Notes Notes1. For a clear and concise explanation of the namthar literary form, see Smith, Among Tibetan Texts, 13–14.
2. See Chapter 2 note 5.
3. See Chapter 2 note 6.
4. Mañjughoṣa is another name of Mañjuśrī.
5. See Chapter 2 note 23.
6. See Chapter 2 note 15.
7. Changchub Dorje is the root lama of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.
8. See Chapter 5 note 8.
9. See Chapter 7 note 4.
10. Trisong Detsen ruled from 755 to 797 in the Common Era. Under his rule, the Tibetan empire reached the apex of its power, extending its territory to the banks of the Oxus in the west and conquering for a brief time the Chinese capital of that era, Chang’an. He invited the masters Śāntarakṣita and Padmasaṃbhava to Tibet, thus contributing decisively to the diffusion of Buddhism in his country.
11. Sakyapa monastery in the Gapa region of northwestern Kham.
12. See Chapter 4 note 6.
13. See Chapter 7 note 4.
14. Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland, 298.
15. The source of this quotation was found on www.lotsawa.org, which no longer exists. The article is still accessible at http://www.lotsawahouse.org/jkcl_bio.html.
16. See Chapter 17 note 15.
17. See Chapter 7 note 1.
18. Sakyapa monastery in the Gapa region of northwestern Kham.
19. For a detailed description of these events, see Dezhung Rinpoche, rJe brtsun bla ma ’jam dbyangs, 181–247.
20. Smith, Among Tibetan Texts, 14.
21. See Chapter 9 note 2.
22. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu recounted that in 1951, Ngapö Ngawang Jigme, a member of the delegation sent to Beijing to begin negotiations with the Chinese government, stopped one night between the end of March and the beginning of April at Galing monastery, where he met Khyentse Chökyi Wangchug, from whom he asked protective amulets and special blessings for the trip. That evening he conversed at length with Jamchö, the sister of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.
23. See Chapter 7 note 3.
24. For a description of historical events regarding the kingdom of Derge, see Teichman’s interesting book, Travels of a Consular Officer in Eastern Tibet; see also Sperling, “The Chinese Venture in Ka’m” and “The Red Army’s First Encounters with Tibet”; Peng Wenbin, “Khampa Self-rule Movements”; and Blo gros phun tshogs et al., sDe dge’i lo rgyus.
25. See Chapter 10 note 9.
26. See Chapter 2 note 32.
27. See photo on p. 49.
1. Tibetan: Jampelyang.
2. Tibetan: Jamyang.
3. Tibetan: Chenresi, the bodhisattva of compassion, known also as Thugje Chenpo, the Great Compassionate One, is the most venerated divinity in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon.
4. Tibetan: Sangdag, another name of the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi.
5. The three bodhisattvas, named above, called in Tibetan rigsum gönpo, are considered the three protectors of beings wandering in saṃsāra.
6. Vajra body: the Sanskrit term vajra (Tibetan: dorje) indicates something indivisible and indestructible and thus is used as a symbol of our real condition. Vajra is also the name of the ritual scepter that, together with the bell (Tibetan: drilbu), is used in rituals of tantric Buddhism. The expression vajra body refers generally to the subtle dimension of the body in which centers of energy are connected by a network of channels.
7. In the original Tibetan text, some words contained in the preceding verses, if placed together, spell out two of the names received by the protagonist of this biography during his life, Chökyi Wangchug and Jigdral Thubpai Tenchö Chökyi Gyamtso. The latter name was bestowed upon him when he received monastic ordination from the khenpo of Ngor monastery, Khenchen Tampa (1876–1953).
8. A female being gifted with special spiritual qualities who can be either totally realized, and in this case is called a wisdom ḍākinī (Tibetan: yeshe khandroma; Sanskrit: jñāna ḍākinī), or can be less highly realized, a ḍākinī with qualifications and spiritual powers of varying levels. Some ḍākinīs are considered to have human form.
9. Humchen Heka Lingpa is the tertön name of Khyentse Chökyi Wangchug.
1. Khyentse Wangpo, also called Pema Ösal Dongag Lingpa (1820–1892), recognized by the Sakyapas as the reincarnation of Thartse Khen Rinpoche Champa Namkha Chime. The Thartse Khen Rinpoches were among the masters charged with teaching (khenpo) in the Sakyapa tradition of Ngor. For this reason, Khyentse Rinpoche was enthroned at Dzongsar, a monastery of the Sakyapa tradition. His biography, written by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, has recently been translated by Matthew Akester and will be published in the near future.
2. Vimalamitra, of Indian origin, went to Tibet in the ninth century. He is one of the most important masters in the Dzogchen lineage. See Töndrub, Masters of Meditation and Miracles, 68–73; and Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garden of Rare Gems, 78–82.
3. See Tulku Töndrub, Masters of Meditation and Miracles, 215; and Smith, Among Tibetan Texts, 268.
4. Tibetan: yönten.
5. Tibetan: trinle. According to Tibetan Buddhist thought, an illuminated being can manifest infinite reincarnations corresponding to the illuminated state of body, voice, mind, qualities, and enlightened activities—in Tibetan ku, sung, thug, yönten, and trinle, respectively.
6. Ngawang Thutob Wangchug (1900–1950): his complete name is Sakya Phunpho Khyentse Trichen Ngawang Thutob Wangchug. See Smith, Among Tibetan Texts, 267–69.
7. The Sakyapa school is one of the four principal schools of Tibetan Buddhism, founded by Khön Könchog Gyalpo (1034–1102). Together with the Kagyüpa and Gelupa schools, it belongs to the traditions that adhere to the New Translation (Tibetan: ngag sarma) tantras, translated during and after the eleventh century. On the other hand, the Nyingmapa school (the Ancients) bases itself on the ancient tantras (Tibetan: ngag nyingma), that is to say, those translated three centuries earlier, during the first diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet.
8. Phuntsog Phodrang is one of the two residences into which the Sakya monastery is subdivided today. In the fourteenth century, four principal residences were established, governed by the descendants of the Khön family, in which the respective rulers alternated as the guide of the school and as the head of the Tibetan government during the hegemony of the Sakyapa school (1268–1365). In the fifteenth century, the residences were successively reduced to two: the Drolma Phodrang, the family branch from which the present Sakya Tridzin descends; and the Phuntsog Phodrang.
9. Peri Khyentse or Palpung Khyentse Karma Khyentse Öser (1896–1945).
10. Palpung was the monastic residence of the Situ Panchens. Constructed in 1727 by King Tenpa Tshering (1678–1738) of Derge for Situ Panchen Chökyi Jyungne (1699–1774), it became one of the most important centers of study in all of Tibet.
11. Smith indicates 1894 as his possible birth year in Among Tibetan Texts, 268.
12. Khyenrab Chökyi Öser, born in 1889, was the khenpo of the Sakyapa college of Wöntö (see Chapter 13 note 15), where the author studied for several years. From 1920 to 1929 he was the khenpo of Dzongsar Khamje college and subsequently taught for seven years at the college of Palpung monastery. He was the disciple of the famous khenpo Zhenga of Dzogchen monastery (see Chapter 1 note 24 and the photo on this page). In 1958 he was captured by the Chinese and died in prison; see Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, 51n191–192. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu has written a brief biography of this master titled The Good and Precious Vase: A Short Concentrated Biography of Khyenrab Chökyi Öser (Mkhyen rab chos kyi ’od zer rnam thar nyung bsdus rin chen sgron me), unpublished. Another biography, with some of his writings, can be found in Dge legs phun tshogs, Dbon stod mkhyen rab kyi rnam thar dang gsung gces btus, Dge legs ’do ’jo’i dpe tshogs, 2007.
13. A biography of this extraordinary yoginī, titled rJe btsun ma rdo rje dpal sgron gyi rnam thar nyung bsdus bdud rtsi’i zil thigs bzhugs (A Drop of Nectar, a Short Biography of Jetsünma Dorje Paldron) was written by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu from his notes taken in 1951, and revised and completed in 1998. A translation of a transcription of the oral recounting in Italian by the author can be found in Allione, Women of Wisdom. An English translation of the complete Tibetan text is forthcoming from Shang Shung Publications, Arcidosso, Italy.
14. Guru Tsewang (1897–?), a lama of Dzogchen monastery.
15. Thubten Chökyi Dorje (1872–1935), the fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche.
16. This is Dzogchen monastery, Rudam Dzogchen Orgyen Samten Chöling, founded in 1685 by Pema Rigdzin (1625–1697) near Rudam Kangtrö, one of the principal pilgrimage destinations in eastern Tibet. It is the largest Nyingmapa monastery in Kham.
17. Togden Shakya Shri (1853–1919), originally from Kham, a master belonging to the Drugpa Kagyüpa tradition. His biography, written by Kathog Situ Chökyi Gyamtso and translated from Tibetan by Elio Guarisco, is titled Togden Shakya Shri—The Life and Liberation of a Tibetan Yogin.
18. Khedrub Rigpadzin, also called Phagchog Dorje; Smith identifies him as a mind reincarnation in Among Tibetan Texts, 268.
19. Shechen Gyaltsab Pema Namgyal (1871–1926).
20. Shechen, founded about 1734 in Kham by the second Zhe chen Rab ’byams, Gyurme Kunzang Namgyal (1713–?), is located in the territory of Derge, north of Dzogchen monastery.
21. Dilgo, in the Denkhog valley in the kingdom of Derge.
22. Rabsal Dawa, also called Dilgo Khyentse Tashi Paljyor (1910–1991), of Shechen monastery, was one of the great Nyingmapa masters who had a fundamental role in the preservation of Tibetan Buddhist teachings after the occupation of Tibet. Shechen Gyaltsab Pema Namgyal recognized him as the mind emanation of Khyentse Wangpo; also, many other lamas recognized him as the tulku of other masters. See the optimal biography written by Ricard, Journey to Enlightenment, as well as Dilgo Khyentse, Brilliant Moon, his autobiography.
23. The Kagyüpa school, founded by Karmapa Tüsum Khyenpa (1110–1193).
24. Drugpa Kagyüpa, one of the eight principal Kagyüpa schools, established by Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (1161–1211). The school was named after the Namdrug monastery founded by him, although the principal monastery of the school became Ralung, in Tsang.
25. Kunzang Drodul Dechen Dorje (1897–1946) of Za Palme.
26. Nangchen is part of Kham and once constituted one of the five small independent kingdoms of eastern Tibet. For information about this region see also Karma Thinley, Important Events and Places in the History of Nangchin, Kham, and Eastern Tibet; and lDan ma ’jam dbyangs, Khams stod lo rgyus.
