Pékö Lama Könchok Rabten

Throughout his life, Pékö Lama Könchok Rabten^[1] maintained a close connection with Düdjom Lingpa in Golok and with his subsequent incarnation, Düdjom Jigdrel Yéshé Dorjé (1904–1987), in Pémakö, thereby becoming a central figure in both the familial and spiritual continuity of the Düdjom Tersar lineage during a pivotal period of its transmission.

A Student of Düdjom Lingpa at Lama Rung and Dartsang Kalzang

Péko Lama Könchok Rabten was born in Golok around 1870, at a time when Düdjom Lingpa was gathering young disciples at his dharma encampment Mardo Tashi Chöling, situated amidst barley fields and pastureland on the eastern bank of the Mar Chu. A decade later, in 1880, Düdjom Lingpa relocated to the Ser Chu Valley, where he established a further Dzogchen community known as Lama Rung. According to lineage accounts, Könchok Rabten met Düdjom Lingpa there in the late 1880s, when he was still a teenager, and was admitted into the growing circle of practitioners that had gathered at the tertön’s mountain encampment.

At Lama Rung, Könchok Rabten emerged as a dedicated Dzogchen practitioner who also devoted himself to Chö, the practice of cutting through the concept of a self that formed a central component of Düdjom Lingpa’s revealed cycle of Tröma Nakmo. This dual emphasis on contemplative realization and ritual practice reflected the distinctive training environment that manifested at Lama Rung.

In 1890, Düdjom Lingpa accepted an invitation to preside over Dartsang Kalzang, a newly established teaching encampment in the Li Gorge in the upper reaches of Golok’s Do Chu Valley. Könchok Rabten traveled there together with Düdjom Lingpa and fellow disciples headed by Yungshul Sungchok Dorjé (1872–1952). Set amid open grasslands and alpine meadows frequented by nomadic tribes and their herds of yak—the foundation of the region’s pastoral livelihood—Dartsang Kalzang gradually developed, under Düdjom Lingpa’s guidance, into an active teaching center and the principal residence of his family, including several of his sons and grandsons.

According to lineage accounts, Könchok Rabten formed close relationships with many of Düdjom Lingpa’s senior students during his years at both Lama Rung and Dartsang Kalzang. Among them were Ling Lama Orgyen Chökyi Jorpa (c.1850s–c.1920s), Puktrül Gyürmé Ngédön Wangpo (1860–1923), Lama Khédrub Gyatso (c. 1870s–1930s), Lama Péma Samphel (1870s–1900s), Tsok Khang (1870s–1930s), and Péma Dégyal (1873–1933), all of whom would later play important roles in the transmission of Düdjom Lingpa’s teachings.

Journey to the Hidden Land of Pemakö

From an early age, Düdjom Lingpa received numerous prophecies that he was destined to further reveal a wild and mysterious hidden land (béyül) in the lush subtropical rainforests of southeastern Tibet. This sacred refuge—foretold by Guru Rinpoché as a sanctuary during future periods of existential and political upheaval—was Béyul Pemakö, ‘Secret Land Arrayed Like Lotuses’. Düdjom Lingpa frequentlaay spoke to his disciples of his intention to journey there, yet he was unable to do so before his untimely death in December 1903.

Both prior to and following his passing, several of Düdjom Lingpa’s closest disciples came to understand that the tertön intended to be reborn in Béyül Pémakö. Following Düdjom Lingpa’s directives, one group of accomplished yogins––headed by Ling Lama Orgyen Chökyi Jorpa (1850s–c.1920) and including Lama Könchok Rabten––gathered provisions and set out for the hidden land in the summer of 1903, guided by Düdjom Lingpa’s cryptic pronouncement that he would be there even before they arrived.

Lama Könchok Rabten and his fellow senior disciples departed from Dartsang Kalzang in the high-altitude grasslands of Golok and journeyed toward the remote monsoonal gorges of Pemakö. Besides Ling Lama Orgyen Chökyi Jorpa and Lama Könchok Rabten, the group consisted of Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo (1860–1923), Lama Khédrub Gyatso (c.1870s–1930s), and Lama Péma Samphel (1870s–1930s). A second group––headed by Méwa Künkhe ––left Dartsang Kalzang soon after and included Pema Dégyal (1873–1933) and Tsok Khang (1870s–1930s), although Tsok Khang bypassed Pémakö and proceeded directly to Drigung Til Monastery, north of Lhasa, and later joined Péma Dégyal at Mount Kailash, at the far west of the Tibetan plateau.

