Dzongter Kunzang Nyima

The very fact that he wrote sixty volumes of termas is evident proof that Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was the speech incarnation (sungtrül) of Düdjom Lingpa, according to Düdjom Jigdrel Yéshé Dorjé who was his contemporary

Born in Pémakö

Born on the long overland journey between Golok and Pemakö, Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima eventually returned to Golok to receive training, thus bridging the locations, generations, and teachings and ensuring the continuity of the Düdjom Tersar lineage.

An impressive ngakpa

Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was one of the most important Düdjom heirs and tertön of the 20th century. He had a majestic, powerful, and handsome presence. Wide, smiling eyes beamed from his beautiful brown face, while his long hair wrapped around his head in a silk turban. His body was strong, and he moved with might and vitality throughout his entire life. The sound of his voice was strong and far-reaching, but his words flowed in a gentle and soothing stream.

A grandson of Düdjom Lingpa, and his speech emanation

He entered the world in 1904. A group of powerful tantric practitioners had set out walking from the high meadows of Golok on a long journey to the tropical forests of the hidden land of Pemakö in southeastern Tibet. They were on a special mission. Their aim was to find and identify a prophesied incarnation of Düdjom Lingpa in Pemakö. The party included Khyentsé Tulku Dzamling Wangyal (1868/9-1907), the third son of Düdjom Lingpa, and Kéza Dorma Tso, a lady of the Ké family who was born into the Golok Bhumpa clan. On the journey, they became the parents of Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima. His birth brought earth trembling and thunderous roaring in the heavens while Pemakö locals sang songs of praise and threw flower petals in the air. The time was the third day of the twelfth month in the Tibetan Year of the Wood Dragon (1904).

Not only was Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima a grandson of Düdjom Lingpa but he was also recognized as his speech incarnation. Kunzang Déchen Dorjé proclaimed him to be the incarnation of his grandfather Düdjom Lingpa, and blessed him. Touching his forehead to Dzongter Kunzang Nyima in a gesture of deepest respect, Déchen Dorjé bestowed upon him all the necessary implements of a ritual enthronement. In addition, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s uncle, Tulku Drimé Özer, the fifth son of Düdjom Lingpa and younger brother of his father Khyentse Tulku Dzamling Wangyal, also repeatedly confirmed that Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was Düdjom Lingpa’s speech reincarnation. Finally, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was also recognized as an emanation of Gyalwa Chokyang, one of the twenty-five disciples of Guru Rinpoché.

He was just a young boy, three years old when his father passed away. It was natural thereafter that he was invited to return to Dartsang Kalzang Monastery in Serta, Golok, the main seat of Düdjom Lingpa’s activity in the later part of his life. There, amidst the powerful stream of his grandfather’s blessings, he began studying the Dharma in earnest. As per tradition, he studied with many tutors as well as learned and accomplished masters, and received a comprehensive Dharma education. He covered in a detailed and thorough way the entire spectrum of the mainstream traditions of sutra and tantra, as well as other fields of knowledge. Studying in this way, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima blossomed his inner qualities of realization through the attainment of a high degree of erudition and accomplishment.

A close student of Tulku Drimé Özer and Dewé Dorjé

Dzongter Kunzang Nyima had many teachers, but none were as special to him as his uncle Tulku Drimé Özer. He was connected to him through family lineage and the deep bonds of guru and disciple. The closeness extended to Tulku Drimé Özer’s consort, the lady from central Tibet known as Déwé Dorjé Séra Khandro. It was in the deep cold of the winter of 1918-19 when Dewé Dorjé herself was carrying her soon-to-be son Rigdzin Gyurmé Dorjé, that Tulku Drimé Özer wrote to request her to clear away threats to the life of his nephew. Just fourteen years old at the time, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was nonetheless already recognized as someone who would later inherit the mantle of the Düdjom lineage and become an important treasure revealer in his own right. Dewé Dorjé embraced this summons as an opportunity to bond even more deeply with Drimé Özer and exchange treasure teachings with him.

