Samding Dorje Phagmo Gampopa Sönam Rinchen (Tibetan: སྒམ་པོ་པ་བསོད་ནམས་རིན་ཆེན་, Wylie: sgam po pa bsod nams rin chen, 1079–1153) was the main student of Milarepa, and a Tibetan Buddhist master who codified his own master's ascetic teachings, which form the foundation of the Kagyu educational tradition.

[1][2] Gampopa was born in the Nyal (or Nyel) district, Central Tibet and from an early age was a student of medicine in the Indian, Chinese and Tibetan medical traditions.

[5] He married a daughter of a man named Chim Jose Darma Wo (mchims jo sras dar ma 'od) and had a child, but they both died, causing him to renounce the householder's life.

The four "major" Kagyu schools were those of: The succession of Gampopa's own monastery passed to his nephew, Dakgom Tsültrim Nyingpo (Wylie: dwags sgom tshul khrims snying po, 1116-1169).

[21] Gampopa's collected works (known as the Dags po'i Bka' 'bum) were published in Dvag Lha Gampo monastery, but that edition has been lost.

There are three main editions extant today:[22] Gampopa's The Jewel Ornament of Liberation (Wylie: dam chos yid bzhin nor bu thar pa rin po che'i rgyan) is one of his most important works, it has been translated into English, first by Herbert Guenther in 1959 and again by Khenpo Konchok Gyeltsen in 1998.