The Twenty-Five Kalki (Tib. Rigden)
The most recent 25 of the 32 Kings of Shambhala are known as Kalki kings (Tib. Rigden, wylie: rigs ldan). Kalki means "Holder of the Castes." The Kalki King is said to reside on a "lion throne" in Kalapa, the capital city of the Kingdom. They are holders of the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time) teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni, passed down from the original seven Dharmarajas of Shambhala.
The Kalki have often been erroneously termed "Kulika" by Tibetan Buddhist scholars unfamiliar with the original Sanskrit texts, as Buddhist scholar John R. Newman explains:
.. . so far no one seems to have examined the Sanskrit Kalachakra texts. The Buddhist myth of the Kalkis of Shambhala derives from the Hindu Kalki of Shambhala myths contained in the Mahabharata and the Puranas. The Vimalaprabha even refers to the Kalkipuranam, probably the latest of the upapuranas. This relationship has been obscured by western scholars who have reconstructed the Tibetan translation term rigs ldan as "Kulika." Although Tibetan rigs ldan is used to translate the Sankrit kulika in other contexts, here it always represents Sanskrit kalkin (possessive of kalkah; I have used the nomininative kalki).
Read more about this topic: Kings Of Shambhala
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