27. On the various reincarnations of Khyentse Wangpo, see also Macdonald, Le Maṇḍala du Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, 91–95; and Smith, Among Tibetan Texts, 268–69.
28. In other sources, the birth of Jamyang Chökyi Lodrö is stated as 1893, the year of the Water Snake; see Töndrub, Masters of Meditation and Miracles, 269. Smith identifies the year of his birth as 1896 in Among Tibetan Texts, 269. For a brief account of his life, see Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland, 296–306.
29. Chökyi Gyamtso (1880–1925), third in the reincarnation lineage of the Situ Rinpoches of Kathog monastery. He was the nephew of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. See Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland, 436–40, who indicates 1923 as the year of his death.
30. Another of the great monasteries of Kham, Kathog Dorje Den was founded in the twelfth century by Tampa Deshe (1122–1192). After a period of decline, a new monastery was established in 1665 by Düdul Dorje (1615–1672) and by Longsal Nyingpo (1625–1692).
31. His transfer to Dzongsar took place in 1909; see Smith, Among Tibetan Texts, 269.
1. Tibetan: beyul; in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, places that remained concealed and inaccessible for most people. Discovered through prophecies, they were intended to provide refuge for Buddhist practitioners in times of particular danger.
2. Sometimes spelled Geug.
3. Changra is located a few miles southwest of Derge; the summer residence of the king of Derge was located there.
4. The kingdom of Derge was the most important among the small independent or semi-independent states of eastern Tibet. Its vast territory extended for 30,000 square miles on either side of the Blue (Yangtze) River, which Tibetans called the Drichu. Presently the major part of its territory has been incorporated into the Chinese provinces Sichuan and Xizang (the Tibetan Autonomous Region). The ancestors of the king of Derge were traditionally identified as the disciples of Padmasaṃbhava who moved to Kham from central Tibet. Jamgön Kongtrul, in his brief genealogical study of the kings of Derge, cites the beginnings of the dynasty as coinciding with King Tashi Senge, who in the fifteenth century invited Thangtong Gyalpo to create the Lhundrubteng monastery. A genealogy of the king of Derge was written in 1828 by King Tsewang Dorje Rigdzin. This same study has been translated with a commentary by KolmaŠ in A Genealogy of the Kings of Derge.
5. Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye (1813–1899). An interesting biography of this extraordinary figure has been recently translated and published; see Kongtrul, Autobiography of Jamgön Kongtrul.
6. Tertön Chogyur Dechen Shigpo Lingpa (1829–1870), a contemporary of Khyentse Wangpo and of Kongtrul, collaborated with them in the revitalization of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition that became identified as the nonsectarian (rime) movement. For his biography, see Thobgyal, The Life and Teachings of Chogyur Lingpa.
7. These three great masters were considered by many Tibetans to be manifestations of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī.
8. Ü and Tsang are the two large regions into which central Tibet is divided. The capital of Ü is Lhasa, and the capital of Tsang is Shigatse.
9. Pema Kö, one of the most famous and important among the hidden localities (Tibetan: beyul); see Chapter 2 note 1. Situated in Kongpo in southeastern Tibet, it was opened as a pilgrimage place by Rigdzin Dorje Thogme (1746–1797), Chöling Karwang Chime Dorje (1763–?), and Gampopa Orgyen Drodul Lingpa (1757–?).
10. Rigdzin Gödem (1337–1408) is the great tertön (discoverer of treasures) who was the originator of the Jyangter tradition, the Northern termas, that were then transmitted principally in the Dorje Trag monastery in central Tibet. See Chapter 2 note 12. He discovered the “key” that permitted him to reveal his termas at Riwo Tragtsang, a precipitous rock situated in Tsang a few miles from Zangzang. This key is found presently in the cave of Zangzang Lhadrag, where in 1366 Rigdzin Gödem discovered several of his treasures. Among his principal termas are the Kunzang Gongpa Sangthal, on Dzogchen, and the Kagye Dragpo Rangjung Rangshar. On the terma traditions, see Chapter 2 note 32.
11. Samdrub Drönma, who later became the mother of Chökyi Wangchug, the successive reincarnation, was the grandmother of the author.
12. The Dorje Trag monastery was founded in 1610 on the northern bank of the Tsangpo River by Rigdzin Ngaggi Wangpo (1580–1639), the third in the reincarnation lineage of tertön Gödem. The Jyangter tradition (the Northern termas), which originated with Rigdzin Gödem, are transmitted there. See Chapter 2 note 10.
13. Jampelgyi Tsen Yandagpar Jöpa, The Song of the Names of Mañjuśrī, a text of six hundred verses, fundamental in the Anuttara tantra tradition, belonging to the Māyājāla literary cycle. In the Buddhist canon it is found at the beginning of the section devoted to Tantra (Toh. 360). For a translation, see Wayman, Chanting the Names of Mañjuśrī.
14. Sakya Gongma: the title of the head of the Sakyapa school, also called Sakya Tripa or Sakya Tridzin. The hereditary title is transmitted from father to son. The two branches of the Khön family, enthroned respectively at Drolma Phodrang and at Phuntsog Phodrang (see Chapter 1 note 17) in Sakya, alternately assume the guidance of the school. One of the sons of the head of the family becomes responsible for continuing the line of descendants of the dynasty and at the same time for the transmission of the spiritual teachings of the school. Another brother maintains the tradition by taking complete monastic ordination and practicing celibacy. During the era of these events, the representative of the Drolma Phodrang, Kunga Nyingpo Samphel Norbu (1850–1899), was enthroned, remaining the head of the school from 1883 to 1899.
15. Jamyang Loter Wangpo, also called Ngorpa Pönlop Loter Wangpo (1847–1914), great and learned Sakyapa lama of Ngor monastery (see Chapter 4 note 6) and author of numerous tracts, had been the disciple of Khyentse Wangpo and of Jamgön Kongtrul as well as master of Ju Mipham Gyamtso. Through his efforts, the fundamental texts of the Lamdre Lobshe were printed for the first time by the Derge printing office in the early 1900s. Previously considered secret, they had been circulated until then only in manuscript form. About this, see Stearns, Taking the Result as the Path, 3. For a biography, see bSam gtan blo gros, gSang bdag rdo rje ’dzin.
16. Tibetan: trü; lustral baths are ritual practices widespread in the Tibetan religion and were utilized each time the need arose to eliminate obstacles, impurities, and illnesses.
17. Lasye Ritrö is a hermitage where Jamyang Loter Wangpo remained in retreat. It is located on a mountain overlooking Derge Gönchen.
18. Tseta Sungdrel is a long-life practice of Guru Amitayus and Hayagriva attributed to Thangtong Gyalpo and widespread in the Sakyapa school.
19. Tashi Lhatse is the name of Dzongsar monastery. Dzongsar was annexed by the Sakyapa school in 1275 when Chögyal Phagpa (1235–1280) visited there as he was returning from China. Some sources assert that the original temple had been founded in 746 by a Bönpo lama and that the monastery became successively Nyingmapa and then Kadampa. For a brief history of the monastery, see Blo gros phun tshogs, rDzong gsar bkra’ shis lha brtse’i lo rgyus.
20. In the same year, he received the Lam ’bras slob bshad from Jamyang Loter Wangpo; see Samten Lodrö, gSang bdag rdo rje ’i ’dzin, 313.
21. See Chapter 1 note 25.
22. Adzom Gar, the residence of Adzom Drugpa, situated in the region of Derge; in Kham it was also known by the name Tashi Tungkar Khyil.
23. Adzom Drugpa Drodul Pawo Dorje (1842–1924) studied with the greatest masters of his time, such as Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Jamgön Kongtrul, Paltrul Rinpoche, Pema Düdul (1816–1872), and many others, and was one of the most important lineage holders of the Dzogchen teachings. He was recognized as a reincarnation of the great savant Pema Karpo (1527–1592), an exponent of the Drugpa Kagyüpa lineage.
24. Chetsün Nyingthig, a terma discovered by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, contains essential Dzogchen teachings originally revealed by Chetsün Senge Wangchug, the great tertön who lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
25. The Tibetan calendar is based on a cycle of twelve animal signs that, combined with the five elements, form a sixty-year cycle; after sixty years, the same combination of animal signs and elements with which the cycle began starts again. The recurrence of the animal sign of a person’s birth year every twelve years marks a year considered astrologically negative for that person.
26. Drugje, or Lord of the Drugpas, another title that indicated that Adzom Drugpa had been recognized as the reincarnation of Pema Karpo. The title of spiritual head (drugchen) of the Drugpa Kagyüpa school was given to tulkus belonging to the reincarnation lineage that, preceding the incarnation of Pema Karpo, began with Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (1161–1211), to whom is attributed the foundation of the school (see Chapter 10 note 3). During the lifetime of Adzom Drugpa (1842–1924), two other lamas, Jigme Mingyur Wangyal (1823–1883) and Jigme Mipham Chöwang (1884–1930), succeeded each other as head of the school that had as its principal seat the Sangngag Chöling monastery, founded by Pema Karpo.
27. The Phagmai Nyingthig is a terma of Khyentse Wangpo concerning the practice of Tārā.
28. This cave, called Marshö Dzamnang Pemashel Phug or Meshö Pemashel Phug, is situated southeast of Dzongsar on Terlung Pemai Shelri mountain. This retreat place of Khyentse Wangpo is linked to the history of the discovery of certain termas by him and by Chogyur Lingpa. One of the twenty-five sacred sites most important in Kham and in Amdo, it is a renowned place of pilgrimage, famous in all of Tibet. See Düdjom Rinpoche, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, 845–46 and photo 93.
29. Disciple of Guru Rinpoche, the great translator Vairocana is one of the most important lineage masters of the Dzogchen semde and longde series. He translated into Tibetan the first five texts of the Eighteen Original Texts of Dzogchen Semde (Semde Chogye): Rigpai Khujyug, Tselchen Trugpa, Khyungchen Dingwa, Dola Serzhün, and Minub Gyaltsen Namkhache. His biography, written by Yudra Nyingpo, has been translated into English as The Great Image: The Life Story of Vairochana.
30. The Sengchen Namdrag cave of Vairocana is located on the western bank of the Drichu (Yangtze) River in a place called Dzamthog.
