Alak Do Ngak Gyatso

A disciple of three extraordinary masters—the celebrated Amdo yogin-poet Zhabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol (1781–1851), the wandering hermit Dza Paltrül (1808–1887), and the tertön Traktung Düdjom Lingpa (1835–1903)—Alak Do Ngak Gyatso emerged as one of Golok’s most respected nineteenth-century scholars and an esteemed exemplar of unconditional compassion.

A Lord among Scholars

Alak Do Ngak Gyatso was born in 1824, the Year of the Wood Monkey, in the Upper Mar Chu Valley of Golok, within the prominent Wangda clan. A scion of the region’s influential Jawa family, he came to be known by several names, including Jawa Alak Do Ngak Gyatso, Japa Do Ngak Gyatso, and Trülku Japa Alak.

From an early age, his formidable intellect drove an uncompromising search for truth that transcended the boundaries of school, lineage, or tradition. He trained rigorously in both the Nyingma and Sarma (Kagyü, Sakya and Geluk) traditions and earned a reputation for explaining the doctrines of each with remarkable clarity and depth. In this way, he embodied the non-sectarian spirit of the Rimé movement that was taking shape during his era.

Within the Sarma, or ‘new translation’, tradition, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso received a prestigious geshé degree at Ditsa Tashi Chöling, a major Geluk monastery in Amdo founded in 1903 by the Fourth Amdo Zhamar, Gendün Tenzin Gyatso. Although never formally recognized, some regarded him as an incarnation of Gungtang Könchok Tenpé Drönmé (1762–1823), the twenty-third abbot of Labrang Tashikyil, Amdo’s principal Geluk institution.

Within the Nyingma tradition, he became a devoted student of three of the nineteenth century’s most influential masters: Zhabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol (1781–1851), Dza Paltrül Orgyen Chökyi Wangpo (1808–1887), and Traktung Düdjom Lingpa (1835–1904). He first met Zhabkar in his early twenties, when the famed hermit-poet was in his sixties. He later formed a close bond with Dza Paltrül, one of the era’s most revered teachers. In 1851, he attempted to arrange a meeting between Dza Paltrül and Shabkar in Golok, but Shabkar passed away before Dza Paltrül could reach him. Düdjom Lingpa, in the Namtar Shyal Sungma, his outer autobiography, later refers to Alak Do Ngak Gyatso as a ‘lord among scholars’. Yet despite his profound training under Nyingma masters, some traditionalist teachers faulted his later writings on Dzogchen for what they perceived as unwarranted Geluk influence.

An Early Student of Düdjom Lingpa

In the early 1860s, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso was based at Wangda Monastery, a branch of Katok Dorjé Den Monastery in Kham, situated along the left bank of the Mar Chu in Golok. Not far downriver, Traktung Düdjom Lingpa was practicing in retreat at the cave hermitage of Dröpuk Khandro Duling, codifying his terma revelations with the support of disciples from throughout the Mar Chu region. It was during this period that Alak Do Ngak Gyatso became one of Düdjom Lingpa’s first twelve principal disciples.

In his outer autobiography, Namtar Shyal Sungma, Düdjom Lingpa recounts an episode from 1862 that enhanced Düdjom Lingpa’s reputation and renown. At Alak Do Ngak Gyatso’s instigation, a lay practitioner named Anam Wangchen––of the Anam clan––requested Düdjom Lingpa to perform a Dorjé Drolö liturgy at his home. As Düdjom Lingpa relates, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso declared to Anam Wangchen, ‘If Düdjom Lingpa is not an emanation of Guru Rinpoché, I’ve deceived you!’

The colophons in Düdjom Lingpa’s sungbum, or collected works, attest to Alak Do Ngak Gyatso’s deep trust in the authenticity of Düdjom Lingpa’s visionary revelations. Over the years, this devotion led him to play an increasingly central role in transcribing the tertön’s oral teachings. He is specifically credited with requesting and writing down the Khandro Sengdong Chalak Jédok Namchak Khorlo—a Sengdongma practice for reversing curses, sorcery, and other forms of malicious magic—from the Daknang Yéshé Drawa cycle revealed in 1867. In 1872, he served as the scribe for a Dorjé Drolö practice from Düdjom Lingpa’s Chönyi Namkha Long Dzö cycle, entitled Chemchok Dorjé Drolö kyi Chakgya Nangsi Zilnön. From this same cycle, he also transcribed a protector ritual known as Tsengö Drekpa Métreng gi Sangchö Döjö Palbar and a wealth-bestowing Lakshmi sadhana entitled Pakma Lhamo Palchen Mö Drubtab Yishyin Charbeb.