A few years later, in 1922, the Tibetan year of the Water Dog, Tulku Drimé Özer began offering the empowerments and reading transmissions for the entire contents of sixteen volumes of his treasures. The auspicious date to commence this important work fell on the third day of the fourth month as the moon began its heavenly growth cycle. It was Tulku Tulku Drimé Özer’s forty-second year. He and Dewé Dorjé had just finished practicing together to ensure their mutual longevity. Many important disciples had gathered around. They included Tulku Drimé Özer’s Dharma holder Sögen Trülku Natsok Rangdrol, students from Rebkong, and others who had been close to his father. Collectively they had been insisting that Tulku Drimé Özer give the transmissions of his own treasures. Up until that point he had hesitated out of concern that doing so would limit the spread of his father’s own treasures.

This occasion was different. It marked the beginning of actualizing his true connection with Dewé Dorjé. As such, she likewise insisted forcefully that he open the full mandala of his own treasure revelations. Seeing the profundity of the auspicious interconnections, he finally agreed to do so. Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was among the group of fortunate recipients present at that time to receive the transmission of these sixteen volumes. He imbibed the ambrosial stream of their transmission in its entirety and was firmly established thereby on the paths to maturity and freedom.

Shortly thereafter Tulku Drimé Özer traveled to Nédro Dorjé Dzong, in line with predictions he had received from his father. With him were Dewé Dorjé and Sögen Trülku Natsok Rangdrol as well as Dzongter Kunzang Nyima, evidencing the latter’s position as part of Tulku Drimé Özer’s inner circle. There, Tulku Drimé Özer and Déwé Dorjé’s treasure-revealing activities blossomed. Periods of retreat mingled with a flow of material and mind treasure discoveries. Vajra master Drimé Özer, consort Déwé Dorjé, and all disciples feasted on newly made nectar-medicine that induced the welling forth of wisdom experiences and realization for everyone. At last, both Sögen Trülku Natsok Rangdrol and Dewé Dorjé were summoned elsewhere and had to depart. Perhaps due to his sorrow at their leaving, Tulku Drimé Özer fell ill, and it was Dzongter Kunzang Nyima who was called upon to perform longevity practices for him. He thus played a crucial role in helping his uncle heal and extend his life.

The year 1924 brought tragedy to the Düdjom community. Tulku Drimé Özer as well as Dewé Dorjé’s young son departed the world of relative phenomena within days of each other. Her grief acute, Dewé Dorjé was invited to Awo Sera Monastery as a refuge. At that time, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was part of the small group that supported her through her hours of deepest desolation and despair.

In the years that followed, Déwé Dorjé’s own Dharma activities flourished. These included heroic efforts made to compile, copy, and edit the treasures of Düdjom Lingpa and Drimé Özer. In 1929, following a successful trip to Dartsang Kalzang Monastery during which Düdjom Lingpa’s son Tulku Dorjé Dradul lent her his father’s texts for copying, Sögen Trülku Natsok Rangdrol requested her to confer the transmission of Düdjom Lingpa’s termas. She offered them completely to a gathering of dedicated practitioners, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima among them.

In this way, Déwé Dorjé herself was an important teacher for Dzongter Kunzang Nyima. His awakening was intimately intertwined with her bestowal of these transmissions from the lineages of awareness-holders of ultimate reality upon him. The blessings saturated his mind. Gradually, he then began to open the treasury of his own experience and realization and treasures abounded. Déwé Dorjé additionally confirmed that Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was indeed an emanation of Gyalwa Chöyang.

A student of Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa

Dzongter Kunzang Nyima also studied intensively with Tertön Sogyal Lérab Lingpa. He served Lérab Lingpa materially, physically, and through the offering of his practice and considered him as one of his root lamas. Dzongter Kunzang Nyima received from him the complete transmission of the Nyingtik tradition’s Dzogchen teachings as well as Lérab Lingpa’s own profound termas revelations. Their connection further catalyzed the dawning of Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s realization, of the transcendent state of enlightened mind, within him.

