Origin of the Kagyu lineage, according to the general view, Kagyupa means the one who holds and transmits the three precious buckets of teachings by the great lord Buddha through discourse and meditation. It also refers to the one who transmits the teachings of the chief yogi Tilopa (one who received all his teachings directly from vajradhara) as per unique view. And those who transmit the great stream of profound thoughts in which the advisory rivers of four teachers combined are also known as the great kagyupa.

TILOPA:

The great master Tilopa by name was one of the father of the kagyupas. As mentioned above he has received all the teachings directly from the great master vajradhara and vajra yogini, They appeared to him in person to entrust him with the treasury of the four sections of antra etc…

NAROPA:

The great master was the next in linage, he followed Tilopa by undertaking tweleve major and lesser hardships, inorder to purify his karma and emotion-induced obscurations after all the hardships he went through, Naropa understood the complete meanings through a gesture and few words, and he eventually obtained the state of siddhi.Naropa transmitted the complete teachings of prajanaparamita of common view to Dipankara and passed down all the teachings of tantra to Marpa Chokyi Lodroe, two of them were the chief disciples of the great master Naropa,at the same time Naropa blessed and wished them in order to tame the beings on the northen snowy land (Tibet)on behalf of him.

MARPA CHOKYI LODROE THE TRANSLATOR:

Marpa of Lhodrak went four times to India where he met many learned masters, headed by Naropa and Mitripa, from whom he received the teachings of Sutra and Tantra. For a combined length of sixteen years he was under the great master Naropa’s guidance, where marpa integrated his learning, reflection and meditation traning. He also received the special hearing of Chakrasamvara which consort in its completeness. He had four great disciples amoung them the one who achieved enlightenment within a one lifetime was the great yogi Melarepa.

THE GREAT YOGI MELAREPA:

He had gone through lots of suffering from an early age, and later he went in search of a true guru where he met Marpa and with the blessing of his guru he achieved enlightenment in one lifetime, Melarepa had many disciples among them the two heartfelt disciples were Rechung Dorji Drakpa and Gompopa, they are also known as the sun and the moon of Melarepa.

GOMPOPA:

The great matchless Gompopa the sun-like of Melarepa was the founder of the teachings in which two rivers of advice and mahamudra closely combined. These two teachings were transmitted from glorious Atisha and Marpa Chokyi Lodroe the translator of Lhodrak. Gompopa was predicted by the victorious ones and was said to have realized the profound contemplation of the tenth state of boddhisattva.Gompopa has enriched and benefitted numerous beings on the path of beneficial and peace including the five hundred disciples who were like arhats and the three person from kham, etc the name of the three khampas were Phagdru Dorji gyelpo who founded phagdru kagyu, dusuem khyenpa who founded karma kagyu and barom dharma wangchuk who founded the barom kagyu. Gompopa also had the disciple called ongom tsultrim nyingpo and ongom tsultrim nyingpo’s disciple was zhang tsalpa tsondru drakpa who founded tsalpa kagyu.

There were numerous schools of kagyu originated from the five hundred disciples of the phagdru dorji gyelpo, and the kagyu schools are as written below:

• Taklung kagyu was found by Taklung Thangpa Tashi Pal
• Drikung Kagyu was founded by Drikung kyobpa Jigten Sumgeon
• Trophu Kagyu was founded by Drogon Gyaltsab
• Drukpa Kagyu from Lingje Repa Pema Dorji
• Martsang Kagyu was founded by Marpa Rinchen Lodroe
• Yelpa Kagyu from Yelpa Yeshi Tsiek
• Yabzang Kagyu from Gyalwa Yabzang
• the Shugseb Kagyu from Nyiphu Gyergom Chokyi Singye

The above-mentioned Kagyu schools had innumerable chief and many branch of monasteries.