Ages

The Kalachakra Cosmic Cycle

Also Known As The Rabjung Cycle

Cosmological Age

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "The Kalachakra Cosmic Cycle." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/ages/the-kalachakra-cosmic-cycle.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). The Kalachakra Cosmic Cycle. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/ages/the-kalachakra-cosmic-cycle

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-the-kalachakra-cosmic-cycle,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {The Kalachakra Cosmic Cycle},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/ages/the-kalachakra-cosmic-cycle},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The Kalachakra tradition carries its own cosmic time scheme, separate from the tantra as a practice and from Shambhala as a place: a sixty year calendrical cycle still used to count years in the Tibetan calendar, and a succession of kings, the Kalki kings, said to rule the hidden kingdom of Shambhala until the last of them rides out to a prophesied final battle.

Facts

Dating

Proposed Datingthe subject's own account

The sixty year Rabjung cycle used to count years in the Tibetan calendar began in 1027 CE, a Fire Rabbit year, the date the tradition marks for the Kalachakra's own transmission; the calendar is still reckoned this way today, currently in the seventeenth Rabjung, which began on 28 February 1987. 1

Proposed Datingthe subject's own account

The tradition holds that a succession of kings, the Kalki kings, rule Shambhala, and that the twenty fifth and last of them, called Rudra Chakrin, is prophesied to ride out from the kingdom to a final battle set for the year 2424 or 2425 CE, the 3304th year after the Buddha's death, after which Buddhism is said to endure a further 1800 years. 2

Attributions

Tradition

The Tibetan Buddhist Kalachakra tradition, carried into Tibet from India in the eleventh century. 3

Cross-Tradition Connections