The Long ConversationA timeline of world philosophy

Philosopher

Ngok Loden Sherab

1059–1109

Also known as Ngok Lotsawa, rNgog Blo ldan shes rab

The 'Great Translator' and pioneer interpreter of Indian epistemology, whose Sangphu tradition set the main line of Tibetan logic until Sakya Paṇḍita.

Line drawing of a seated monk in a pointed cap, hands in a teaching gesture, with a Tibetan inscription below
Drawing in the style of a Tibetan woodblock icon; its date is unknown. An imagined likeness.Public domain · See the original

Ngok Loden Sherab, the ‘Great Translator’, worked during the Later Diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet, when Dharmakīrti’s works were translated or revised. Apart from his commentaries, Tibetan epistemological commentaries of the time dealt almost only with Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇaviniścaya.

He founded the Sangphu tradition, one of the two dominant scholarly traditions in which Tsongkhapa later studied. Even Sakya Paṇḍita’s system kept many features of Ngok’s tradition.

Key ideas

Translator and exegete
Ngok translated Indian works into Tibetan and added his own topical outlines and commentaries, becoming the pioneer exegete of Buddhist epistemology in Tibet.
The Ngok tradition
The lineage of epistemology he began, the ‘Ngok tradition’, was the main line of interpretation until the thirteenth century, when Sakya Paṇḍita criticised it.
New genres for Indian texts
In his period Tibetan scholars devised genres such as topical outlines, which analyse Indian treatises into a hierarchy of parts, and concise guides that explain them paragraph by paragraph.
Tradition
Tibetan
Region
Sangphu, Tibet

Influences

Influenced by

Ngok Loden Sherab1059–1109

Influenced

Influenced by

Ngok Loden Sherab1059–1109

Influenced

Where these links come from

Sources

  1. Pascale Hugon, Tibetan Epistemology and Philosophy of Language, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  2. Gareth Sparham and Chandra Chiara Ehm, Tsongkhapa, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy