Vairotsana- Tibetan FigureMortal"Great Translator"

Journey to India

In the reign of King Trisong Detsen, when the newly founded Samye Monastery stood as the first great center of Buddhist learning in Tibet, the young Vairotsana was selected as one of the most gifted among the first seven Tibetan monks. The king dispatched him across the Himalayas to India to seek out teachings that had not yet reached Tibet. Vairotsana journeyed to the Dhahena cremation ground and other Indian sites, where he found the Dzogchen master Shri Singha and received from him the secret teachings of the Mind Series (Semde) and other Dzogchen transmissions. The journey was perilous and the teachings were guarded closely by Indian masters who were reluctant to see them leave the subcontinent. According to hagiographic accounts, Vairotsana resorted to writing the teachings in white ink on white cloth to smuggle them past those who sought to prevent their transmission, carrying the hidden texts back over the mountain passes to Tibet.

The Great Translator at Samye

Returning to Samye, Vairotsana worked alongside Padmasambhava and the Indian abbot Shantarakshita in the monumental project of rendering Buddhist texts into Tibetan. His translations of Dzogchen texts were particularly significant, as they established the Tibetan vocabulary and conceptual framework for this highest of Buddhist teachings. He is credited with translating a vast number of texts, and his linguistic skill earned him the epithet "Great Translator" (lotsawa chenpo). However, his transmission of Dzogchen teachings aroused opposition at court. Ministers and certain monks accused him of teaching a false dharma, and Queen Tsepongza is said to have led the faction against him. Vairotsana was exiled to Tsawarong in the eastern borderlands, where he continued to teach and translate. Even in exile, he attracted students and transmitted the Dzogchen teachings he had received from Shri Singha, ensuring that the lineage survived the political turmoil of the imperial court. He is remembered as one of the twenty-five principal disciples of Padmasambhava and as the single most important figure in the early transmission of Dzogchen to Tibet.