As accomplished heart disciples, those who left Dartsang Kalzang sought to fulfill Düdjom Lingpa’s intention of establishing his teachings in the remote borderlands of southern Tibet, where the Yarlung Tsangpo Chu—one of Asia’s largest rivers—descends into a dark and precipitous gorge, curves dramatically around Namcha Barwa––the eastern-most summit of the Himalaya range––and flows southward into the forests of India as the Siang and eventually as the Brahmaputra.

Their journey––which would normally have been only a matter of months––unfolded over several years, with extended halts at monasteries and retreat encampments across Kham during a period of increasing political instability and regional violence. The immediate catalyst for the unrest was the December 1903 British military expedition to central Tibet, led by Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (1863–1942), which forced the Thirteenth Dalai Lama to flee Lhasa to Mongolia, leaving Tibet’s political leadership in disarray. Over the following year, Qing military campaigns and violent rebellions spread across eastern Tibet, disrupting long-established religious and ethnic communities.

In 1905, a major uprising erupted in southern Kham––particularly in Batang and Lithang––where Tibetan chiefs and monasteries resisted Chinese Qing Dynasty reforms and incursions. The Qing response was severe: monasteries were destroyed, local leaders beheaded, and traditional systems of governance replaced with Chinese administration. These campaigns—later associated with the harsh rule of Qing officials such as Zhao Erfeng—triggered refugee movements and disrupted trade and pilgrimage routes across eastern Tibet. Although Golok itself remained largely independent, threats of immanent attack made long-distance travel increasingly dangerous.

Amid this climate of strife and uncertainty, Lama Könchok Rabten, together with other close disciples of Düdjom Lingpa, traveled more than a thousand kilometers across the windswept grasslands, glacier-covered passes, and precipitous river gorges that lie between Golok and Powo—an independent Himalayan polity that claimed Pémakö as part of its territory––to fulfill the final aspirations of their departed teacher. They ultimately reached Powo––the verdant gateway to the prophesied hidden land of Pémakö––in 1907.

A Teacher of Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé in Béyul Pémakö

Lama Könchok Rabten and his companions were able to cross the Po Tsangpo Chu––a major tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo Chu that flows through the lower Powo Valley––on a rattan footbridge after negotiating a fee with local authorities. Several months later, a second group of disciples from Dartsang Kalzang, that included Pema Dégyal, had been shot at when they stormed the bridge after being unable to pay the exorbitant toll.

Once on the southern bank of the Po Tsangpo Chu, Lama Könchok Rabten and his fellow disciples climbed the high, snow-covered Gawalung pass and then descended into the dense bamboo, pine, and rhododendron forests of Pémakö’s Chimdro Valley where they hoped to learn news of Düdjom Lingpa’s reincarnation.

In Chimdro, they met a renowned Khampa tertön named Jédrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné (1856–1922) who had had remained there after an unsuccessful attempt in 1902 and 1903 to settle in an area called Mipi, close to the Indian border. Despite prophecies of it being Guru Rinpoche’s promised land, the area was inhabited by unaccommodating Chulikata Mishmis who preyed on them with poison-tipped arrows. Those who could returned to Chimdro where they constructed a timber and bamboo prayer hall which they named Tashi Chöling.

Jédrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné informed the group of Golok pilgrims that Düdjom Lingpa’s tulku had already been identified as the three-year-old son of Trülku Jampal Norbu Wangyal (c.1870–c.1930)––a Powo prince––and Namgyal Drolma (c.1887–early 1960s), a Bhutanese descendant of tertön Ratna Lingpa.