31. Bero Thugthig: one of the numerous gongters of Chökyi Wangpo, the majority of which, like those of his successive reincarnation, were lost during the early years of the Chinese occupation.
32. Tibetan: gongter. Teachings revealed by realized masters called tertöns (treasure discoverers) who reveal them in the state of illuminated mind. The treasures (Tibetan: terma) are teachings, objects, and sacred substances that were hidden in ancient times, mainly by the great master Padmasaṃbhava and by his disciples, and successively rediscovered. The terma tradition was embodied by masters belonging to all the religious schools of Tibet. However it is particularly linked to the Nyingmapa school and the transmission of its teachings, which can be subdivided into those transmitted orally and gathered in a series known as the Nyingma Kama and those known as terma teachings. These two lineages of transmission are called the “long lineage of the oral transmission” (ringyü kama) and the “short lineage of treasures” (nyegyü terma), respectively. The termas are classified in many ways; it is sufficient to remember the classification that distinguishes between the treasures concealed in the earth (sater) and the treasures rediscovered in the state of illuminated mind (gongter). As stated previously, the principal protagonist of the terma tradition in Tibet is master Padmasaṃbhava, who, according to tradition, hid spiritual treasures in hundreds of places in Tibet, Nepal, and India with the aim of maintaining the teaching for the benefit of future generations. The authenticity of this tradition has been repeatedly questioned by Tibetan and Western scholars. The fact is that it remains a continuous font of revitalizing inspiration for the Tibetan religious tradition and that some of the most extraordinary figures in the history of Tibetan Buddhism are its exponents. For deeper knowledge of this tradition, see Düdjom Rinpoche, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, 743–49. For an analysis of the classification of termas and a discussion of the question of their authenticity, see Doctor, Tibetan Treasure Literature. This interesting work also contains a translation of a text by Ju Mipham Rinpoche, gTer ston brtag pa chu dwangs nor bu zhes bya ba, which analyzes the criteria used to evaluate the authenticity of termas. On the terma traditions, see also Töndrub, Hidden Teachings of Tibet.
33. Dzetrul, literally “the Reincarnate of Dze,” signifying the tulku of Dzetag Gönpa, a Kagyüpa monastery in Derge in eastern Tibet. His complete name was Dzetrul Dechen Dorje.
34. Serjong, a Sakyapa monastery in Derge in eastern Tibet. The scholastic college of Serjong Gönpa was founded by khenpo Jamgyal. See Chapter 6 note 4.
35. Smith in Among Tibetan Texts identifies 1909 as the year of his death.
36. Tibetan: gongter; see Chapter 2 note 32.
1. See Chapter 2 note 3.
2. Lhase Dralha, son of Ling Kesar, hero of the Tibetan epic.
3. Ngulchu Trodzong: this castle, situated in the district of Changra, was one of the residences of the kings of Ling, direct descendants of Kesar. Ling remained a small independent kingdom until the start of the seventeenth century, when it was annexed to the kingdom of Derge.
4. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu said: “Chubur Nyima Gyaltsen and Ngotön Dorje Legdrub, both ancestors of my mother’s family, were famous mahāsiddhas belonging to the lineage of Kathog monastery. Their monastery, however, was the Ewam monastery near Dzamthog in Changra, situated in front of Tsarashab, the renowned hermitage where my uncle Ugyen Tendzin lived for a long time. In that monastery were huge beams and columns identical with those in the kitchen of my mother’s house. In front of the monastery there had been twelve stūpas (Tibetan: chörten), destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, which contained the remains of Chubur Nyima Gyaltsen, Ngotön Dorje Legdrub, and other great masters. When the bodies of these masters were extracted from the rubble of the chörtens, numerous ringsels were found.”
5. The siddhas (Tibetan: grub thob) or mahāsiddhas (Tibetan: grub thob chen po) in the Indian Buddhist and Hindu traditions were realized practitioners who had transcended the limitations of worldly reality and had obtained paranormal powers (Sanskrit: siddhi).
1. Samdrub Drönma; see Chapter 2 note 11.
2. This date does not accord with those cited in other authoritative sources. Smith in Among Tibetan Texts indicates 1910, the year of the Metal Dog, as the year of his birth. According to the personal recollection of the author, his uncle identified his own birth year as the year of the Earth Bird (1909).
3. Smoke produced by burning various aromatic plants is employed as offerings to divinities and as purification.
4. The three symbols are, respectively, a chörten (Sanskrit: stūpa) or alternatively a vajra and bell, a book, and a statue of the Buddha.
5. See Chapter 9 note 26.
6. Ngor monastery, located south of Shigatse, was founded in 1429 by Kunga Sangpo (1382–1456). It was the source of a principal system of teaching in the Sakyapa school.
7. In the Tibetan system, the age of a person is calculated counting the birth year as his or her first year. Thus, if we consider that Chökyi Wangchug was born in 1909, in 1913 he was five years old, according to the Tibetan calculation.
1. The Tibetan curriculum, following the model of the great Buddhist universities of India, included five major and five minor sciences or branches of learning. The five major sciences are: internal science, meaning Buddhism (nang rig pa, adhyātmavidyā); logic (Tibetan: gtan tshigs rig pa, Sanskrit: hetuvidyā); grammar (Tibetan: sgra rig pa, Sanskrit: śabdavidyā); medicine (Tibetan: gso ba rig pa, Sanskrit: cikitsāvidyā); and arts and crafts (Tibetan: bzo ba rig pa, Sanskrit: karmasthānavidyā). The five minor sciences are: poetics (Tibetan: snyan ngag, Sanskrit: kāvya), metrics (Tibetan: sdeb sbyor, Sanskrit: chandas), lexicography (Tibetan: mngon brjod, Sanskrit: abhidhāna), theater (Tibetan: zlos gar, Sanskrit: nāṭaka), and astrology (Tibetan: rtsis, Sanskrit: gaṇita).
2. Tragri Chöje Jamyang Chökyi Nyima was, on his father’s side, the stepbrother of Tampa Rinpoche (see Chapter 9 note 30), of whom he became the master. He was a disciple of Loter Wangpo.
3. Longsal Dorje Nyingpo, a terma discovered by Longsal Nyingpo (1625–1692). This great tertön, disciple of Düdul Dorje (1615–1672), settled at Kathog monastery in Kham, where his teachings continue to be transmitted to this day.
4. Rabjung getsul: for an explanation of the different types of vows employed within the Buddhist tradition, see Kongtrul, Buddhist Ethics; see also Panchen and Gyalpo, Perfect Conduct.
5. Tibetan: tersar. The name New Treasures generally indicates termas revealed in the era of Terdag Lingpa and later, in contrast to Old Treasures (Tibetan: ternying), revealed in preceding eras. Here termas refer specifically to those revealed by Khyentse Wangpo, Kongtrul, and Chogyur Lingpa.
6. Khyentse Wangpo, Kongtrul, and Chogyur Lingpa: see Chapter 1 note 10 and Chapter 2 note 5.
7. Longchen Nyingi Thigle, a series of teachings rediscovered as mind treasures (gongter) by Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa.
8. Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798), author of fundamental texts of the Dzogchen teaching, was the discoverer of the Longchen Nyingthig, a series of teachings rediscovered as mind treasures (gongter).
9. The master who established tantric Buddhism in Tibet in the eighth century, considered by Tibetans to be a second Buddha.
10. Tibetan: tagnang, teachings received by realized masters through visions.
11. Guru’i Thugs Thig, a cycle of teachings linked to Padmasaṃbhava.
1. Shinkyong, the administrator that Chökyi Lodrö had brought with him to Dzongsar from Kathog, began the feud with Ngadrag, administrator of Chökyi Wangchug, who was from the same area. The administrator who succeeded Shinkyong, Tsewang Paljyor (1909–1999), arrived at Dzongsar around 1925 when he was seventeen years old.
2. Ngadrag was originally from Trayab. Together with members of Chökyi Wangchug’s family, he wanted to promote the economic standing and prestige of the ladrang of his lama and was opposed to the faction that wanted to oust Chökyi Wangchug from Dzongsar. The latter distanced himself definitively from him in 1945.
3. A class of malevolent spirits that provokes conflicts within spiritual communities, instigating practitioners to break their samayas, the sacred commitments taken at the moment of receiving tantric initiations. Breaching these pledges gives rise to further negative forces that in Tibetan are called gyalgong tamsi.
4. Jamgyal, abbreviation of Jamyang Gyaltsen (1870–1940), a great Sakyapa lama who had been the khenpo of Dzongsar Khamje college for about a year in 1929–1930 (see the photo on this page). Khyentse Chökyi Wangchug was one of his principal disciples. In 1931, two years after renouncing his residence, Chökyi Wangchug received from him the transmission of the Lamdre Lobshe at the Gagu hermitage, located on a mountain at the end of the valley of Dzongsar (see the photo on this page). Concerning this, see a brief biography written by Dezhung Rinpoche, rJe btsun bla ma ’jam dbyangs, 181–224; about him, see also Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, 55–60.
5. Chagö Tobden (1898–1960) of the Chagö Tsang family. The title of nyerchen was bestowed on his grandfather Pema Ledrub by the then King of Derge, Jigme Thagpai Dorje (1840–1896), for merits acquired during the war against Gönpo Namgyal of Nyarong. In the hierarchy of the kingdom’s government, the nyerchen ranked directly after the king and was at the same level as the regent (gyaltsab) and the administrator (chagdzö). Both the nyerchen and the chagdzö carried out the role of minister of the realm. Tashi Namgyal, the son of Pema Ledrub, inherited the title from his father. When Aja and Paba, sons of King Dorje Senge, vied with each other for the throne, Tashi Namgyal sided with Paba, and for that reason was poisoned by a member of the opposing party. At the time, Chagö Tobden was ten years old. He followed his mother in exile to Lhasa, and together with his brother Tsenam attended the school frequented by the sons of the nobility, where he cultivated important friendships. It was through one of these friendships that in 1929, after returning to his land of origin following the conquest of Derge by central Tibet, he was granted the position of nyerchen. Chagö, who was then thirty-two years old, began a political career that would see him achieve a role of great magnitude in the historical events involving those regions during the first half of the twentieth century.
Endowed with a strong character and extraordinary charisma, he intuited, probably with more clarity than many of his compatriots, the ineluctability of the extraordinary changes appearing on the horizon, and cultivated, at least for a certain period, the idea of an autonomous Kham, from time to time adopting apparently contradictory political tactics. The events of his life were so controversial that the opinions his fellow Tibetans had of him were greatly divergent, probably still reflecting the contrary points of view of the factions confronting each other in that historical period.