Lérab Lingpa prophesised to Dzongter Kunzang Nyima, “If you focus on the practices of approach and accomplishment, you’ll be graced by visions of the meditation deities. You’ll receive personal transmissions of profound termas and great benefit will be ensured for the countless students that you’ll guide.” These words landed in Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s heart. He determined then and there that he would fulfill the great treasure revealer’s prophesy and practiced in earnest. He had many visions of the three root wisdom deities.

A prolific tertön

The glorious King of the Dharma, Guru Rinpoché, the embodiment of timeless awareness, took Dzongter Kunzang Nyima under his care and blessed his mind. This was another cause for him to directly realize the true meaning of Dzogchen. Dzongter Kunzang Nyima encompassed in full this exalted state of realization. He perceived all appearances as self-manifestations of pristine awareness and abided beyond the duality of samsara and nirvana, remaining free from all partiality.

Finally, his journey of spiritual maturity included direct transmission from dakinis, such as Lekyi Wangmo, who revealed to him the mandala of the nine sections of Palchen Heruka such that he beheld them as clearly as stars shining in the sky. It is said that as she bestowed the empowerments and pith instructions upon him, magical vajra manifestations of luminosity were limitless and unfathomable. At the conclusion, he was established as a Dharma king endowed with the glory of the teachings and as a noble guide for beings.

Domang Gyatrul (1925-2024) trained for a full year with Dzongter Kunzang Nyima in Tibet in the early part of the twentieth century. Tulku Natsok Rangdrol (1904-1958), the enlightened activity emanation of Düdjom Lingpa and root teacher of Domang Gyatrul, predicted that Dzongter Kunzang Nyima would be one of Gyatrul Rinpoche’s most important teachers. This proved true. Domang Gyaltrul reflected on the relationship,

