Atiśa (Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna)
982 CE–1054 CE · Bikrampur (Munshiganj)
c. 982–1054 CE (the long-standing traditional dating; some scholars give c. 980–1052)
Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna (982–1054 CE) was an Indian master whose mission to Tibet became a turning point in the 'later diffusion' of Buddhism there. Born into a royal family in the Bengal region of what is now Bangladesh, he became a leading scholar at the monastic university of Vikramaśīla (and, by tradition, studied for years in Sumatra). Invited to Tibet, he arrived in 1042 and wrote the 'Lamp for the Path to Awakening' (Bodhipathapradīpa), the seed of the influential 'stages of the path' (lamrim) literature; his teaching inspired the Kadam school founded by his disciple Dromtön and, much later, Tsongkhapa's Gelug. His career is well documented.
Did you know?
One teacher, two epic voyages — to Sumatra, then over the Himalayas
Before he ever went to Tibet, the Indian master Atiśa is traditionally said to have sailed to Suvarṇadvīpa (Sumatra) and studied there for about twelve years under the teacher known as Serlingpa. Decades later, in 1042 CE, he crossed the Himalayas into Tibet at roughly the age of sixty; he never returned to India, dying at Nyethang near Lhasa in 1054.
How we know
Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna, b. c. 982 CE (Bengal); c. 12 years in Suvarṇadvīpa/Sumatra under Dharmakīrtiśrī (Serlingpa), returned to India c. 1025; arrived Tibet (Ngari) 1042 CE at age ~60; d. 1054 CE at Nyethang near Lhasa (Wikipedia; Treasury of Lives).
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Bikrampur (Munshiganj)
What they did here
DOCUMENTED: born into a royal family in the Bengal region (in present-day Bangladesh) and ordained after lay life.
About Bikrampur (Munshiganj)
Bikrampur, in the Munshiganj district of modern Bangladesh, was a centre of the Pāla-era Buddhist world in eastern Bengal. It is traditionally given as the birthplace, around 982 CE, of Atiśa (Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna), the great scholar-abbot who later travelled to Tibet and helped reinvigorate Buddhism there.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Atiśa (Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.