Chagö allied himself first with the Chinese Nationalists, who wanted to place him at the head of a province that would have united the eastern regions of Tibet. When those forces were defeated in battle by the Communists, he crossed over to their side. In 1936, in fact, he participated at the side of the Nyingma lama of Riwoche monastery, Garwa Lama (mGar ba bla ma; Chinese Nuola Hutuketu), in the campaign against the Red Army led by Zhang Guotao and Zhu De. During that offensive, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu recounts, there was a battle so violent near Lake Muritsho that the waters of the lake turned red with the blood of slain Chinese soldiers. Chagö, wounded by a grenade explosion in an ambush, was taken prisoner and transported to Ganze, where he was looked after and healed. Thus he had the opportunity to know the leaders of the Communist top echelon, including the same Zhu De with whom relations of reciprocal esteem were established. When the Red Army instituted the Chinese-Soviet government of Boba Ganze, he became minister of military affairs. A few years later, when Chinese troops attacked Chamdo, Chagö was made responsible for organizing the transport of provisions necessary for the troops in the tract between Ganze and Derge. From 1950 to 1960, the year of his death, he continued to be assigned important roles within the Communist government.
According to Bapa Phuntsog Wangyal, who at the beginning of the 1940s had various encounters and discussions with him, Chagö was contrary to any idea that affirmed the unity of the diverse Tibetan ethnic groups inside a Greater Tibet and considered the Khampas an independent ethnic group (see Goldstein et al., A Tibetan Revolutionary, 53–55, 138). But evidently, with the passing of the years, his thoughts evolved; in fact, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, who in 1955 during his return trip from China passed two or three days in the house of Chagö, declared in an interview with Melvyn C. Goldstein (A History of Modern Tibet, vol. 2, 529) that on that occasion, Chagö spoke to him of the necessity of an independent Tibet that united all Tibetan ethnic groups.
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, who as a youth had the opportunity to spend time with him, remembers him as a person in all senses outside the ordinary:
Chagö was an important political figure, but he was also a man of uncommon spiritual qualities, a practitioner who knew the Dzogchen teaching well. Between 1953 and 1955, when I stayed some periods at Tatsiendo, every Sunday morning I went to see him and we had lunch together. Each time he extracted from a cabinet the Dzö Dün of Longchenpa, and we passed much time reading the texts together. Despite my young age and my rather intellectual approach at that time, he sought to illustrate their deep significance. He spent every morning in long periods of silence, absorbed in himself, so much so that people said that he must be thinking of his business affairs or his political strategies, while in my opinion it was much more probable that he was practicing contemplation.
For some of the events related to his life, see also Peng Wenbin, “Khampa Self-rule Movements,” 57–84, n222, n226; Sperling, “The Red Army’s First Encounters with Tibet”; and bSam gtan, “Bya rgod stobs ldan skyes”; and Blo gros phun tshogs et al., sDe dge’i lo rgyus, 185–204, where quite a detailed summary of the events of his life and the history of his family can be found.
6. This famous monastery of the Sakyapa school, universally known as Derge Gönchen, was founded in 1448 by Thangtong Gyalpo (1361–1464) on the invitation of the then king of Derge, Tashi Senge; the monastery, the name of which was Lhundrubteng, constituted the heart of the capital of Derge as well as its political and religious center, with the residence of the king located inside it. An account of the presence of Chökyi Wangchug at Derge Gönchen is given by Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, n225. This note, which is the only unbiased report of the events that led to the distancing of Chökyi Wangchug from Dzongsar, cites the hostility of the administrator of Chökyi Lodrö toward him.
7. See Chapter 2 note 28.
8. Samten Lodrö (1868–1931), one of the most erudite Sakyapa lamas of his time, belonged to the Ngorpa tradition. He was a disciple of Loter Wangpo and had exchanged many teachings with Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. His biography, written by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, is titled mKhan chen rdo rje ’chang ngag dbang bsam gtan blo gros kyi rnam par thar pa bkra shis ’dod ’jo. See also Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, 60, n224, n248; and Jackson, “The ‘Bhutan Abbot’ of Ngor.”
9. Makhog is a valley behind Galingteng; Tragra is the name of a retreat place situated high on the mountain that dominates the Makhog valley.
10. Shabdrung, a title given at the Ngor monastery to aspirants to the position of abbot. This master, called Tashi Gyamtso, remained in retreat for many years at Tragra and became very famous.
11. A retreat place near Galing.
12. Kunga Palden (1878–1950), originally of the Sakyapa tradition, was a disciple of Dza Paltrul (1808–1887) and of his disciple Orgyen Tendzin Norbu (1827–1888), of Mipham Rinpoche (1846–1912), and of Adzom Drugpa (1842–1924). A large part of his life was spent in retreat. See Namkhai Norbu, Foreword to Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness, xi; for a brief biography, see also Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland, 487–88. In this biography, Nyoshul Khenpo writes that Dzongsar Khyentse should also be included among the more important disciples of Kunga Palden. A note, probably the work of Richard Barron, translator and collator of the text, specifies that the Dzongsar Khyentse cited here should be understood to mean Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. This master is mentioned in Dilgo Khyentse, Brilliant Moon, 29, 48.
13. Zhenga Rinpoche: Zhenphen Chökyi Nangwa (1871–1927), originally from Dzachuka, a region of eastern Tibet inhabited by nomads, was a disciple of Orgyen Tendzin Norbu (1827–1888), one of the principal students of Paltrul Rinpoche. He became khenpo of Dzogchen monastery. Considered one of the greatest scholars and realized masters of his time, he compiled various treatises and commentaries among which is the ’Dul ba mdo rtsa ba zhes bya ba’i mchan ’grel, the mGon pa mdzod kyi mchan ’grel shes bya’i me long, and the gZhung chen bcu gsum, about which see Chapter 6 note 15. Nyoshul Khenpo, in A Marvelous Garland, 496, relates that Zhenga Rinpoche was noted for transmitting the fundamental teachings of Dzogchen to individuals who had not completed the preliminary practices.
14. Another important retreat place near Galing.
15. Zhungchen Chusum, thirteen fundamental texts of Indian Buddhist doctrine that constitute the principal curriculum of the philosophy colleges of the Nyingmapa and Sakyapa schools. Khenpo Zhenga (see note 13 above) composed commentaries based directly on original Indian sources:
- Pratimokṣasūtra, attributed to Buddha Śākyamuni
- Vinayasūtra, attributed to Guṇaprabha
- Abidharmasamuccaya, attributed to Asaṇga
- Abidharmakośa, attributed to Vasubandhu
- Mūlamadhyamakārikā, attributed to Nāgārjuna
- Madhyamakāvatāra, attributed to Candrakīrti
- Catuḥśatakaśāstra, attributed to Āryadeva
- Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, attributed to Śāntideva
- Abhisamayālaṇkāra, attributed to Asaṇga
- Mahāyānasūtrālaṇkāra, attributed to Asaṇga
- Madhyāntavibhaṇga, attributed to Asaṇga
- Dharmadharmatāvibhaṇga, attributed to Asaṇga
- Mahāyānuttaratantra, attributed to Asaṇga
16. Gyutrul Kor, a series of fundamental mahāyoga texts, principally the Guhyagarbha.
17. See Chapter 2 note 32.
18. See Chapter 2 note 33.
19. See Chapter 1 note 16.
1. Jamgyal Rinpoche, see Chapter 6 note 4.
2. Tibetan: lCe btsun snying thig, see Chapter 2 note 24.
3. Tsewang Düdul (1916–1942), son of King Dorje Senge, otherwise known as Aja (1865–1919), and of his second wife, was recognized as an emanation of Mipham Namgyal Gyamtso by the fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche, Thubten Chökyi Dorje. See Dezhung Rinpoche, Chos ldan sa skyong rgyal; and Blo gros phun tshogs et al., sDe dge’I lo rgyus, 86–90.
4. The term ladrang, literally “the palace of the lama,” indicated the dwelling place and the residence of a reincarnate lama. In reality the ladrang was an institution that administered the assets of a lama and that constituted the center and the base of his political and economic power. Upon the death of a lama, the ladrang was inherited by his reincarnation, and thus its organizational structure, its economic patrimony, and its system of political relations were handed down over generations. The administrator (chagdzö) was responsible for the management of the ladrang and as such held, for all practical purposes, the actual power. “To understand the behavior of a lama, one usually has to look at the views of his manager. In many instances, the manager made virtually all secular and political decisions in the name of the lama.” See Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, vol. 1, 35–36, where this author defines the ladrang as, in effect, a true corporation.
5. An evil spirit originally known as Dölgyal, the gyalpo of Döl, from the name of the place in southern Tibet with which it was linked, its cult was practiced principally inside the Gelupa and Sakyapa schools. The cult was present in a limited manner inside the Gelupa school since fairly remote times, and attempts to curb it had already been undertaken in the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Ample diffusion inside this school, however, began in the second half of the nineteenth century through the efforts of Pabongka (1878–1941). The great importance given to this sect represents a degeneration of the original teachings of the Gelupa school. The cult is characterized by the fanaticism and the sectarianism of its adepts, who also stained themselves with crimes and violent actions in their relations with other schools and those who opposed them within their same school. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama is doing his utmost to convince the followers of its harmful nature but is having to confront the strong opposition of several sectors of a corrupt and sectarian minority of the Gelupa religious order. For a study of the historical origins of the cult of this spirit, see the exhaustive article by Dreyfus, “The Shuk-den Affair”; see also Bultrini, Il Demone e il Dalai Lama, which examines in thorough fashion the February 1997 murder of Geshe Lobsang Gyamtso, one of the principal sustainers of the Dalai Lama in his campaign against the cult of this spirit, and the subsequent investigations by the Indian police.
6. Gyalpo, literally “king,” one of the eight classes in which the spirits and worldly divinities are classified in the Tibetan religious tradition.
7. Sibgön indicates the shadowed zone of a monastery, in contrast with nyigön, which refers to the sector where the sun shines. The temple of Thangtong Gyalpo was found in the sibgön area.
8. The circumstances mentioned here refer to the opposition with which some individuals linked to the Dzongsar administrator confronted Chökyi Wangchug.