Around the year 1935, when I was ten or eleven years old, my personal tutor Tulku Natsok Rangdrol, some friends, and I made a rare excursion from our monastery to the Ser Chu valley, in the western part of Golok. Tulku Natsok Rangdrol had told me about a prophecy concerning the great adept Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima, the speech incarnation of Düdjom Lingpa. He said that we had to go meet him and receive Dharma transmission. I was thrilled at the opportunity to visit this great master who lived in a valley a two-day journey away.
Though I enjoyed my life in the monastery, it was so exciting for me, as a young boy, to ride a horse across the spacious Ser Valley. For miles and miles, we rode through pristine and unspoiled lands, enjoying the sight of peaceful and beautiful animals. Butterflies dotted the air over the green carpet of grasslands, and birds played and sang freely, in a timeless scene of natural beauty. It was a great feast for my senses and an unforgettable adventure for someone who had lived for years within the sanctuary of a monastic compound.
In the evening, we arrived at our destination: a small, peaceful gorge walled by gentle green hills. The distant majestic mountain of Ser Dzong seemed to preside over everything that had ever existed. We camped in a beautiful field a short distance away from Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s residence. Early the following morning, we crossed the meadow to meet him.
Our minds create peacefulness. I realized this truth very clearly at that time. In this case, my mind had focused on an object outside itself – the benevolent spiritual teacher Dzongter Kunzang Nyima – and expanded into a feeling of peace. Such experiences are very beneficial because they offer us a taste of peace and show us how our minds would like to be. We don't have to go to the Ser Valley to experience this! There are many ways we can feel happier and more peaceful in our everyday lives and nurture feelings of peace through meditation.
True healing and well-being come down to enjoying awareness of the ultimate peace of existence. In such a state, the mind is not passive in the sense of being half-asleep. Instead, it is open and receptive to the thoughts and feelings of total peace. An unrestricted and uncontaminated awareness is the ultimate joy and strength. When we are truly aware of the peace of this, our nature blossoms with full vigor.
Some people are so fully open to the true nature of existence that they are peaceful no matter what the circumstances. To an enlightened mind, peace does not depend on any object or concept. Awareness of the ultimate nature of things, the universal truth, is not limited or conditioned by concepts, feelings, or labels such as good and bad. A mind that is free transcends dualistic categories such as peace, conflict, joy, or suffering. The enlightened mind does not discriminate between a subjective or an objective reality or between liking and disliking. Time is timeless, and everything in existence is perfect as it is.
We spent an entire year with Dzongter Kunzang Nyima. During that special time, many amazing events occurred, but here I’ll mention just a few.
Upon our arrival, the two emanations Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima and TulkuNatsok Rangdröl (speech and activity) began to exchange empowerments and reading transmissions back and forth between each other. They spent endless hours enjoying one another’s company and sharing food while speaking directly in their own unique language together. I remember Tulku Natsok Rangdrol giving Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima his Hayagriva treasure empowerment and Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima giving TulkuNatsok Rangdröl transmission for his Vajrasattva practice as well as many others.
On numerous occasions, we all performed ritual ceremonies together. My root guru Natsok Rangdröl would be the umdzé, the principal chant master. During those times, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima would constantly remind us of how fortunate we were to be in the presence of Guru Rinpoche’s emanation, Natsok Rangdröl. He said that if we had strong faith and devotion, we would all be born together in the pure land of the Copper-Colored Mountain. He reminded us again and again of how very special that time was and urged us to recognize the great fortune of such a gathering.
Later, I came to realize just how poignant those words of advice really were. As the months passed, I received many transmissions and teachings from the great treasure-revealer Dzongter Kunzang Nyima. He taught us every aspect of the teachings of the Great Perfection, as well as teachings on the six bardos and many other direct pointing-out instructions. He did this all while decoding treasures to a least four or five scribes who were gathered around him compiling different aspects of them. If one of them were to make a spelling error or add something extra, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima would know this without even looking and would correct them! I saw this with my own eyes! Thus far in my life, I’ve never met a treasure-revealer like him, and I don’t believe I ever will again.
One day, Künzang Nyima came out wearing a white shawl and a skull crown for the drupchen, the great accomplishment ceremony. He was more splendid that day than ever before. It seemed as though he had actually come down to visit from the pure lands. Khenpo Jikmé Phuntsok was the umdzé at that drupchen. At that time, he was a young man with a powerful voice, and not as famous as he later came to be. Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s older son Tulku Theglo was the drummer, and his other sons played the trumpets. Tulku Natsok Rangdröl and I [Gyatrul Rinpoche] sat on simple seats next to them. There were no high thrones built for anyone as these great teachers were all very humble. They wore simple clothing as well. That entire year, every single day was spent doing Dharma activity, and I felt my precious human life was being put to use in the most meaningful way possible.
Towards the end of our stay, my root guru Natsok Rangdröl told me I must request a special treasure transmission that Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was going to give on my behalf. It was a concise treasure of the deity Vajrasattva. The way it happened is as follows.
I had been in a group with many great practitioners, lamas, and scholars, and we had received and been practicing the bardo teachings connected to the deity Vajrasattva in their entirety for many months. Dzongter Kunzang Nyima had showed us such great kindness in giving us all these teachings.
At their conclusion, Tulku Natsok Rangdrol told me, “You must request a daily Vajrasattva practice from Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima, since you have received and practiced the Vajrasattva bardo teachings.”
So, I took a white offering scarf to Dzongter Kunzang Nyima and made the request.
He said, “Yes, yes, there is one, there is one.”
I thought, “Maybe he already wrote one?” So, I went back and told my guru, “Dzongter Kunzang Nyima said, ‘Yes, yes, there is one.’ What does that mean?”
My guru said, “I don’t know, maybe you need to request more.”
I went back and asked again.
This time, Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima said, “Yes, I will write it, I can do that easily.”
After a few days, I went to see Dzongter Kunzang Nyima at the place where he had just moved. It was in the mountains, in a beautiful area with lots of flowers. He said, “Here it is,” and gave me the text and the reading transmission for it. His wife, Khandro, invited me to stay and drink hot milk with them, but I was too shy and ran away. I was so stupid! I should have stayed. I have always regretted that. Dzongter Kunzang Nyima told me that he had a prophecy to give this transmission to Ngedon Chökyi Nyima, which is when I first came to know my secret name.
I kept that daily practice in my prayer book from that time on, but when the Communists came, I lost my entire prayer book. I lost everything, including the special amulets for protection I wore around my neck. I carried lots of gold and things on my body but gradually I lost it all. If you have no merit, then even if you have money and lots of things you can’t keep them. In the future, it is good to remember this. You may think, "I have money, I have something,” but if you don’t have the merit, you’ll lose it.
I didn’t see this text again until Lama Chonam brought a copy of the collected works of Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima back from China in 2007. Finally, I rediscovered that practice!
Now, Tulku Theglo, Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s son, has come and given the empowerments for his father’s treasures, and we have this practice to do together.”

