Nyingma does not honor any one "founder". Its dharma lineage is like a river flowing down from the source of the snow-capped mountains: starting from Dharmakaya Buddha Samantabhadra Tathagata, passing through the great siddhas of India, to the three teachers and monarchs of the Tubo Dynasty, and then to the translators, diggers and commentators of later generations, one stick after another without interruption.

There are several types of people in this chain: Therapists (establishing teachings and Sangha, such as Shantarakshita), Siddhas (conquering mountains and rivers with tantric methods, such as lotus flowers), Translators (translating Sanskrit scriptures into Tibetan, such as Vairocana), Yogis and Yogis (actualized in caves, such as Yeshe Tsogyal), theologians (written oral transmission into a system, such as Longchenpa), and diggers (take out the dharma buried by Guru Rinpoche, such as Jigme Lingpa).

Each of the characters in this dharma lineage has its own separate chapter and detailed description.

• Padmasambhava (Padmasambhava) - a great achiever of Tantric Dharma from the Ujin Kingdom. In the eighth century, he came to Tibet at the invitation of Trisong Detsen. He transferred the gods of mountains and rivers to Terma and buried countless Termas. He was revered as the "Second Buddha" by Nyingma.
• Santarakṣita (Śāntarakṣita, about 725–788) - a great scholar of Nalanda Temple and a master of the Madhyamaka Yogacara School. He established the monastic discipline and doctrine system for Tibet and presided over the first monastic session of Samye Monastery.
• Trisong Detsen King (Trisong Detsen, 742–797) - Tubo Zanpu, who opposed all opinions to welcome Buddhism, build Samye Monastery, and establish the status of Buddhism. He is the protector of Nyingma's dharma lineage.

The three statues standing side by side are the most classic images of Nyingma: teaching, secret and protection are indispensable.

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When Padmasambhava was in Tibet, he taught the teachings with 25 great disciples (རྗེ་འབངས་ཉེར་ལྔ་) as the core. Not all of these twenty-five people were monks. Among them were royal ministers, translators, yogis, and also women. Each of them achieved different achievements, and legend has it that they each performed magical transformations such as flying, being immortal in fire, and leaving a mark on a rock wall.

Some of the most famous ones:

• Trisong Detsen——King, protects the Dharma.
• Yeshe Tsogyal (Yeshe Tsogyal) - the Buddha mother and main disciple of Guru Rinpoche, the most important female siddha of Nyingma, regarded as the incarnation of Tara and the wisdom dakini, and the main organizer of Guru Rinpoche teachings.
• Vairocana (Vairotsana) - one of the greatest translators in Tibet and an important inheritor of Dzogchen heart and world.
• Nanka Ningbo, Beji Yixi, etc. - each received a series of formulas.

The significance of the Twenty-Five People is that it demonstrates Nyingma’s ethos of “transmitting the Dharma regardless of status”: Kings and slaves, monks and laypeople, men and women, can all become bearers of the Dharma. This temperament continues to this day, making Nyingma the most prosperous group of laymen and yogis in the Tibetan Buddhism.

The eighth to ninth centuries were the golden age of Tibetan translators (ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་, Lotsawa). They left their homes and crossed the Himalayas to go to India to seek Dharma. They studied Sanskrit hard in the humid Nalanda and Chaojie monasteries, and then returned to the plateau to translate sutras and treatises into Tibetan.

Vairochana (8th century) is one of them. He went to India to study with Sri Sri Xingha and received all the formulas of Dzogchen's heart and realm. After returning to Tibet, he translated a large number of classics. Legend has it that he was once exiled to Kham, but there he taught the Dharma to more people.

The work of these translators determined the future appearance of Tibetan Buddhism. Today's "Kangyur" and "Tengyur" of the Tibetan "Tibetan Sutra" can reach such a scale because of their hard work and long travels from generation to generation. The Tibetan scripture we read today may have a person’s lifetime behind it.

Another significance of the translator tradition is that it reminds us that law is never the private property of a certain nation. It came over the mountains, was translated into another language, and then became ours.