1. See Chapter 6 note 5.
2. I have not been able to identify this figure with complete certainty. The name with which he is cited in the biography is Pema Wangyal. According to the author, he was well known in Kham and particularly in the regions of Dzachuka and Golog. During the era of the facts narrated in this biography, in the region of Golog, and more exactly in the area called Tsangkor, lived a very famous lama, known commonly by the name Tsangpa Drubchen (the mahāsiddha of Tsang), from the name of the place where he resided. He was gifted with miraculous powers and was a famous doctor to whom many great lamas of the time, such as Dzogchen Rinpoche and Shechen Gyaltsab, turned to be cured. Born in 1830 near Lake Kokhonor, he later moved to Golog. The name with which he is mentioned in the sparse biographical sketches I have been able to consult is Drubwang Champa Chödzin. He lived until 1954, reaching the venerable age of 124 years. His son Orgyen Rigdzin (1901–1988) was also considered a mahāsiddha possessing supernatural powers. About them, see A bu dkar lo, Mgo Log Sman Rtsis Rig Pa’I Lo Rgyus, 259–61, 360–61.
3. Tibetan: semtri, an explanation through which the master introduces the disciple to the true nature of the mind.
4. The state of instant presence beyond dualistic mind to which, in the system of the Dzogchen teaching, the master seeks to introduce the disciple from the start. This same state is called the Great Perfection (Dzogchen) because it is self-perfected from the beginning. It is the state of Buddhahood that cannot be constructed nor modified, and it is the real condition of all beings who wander in saṃsāra. It corresponds to the final level on the way of transformation of the superior tantras called Mahāmudrā (Great Symbol). See Chapter 17 note 4.
5. Anye Magyal Pomra is a mountainous massif located in the great bend of the Yellow River (Tibetan: Machu) in the present Chinese province of Qinghai; it is considered by Tibetans to be one of the most important sacred mountains.
6. Magyal Pomra, the local divinity associated with the mountain of the same name, considered one of the most powerful local divinities in Tibet.
7. A silk scarf of excellent quality used to proffer auspicious wishes.
8. Tibetan: lhama.
9. Tamchen Dorje Legpa and Ngenema: two divinities, protectors of the Buddhist teaching.
10. Sanskrit: gaṇapūja, an offering ritual that has the purpose of accumulating merits and purifying breakages in spiritual commitments (samaya), through the principle of integrating all sense objects of dualistic vision in the nondual state.
11. Tibetan: dasang.
12. Tibetan: kabab.
13. Lhadrong (Lha ’brong) was a Nyingmapa monastery situated high on a mountain not far from Derge. During the time of these events, the works of Drubwang Palden Chögyal (see the following note), his hat, and a famous statue of Guru Rinpoche called ngadrama (which means “like me,” because, as was said about other statues existing in Tibet, Padmasaṃbhava had personally confirmed the resemblance of the statue’s features to his own) were still conserved there. Chökyi Wangchug was invited every year to the monastery on the birth date of Padmasaṃbhava, and on that day while giving teachings and practicing rituals, he donned the hat of the Drubwang.
14. Drubwang Palden Chögyal, a lama of the Kathog lineage.
15. Tibetan: tendag.
16. Dungtrul Trime, a lama married to Tendzin Palmo, the younger sister of Chökyi Wangchug. He was considered a mahāsiddha because, when drunk, he would perform extraordinary acts such as leaving his fingerprints on rocks, knotting swords, and so on.
17. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu said: “Samten Lingpa, a treasure discoverer originally from Kharsumdo, lived in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and died at the age of thirty. His place of residence was Lhadrong, where, at the time of the events recounted, five or six large handwritten volumes of his teachings were still conserved. His works, similar to those of Nyima Tragpa (which were principally transmitted at Dzogchen monastery), are not included in the Rinchen Terdzö.”
18. Jatsön Chökor, the cycle of teachings of Könchog Chindü, a terma discovered by Jatsön Nyingpo (1585–1656).
19. Drubwang Sungkor, the teachings of Drubwang Palden Chögyal. See Chapter 8 notes 13–14.
1. The Reting monastery, located northeast of Lhasa, was founded in 1056 by Tromtönpa (1004–1062), a disciple of Atīśa (982–1054), who made it the principal center of the Kadampa school. It became a Gelupa monastic institution following the visit of Tsongkhapa (1357–1419). Abbots of Reting were eligible for the position of regent, which was exercised during the years before the coming of the age of the Dalai Lamas.
2. Reting Jampel Yeshe Gyaltsen (1911–1947), known as Reting Rinpoche. Regent during the years when the present Dalai Lama had not yet reached adulthood, he was at the center of complex political situations that led to his imprisonment and death in prison. See Richardson, “The Rva-sgreng Conspiracy of 1947”; Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, vol. 1, 310–521; and Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, vol. 2, 200–204, 235–36.
3. See Chapter 5 note 7.
4. Lingkor, the road that encircles the old city of Lhasa, including within it the Potala and the Chagpori; pilgrims and devout individuals circumambulated this course to render homage to the sacred place and to accumulate merits.
5. Chagpori, one of the small hills that characterize the landscape of the Lhasa valley. Situated southwest of the Potala, it is considered a sacred place of Vajrapāṇi. In the seventeenth century, Desi Sangye Gyamtso, the regent of the Fifth Dalai Lama, had a college of medicine and astrology constructed on its summit, destroyed by the Chinese in 1959 and replaced by a radio antenna which still disfigures the site today.
6. Togden Chamten (Champa Tendar), disciple of Khyentse Chökyi Wangchug and renowned Tārā practitioner, referred to extensively later in the text.
7. A ho maha su kha ho is a mantra used during ganachakra libation rituals.
8. Naljormai Chöka, a Vajrayoginī teaching. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu does not recall with precision the details of this teaching.
9. Yamalung, a sacred place linked to Guru Rinpoche situated near Tragmar Drinsang, the birthplace of King Tride Tsugden. The statue mentioned here, it is said, was consecrated by Padmasaṃbhava himself.
10. Tibetan: dajang, symbolic characters that the tertön deciphers in order to reveal the terma.
11. Shiwa Yongdü, Union of Peaceful Manifestations, a cycle of teachings linked most probably to Vajrasattva.
12. Tragmar Keutsang, the sacred place where Guru Rinpoche gave for the first time the teaching of The Eight Sādhanās or Drubpa Kagye to King Trisong Detsen and his principal disciples.
13. A sacred site located about nine miles northeast of Samye monastery. On the mountain of Chimphu are innumerable hermitages and caves connected to the history of the first diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet, to Guru Rinpoche, and to his first disciples.
14. Tibetan: osäl, the state of clear light, is the condition that presents itself between the moment one falls asleep and the moment one begins to dream. It is explained that in this state, the function of dualistic mind is not present. Practitioners of the Dzogchen teaching seek to maintain this presence in order to remain in the state of contemplation.
15. Tsiu Marpo, a guardian spirit belonging to the tsen class, is one of the principal protectors of the Samye monastery and is the specific guardian of Chimphu.
16. Trogyal Yongdü is a cycle of practices linked to a wrathful form of Mañjuśrī; Chögyal Namkhai Norbu still has the text of the condensed version of this teaching (gyünkhyer) that is intended for use in daily practice.
17. A torma is a ritual object that can have diverse forms, some extremely elaborate; it can serve as an offering (shötor) or a support and receptacle of a divinity (tentor). Tormas are made of toasted barley flour kneaded into dough and decorated with butter; they can also be made of clay, wood, or metal.
18. Tibetan: uchen.
19. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu still has in his possession the text of the condensed version of this teaching, used for daily practice (Tibetan: gyünkhyer).
20. Dorje Trag, see Chapter 2 note 12.
21. Mindroling, founded in 1670 by Terdag Lingpa Gyurme Dorje, was the largest Nyingmapa monastery in central Tibet, situated in the Trachi valley in Tranang county.
22. Adren Champa Geleg was a wealthy benefactor of the Derge Gönchen monastery; he was extremely devoted to Chökyi Wangchug and chose to pass the last period of his life near him.
23. Located in the Yarlung valley, this cave is considered the first where Guru Rinpoche practiced in Tibet, conquering local divinities and the forces hostile to Buddhism. The speaking statue of Guru Rinpoche that was once in the cave was moved to the temple of Tradrug.
24. Probably part of the Lhalung Sangdag or Vajrapāṇi cycle of teachings.
25. Terminalia chebula, one of the principal ingredients used in Tibetan medicine.
26. The principal monastery of the Sakyapa school from which it takes its name, founded in 1073 by Khön Könchog Gyalpo.
27. Trichen Thutob Wangchug (1900–1950), whose complete name is Ngawang Thutob Wangchug Tragshul Yönten Gyamtso, was the forty-first holder of the Sakya throne. See Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, 145, n561, photo 46.
28. Dagchen Kunrin (1902–1950), whose complete name is Ngawang Kunga Rinchen, was the head of Drolma Phodrang and father of the present Sakya Tridzin. On this occasion he received teachings from Chökyi Wangchug, a fact recounted to Chögyal Namkhai Norbu by His Holiness Sakya Tridzin, whose sister, Chetsün Jigme Lüding (b.1938), was present on that occasion. About Dagchen Kunrin, see Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, 145, n563, photo 45.
29. Ewam Chögar, name of the Ngor monastery; see Chapter 4 note 6.
30. Khenchen Tampa (1876–1953), whose complete name is Ngawang Lodrö Zhenphen Nyingpo, was the khenpo of Ngor. Disciple of Khenpo Zhenga, he was one of the great Sakyapa lamas of his time. See the photo on this page. About him, see Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, 172–77, n656, photos 59–60.
31. The Lamdre is a cycle of Anuttara tantra teachings transmitted within the Sakyapa school. This tradition is based specific ally on the Hevajra tantra and on the three texts that form the literary cycle called the Kyedor Gyüsum: the Hevajra Tantra Rāja (Kye’i rdo rje zhes bya ba rgyud kyi rgyal po), Peking Tripitaka, vol. 1, no. 10, 210.2–223.1; the Thung mong ma yin pa’i bshad rgyud of the Ārya Dākinī Vajrapañjara (’phags pa mkha’ ’gro ma rdo rje gur), Peking Tripitaka, vol. 1, no. 11, 223.1–238.5; and the Thung mong bshad rgyud of the Saṃpuṭanāma Mahātantra (Yang dag par sbyor ba zhes bya ba’i rgyud chen po), Peking Tripitaka, vol. 2, no. 26, 245.5–280.2. In this case, Khyentse Chökyi Wangchug received the Lamdre Lobshe, which are specific Lamdre teachings transmitted according to the Ngorpa tradition. On Lamdre literature, see ’Jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse chos kyi blo gros, The Sa Skya Lam ’Bras Literature Series. For translations of various texts and for the history of this tradition, see Stearns, Taking the Result as the Path; and Stearns, Luminous Lives.
