2. Sakya (Scholastic) School
3. Kagyu (Oral Tradition) School
4. Gelug (Tradition of Virtue) School
Nyingma (ancient) School of Tibetan Buddhism developed from
teachings of Padmasambhava and remained the only form of Buddhism
in Tibet for nearly two hundred years. Buddhismn suffered vigorous
persecution in the mid-ninth century, and subsequently declined
until the eleventh.
it enjoyed a renewal following the journey to Tibet of the great
Indian master, Atisa, in 1042. As a result of his teachings, Sakya
Monastery was established some thirty years later. Because it developed
close links with the Mongol Empire, the Sakya School eventually
became very powerful, its teachings greatly revered, and many monasteries
Tibetan, Marpa, journeyed to India in the mid-eleventh century and
received the precious teachings of the great adept, Naropa, one
of the eighty-four siddhas, or great adepts.
to Tibet, Marpa mastered these teachings and spread them widely.
His hundreds of disciples eventually formed the new Kagyu (Oral
Tradition) School which later established monasteries and gave
teachings to a widening circle in Tibet, Mongolia and China. Marpa's
most important disciple was the great Milarepa, Tibet's most revered
mystic poet and ascetic, who in turn had thousands of disciples,
women and men.
Gelug (Tradition of Virtue, sometimes known as the 'Yellow Hat')
School came into being in the early fifteenth century as a result
of the extraordinary insights of Tsongkhapa, who commenced his studies
at the age of three. After spending some twenty years studying with
Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Kadam (Oral Instruction) teachers, he
convened a great council to review monastic discipline, and this
provoked a new wave of monastic renewal that affected all of Tibet.
Towards the end of his life his disciples founded the three great
Gelugpa monastic universities of Ganden, Drepung and Sera near Lhasa.
The institutions and lineages of both the Panchen Lamas and the
Dalai Lamas developed within the Gelug school.