Padmasambhava

thumb|Rewalsar Lake#Colossus of Padmasambhava|Colossus of Padmasambhava, 123 ft. (37.5 m) high, in mist overlooking [[Rewalsar Lake, Himachal Pradesh, India]]

Padmasambhava ('Born from a Lotus'), also known as Guru Rinpoche ('Precious Guru'), was a semi-legendary tantric Buddhist Vajra master from medieval India, who according to hagiographical sources fully revealed the Vajrayana in Tibet, circa 8th – 9th centuries. He is considered an emanation or Nirmāṇakāya of Shakyamuni Buddha as foretold by the Buddha himself. According to early Tibetan sources including the Testament of Ba, he came to Tibet in the 8th century and designed Samye Monastery, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, during the reign of King Trisong Detsen. He, the king, and Khenpo Shantarakshita are also responsible for creating the Tibetan Canon through translating all of the Buddha's teachings and their commentaries into the Tibetan language.