32. Tibetan: nyendzog.
33. Thartse was one of the four residences linked to the four aristocratic families who alternated in the guidance of the Ngor Ewam Chöden monastery (see Chapter 4 note 6). The abbots (khenpo) and the regents (shabdrung) of the monastery were chosen each time from among the representatives of these noble houses. The other three houses were called Khangsar, Luding, and Phende.
34. A craggy massif situated in the region north of Lhasa and considered one of the most important local divinities in Tibet.
35. Serkyem, literally “golden libation,” a ritual offering of drink to the divinities.
36. Khadar nyinmo deleg, a refined silk scarf embossed with designs and messages relaying good wishes.
37. The syllables that correspond to the life essence of the local divinity.
38. A tradition in the Sakyapa school. These monks were designated by the name tragyün.
39. Nangchen, a region north of Derge and south of Kyegundo.
40. During this same voyage, Khyentse Chökyi Wangchug also visited Nepal, but the author has no specific information in this regard.
1. A famous retreat place approximately thirty miles from Derge Gönchen.
2. The complete name of the monastery is Thubten Namgyal Ling. The author also mentions that in prophetic writings of Kunga Palden and Chökyi Wangchug, galing was written rga lwan.
3. Lhalung Palgyi Dorje, disciple of Vimalamitra and Padmasaṃbhava, slew with an arrow king Langdarma, who in the ninth century incited a persecution of Buddhism. Fleeing from central Tibet, he passed many years in different areas of Amdo and Kham that even today are linked to his memory.
4. Ling Repa Pema Dorje (1128–1188) is the master who originally transmitted to Tsangpa Gyare (1161–1211) the teachings of what was to become the Drugpa Kagyüpa school, of which the latter became the official founder.
5. Ga Anyen Tampa Kunga Trag (1230–1303?). The name of his family, Sga, is the source of the name of the Galing monastery. Anyen Tampa, one of the disciples of Sakya Pandita (1182–1251), became master of Emperor Hubilie of the Yuan dynasty. See Chen and Zhou, “Yuandai Zangzu,” which mentions a stone stela still in existence commemorating the imperial master. On Anyen Tampa, see also Sperling, “Some Remarks on Sga A-gnyan Dam-pa”; Franke, “Tan-pa”; and Martin, Tibetan Histories, 231, which indicates him as the author of Sa-skya gdungrabs.
6. One of the principal guardian divinities of the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon.
7. On Pegtse, see Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet, 88–93. Nöjin Chamsing is another name for this guardian spirit.
8. Trayab, situated southeast of Chamdo, in the present Tibet Autonomous Region.
9. Yangti: see note 11 below.
10. Sogdrub, the Rigdzin Sogdrub of Lhatsün Namkha Jigme (1597–1652).
11. Yangtig Yeshe Thongdrol, terma of Tenyi Lingpa Tsewang Gyalpo (1480–1535) on the yangti teaching.
12. Kunsang Gongdü, terma of Pema Lingpa (1663–1713).
13. Ngalso Korsum (The Three Cycles of Relaxation) and Rangdrol Korsum (The Three Cycles of Self-Liberation) of Longchenpa.
14. Dzö Dün, the work of Longchenpa, which includes Yid bzhin mdzod, Man ngag mdzod, Chos dbyings rin po che mdzod, Grub mtha’ mdzod, Theg mchog mdzod, gNas lugs mdzod, and Tshig don mdzod.
15. Chudün Gyü.
16. Yangti Chinlab Muntri: chinlab, unlike wangkur, is a transmission that does not involve the formal conferring of the four initiations. On the four initiations, see Chapter XIX note 4.
17. The yangti dark teachings of Tungtso Repa.
1. Lhalung, a valley situated east of Galing monastery.
3. Guru Rinpoche.
4. See Chapter 10 note 3.
5. See Chapter 1 note 6.
6. Paro Tagtsang, in the district of Paro in Bhutan, the sacred place where Guru Rinpoche manifested the wrathful form known as Guru Dorje Trolö.
7. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu said: “This word, found generally at the end of indications related to the discovery of a terma (terjang), means that the symbol manifested according to specific circumstances and disappeared in the same way that the sparkling of a diamond ring struck by light vanishes once darkness returns.”
8. Tsasum Drildrub (The Combined Sādhanas of the Three Roots), a terma originally discovered at Logekar in Mustang, Nepal, by Sangye Lama, the first of the great tertöns, who lived in the second half of the tenth century; see Smith, Among Tibetan Texts, 28. It was subsequently rediscovered by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo.
9. Tibetan: pumter.
10. Sulpa Yul is the name of the valley where Galing monastery is found.
11. See Chapter 4 note 3.
12. The five Buddha families represent the five qualities of illuminated mind corresponding at the relative level to the five passions, the five elements, the five directions, and so forth.
1. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu said: “Nalung Drubchen Sangye Sangpo was also known as Nalung Nyönpa, ‘the madman of Nalung.’ Nalung was the name of a valley in a place called Gekho situated not far from Kyegundo. This mahāsiddha was originally a monk in a Sakyapa monastery, from which he was expelled after his relationship with a woman was discovered. Having left the monastery, he lived for many years together with his companion in a cave on a mountain opposite the religious institution, dedicating himself to intense practice of Vajrayoginī. At a certain point he hurled out the window a beautiful statue of Vajrayoginī, deserted the cave, and disappeared. Later he was located in an isolated place on the summit of a mountain, behaving like a madman and often terrorizing the visitors who had gone to meet him. A short time before the visit of Chökyi Wangchug, he had chased away, by hurling stones, an important lama of the Kagyüpa school.”
2. In the present prefecture of Yushu in the province of Qinghai. See notes 7 and 10 below.
3. Ngawang Yönten Gyamtso (1902–1963) held the post of khenpo at Ngor Khangsar between 1933 and 1936. He was known also as Drugpa Khenpo (because of his years in Bhutan) and Labkha Khenpo. He was considered a realized being with supernatural powers. He spearheaded a campaign aimed at weakening the cult of Shugden (see Chapter 7 note 5), initiating his offensive at the Ngor monastery, where his intervention encountered the strong resistance of the monks and the preceding khenpo; he continued this undertaking at other Sakyapa monasteries, also in Kham.
Ngawang Yönten Gyamtso was the nephew of Jamgyal Rinpoche, from whom in 1931 he received the Lamdre Lobshe together with Khyentse Chökyi Wangchug (see Chapter 6 note 4). He died at about age sixty in a Chinese prison near Xining, the present capital of Qinghai province. About him, see Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, 188–89, n121, n126, n710, n714; Jackson, “The ‘Bhutan Abbot’ of Ngor”; and Smith, “Notes on the History of the Cult of Rdor rje shugs ldan,” 7–9.
4. This tradition takes its name from the homonymous monastery founded by Chetsün Sherab Jyungne in 1040, which is located approximately twelve miles southeast of Shigatse. The monastery, noted today above all for its frescoes, an extraordinary testimony to fourteenth-century Tibetan figurative art, owes its fame to one of its abbots, Putön Rinchen Drub (1290–1364), a great learned figure remembered for an edition of the Buddhist canon, among other works. Though linked to the Sakyapa school, the religious tradition of the Shalu monastery developed in its own way, maintaining its independence and unique characteristics.
5. Tibetan: kago.
6. Poti is the name given traditional Tibetan texts in the characteristic long rectangular form with unbound leaves.
7. Kyegu Gyanag Ladrang, a monastery situated near the city of Kyegundo in the present prefecture of Yushu in the Chinese province of Qinghai. The temple was founded in the thirteenth century by the first Gyanag Tulku upon his return from China. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu still remembers his astonishment on entering the residence of these lamas: “There was a frenetic ticktock of clocks of every kind that the lamas had procured thanks to the monastery’s flourishing commercial activity conducted with China. I, who came from a Buddhist college of studies where there were no clocks at all, was more than a little awestruck.”
8. Tseta Sungdrel, see Chapter 2 note 18.
9. Magzor Gyalmo, a form of the divine protectress Palden Lhamo.
10. Trau Behu was the chieftain of Kyegundo. Behu is a title given to ministers of the king of Nangchen; it is a Tibetan transliteration of the original Chinese bai hu, which means “the chief of one hundred.” For further information about this family of local chieftains, see Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, Appendix F, 524–27.
11. Mintrug Chogai Shinchog.
12. Denkhog, a locality at that time under the jurisdiction of Derge and presently within the administrative territory of Jomda county in Chamdo prefecture. The temple of Tārā, which is said to have been constructed in the time of King Songtsen Gampo, is located on the eastern bank of the Drichu River. The statue mentioned here was considered to be a talking statue.
13. In 1981, during a retreat near Oslo in Norway, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu narrated another episode that occurred during that same voyage in the region of Kyegundo, but which was not included in the biography:
One evening with our caravan of horses and mules, we reached a valley where we set up our encampment. We had just performed a rite invoking the divine protectors of the teaching when suddenly a woman arrived bringing forage for our horses, although her real reason for coming was to encounter my uncle. She was an interesting woman, shown by the questions she asked about the teaching that one would not have expected from an ordinary person. My uncle, curious, inquired from whom she had received teaching. She responded that her master lived in a cave not far from the road that we would take the next day, and she gave us very precise directions, explaining that on our way we would see a rock behind which was a steep upward path that we were to follow. She also warned us that not more than two or three people should go or the master would be angered and would refuse to meet us. The woman added that this master was extraordinary, capable of passing through solid matter, and that he entered and exited the cave via its rock walls.
My uncle decided to visit him, and the next day, following the woman’s instructions, we arrived at the trail behind the rocky formation she had described. Leaving the group behind, my uncle, another monk, and I climbed the precipitous ascent until we reached the cave. After we threaded our way through a tortuous passage, we came into the presence of an old man. With him was a much younger individual whom we took to be his assistant. My uncle offered the elder the small gifts that he had brought with him. The hermit showed himself as very kind, expressing concern that my uncle had tired himself excessively clambering up that difficult path, and showered him with civilities. When Chökyi Wangchug asked him for teachings, at first he humbly warded off the request, saying, “It is I who ask your blessing.” We remained for a while with him, and my uncle asked him very many questions, to which he responded with great care. My uncle was greatly satisfied, but I, who at the time was about twelve years old, unfortunately do not remember the details of the conversation, also because all the queries were highly complex. After about half an hour, we took our leave of him, and departed. My uncle continued to say that the old man was a great master, very good and kind, and that it would be important also for our other companions on this trip to meet him.