The Khampa tertön directed Lama Könchok Rabten, Ling Lama Orgyen Chökyi Jorpa, and Düdjom Lingpa’s other close disciples down the Chimdro Chu to its confluence with the Yarlung Tsangpo, after it disgorges from a stupendous chasm between the glacial massifs of Namcha Barwa and Gyala Pelri. From there––skirting waterfalls and cliffs––they followed the united rivers southward and then climbed through dense jungle to the subtropical outpost of Terkong Nang, the ‘Inner Treasure Valley’, where Düdjom Lingpa’s precocious tulku came out to greet them by name and to receive the gifts that they had brought for him from Jédrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné.

The three-year-old child eventually became known as Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé (1904–1987) and Lama Könchok Rabten soon became one of his primary teachers. Drawing on the teachings that he had received directly from Düdjom Lingpa, he systematically conferred reading transmissions (lung), tantric empowerments (wang), and pith instructions (tri) on the toddler trülku, ensuring the continuity of the Düdjom Tersar lineage in its new setting.

He also introduced the young incarnation to foundational works of Buddhist literature, including the Bodhicaryavatara by Shantideva (c.685–763)—one of the most influential texts of Mahayana Buddhism and a central guide to cultivating bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. In addition, he instructed him into Ngari Panchen’s Dom Sum Namngé (‘Ascertainment of the Three Types of Vows’), a treatise outlining the three levels of Buddhist ethical discipline: the vows of individual liberation, the bodhisattva vows, and the tantric commitments of Vajrayana practice. Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé would later compose a detailed, word-by-word commentary on this text, reflecting the formative influence on him of these early teachings received from Könchok Rabten.

Lama Könchok Rabten also transmitted the Yönten Dzö (‘The Treasury of Precious Qualities’), by Rigdzin Jikmé Lingpa (1730–1798), a seminal exposition of the Nyingma path that synthesizes the entire Buddhist journey from foundational practices to Dzogchen realization. Alongside these philosophical instructions, he guided his young student in literary composition according to the principles of Nyenngak Melong (‘Mirror of Poetics’), a classical treatise on Sanskrit poetics written by the sixth to seventh-century Indian Pandita, Dandin, that shaped Tibetan scholastic and literary culture.

Through this broad curriculum—combining philosophical training, ethical discipline, tantric transmission, and literary education—Lama Könchok Rabten played a decisive role in shaping the intellectual and spiritual development of Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé during his formative years in the hidden land of Pémakö.

A Student of Düdjom Lingpa’s Reincarnation

According to lineage accounts, Lama Könchok Rabten witnessed the young Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé revealing termas in Pémakö from the age of five, around 1909. Even at this early stage, the child tertön displayed extraordinary signs of spiritual maturity, recalling teachings, composing ritual texts, and revealing practices associated with his previous incarnation as Düdjom Lingpa.

In Lama Könchok Rabten’s eyes, the unbounded wisdom-mind of Düdjom Lingpa was fully apparent within the youthful form of Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé. He therefore regarded the young incarnation not only as the rebirth of his former teacher, but also as his present guru. With this understanding, Lama Könchok Rabten requested Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé to record his insights in newly composed texts—thereby helping to initiate the early scriptural production that would later become known collectively as the Düdjom Tersar, the ‘new treasures of Düdjom’, combining works of both Düdjom Lingpa and Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé, as well as Dzongter Kunzang Nyima (1904–1959) and Sönam Déutsen (1910–1959).

Among the seminal works composed during this period is Zabmo Chö Kyi Gyézhi Mikrim Gyi Zindri Yumchen Gong Gyen Chejawa Zhukso (‘Commentary on the Stages of Visualization for the Four Feasts of the Profound Practice of Chö, The Ornament of the Great Mother’s Wisdom’). This text explains the Gyezhi—the ‘Four Feasts’ of Troma Nakmo—and elucidates a cycle of Chö practices that Düdjom Lingpa had revealed in connection with his terma, Saraha Nyingtik Zabmo. As Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé noted in the colophon:

‘Thus, at the fervent request of Könchok Rabten, a diligent practitioner with a commitment to this path, I, [Düdjom] Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé, a Chö practitioner with four demons slumbering in my heart, quickly wrote this during breaks between sessions. May virtue prevail! Mangalam!’

