Drongri Jangchub Dorje
- Student
In the heart of Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple—Tibet’s most sacred shrine—before the seventh-century image of Shakyamnui Buddha, Drongri Jangchub Dorje[1] completed his final meditation on this earth. There, taking Jowo Rinpoche as his witness, his physical body dissolved into rainbow light, marking the consummation of the Dzogchen path and the attainment of the rainbow body.
Encountering Düdjom Lingpa at Lama Rong
Born around 1840 in Golok, Drongri Jangchub Dorje received basic monastic training but, by temperament, was drawn to more solitary meditative retreat. His pivotal meeting with Düdjom Lingpa took place in the 1880s in southwestern Golok, at Lama Rung[2], a remote mountain hermitage that Düdjom Lingpa had recently established in the Ser Chu Valley. Although Düdjom Lingpa’s twenty-three years of activity in the Mar Chu Valley had already borne fruit, he knew—through prophecies and signs—that the full flourishing of his Dharma activity required a return to the Ser Chu Valley of his birth.
Lama Rung, which became Düdjom Lingpa’s principal seat from 1880 until 1890, had been revealed to him in childhood. In 1839, when he was four years old, the protector Nöjin Shenpa Marnak, the ‘Yaksha Dark-Red Butcher’, appeared and instructed him that residing on that specific mountainside would increase his merit and activity, and he promised to accompany Düdjom Lingpa in all his endeavors. Nöjin Shenpa Marnak’s injunction was explicit and urgent, accompanied by a fixed timeframe within which the move was to occur.
Drongri Jangchub Dorje arrived at Lama Rong just as Düdjom Lingpa was firmly establishing his terma lineages in his homeland and revealing the full power and blessing of his treasure cycles. He joined a close circle of dedicated practitioners gathered around Düdjom Lingpa at the mountain encampment. Guided by visions and the counsel of wisdom deities, Düdjom Lingpa trained his disciples intensively in his revealed teachings, placing particular emphasis on Dzogchen pith instructions. As foretold, at least thirteen practitioners trained at Lama Rong attained the rainbow body—the supreme sign of Dzogchen realization.
A Dzogchen Yogi on Drongri Mountain
Unlike some disciples who remained continually near their teacher, Drongri Jangchub Dorje alternated periods of instruction at Lama Rong with extended solitary retreats, seeking to actualize the path’s fruition in complete seclusion.
Drongri Mukpo, or ‘Wild Yak Mountain’, rises above the left bank of the Ser Chu River, not far from Lama Rung. The conical peak had long been revered as a Bön sacred mountain. Its presiding deity, Drongri Mukpo (Deity), was regarded as a powerful war god (drala), an ancestral protector of local clans, and an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. Numerous tertöns—including Düdjom Lingpa, his son Tulku Drimé Özer, and Déwé Dorjé—revealed termas there. Drongri was also envisioned as the abode of multiple terma protectors. In one of Düdjom Lingpa’s dream visions, a guardian of Drongri Mukpo named Gélék Rabten[3] presented him with a jewel casket, affirming the mountain’s potency as sacred realm.
Over many years, Drongri Jangchub Dorje made the slopes and rocky outcrops of Drongri Mukpo his principal retreat. As the yogin and the mountain became inseparable in the eyes of the local community, the prefix ‘Drongri’ was appended to Jangchub Dorje’s name. Throughout his life, he did not give public teachings or empowerments, remaining instead in sustained retreat and devoting himself to the visionary Dzogchen practice of Tögal, merging his innermost awareness with the self-arising radiance of enlightened consciousness.
Attaining a Rainbow Body at the Jokhang
During his years in retreat, Drongri Jangchub Dorje nurtured a deep aspiration to undertake a pilgrimage to Lhasa, particularly to venerate Jowo Shakyamnui, the sacred life-sized image of the Buddha enshrined in the Jokhang Temple. Around 1890, sensing the approach of his death, he descended from Drongri Mukpo, took leave of Düdjom Lingpa, and set out on the arduous journey to Central Tibet, accompanied by two nephews.
After months of hardship, he arrived in Lhasa and proceeded directly to the Jokhang. There, amidst the glow of countless butter lamps and the atmosphere of profound sanctity, he engaged in his final practice before the resplendent, jewel-adorned image of Jowo Rinpoché. In that sacred space, the particles of his physical body dissolved completely into rainbow light.
In this, he followed the example of other direct disciples of Düdjom Lingpa—most notably Chuktsang Dorje Zangpo (1850–1890s) and Lama Tséchu (1850–c. 1890)—who likewise attained the rainbow body in the Jokhang Temple. Their realization was thus displayed not in the isolation of mountain caves, but in the living, bustling heart of Tibet’s capital.
Another student of Düdjom Lingpa achieving the rainbow body
Once again, a disciple of Düdjom Lingpa—the tertön from the wild and remote lands of Golok—manifested the highest signs of Dzogchen realization at the very center of Lhasa, the stronghold of the scholastically oriented Geluk tradition. News of Drongri Jangchub Dorje’s dissolution into rainbow light spread widely, contributing to a growing recognition and reverence for Düdjom Lingpa’s termas throughout Central Tibet.
References
- ↑ There are at least two Jangchub Dorjes connected to the Düdjom Tersar. The first one, Drongri Jangchup Dorje, was based at Drongri Mountain and achieved rainbow body in Lhasa. The second one is called Akyong Gyakor Jangchup Dorje (1840?-1890?), and he was a chödak of Apang Tertön. Jadral Jangchup Dore (1925?-2000) was based in Akyong, in Golok, and fled Tibet in the 1960’s. He later was able to transmit to Sakya Trizin many empowerments of the terma revealed by his own predecessor, Apang Tertön (1895-1945).
- ↑ The site of Lama Rung—aka Lama Rong—was sacred, to begin with, and its sanctity was only amplified by Düdjom Lingpa’s miraculous activities–something Chojé Dampa Jikmé Püntsok (1933-2004) understood well. Nearly a century later, this compelling Nyingma master began doing retreats at Lama Rong and maintained the site as a Dharma encampment. Then in 1980, he established Larung Gar on its site, the name itself an abbreviation of Lama Rong. Also known as the Serta Larung Five Science Buddhist Academy, Larung Gar is now a major Nyingma monastery and one of the most popular centers of Buddhist learning in the world.
- ↑ Gélék Rabten can be translated as ‘Sublimely Stable Excellent Virtue’.
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