Kongpo Namdrol Zangpo
A rebellious cave-dwelling yogi guided by dakinis and protectors, Kongpo Namdrol Zangpo lived beyond the confines of both religious institutions and worldly convention. As prophesied in Düdjom Lingpa’s Tröma Nakmo termas, he consummated his life by attaining a jalü (rainbow body).
A Rebellious Pupil at Dzogchen Monastery
Kongpo Namdrol Zangpo was born around 1840 in Kongpo, a lush, mountainous region southeast of Lhasa where snow-fed rivers descend through dense woodlands and subtropical gorges, in striking contrast to the arid expanses of central Tibet and the rolling, largely treeless, high-altitude grasslands of Kham and Golok.
While still young, Namdrol Zangpo traveled east and entered the Sri Singha Shedra, or monastic college, of Dzogchen Monastery, one of the six ‘Mother’ monasteries of the Nyingma school, during a formative period in the monastery’s scholastic and contemplative development. Under the supervision of Mingyur Namkhai Dorjé (1793–1870), the Fourth Dzogchen Drubwang, and Gyalsé Zhenpen Tayé Özer (1800–1855)––the two principal teachers and throne holders of Dzogchen Monastery at that time––Namdrol Zangpo received comprehensive training in non-sectarian (Rimé) scholarship and experiential practice, including ritual performance and the memorization of canonical Buddhist texts.
Although Dzogchen Monastery—with its adjacent retreat centers and meditation caves surrounded by waterfalls, and spectacular glacier covered peaks—provided fertile ground for training, Namdrol Zangpo’s destiny unfolded otherwise, shaped by the disruptive yet skillful interventions of wrathful dharmapalas. One night, after stepping outside the prayer hall to relieve himself, he noticed a bright light issuing from a butter lamp burning on the top floor of the temple. Without forethought, he picked up a stone and hurled it toward the flame. The rock struck the lamp directly, extinguishing it. Immediately, remorse arose in his mind: ‘Alas, my restless arm could not remain still; it had to cause trouble.’ Ashamed, he slipped back to his quarters and lay awake through the night.
The following morning, the monks were summoned by the piercing call of a conch shell. As they assembled in the prayer hall, the geko, the monastic disciplinarian, entered holding the very stone Namdrol Zangpo had thrown. Pacing before the assembly, he declared sternly, ‘Last night someone hurled this rock and broke a butter lamp. Step forward and confess, or the monastery will investigate.’ Terrified and unable to imagine how he could replace the damaged lamp, Namdrol Zangpo remained silent.
For several days, the geko castigated the assembly. When no one confessed, the monastery initiated a disciplinary investigation and invoked the dynamic forces of the dharmapalas. Namdrol Zangpo’s mind grew increasingly agitated. He lost his appetite, became disoriented wherever he went, and found the monastery unbearable. Unable to endure the pressure, he fled. This pattern—protective forces intervening through unsettling and disruptive means—would recur throughout his life.
Trained by a Lifelong Yogi
After leaving Dzogchen Monastery, Namdrol Zangpo wandered aimlessly. Eventually he arrived at a Bön monastery, where he entered the monastic college and received teachings and ripening empowerments. Yet his restless disposition again resurfaced, and a sense of urgency compelled him to leave.
Once more, he wandered without destination until he encountered a remote mountain hermitage inhabited by a lifelong retreatant. Pouring out his story without reservation, Namdrol Zangpo confessed his difficulties. The hermit soothed him and invited him to remain as his retreat attendant.
The yogi bestowed upon him the empowerment of Vajrapani and instructed him to accumulate one hundred million recitations of the Vajrapani mantra, merging his mind with the tiger-skin-clad, vajra-wielding embodiment of enlightened power. As he neared completion, Namdrol Zangpo experienced a striking vision in which the haughty gods, mamos, demons, the eight classes of arrogant spirits, and benevolent protectors alike bowed before him, offering themselves in service and obeying his commands.
When Namdrol Zangpo later asked the yogi to interpret these experiences, the hermit replied that his training was complete. ‘I am not your karmically destined teacher,’ he said. ‘The name of your true lama is Düdjom Lingpa. You must leave now and go meet him.’
Heeding this instruction, Namdrol Zangpo traveled to the Ser Chu Valley in the early 1880s and met Düdjom Lingpa at his mountain retreat of Lama Rung.
A Prophesied Disciple of Düdjom Lingpa
Namdrol Zangpo’s arrival had been foretold repeatedly. In one of the Tröma Nakmo termas, a dakini proclaimed that a man named Namdrol from Kongpo would become a chödak, or doctrine holder, of Düdjom Lingpa’s complete cycle of termas and visions.
In 1882, when Düdjom Lingpa was forty-seven, he received a further indication while bestowing Tröma Nakmo Chö teachings to an assembly of one hundred disciples. On the night of the tenth day of the midwinter month, a dakini named Küntu Gyurma Saljema—‘The Illuminatrix Moving Allover’—sang a prophetic verse identifying his principal disciples, including the line: ‘A great being whose name ends with Dröl will accomplish the illusory form of a rainbow body, providing he does not stray into the domain of the eight worldly concerns.’
From Düdjom Lingpa, Namdrol Zangpo received the complete empowerments, transmissions, and heart instructions of the Düdjom Tersar. During this period, Düdjom Lingpa’s activities flourished, drawing monastics, ngakpas, and lay practitioners alike. Namdrol Zangpo remained close to his teacher throughout this unfolding.