In the genealogy of Nyingma's ancestors, Longchenpa (Longchenpa, 1308-1364) has a status almost equal to that of Padmasambhava. Before him, Dzogchen was mainly spread in the form of oral transmission and scattered formulas; it was him who first wrote this set of insights into a system that can be studied and studied.

His Seven Treasures (མཛོད་བདུན་) and Three Rests (ངལ་གསོ་སྐོར་གས ུམ་) is still a compulsory classic in Nyingma monastery; "Four Heart Drops" systematically organizes the heart essence formulas of Dzogchen. He was both the greatest commentator and a profoundly realized yogi who spent most of his life in retreat in the mountains.

Longchenpa's contribution can be summarized in one sentence: He made Dzogchen can be learned, not just experienced. There is a separate article for this article.

Terma (Term ma) is a unique mechanism of Nyingma, and Tertön is the executor of this mechanism.

According to Nyingma, in the eighth century, Padmasambhava foresaw the capabilities and needs of future generations, so he sealed the corresponding teachings in mountains, lakes, voids, or buried them in the hearts of his disciples, and left instructions: when, who, and where to take them out. Hundreds of years later, when the conditions are ripe, a certain digger will "take out" these dharma in meditation or reality - sometimes a roll of yellow paper dug out of the rock wall, sometimes it will appear naturally in the pure form.

Famous diggers include: Niang Nyima Wosek, Guru Chokyi Wangchuk, Minling Dechen (founder of Mindrolling Monastery), and Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798). The "Longchen Heart Essence" that Jigme Lingpa took out was the Dharma he obtained from seeing Longchenpa in three pure visions. It is still the most common practice system of Nyingma.

The significance of Terma is that law is not a legacy of death, but can be reawakened in every era**.

Nyingma's biography of the founder (called "Nanta" in Tibetan) has its own way of reading. It usually contains three categories of content: life stories, the process of enlightenment and the teachings. For modern readers, it can be read in three levels:

Historical layer - Padmasambhava, Shantarakshita, Trisong Detsen, Vairocana and others all have historical records, and there are also records in Dunhuang Tibetan documents. This layer can be verified.

Symbolic layer - The divine transformations, pure visions and prophecies in biographies belong to faith narratives and carry the secret meaning of teachings. They may not be literal facts and should be read as symbols.

Practice level - For practitioners, the greatest value of a biography is not "whether it happened or not" but "what can I get from it". It provides a mirror: Wherever others have gone in their practice, where am I?

These three levels go hand in hand. You can read it as a historical material, as a fable, or even as a mirror. Nyingma itself never insists on a single reading, which is why it can span thousands of years and still be effective for different groups of people.

Q: Who exactly founded Nyingma?

A: Nyingma does not single out one founder. In doctrine it honors Samantabhadra, the primordial buddha, as the source; in history it regards Padmasambhava as the first master to bring the teachings to Tibet, and Longchenpa as the systematizer of its textual corpus. It is a lineage, not the work of one person.

Q: Was Padmasambhava a real historical figure?

A: Padmasambhava was a real tantric adept of the 8th century, from the land of Oddiyana (around today's Swat Valley in Pakistan). The miraculous elements in his biography belong to devotional narrative, while the historical core is attested by Dunhuang manuscripts and Tibetan chronicles.

Q: Who was Yeshe Tsogyal?

A: Yeshe Tsogyal was Padmasambhava's foremost female disciple and consort, revered as an emanation of Tara and a wisdom dakini. She was the principal compiler of his teachings and a co-concealer of the terma, and holds an exalted place in Nyingma.

Q: Is a terton (treasure-revealer) a kind of medium?

A: In Nyingma's own understanding, no. A terton is a reincarnate adept entrusted by Padmasambhava; the revelation rests on long cultivation and realization, not on ordinary spirit-channeling or possession.

• Padmasambhava with Rainbow Body - 19th century Tibetan thangka.jpg · Unknown painter, 19th century Tibetan thangka / Public domain
• Padmasambhava (Orgyen Dorje Chang), with Yeshe Tsogyal, emanations, Nyingma gurus and Samantabhadra - 17th century Tibetan thangka.jpg · Unknown painter, 17th century Tibetan thangka / Public domain