Domang Gyatrul continued,

“Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was someone who enjoyed the simple gifts of life with the deepest contentment. I remember the feeling of unconditional and unpretentious love in his heart, which wasn't only for me but enveloped everything and everyone all around. In the sunny presence of Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima, I became so natural. There was no place to harbor darkness or anxiety anymore. Rinpoche's joy and calm was pervasive. Immediately upon meeting him and for all the time I was there, the world appeared to be a very peaceful place.
As I looked around, I vividly felt that his presence had somehow transformed my surroundings, that nothing was separate from this wonderful peacefulness. The trees, the mountains, my companions, myself -- everything was united in calm and peace. It wasn't the mountains and people that changed, but my mind's way of seeing and feeling them.
Because of the power of Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s presence, I was enjoying a greater degree of peace and joy, almost a state of boundlessness. That feeling enabled me to see all mental objects through those qualities. For a while, no attractions or disappointments mattered. Even today, when I remember that experience from more than four decades ago, I feel joy and completeness. The heat of that memory helped me to melt the ice of obstacles as they came up on my life's journey.”

A teacher of Taré Lhamo

It was common in the Golok that Dzongter Kunzang Nyima inhabited to find Dharma teachers living in encampments surrounded by ever-growing communities of disciples. Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s home was no different. He set up his hermitage on the outskirts of Dartsang in a place called Dolung Rizab. His magnetism was such that there were up to one thousand residents there at any one time, living in black yak-hair tents speckled across the barren hillsides. In 19XX, a young newly-wed couple joined that community: Tulku Milo and Taré Lhamo. They became part of a select inner group blessed with receiving Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s highest Great Perfection instructions. Among them, Taré Lhamo was special. Not only was she an incarnation of Dewé Dorjé Sera Khandro but it was to her that Dzongter Kunzang Nyima bestowed the entirety of his own treasure revelations. He entrusted her especially as the holder of his cycle of treasures dedicated to Yéshé Tsogyal. She thus became one of his Dharma heirs with the authority the transmit the rituals and practices of those treasures.

A father of six children

Dzongter Kunzang Nyima had a single child with his first wife, whose name has not yet been identified. This daughter’s name was Kyu Do and like the great dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, she was born in the year of bird. His second wife, Tubdza Rinchen Tso from the Tubdza (?) family, bore six children:

Choktrül Shérab Tokmé (1925-1959), who passed away in prison.
Tulku Mingyur Dorjé aka Tulku Milo (1934-1959) was the first husband of Taré Lhamo, and died in prison.
Tulku Théglo (b.1937), a contemporary lama and principal Düdjom Tersar lineage holder, Tulku Theglo is also the keeper of Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s own treasure lineage.
Choktrül Lhündrup Dorjé (1940-1960).
Lhacham Chökyi Drönma (1943-1959) was born in the year of Water Sheep and recognized as an incarnation of Sera Khandro Dewé Dorjé. Sadly, she was tortured and killed by the communist army in 1959.
Tsendzin Lhamo aka Jimo (1949-1959) was born in the year of the rat and went by Tsemo, or Tsendzin Lhamo. She died from hunger in 1959.

In the present day, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s son Tulku Theklo carries the torch of his father’s lineage, lighting up east and west with the golden rays of his father’s tradition as he serves the teachings of the Buddha and sentient beings.

