View source for Taranatha

[[Image:Taranatha-Shechen cal.jpg|thumb|350px|Jetsün Taranatha. ''Courtesy of [[Shechen Monastery]].'']]
'''Jetsün Taranatha''' (Tib. རྗེ་བཙུན་ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་, [[Wyl.]] ''rje btsun tA ra nA tha'') or '''Kunga Nyingpo''' (Tib. ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ་, Wyl. ''kun dga' snying po'') (1575-1634) was a great accomplished master of the [[Jonang]] and [[Shangpa Kagyü]] traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Though famed in Tibet as the author of many treatises on [[tantra]] and philosophy, he is especially known in the West for his masterly [[History of Buddhism in India]]. The name, Taranatha, which is of Indian origin, was given to him at the age of 20 in a dream by an Indian [[yogi]], and exemplifies his strong connection with India, “the Land of the Aryas”. He learned effortlessly some of its languages including Sanskrit. He was the uncle of the [[Fifth Dalai Lama]]. He wrote his most famous work, ''History of Buddhism in India'', in 1608.

The 5th Dalai Lama recognized the son of a Khalkha Mongol Khan as the reincarnation of Jetsün Tarnatha. This boy and his successive incarnations became the [[Jetsün Dampa]] Hutuktu (Tib. རྗེ་བཙུན་དམ་པ་ཧུ་ཐུག་ཏུ་, Wyl. ''rje btsun dam pa hu thug tu''), the spiritual heads of the [[Gelug]] lineage in Mongolia.

==Writings==
*History of Buddhism in India
*[[Indian Version of the Life of Guru Rinpoche]]

==Further Reading==
*David Templeman, ''Taranatha's Life of Krsnacarya/Kanha'', Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1989
*David Templeman, 'Memories of a Past Life', in ''Religions of Tibet in Practice'', edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., Princeton University Press, 1997
*Jo Nang Taranatha, ''The Origin of the Tara Tantra'', translated and edited by David Templeman, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, first published in 1981, revised edition 1995.
*Lama Chimpa, Alaka Chattopadhyaya and Debiprasad Chatterji, ''Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India'', Delhi : Motilal Banarsidass, 1990
*Taranatha, ''The Essence of Other Emptiness'', Snow Lion, 2007
*Taranatha, ''The Golden Rosary of Tara'', Shang-Shung Edizioni, 1985
*Taranatha, ''The Life of Padmasambahava'', Shang Shung Edizioni, 2005
*Taranatha, ''The Seven Instruction Lineages'', translated and edited by David Templeman, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2002
* Taranatha's commentary on the Heart Sutra - A study, translation and critical edition by Adele Tomlin, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2017  (ISBN 978-93-87023-01-7)

==External Links==
*{{TBRC|P1428|TBRC Profile}}
*[http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Taranata/2712 Biography at Treasury of Lives]
*[http://jonangfoundation.org/taranatha Taranatha page on Jonang Foundation site]

[[Category:Jonang Masters]]
[[Category:Shangpa Kagyü Masters]]
[[Category:Lotsawas]]