After about two days we reached Kyegundo, where my uncle attempted to discover who that old man was, but no one knew anything precise. Having visited the mahāsiddha of Nalung, we decided to return to meet the old man once more. Having reached the ascending path again, my uncle asked me to guide a group of travelers to visit the master, but after a bit that steep trail disappeared. We explored the slope of the mountain far and wide but, despite all our efforts, we were unsuccessful in finding him. We asked information of several people from that locality, but no one had any suggestions. The woman who had given us information at first had also said that the name of the master was Drubthob Chamten. We really had met him, and also his assistant, a friendly considerate young man, but afterward it seemed almost as if we had dreamed it all, and that everything had been only a fantasy.
About Drubthob Chamten, see the brief biography written by Dezhung Rinpoche, Grub thob byams, 421–38.
14. Üshug: this term indicates the function of the individual who conducts an important ritual ceremony, as, for example, a drubchen.
15. Mahāsādhana, an intensive ritual practice linked to one of the various tantric cycles. It is performed night and day without interruption for days by a group of practitioners in retreat. During the drubchen, medicinal substances called nyongdrol (substances that liberate through taste) or mendrub (consecrated medicine) are empowered.
16. A terma of Nyangral Nyima Öser (1136–1204); the teaching is based on the union of the eight manifestations of Padmasaṃbhava.
17. Lhundrubteng, name of the Sakyapa monastery of Derge Gönchen. See Chapter 6 note 5.
18. Surla: a title used in the Derge Gönchen monastery. A surla acted as master (dorje lobpön) of one of the six cycles of practices linked to one of the six minor maṇḍalas that were practiced in the monastery.
19. See Chapter 7 note 5.
20. See Chapter 7 note 4.
21. A wrathful form of Guru Rinpoche.
22. A type of incense based on benzoin, used specifically to drive away evil spirits and negativity.
23. Tibetan: ringsel, relics found in the ashes of masters of high spiritual level. The various types indicate the individual’s grade of realization, the most common having the form of miniscule spheres of different colors.
1. Tergyi Khajang.
2. Guru Sungjönma: at that time, this talking statue was located in the Lhadrong monastery. The statue in question was considered the mind support of Drubwang Palden Chögyal. See Chapter 7 note 13.
3. Shinkyong Wangmo, another name of Ngenema. See Chapter 7 note 8.
4. The three roots (Tibetan: lama, yidam, khadro) are: the gurus, the root of all blessings; the devas, the root of all siddhis (the supreme siddhi of realization and the common siddhis of worldly powers); and the ḍākinīs, the root of all actions.
5. An invocation to Guru Rinpoche, a terma of Chogyur Lingpa, for the spontaneous obtainment of desires.
6. Ma Za Tam Sum Ngenemai Solkong, rituals and invocations of offering and praise to the three dharma protectors, Ekajati, Rahula, and Tamchen Dorje Legpa (three of the principal protectors of the Dzogchen teaching), and to Ngenema.
7. Rigdzin Düpa, a section of the Longchen Nyingthig series of teachings. See Chapter 5 note 7.
8. See Chapter 11 note 8.
9. See Chapter 3 note 5.
10. Guru Tsigdün, the famous seven-line invocation to Guru Padmasaṃbhava.
11. The most widely known mantra of Guru Rinpoche.
12. Tibetan: terdrom.
13. Tsasum Dugngal Rangdrol, a terma of Heka Lingpa.
14. See Chapter 10 note 5.
15. A Sakyapa monastery known by the name Derge Wöntö Gön, where Khyenrab Chökyi Öser taught. For a history of this monastery, see dKar mdzes khul gyi dgon, vol. 1, 455.
1. See Chapter 2 note 34.
2. The phurba (Sanskrit: kila) is a ritual dagger widely used in tantric Buddhism. It has a blade made of three triangular faces meeting at the tip and may be made of a variety of materials such as metal, wood, or crystal.
3. Female yak.
4. A mountain located between Galing and Dzogchen monastery, north of Derge, considered an important local divinity.
1. See Chapter 6 note 1.
2. Kuntusangpo (Sanskrit: Samantabhadra) can be translated as “All Good” or “Always Good.” Depicted as a buddha of a sky-blue color, naked, and seated in meditation posture, he symbolizes the dharmakāya dimension and is considered the primordial buddha within the sphere of the Dzogchen tradition. Dorje Chang (Sanskrit: Vajradhāra), which can be translated as “Holder of the Vajra,” is the representation of the dharmakāya and the primordial buddha in the superior tantra traditions disseminated inside the modern schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Portrayed with various ornaments, he is seated in the meditation position holding a vajra and bell with his hands crossed on his chest. Chökyi Wangchug refers to Chökyi Lodrö with both the names Kuntusangpo and Dorje Chang, indicating that the former probably considered the latter a holder of the teachings of the ancient as well as of the modern schools, and consequently a holder of knowledge of both the way of self-liberation (rangdrol) of Dzogchen and the way of transformation of the superior tantras.
3. The practice of unifying with the state of the master.
4. Rinchen Terdzö, one of the Dzö Nga (Five Treasures) of Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye. In the Rinchen Terdzö, Jamgön Kongtrul included the major part of the literature relating to the terma tradition. Two editions of the Rinchen Terdzö exist, the older, that of Palpung, in sixty volumes, and the more recent, that of Tshurpu, in sixty-three volumes.
5. Lobshe, see Chapter 9 note 31.
6. Shriseng college is the college of studies (Śrī Siṃha Shedra) of Dzogchen monastery, founded around 1842 by Gyalse Zhenphen Thaye (1800–?).
7. Dosib Khenpo Thubten Gyaltsen (1902–1971), disciple of Khyenrab Chökyi Öser and of Khenpo Jamgyal, among others; he held the position of khenpo at Dzongsar monastery for eight years. He came from Dosib, a Sakyapa monastery belonging to the Ngor tradition.
8. Gyaltsen Lama (Lama of the Victorious Banner) was the title given an important ecclesiastical role at the Derge Gönchen monastery. Other positions in that hierarchy were Shar Lama (Lama of the East), Nub Lama (Lama of the West), and Yarne Khenpo (Abbot of the Summer Retreat). See Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, n225, where Chödrag Gyamtso, an uncle of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, is mentioned as the holder of the Gyaltsen Lama title at the time of the events narrated.
9. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu has related on various occasions that several days after the start of the Lamdre Lobshe teachings, an influenza epidemic arose, which struck him along with many other people present, including Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. The Dzongsar monk, in whose lodgings Chögyal Namkhai Norbu resided, consulted a famous local doctor who expressly prepared medicaments. After having taken them, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu experienced lacerating pain, and his health deteriorated rapidly. His host hastened to Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö for advice. The master made a divination, the response to which indicated that Chögyal Namkhai Norbu’s life was in serious danger. He gave the monk thirty Chinese silver dollars to arrange long-life rituals and, advising him not to return to the same doctor, gave him the address of another doctor who, examining the patient, diagnosed a grave case of poisoning. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu remained between life and death for three days and finally was saved by the doctor he had been sent to by Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö.
1. Nyingthig Yabzhi, four volumes of literature relating to the Dzogchen Nyingthig teaching compiled by Longchen Rabjyam (1308–1363). They include the Vima Nyingthig, Khadro Nyingthig, Lama Yangtig, Khadro Yangtig, and Sabmo Yangtig.
2. The ḍākinī Dorje Phagmo (Sanskrit: Vajravārāhi), one of the best-known female forms of wisdom in the spectrum of Tibetan Buddhism, is represented with a sow’s head on the crown of her head.
3. Sangdag, Owner of Secrets, another name for Chagna Dorje (Sanskrit: Vajrapāṇi).
4. Menyag, a region in eastern Tibet, situated east of Nyarong and Lithang and south of Gyalrong. Historically, Menyag had been an independent Tibetan kingdom.
5. Sumbhani is a mantra with four hums, which has the function of sending away negativity; it is found in many ritual texts linked to practices of various tantric cycles.
1. Manikango is located approximately sixty miles northeast of Derge on the road to Kangtse.
2. Dzakhog, a region in eastern Tibet, situated northeast of Sershul, on the eastern banks of the Dzachu (Yalung) River.
3. Tradition of Mindroling monastery; see Chapter 9 note 21.
4. Tibetan: zhirig jencher seldepa, an essential principle of the Dzogchen path: the master directly introduces the disciple to the true condition of mind, the state of instant presence beyond the dualistic condition. The “base” refers to the real nature of the individual, explained in the Dzogchen teachings as the indivisibility of primordial purity and spontaneous self-perfection. See also Chapter XIX note 4.
5. Tārā of the Sandalwood Forest: in the spoken language, this term is often pronounced nagdrön, which would be translated as “light or lamp of the forest.”
6. See Chapter 13 note 7.
7. Female bodhisattva of compassion.
8. Toasted barley flour, a basic food in Tibetan nutrition.
9. A widely diffused mantra, specifically employed in the transfer of the principle of consciousness at the moment of death.
10. Tibetan: changchog, a ritual of purification for the dead that is usually practiced for the forty-nine days following death. Different forms exist that are linked to one or another of the five dhyani buddhas.
11. Tibetan: thugdam, a special state of contemplation that superior practitioners succeed in maintaining for a varying number of days after death.
12. The ornaments of Vajradhara (Tibetan: Dorje Chang) are placed on the bodies of great lamas before the funeral. They consist principally of a crown with five points that represents the five illuminate families, and the ritual vajra and bell that are placed in the right and left hands, respectively.
13. Tibetan: ringsel. See Chapter 12 note 23.
14. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu said: “Gyal Lo, the name given Chagö Tobden by Tsangpa Drubchen, which in the Kham dialect indicates someone who has the qualities of a king and who can take the place of one. Lo means ‘can substitute.’ ” See Chapter 6 note 5.
15. Residence of Chagö, located in a beautiful valley inhabited chiefly by nomads, in a town called Yidlhung about twelve miles east of Manikango. Ugyen Tendzin, an uncle of the author (see note 17 below), also lived at that time in the palace of Chagö. Lhari Tsang, or Lharu Tsang, was the name of the family that traditionally governed that zone. Chagö in 1933 married Sönam Chatsö, daughter of the local chieftain. The Chagö Tsang family thus moved to that locality, and the two families had in fact unified. Upon the death of the local ruler, because his only son, Gemdzo, had died some time before in a fall from a horse, Chagö Tobden became the chief of Yidlhung Lhari, thus suddenly finding himself governing more than a thousand families. Following this, through a skillful policy of matrimonial alliances with the most powerful families in eastern Tibet, Chagö Tobden acquired an increasingly important position of power in that region.
16. Chagö Tsenam, brother of Chagö Tobden: see bSam gtan, “Bya rgod stobs ldan skyes,” 31.
17. Togden Ugyen Tendzin, paternal uncle of the author, from whom the latter received yantra yoga teachings, was a disciple of Adzom Drugpa. He manifested the rainbow body (Tibetan: ja lus) at his death. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu has written his biography, titled Drub rje rtogs ldan u rgyan bstan ’dzin gyi rnam thar nyung bsdus dam pa’i zhal lung zhes bya ba bzhugs, translated as Rainbow Body.
18. Tibetan: trulkhor, yantra yoga practices, linked to the Anuttara tantra system, that aim at control of one’s energy through movement, breathing, and specific concentrations.
19. Guru Dorje Trolö is a wrathful manifestation of Guru Rinpoche. The teaching requested by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu of his uncle pertains to a cycle of teachings rediscovered by Adzom Drugpa known by the name Ösal Dorjei Sangdzö. The title of the cycle relating to Dorje Trolö is Od gsal rdo rje ’i gsang mdzod rdo rje gro bo lod kyi chos skor las tshogs dang bcas pa. It was published by Sanje Dorje in 1972.
20. Tibetan: nyam dang togpa.
21. The yoga of Vairocana refers to a system of yantra transmitted by Vairocana in the text Nyida Khajor (’Phrul ’khor nyi zla kha sbyor). It is a method specifically linked to the Dzogpa Chenpo teaching. See Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, Yantra Yoga.
1. Family name of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.
2. Tibetan: chödag. The owner of the teaching is a person indicated by a specific prophecy as responsible for the maintenance and transmission of a determined teaching linked to a terma tradition.
3. The intermediate state between death and a subsequent rebirth.
4. A hermitage overlooking the Lhalung valley in the zone of Galingteng monastery; also known as Shuglung.
5. Tibetan: chülen, a practice that enables nourishment based on consuming the essence of the elements. Many practitioners have succeeded in living this way for numerous years without eating food.
6. See Chapter 1 note 35.
7. Dzachuka, an area in northeastern Kham.
8. Shechen Rabjam: the sixth Shechen Rabjam, Gyurme Tenpai Nyima, known also as Nangze Trubpai Dorje (1910–1960).
9. Drugpa Kuchen Thubten Shedrub Trinle Gyamtso (1906–1960), second in the Drugpa Kuchen reincarnation lineage of Dzogchen monastery. See Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, 71.
10. The sixth Dzogchen Rinpoche, Jigdral Changchub Dorje (1935–1959).
11. Sershul, a vast zone inhabited by nomads between the borders of the present Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Sichuan.
12. Kharsumdo, northwest of Derge.
13. Dzogchen Rinpoche died on February 8, 1959 in Dzachuka, where, severely wounded, his monks and followers had taken him. For a description of the events concerning the death of Dzogchen Rinpoche, see Jamyang Norbu, Warriors of Tibet, 134–137.
14. Khunu Tendzin Gyaltsen (1885–1977), originally from the Khunu region in northwest India, spent more than thirty years in Tibet studying with the principal masters of the time, among whom were Khenpo Zhenga and Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. From the mid-1930s until the mid-1940s he lived principally in Kham, in the city in Derge, where he taught grammar and poetry to the king’s children. Dezhung Rinpoche identifies his year of birth as 1896 (see Jackson, A Saint in Seattle, n232); in his biography (Gödrub Kashawa, Khunu rin po che’i mdzad rnam snying bsdud), his year of birth is noted as 1894; and another biography (Angrup Lahuli, Biography of Negi Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen), gives 1895. Nyoshul Khenpo (A Marvelous Garland, 506) indicates his birth year as 1884, probably because of a printing error. For short additional biographical information, see Khunu Rinpoche, Vast as the Heavens, 1–7.
15. Drukhog Jamyang Tragpa (1884–1942) was a Drugpa Kagyüpa lama, renowned in Kham.
16. Tibetan: tükhor.
17. Trongnge Dorje Phuntsog was a wealthy monk of Derge Gönchen. He was allied with the administrator of Dzongsar Khyentse and was extremely hostile to Chökyi Wangchug. Trongnge was his family name.
18. Tulku of Samten Lodrö, whose name was Jamyang Kunga Namgyal, was considered the reincarnation of the famous khenpo Samten Lodrö; see Chapter 6 note 8. He resided in the small monastery of Trama Gön Thubten Mapham Chökhor Ling, constructed by Pönlop Ngawang Legdrub in 1858 on the ruins of an old monastery in the district of Derge.
19. Ngulphu, a locality situated a few miles from Derge.
20. Tibetan: khorwa, the illusory cycle of death and rebirth in which beings continue to wander, unaware of the real nature of existence.
21. Drugpa Kuchung, a tulku of Dzogchen monastery.
22. Rongtrul was a lama of Dzachukha.
23. Tsatrul is a lama not further identified. The names of these lamas were given to Chögyal Namkhai Norbu in the 1980s when he returned to Tibet after more than twenty years of exile. The individuals he encountered informed him of what had happened after his departure from Derge. Some of the people about whom he heard were unknown to him personally.
24. Located a few miles from Derge. See Chapter 2 note 3.
25. Atīśa (982–1054), a Buddhist master originally from Bengal. Inspirer of the Kadampa school, he was a leading exponent of the rebirth of Buddhism in Tibet in the eleventh century.
26. Jamyang Chökyi Lodrö was the master, and thus the spiritual father, of Chökyi Wangchug.
1. Khadro Tsering Chödrön (1929–2011) of the Aduk Lakar family.
2. See the preceding note.
3. See Chapter 5 note 7.
4. Tibetan: wangzhi, Sanskrit: catuḥabhiṣeka, the initiations that a tantric master confers upon a disciple introducing him to knowledge of the real state of existence. First, the disciple is introduced through the initiation of the vase to the divine palace, symbol of the essential condition of his own illuminated mind; then, through the secret initiation, the wisdom initiation, and the initiation of the word, also called the fourth initiation, different aspects of the deity, the symbolic representation of one’s own essential condition, are revealed. The initiation of the vase corresponds to the body level: it enables the disciple to practice visualization of the dimension of the divinity and purifies the aggregates and the elements; the secret initiation corresponds to the level of the voice: it enables the disciple to practice recitation of the mantra and to purify all aspects of voice and the prāṇas; the wisdom initiation corresponds to the level of the mind: it purifies the essential energy of the bindu (Tibetan: thigle) and enables the disciple to practice the state of great bliss; the initiation of the word, or fourth initiation, corresponds to the level of primordial wisdom and introduces the disciple to the nondual nature of the mind. For an explanation of initiations, see Tsele Natsok Rangdröl, Empowerment and the Path of Liberation.
5. Tibetan: digdzub. In the mudrā of direct introduction, the index finger is pointed straight forward, the middle and ring fingers are curved and meet under the tip of the thumb, and the little finger is slightly bent. This symbolic gesture is used by masters to introduce disciples to the true nature of mind. The same Tibetan expression is used for the mudrā of menace, used for controlling negativities; in this case, the hand is directed upward.
6. Khamje Shedrub Dargyal Ling, the college of studies of Dzongsar monastery, was founded in 1918 by Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö in the valley below Dzongsar monastery where Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, in his time, had erected a small temple.
7. Approach and accomplishment indicate different phases of the sādhana (spiritual practice) relating to a tantric divinity. They can be explained in various ways according to the context. In general, four aspects are considered: approach, complete approach, accomplishment, and great accomplishment. For an explanation of these four aspects in the context of mahāyoga, see Padmasambhava, The Light of Wisdom, 210–11, n27.
8. Khyenrab Chökyi Öser, see Chapter 1 note 21.
9. Sengchen Namdrag, see Chapter 2 note 30.
10. According to Tibetan tradition, the water used to wash the corpse of a realized master is employed in the preparation of pills, considered to possess the blessing of the lama’s spiritual power, which are distributed to disciples.
1. Longsal Khadroi Nyingthig, or in full Longchen Ösal Khadroi Nyingthig, is the title of a cycle of teachings rediscovered by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.
2. Ram Ö Lingchen, one of the countless dimensions beyond our world, called a thalwa in the tantras. In the Dra Thalgyur tantra, thirteen thalwas are described.
3. Sanskrit: dharmadhātu, Tibetan: chökyi ying.
4. Ging and gingmo are equivalent terms for ḍāka and ḍākinī. The ging and gingmo are often called messengers of the principal divinities and of knowledge holders, and they are sometimes depicted as skeletons.
5. Longchen Rolpai Dorje is one of the names of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.
6. Tibetan: dorje lu, songs of realization widespread in the tradition of the superior tantras, as for example in the Hevajra tantra cycle, and in the tradition of the Dzogchen teaching. They are often written in the language of Oḍḍiyāna, a country that some scholars identify with the Swat valley in present-day Pakistan, from where the master Padmasaṃbhava is said to have come. The Song of the Vajra exists in different versions: that of Samantabhadra, Samantabhadrī, and nondual. Each of its syllables is considered to be the same as a mantra. The Song of the Vajra is an essential practice that includes the significance of the three series of semde, longde, and mennagde of Dzogchen, and, as the Nyida Khajor tantra explains, through which one can enter into the state of contemplation and integrate all actions in that state.
7. Yeshe was born “with a shirt,” that is to say, wrapped in the amniotic sac. In the Tibetan tradition, this is considered an auspicious sign. Biographies of lamas sometimes cite similar facts, and as a means of divination, describe the manner in which the sac conformed to the body. In European folk tradition, the same meaning is attributed to the birth of an infant cloaked in the amniotic sac. In the past in various Western countries, babies who entered the world in this way were thought to be gifted with miraculous powers, and in some cases consecrated to the religious life.
8. His Holiness Sakya Tridzin Ngawang Kunga (b. 1945), the forty-first and present holder of the Sakya throne.
9. Thögal, a method unique to the Dzogchen teaching based on the practice of light.