The circle of disciples

From across the vast plains and sparsely forested valleys of eastern Tibet, Dharma seekers were drawn to Dzongter Kunzang Nyima. Awed by his power, authenticity, and realization, they came from Rebkong in the north, as well as the regions of Golok, Serta, and Doyul. Gathered around him like a constellation of shining stars were innumerable students, befitting vessels for the contents of his wisdom mind. Among them were seven principal Dharma-holders (chödak) for his teachings, empowered shortly after his established the hermitage known as Khandro Düling. They were Katok Chaktsa Rinpoche, Sera Yangtrul Rinpoche, Palyul Choktrul Thubten Chökyi Dawa, Drubchen Lingtrul Rigdzin Jalü Dorjé, Yakshul Khenpo Lodrö, Laru Lama Padma , and Apang Gyurmé Yönten Gyatso.

In addition to his seven main lineage holders, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima had an additional twenty-five students whose special and close connections with him were predicted. They include Dodrubchen Rigdzin Tenpé Nyima, Gyadung Wönpo Sherab Mebar, Riksé Tekchok Gyaltsen, Pema Ösal Nyingpo, Sherab Tokmé, Agyab Wönpo Jam Chö, and Khenchen Könchok Lodrö. Still, there were many more students who made meaningful connections with him and carried forth the mantle of the Düdjom lineage that he upheld. Of the one-hundred and twenty-five personal students with the immense merit to encounter him and the three-thousand lucky more, was the great skylike yogi Chatral Sangyé Dorjé, a direct student of Sera Khandro Dewé Dorjé and the great Khenpo Ngagchung. Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s son TulkuTheglo describes how he became connected with Chatral. "I met him when I was young, and my father Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was living. Chatral came to see my father and I first saw him then." Other students include, Gyaltsen, Garwang Gyalchok Lingpa, Gyadung Wönpo Sherab Mebar, Gyaltrul Rinpoche, Khenchen Könchok Lodrö, Khenpo Jikmé Phuntsok, , Shenpen Nyima, Sherab Tokmé, Pema Tekchok Tenpé Gyaltsen (TulkuTheglo), TulkuThondup Rinpoche, Taré Lhamo, and Yakshul Khenpo Lodrö, a great practitioner and khenpo from Dodrüpchen Monastery.

Legacy of termas and teachings

Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was a realized master. This meant that ultimately, he embodied as their regent the most sublime and secret essential teachings. His presence itself was enough to lay bare the true nature of reality for those with the purity of perception to see it. This, a state of utterly empty yet lucid awareness beyond the reach of thought and expression, imbued all the sacred transmissions he received and offered. A true Düdjom heir, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima furthered the tradition that was his inheritance: direct, unconfined, and penetrating instructions to awaken beings through any and every possible means. For him, these means took form in countless treasure revelations, both material and in word. He revealed sixty volumes of treasure teachings in Tibet, of which some twenty or more are still existent, as well as objects of wealth and sacred substances.

Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s treasures contain the entirety of the Buddha’s teachings. This is because he himself was a Buddha and not, in any way, an ordinary sentient being. He kept these treasure writings close at hand in his big black tent and was usually found dictating several treasures at one time to his cadre of four or five scribes. To each, he would decode different aspects of the treasure. His insight was such that if one of the scribes made a spelling mistake, error, or added something extra, he immediately knew, without even looking. He would then correct them. He had such precision that he would never omit or mix up lines of the various texts while dictating them to each scribe. He knew exactly where he was always with each other and would never have to ask for the last line of one of the texts to be read to him.

His treasures include cycles of practice focusing on the Three Roots: deities representing lama, yidam, and dakini personifications of timeless wisdom. Among these, practices of Vajrasattva, Noble Tara, and Kurukulle are notable. A brief presentation of his main treasure cycles is as follows.