An Empathic Retreatant

In the mid-1870s, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso was profoundly moved by the early teachings of Düdjom Lingpa’s first-born son, Jikmé Tenpé Nyima, the Third Dodrubchen (1865–1926), especially his precocious Dragkar Gépél Ling commentary on the Prajnaparamita––‘Perfection of Wisdom’––Sutra. Seeking deeper insight into key passages of the text, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso turned to Dza Paltrül (1808–1887) for clarification. Dza Paltrül responded, ‘I can offer you an explanation, but in truth, the root of all sutras and tantras is precious bodhicitta. There is no dharma more important than that!’

He then instructed Alak Do Ngak Gyatso to meditate on the mind of enlightenment—bodhicitta—for twelve years. Only after such prolonged contemplation, he said, would the essence of the Prajnaparamita truly reveal itself. Demonstrating remarkable faith and resolve, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso followed this instruction and entered a twelve-year solitary retreat devoted entirely to cultivating bodhicitta. His initial meditation site was Ari Ngak, a forest near Dodrubchen Tsangchen Monastery along the Do Chu. Tradition holds that his unwavering meditation on universal compassion––in the absence of any human contact– caused a sandalwood tree to grow there, despite the high altitude and adverse climate.

He later continued his retreat at the hermitage of Gon Lung Drakkar Gepel Ling on the banks of the Mar Chu, within the homeland of his Wangda clan. During one visit, four senior khenpos from Dodrubchen Tsangchen Monastery came to see him. Raising a simple clay pot before them, he said, ‘I have meditated on bodhicitta for so long that my tears could fill this pot to overflowing.’

After twelve years of practice, certain that universal compassion (bodhicitta) pervaded his consciousness, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso sought out Dza Paltrül once more. Overjoyed to see his disciple, Paltrül exclaimed, ‘Today, we will celebrate your accomplishment!’ He prepared a traditional dish of wild droma roots cooked in butter, milk, and rock sugar, and began elucidating the essential meaning of the Prajnaparamita Sutra. Thereafter, like many of Dza Paltrül’s closest students, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso was regarded as an embodiment of ‘Perfect Wisdom’ and as a person of extraordinary empathy.

Nearby Gon Lung Drakkar Gepel Ling lay a cemetery where Alak Do Ngak Gyatso performed phowa rites, transferring the consciousness of the deceased to higher realms. Even when the bodies themselves were elsewhere, signs of phowa were said to manifest remotely—such as blood or pus appearing at the crown of the corpses’ heads.

Keenly attuned to the sufferings of others, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso expressed bodhicitta in every aspect of his conduct. He cared little for personal wealth and passed on all offerings immediately to those in need. When bandits arrived asking for his possessions, he gave them freely. When patrons protested that he was being exploited, he replied,

‘Do not think that way. When one’s mindstream flows with genuine bodhicitta, offering even a small morsel to a raven brings immeasurable merit.’

On one occasion, when a thief stole his yak and horses, his attendant—furious—begged him to cast a curse. Alak Do Ngak Gyatso rebuked him gently, telling him never again to request such a thing, nor to curse anyone for the rest of his life.

Around this time, the esteemed scholar Katok Gyangtrül—regarded as an emanation of the Fourth Katok Moktsa Trülku, Jikdrel Chökyi Langpo—taught the Bodhicaryavatara to a gathering of monks. During his discourse, he pointed to Gön Lung Drakkar Gepel Ling, where Alak Do Ngak Gyatso had meditated, and called it the very ‘ground of bodhicitta’.

During Alak Do Ngak Gyatso’s twelve-year retreat, Dza Paltrül composed a poem for him entitled Advice for Alak Do Ngak Gyatso, praising his disciple’s loving-kindness and unwavering meditation in mountain solitudes. ‘Do not chase after the hollow, husk-like words of scholars’, Dza Paltrül wrote. ‘Seek instead the radiant brilliance of the bodhisattvas’ compassion.’

