Dragon Father

 I have been studying about Drukpa Kunley's life lately. I have been reading "The Divine Madman". He is a Bhutanese Tibetan Buddhist Adept born in 1455 and passed away in 1529. There is a Wikipedia site dedicated to him also. He is known as a "Crazy Wisdom" adept and since so little is known about this aspect of Tibetan Buddhist lore in the western World it can be very interesting to study about someone like him.

Drukpa means literally "Dragon Father". I don't know what Kunley means. However, a  Gonpo is a Tibetan Buddist Temple or Monastery, and a Gonpa is the head of that temple or monastery. So, I guess a somewhat direct translation of Gonpa would be Temple Father or Monastery Father or head of the temple of monastery.

I stayed with my family at a Nyingma Gonpo in Rewalsar, India. There are several different sects to Tibetan Buddhism. At the time of Padmasambhava when he introduced Buddhism to the King of Tibet (Trison Detsun) around 900 AD from India there was only the Nyingma group. It is considered the most primal or wild in some ways of all the sects now. The Kagyu sect which sprang from Marpa, the Translator and his foremost disciple, Milerepa (the most universally loved  Tibetan Yogi) is also considered very primal in some ways like the Nyingma sect. The other two sects are more recent variations of the two earlier onces. They are the Gelugpa headed by the Dalai Lama and the Sakya sect. These two sects are more intellectual in their approach to the Tibetan Buddhist Dharma whereas the Nyingma and Kagyu Sect are more into direct experience and realization. However, it is not unusual for a Tibetan Lama or monk or other practitioner to receive initiations from Lamas of all 4 sects. In fact, this is more the norm. Because there are very evolved and enlightened beings in all 4 sects.

The Dalai Lama is considered the Head of all sects of Tibetan Buddhism and is considered the physical manifestation on earth of Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर-The Buddha of Compassion.