To pacify the fighting that often erupted in the aggressive climate of the place and times where he lived, he revealed the Guru, Hayagriva, Garuda and Guru Drakpo , the “Fierce One Who Defeats of the Lord of Death” and the “Fierce Female Tamer of the Maras.” To expand his qualities of experiences and realization, he revealed “Three Cycles of Guruyoga” and the “Three Cycles of the Aural Transmission.” To pacify harm caused by evil spells, he revealed the “Wrathful Vajra-Crest and Black Garuda Blazing Thunder.” To avert epidemics, he revealed the “Fierce Fire-Mala.” Finally, to pacify the many other various arisings that he faced, he revealed the “Seven Black Cycles” and the practice cycles of Drala King Gesar Norbu Dradül. Over the past decades, during period of time when there was relatively more religious freedom in Tibet, many people could be found reading Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s treasure entitled “Gesar’s Red Rock Garuda Fortress”(Gesar Drakmar Kyungdzong). It was said that everyone in Golok read this, his revelation on the great epic of King Gesar.

Later in his life, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima revealed his tantra cycles in five-hundred and fifty-one pages; the Tika Torch to the Secret; the practice cycle in one-thousand and seventy-two pages of the extremely profound Amulet of Life-force; the cycle of pith instructions of the profound Eighteen Mirrors of the Heart in forty-two (pages?); the Cycle of Empowerments; The Essential Storehouse of Jewels in 130 (pages?); the cycle of prophetic certificates; and the Seventeen Essential Points of Pith Instructions in 25 (pages or sections?). There were other cycles of practice that he revealed as well, all in accordance with the interdependent positive karmic connections that he had with the extensive, intermediate, and concise secret treasuries held and protected by hundreds of thousands of dakinis.

Dzongter Kunzang Nyima channeled and passed on the teachings of the Great Perfection through these profound and rich treasures. Through his enlightened activity, infinite as the expanse of space itself, he served the teachings of Buddha and sentient beings. He chose major and minor holy sanctuaries as the places where he accomplished his own practice. With wholly pure intentions, he applied himself to training with the body’s wisdom channels, winds, and vital essences and untied the blockages at his throat chakra of enjoyment. He mastered the subtle winds and nakedly realized the true nature of ultimate reality. Having attained complete control over outer manifestations, he was able to light butter lamps and fire offerings spontaneously, as if by magic. When he performed the practices required to make sacred medicine, it is said that the nectar-medicine would overflow, its pills multiplying on their own and shooting around the sky.

The Seven Heroes that Hold the Teachings, the Noble Lady, the Protectress of Mantra, and other wisdom beings, heroes, and dakinis abiding on, below, and above the earth sang this treasure song about Dzongter Kunzang Nyima:

Ema! In the past, from Dhumathala,
Traktung Nakpo entrusted him with treasures.
Protector, having conferred the empowerments and blessings of a hundred treasures,
He aims for a treasure that is the wondrous essence.
Great powerful one, exhorted in the monkey year and monkey month,
As a lord of the earth, he is praised like a vajra of pure gold,
A Vase of Silver, filled up with elixir that restores life,
Exhorted by mighty light rays, saffron colored iron hooks,
A great deity, called out to raise his weapons,
He has received abundant noble aspiration prayers,
His companions having abundant foresight,
The proof is in the positive karmic connection of being exhorted by the seven-line prayer,
The door to the secret treasury of the mother-dakinis will be opened.

A magician of wisdom

Tulku Thondup recounts that “[The fourth Dodrüpchen] Rinpoche went to see Dzongter Kunzang Nyima, a grandson and speech Tulku of Düdjom Lingpa (1835-1903). At the urging of the fourth Rinpoche [the fourth Dodrüpchen], Dzongter Dzongter Kunzang Nyima discovered a series of termas teachings entitled Khandro Gongpa Düpa ('The United Intent of the Wisdom Dakinis'), and they performed ceremonies together.” According to Dzongter Kunzang Nyima himself, this was the most precious of all his termas. He revealed it in the latter part of his life and said, “If I reveal this terma according to its extensive version, it is so long it will fill sixty volumes! If I reveal it according to its intermediate version, it will fill twenty volumes. At least, this cycle [in its short version] contains thirteen volumes”. He repeatedly said that it was his most precious termas.

