Tilopa (988 - 1069), Main Indian of the Buddhist tradition, is one of the links of the Lignée of the Rosary d´Or.

Its name comes from the word Sanskrit meaning “sesame seed” because it earned its living by crushing sesame to extract oil from it. Tilopa was born in a family Brahmane from the East from India. At an early age, it met the large Master Nāgārjuna who asked the oracle of State to choose it as governor of one of the very many kingdoms which existed in India at that time. However, after a few years, Tilopa, tired of the royal tasks, became monk. It was ordered in the Temple tantric of Somapuri to the Bengal. It would have received its principal instructions of the Buddha Vajradhara, in particular the lesson of the Mahāmudrā. Tilopa had a great number of eminent disciples, of which Nāropa (1016 - 1100) which became the holder of the line. Nāropa would have found Tilopa guided by a Dakini which would have appeared to him. Thus it left to research its professor whom it met while travelling towards the East. During its training with Tilopa, it was subjected to considerable tests. However, Naropa persevered and reached the control of the lesson which it accepted. Its disciple Tibetan, Marpa the translator, brought this lesson to Tibet and became the founding father of the line Kagyüpa.

See

• Nāropa
• Mahāssidha
• Karmapa