ABSTRACT
The Clear Mirror: A Records of Teachings received (Thob yig gsal ba'i me long) was written by Dzaya Paṇḍitas Lobsang Trinle (Dza ya Paṇḍitas Bio bzang 'phrin las, 1642-1715) between 1698 and 1702. It is a unique work with many defining characteristics, the foremost of these being the huge number of namthar (rnam thar, 'life stories') which form the structural backbone of the eleven chapters of the topyik. Not only are these namthar capable of standing alone as biographies of the respective Buddhist masters, they are also reminiscent of the links in a chain, or the beads of a rosary. Strung together, these individual life stories form a larger lineage life story, reflected within them is the history, identity and chronology of the Gelukpa (dGe lugs pa) tradition as interpreted by the author and his tradition in the late seventeeth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries.