Later years

Dzongter Kunzang Nyima left the world in 1958 or 1959. Before that, he advised that building a stupa in Selitang would be very beneficial. He predicted it would prevent invasions from happening in Golok, Kham, Central Tibet, and other places. However, circumstances intervened, and the stupa was never built. And the Chinese communists did overtake Tibet. Later, In the late 1990s, Chojé Dampa Jikmé Püntsok oversaw the building of this stupa. It was completed in 1998.

In 1958, the Year of the Dog, on the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Kunzang Nyingma and his close cousin Sönam Déutsen, the mind incarnation of Düdjom Lingpa left the world at the same time. According to Domang Gyatrul, “Even though they had no illnesses, they died together.”

Chakung Jikmé Wangdrak describes the event:

Sönam Déutsen and Dzongter Kunzang Nyima were two emanations of Düdjom Lingpa. There were mind and speech emanations of Düdjom Lingpa. Düdjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yéshé Dorjé was the body emanation, Sönam Déutsen was the mind emanation, and Dzongter Kunzang Nyima the speech emanation. There is a story that Sönam Déutsen and Dzongter Kunzang Nyima both passed into paranirvana on the same day. Wangyal told me that about a month prior to his passing, Sönam Déutsen gave all of his material possessions away and made offerings to the lamas he trusted. This was right on the verge of the cultural revolution when the first official invasion of Tibet happened in 1959. Sönam Déutsen was saying things like, “Worldly activities have no essence.” And he just gave away everything he had. He met with Dzongter Kunzang Nyima and made a plan to leave the world together. They said, “There is no point in our staying now. The sole purpose of our existence is to serve the Buddha’s teachings and beings. We need to manifest in a place and time where we can fully utilize our abilities to bring benefit.” The following month, they both passed away on the same day, the tenth day when special practice is done for the Lotus Guru Padmasambhava. Dzongter Kunzang Nyima departed first. They lived in separate locations, though not far from each other. A messenger was sent to inform Sönam Déutsen of Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s passing. There were no phones at that time. Messengers brought important news. At that moment, Sönam Déutsen said, “I guess it my time then.” He prepared to pass the same day and asked what the day was. He was told it was the tenth day. He replied, “Oh we made a plan to pass on this day,” and he departed. In Tibet we talk about “having complete power over birth and death.” Such is the power of an awakened master. For us ordinary beings, the only way to control our death is to commit suicide by taking pills or something. But that is not real control. When our time comes is outside of our control.”

As recalled by Lama Chönam, Domang Gyaltrul recounted,

Often when a great master passes away, rainbows can be seen and delicate fragrances may fill the air. These are the general signs which occur when an accomplished practitioner passes away. Yet, when Dzongter Kunzang Nyima and his cousin Sönam Déutsen passed away, it was slightly different. from other lamas. Immediately after their deaths, which occurred in the winter, there was thunder, which is very unusual in that season. There was an earthquake, and people saw strange snowflakes like flowers falling from the sky. For days after that, the sky became utterly serene and clear.

A wrathful demeanor

Dzongter Kunzang Nyima passed away with a wrathful demeanor. His eyes were wide open, gazing ferociously. He recited wrathful mantras, wore his tiger skin, and was almost dancing like a wrathful deity. He then passed away. During the cremation of his body, there were many signs of accomplishment. His eyes, heart, and tongue did not burn in the fire but melded together. His eyes, in particular, were popped out from his skull during his cremation

A stupa for Dzongter Kunzang Nyima was built in Serta, in Rizab Lungtob. More than twenty years after his passing, freedom was given to Tibetans to restore sacred places of their country. Then, Dzongter Kunzang Nyima’s son, Tulku Theglo, and other students rebuilt the site of his cremation. When they opened the ruins of his stupa, a delectable scent wafted out. They had many sacred relics in that stupa and were blessed with a rainbow display in the sky.

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