Far-Reaching Teaching Activities

Wise, learned, and fully trained in both the Nyingma and Sarma systems, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso dedicated his life after retreat to sharing his vast knowledge and realization through extensive teaching activity.

He formed close bonds with equally remarkable contemporaries, among them Lingtrul Péma Lungtok Gyatso (1856–1920s)—also known as Golok Wangda’i Lingtrul—whom he first came to know during his residence at Wangda Monastery in the Mar Chu Valley, when both became early students of Düdjom Lingpa. Pema Lungtok Gyatso later became a chödak, or dharma custodian, of Düdjom Lingpa’s Tröma Nakmo termas and one of the primary editors of his autobiographies and other writings. Despite their thirty-year age difference, the two scholar-yogins exchanged their considerable learning and expertise over many years.

Over several decades, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso also cultivated a close relationship with the Third Dodrubchen, Jikmé Tenpé Nyima (1865–1926), the eldest of Düdjom Lingpa’s eight sons. While residing at Dodrubchen Tsangchen Ngödrub Palbar Ling Monastery in the Do Chu Valley, Jikmé Tenpé Nyima received teachings from numerous masters, among them Alak Do Ngak Gyatso. As referenced above, in 1873, at the age of only eight, Jikmé Tenpé Nyima delivered a masterful discourse on the ninth chapter of the Bodhicaryavatara at Dzagyal Püntsok Norbu Ling in Dzachukha , impressing Alak Do Ngak Gyatso greatly.

Alak Do Ngak Gyatso’s ties to Dodrubchen Tsangchen—the principal seat of Longchen Nyingtik activity in the Do Chu Valley—were especially strong, and he was frequently invited to teach there. He also became a close mentor to the monastery’s four khenpos, or senior teachers: Garwa Khenpo Jikmé Ösel (d. 1926), Lushul Khenpo Lobzang Kunkhyab (1859–1936), Amyé Khenpo Damchö, and Sershül Khenpo Ngawang.

A renowned event that occurred between 1878 and 1887 illustrates Alak Do Ngak Gyatso’s intellectual stature within the Nyingma tradition. On this occasion, he engaged in a multi-day debate with the eminent scholar Jamgön Ju Mipam Namgyal Gyatso (1846–1912), moderated by their shared teacher, Dza Paltrül. This debate, recounted in Mipham’s principal biography, centered initially on the Wisdom Chapter of Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara, which elucidates ultimate truth by revealing the emptiness (shunyata) and non-existence of a self of all phenomena, refutes inherent existence, and establishes the Middle Way (Madhyamaka) that unites reason and intuition in non-conceptual awareness.

When the two debaters appeared evenly matched, Dza Paltrül encouraged them to turn to the subject of Dzogchen, the highest view and practice within the Nyingma tradition. Alak Do Ngak Gyatso had written a treatise on Dzogchen, introducing it with the humble statement: ‘One can approach Dzogchen from an intellectual understanding or from the perspective of realization. Since I do not have any realization, I write from the viewpoint of my intellectual understanding.’ In this work, he argued that Rigpa—the Dzogchen term for the mind’s innermost, pristine awareness—was essentially coextensive with nyug sem, which in the Geluk tradition refers to the conditioned consciousness that arises, endures with change, and ceases. Ju Mipam, by contrast, upheld in his exposition of Yuganaddhavada––the ‘unity of insight and skillful means’––a perspective of unchanging, unitary awareness.

When asked to declare the winner, Dza Paltrül replied that he had seen Manjushri appear in the sky, with a ray of light shining directly upon Ju Mipam. ‘That says it all!’, he proclaimed. Upon hearing the verdict, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso is said to have wept as his treatise on Dzogchen was burned in front of his teacher. Jamgön Mipam later explicitly criticized Alak Do Ngak Gyatso’s position on Dzogchen in his incisive Nyuksem Korsum, ‘Trilogy on Original Mind’.