An Unruly Student
In the 1890s, while Düdjom Lingpa was presiding over a gathering at Dartsang Kalzang Monastery in the upper regions of the Do Chu Valley, Namdrol Zangpo noticed a materially well-endowed ngakpa with matted hair and decided to test him. Among the ngakpa’s possessions was a large brick of butter for tea. Namdrol Zangpo stole it and hid it beneath a woodpile near his tent.
When the ngakpa announced the theft, the assembly requested Düdjom Lingpa to invoke the activity of his protector Dza Rahula to reveal the culprit. Namdrol Zangpo watched as Düdjom Lingpa carried the spiral Dorjé Thogda torma of Rahula to the ngakpa’s tent, cast it at the thief’s footprint, and departed. Shortly thereafter, the woodpile burst into flames. Namdrol Zangpo extinguished the fire, retrieved the butter, and hid it in his tent unobserved.
The Rahula torma began edging toward him. Grabbing a handful of ashes, Namdrol Zangpo declared, ‘Dza Rahula cannot harm me!’ After reciting mantras, he cast the ashes at the torma, which dissolved.
Immediately remorseful, he confessed to Düdjom Lingpa. Rather than rebuking him for theft, Düdjom Lingpa castigated him fiercely for neutralizing the protector’s power—yet, acknowledging the prophecy of his rainbow body attainment, he forbade his expulsion. Instead, he ordered Namdrol Zangpo to remain at his side and receive every transmission without omission.
Nonetheless, Namdrol Zangpo was later sent away. When he asked where to go, Düdjom Lingpa replied: ‘Go where appearances self-liberate upon arising. You will find a place like a vulture spreading its wings. Remain there and practice for the rest of your life!’
A Life-Long Cave-Dwelling Practitioner
Wandering through Golok, Namdrol Zangpo eventually arrived at Bagmé Drakar, the ‘White Cliff of the Lotus Maiden’, in the region known as Guzhung Tangdu Risa, the ‘Mountain Site on the Nine-Valley Plain’. Recognizing it as the place foretold by his teacher, he established his retreat on the rocky outcrop overlooking the plain.
In time, a nomadic community formed nearby, and his cave became a focal point of devotion. His enlightened activity quietly unfolded, permeating the surrounding landscape.
While settled in retreat, Namdrol Zangpo began to entertain a subtle thought: 'If I were to cultivate this land of Guzhung Tangdu Risa, it would surely be fertile. Crops would flourish here. If I planted yams or sweet potatoes, the harvest could increase.' As these reflections arose, a neighboring nomad—one of his sponsors—invited him to his home. A gathering was already underway when Namdrol Zangpo arrived. Among those present was an elderly nomad who immediately stood up and, in front of the entire assembly, began to shout. Calling him a false lama, the old man berated him loudly:
‘Did you not once say you would remain here in lifelong retreat? And now you are thinking about planting turnips and wild sweet roots—about farming! Is this not the eight worldly concerns? Are you not ashamed? Do you feel no regret?’
Pointing his finger in accusation, the old nomad continued his tirade with fierce and uncompromising words. Flushed with embarrassment, Namdrol Zangpo left the house. After a short time, however, he returned. Prostrating three times before the old man, he offered a white silk scarf together with a monetary gift and said:
‘I was on the verge of falling under the sway of a grave obstacle. Through you, an aspect of my glorious lama’s blessing entered, and by your forceful rebuke a major obstruction was cut. I have come to prostrate and to offer my gratitude.’
That very day, Namdrol Zangpo gathered all his savings, drove away his livestock, and left his retreat to return to Dartsang Kalzang, the seat of his teacher. After several days’ journey, he arrived safely. Düdjom Lingpa immediately grasped the situation and remarked with laughter: ‘If it were not for that old nomad from Risa, you would now be tilling fields and farming those nine lands, wouldn’t you?’
Recognizing that the harsh intervention of the old nomad had been a channel for the activity of his teacher’s protectors, Namdrol Zangpo offered Düdjom Lingpa all his possessions, saying, ‘Your blessings clearly entered that old nomad’s heart!’
Düdjom Lingpa instructed him to take the money back, to give it where it was needed, and to offer only what remained afterward. Namdrol Zangpo followed these instructions but found nothing he considered worthy of offering. Then, to his astonishment, he discovered several silver coins hidden in his pack and realized that his teacher’s omniscient awareness must have known of their presence all along. Gathering them up, he offered them to Düdjom Lingpa, who replied:
‘This is an excellent interdependence. Now return to your retreat and, for the remainder of your life, bring your practice and your life force into balance.’
Kongpo Namdrol Zangpo returned to his cave at Bagmé Drakar in Golok. Settling once again into final retreat, he was soon surrounded by devoted practitioners from across the region of Guzhung Tangdu Risa. Holding them all within his awareness, he continued until the end of his life to bestow ripening empowerments, oral transmissions, and liberating instructions.
The rainbow body
At Bagmé Drakar, Kongpo Namdrol Zangpo brought Düdjom Lingpa’s terma cycles to their final consummation. When his life force was exhausted, his corporeal body dissolved into light. Even as a rebellious and transgressive practitioner, he attained the supreme accomplishment of the Dzogchen path, the rainbow body. To this day, the white cliff at Guzhung Tangdu Risa remains a sacred site imbued with profound blessings.
Since the early 8th century, Tibetans and Himalayan people have treasured "Namtars" as written or spoken narratives that demonstrate the realization of the Buddhist path by exceptional practitioners. These namtars, or spiritual biographies, serve as inspirational guides on the path to enlightenment.
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