The Buddhist adept Dromton

After its initial introduction to the plateau by Padmasambhava and Trisong Detsen in the eighth century, Buddhism went into steep decline in Tibet. Then, a mere hundred years later, a second wave of Tibetan translations of Sanskrit Vajrayana texts entered Tibet. Known retrospectively as the Sarma or New Infusion of Buddhism, this wave of translations crested around 1000 CE. And one of the people responsible for new translations of Sanskrit Buddhist treatises was Dromton, represented in this charming sculpture.

A Tibetan by birth, Dromton’s long hair and pale complexion mark him as a layman and translator (lotsawa) rather than an ordained monk. During his lengthy career, Dromton served as translator for Atisha, the great Bengali master and former abbot of the monastery of Nalanda. Dromton’s service to his master, both as a translator in Atisha’s health and as a nurse when Atisha became ill, makes him an archetype of the ideal student, and one of the key figures in the founding of Atisha’s Kadampa Order.