The works destroyed on that occasion are now irretrievably lost. They reportedly included not only Alak Do Ngak Gyatso’s treatise on Dzogchen but also songs of realization, an explanation of dharanis—the long mantras that function as mnemonic formulae—and clarifications on the nature of Buddhist refuge: the active cultivation of insight, wisdom, and compassion in the pursuit of lasting happiness and freedom. One work inspired by Alak Do Ngak Gyatso, in which Dza Paltrül advises his disciple how best to unite the outer and inner dimensions of meditative retreat, has survived and is preserved in the most recent editions of Dza Paltrül’s collected writings.

Consort Practice

After his twelve years of solitary meditation on universal love and compassion (bodhicitta), and in the aftermath of his controversial debate with Jamgön Mipam, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso followed Dza Paltrül’s advice and undertook a further six-year retreat focused on the Kyérim, or ‘creation stage’, of Vajrayana practice, followed by six months of Dzogrim, ‘completion stage’, meditation. Through these consecutive and intensive retreats in a cave that he named Ewam Phukpa––‘Union of Wisdom and Means’––Alak Do Ngak Gyatso gained mastery over the vital winds (prana) flowing through the subtle channels (nadi) of his sublte inner anatomy. His ability to completely suspend the movement of prana was particularly renowned: on one occasion, a visitor placed a thread of wool beneath his nose while he was meditating to test for breath, but it remained perfectly still. Gyedro Bönpo Kyangkye, the famed Mar Chu–area scholar and Dzogchen master known for his teaching of Vajrayana’s creation and completion stages in the turbulent decades before the 1960s, repeatedly praised Alak Do Ngak Gyatso’s meditative capacity and realization.

In his later years, although he had lived most of his life as a celibate monk, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso reached a point in his practice where he resolved to continue the path with a karmamudra, or spiritual consort. This decision stirred gossip: ‘You are an excellent scholar’, people told him. ‘You should not take a consort!’

He replied,

‘I would rather achieve Buddhahood in a single lifetime than avoid temporary criticism. In my youth I was a fully ordained monk, and I maintained all 253 monastic vows with ease. But now, attaining enlightenment in this very life is more important than keeping those commitments. I do not care at all what people say about my taking a consort!’

The dakini with whom he established this sacred partnership, Khandro Tsogyal, was the sister of Lama Palyang of Golok’s Gili clan. A mahasiddha—one who attains extraordinary spiritual and psychic abilities through sadhana—she was reputed to be able to walk upon water and was a widely respected teacher, especially among female practitioners. She is said to have passed away accompanied by numerous miraculous signs. Unfortunately, no record exists of her teachings or disciples.

Alak Do Ngak Gyatso himself passed away in 1902, the Year of the Water Tiger, at the age of seventy-eight. His disciples—including the four khenpos of Dodrubchen Tsangchen and many others––constructed a stupa in his memory at Shukjung Monastery, a branch of Khordong Monastery (a Nyingma institution of the Jangter Tradition) on the banks of the Do Chu. Khenpo Könme (1859–1936), the predecessor of Trülku Thöndup (1939–2023), designed the stupa so that its shadow would be cast directly into the river, thus continuously imprinting the flowing water. Because of Alak Do Ngak Gyatso’s reputation as a great bodhisattva, it is said that those who drink from the Do Chu at the site of his memorial stupa receive an inner stream of blessings.

In 1903, Amdo Geshe Jampal Rölwé Lodrö (1888–1936) recognized Alak Do Ngak Gyatso’s reincarnation as Lobzang Do Ngak Chökyi Gyatso (1903–1957). Like his predecessor, Lobzang Do Ngak Chökyi Gyatso—also known as Trülku Sungrab—studied and practiced within both the Sarma and Nyingma traditions. In his early twenties he became a disciple of Tertön Sogyal Lérab Lingpa (1856–1926), the influential master who guided Tibet’s Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.

Scholar, mank and tantric yogin

Over the course of his life as scholar, monk, and tantric yogin, Alak Do Ngak Gyatso exemplified the defining qualities of a bodhisattva, skillfully leading those he encountered toward an inner realization of their inherent buddha-nature and the luminous clarity of self-liberated awareness. He was thus instrumental in the unfolding of Düdjom Lingpa’s legacy.

Description:

Select files (or drop them here)...