thongwa Donden (Mthong ba don ldan (1416-53), in 1452. According to Situ Panchen, Tulku Karma Chokyong (sprul sku Karma Chos skyong (seventeenth century), a disciple of the Tenth Karmapa, Choying Dorje (Chos dbying rdo rje (1604- 74), was appointed to oversee the establishment, whose name is recorded as Rtse lha sgar.[3]
The Tse Lhagang was recorded as being intact still in the early 20th Century by Katok Situ Chokyi Gyatso (1880-1925) who is said to have recorded the following note in his diaries regarding his visit to Kongpo in 1920:
“I traveled down [from Gyamda in Kongpo], and at the confluence of the Nyang and Lang rivers—the Nyang River coming from Nyangpo, the Lang River from Langpo, in the directions of the Bhutan pass (’Brag la) and Draksum [Lake]—is found the Karmapa’s black treasury atop the Namse monastery on a small hill.”
Chokyi Gyatso’s entry attests that the Black Treasury at Tse Lhagang was intact at least into the early twentieth century. Other objects in Tibet from this repository, including statues and coins, continue to be known as dzodnagma (mdzod nag ma), “[from] the black treasury.” (2013: 107)
However, I was unable to find any images or descriptions of this place online. Please let me know if you have any.”
[2] Drepung Monastery itself has now had the tables turned and faced severe Chinese repression by the Chinese communist forces. In particular, due to a protest in 2008, Drepung Monastery reopened in 2013 after being shut for five years.
Sources/Further Reading
Ducher, Cecile (2013)
Apropos a Recent Collection of Tibetan Xylographs from the 15th to the 17th Centuries by Marta Sernesi [with Franz-Karl Ehrhard] (2019) . Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 51 (Special issue Perspectives on Tibetan Culture: A Small Garland of Forget-me-nots Offered to Elena De Rossi Filibeck).