Pakmo Drupa

Quick Summary

Pakmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (1110–1170) was a central master of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism and the founding figure of the Phagmodrupa branch of the Kagyu lineage. A principal disciple of Gampopa, he united strict monastic discipline with intensive meditative training in Mahāmudrā and the Six Dharmas of Naropa.

Born in Kham, he traveled to Central Tibet to study with Gampopa at Daklha Gampo, receiving the full range of Kagyu and Kadampa teachings. After years of rigorous retreat, he established his main seat at Densatil in the Phagmo region, from which the Phagmodrupa lineage spread widely across Central and Eastern Tibet.

Pakmo Drupa’s teachings emphasize ethical discipline, gradual path cultivation (including renunciation, bodhicitta, and correct view), and direct experiential realization of the empty, luminous nature of mind. Among his foremost disciples was Jigten Sumgön, founder of the Drikung Kagyu school. The institutions that grew from Pakmo Drupa’s lineage later provided the spiritual foundation for the Phagmodrupa political regime that reshaped Central Tibetan history in the fourteenth century.