Another work requested by Lama Könchok Rabten is a feast-offering song, titled Tsok Lu. The text evokes the visionary atmosphere of tantric feast practice:

‘Ah Ho, the wisdom manifestation of unelaborated clear light is the inexhaustible non-dual matrix of magical manifestation. Sovereign of all mandalas, Tsokyé Dorjé [a form of Guru Rinpoche], may your great blessings disclose whatever arises as Dharmakaya [the Body of Truth] . . . Displaying as self-emergent wisdom deities of the intangible vajra body, intoxicated with ever-youthful exaltation, and dancing to the indestructible empty melody [nada], may this gathering of vajra brothers and sisters, bound by excellent karma and prayers, delightfully partake of this exalted ganacakra (tantric feast offering). Gathered within the Pure Land of Akanishta—Palace of Lotus Light—we pray to assemble as a sacred mandala.’

The colophon concludes succinctly:

‘Thus, at the request of Könchok Rabten, this was written by Jñana [Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé].’

These early compositions illustrate Lama Könchok Rabten’s dual role: not only as a teacher transmitting the legacy of Düdjom Lingpa, but also as a devoted disciple who helped draw forth and preserve the emerging revelations of Düdjom Lingpa’s reincarnation, ensuring the continuity and expansion of the Düdjom Tersar tradition in its formative years in Béyül Pémakö.

The Father of Lama Chönyi Longdrol

Lama Könchok Rabten lived as a ngakpa, a tantric lay practitioner who combined spiritual accomplishment with family life. One of his consorts was Yéshé Palnam, a woman believed to be from Pemakö, although some accounts suggest she may have accompanied him from Golok. As the lineage holder Lopön Orgyen Tendzin later remarked, ‘The women in Pemakö are very beautiful. One by one, the male students of Düdjom Lingpa who arrived there—whether yogis or monks—married local women.’ Such unions reflected not only personal relationships but also the gradual rooting of Düdjom Lingpa’s lineage within the cultural landscape of the hidden land.

In 1922, while residing in Pemakö, Lama Könchok Rabten and Yéshé Palnam gave birth to Lama Chönyi Longdrol (1922–2012). As the son of one of Düdjom Lingpa’s close disciples, Lama Chönyi Longdröl became a devoted student of Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé and grew up alongside his teacher’s eldest daughter, Sémo Déchen Yüdron (1930–2007). Over time, their childhood companionship deepened into a lasting bond, and in the mid-1940s they were married, further intertwining the familial and spiritual continuity of the Düdjom Tersar lineage.

During the 1920s, Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé appointed Lama Könchok Rabten as the first dorjé lopön, or vajra master, of Khorlo Dratsang, his principal seat at Terkong Nang. In this role, Lama Könchok Rabten was responsible for conferring tantric empowerments, guiding ritual practice, and maintaining the integrity of the lineage’s esoteric transmissions.

Following their marriage, Lama Chönyi Longdröl and Semo Dechen Yüdron assumed important responsibilities in extending the Düdjom Tersar lineage beyond Pémakö into Kongpo and central Tibet. In the 1940s, the young newly-weds trained at Lama Ling––Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé’s principal teaching center in Kongpo—under Kushok Gyurmé (c.1904–1960s), a close student and friend of Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé. In the 1960s, after an earthquake destroyed Lama Ling’s original buildings, the couple took charge of rebuilding the site, helping to restore a vital hub for the transmission of the Düdjom Tersar tradition in southern Tibet.

The Second Husband of Namgyal Drolma

In the early 1930s, Trülku Jampal Norbu Wangyal—the father of Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé and a scion of the last reigning royal family of Powo—passed away, leaving his wife, Namgyal Drölma (c.1870—c.1930), widowed. Originally from Bhutan, Namgyal Drölma had already played an important role in the formative years of the Düdjom lineage in Pemakö.

Following her husband’s death, Namgyal Drolma married Lama Könchok Rabten, who at that time was the father of eight-year-old Lama Chönyi Longdröl, born from his prior consort Yéshe Palnam. This union further intertwined the familial and spiritual lines surrounding the emerging Düdjom Tersar tradition.

At the request of Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé, Lama Könchok Rabten and Namgyal Drölma took up residence in a house just behind Khorlo Dratsang in Terkong Nang. (It’s not clear whether Yéshé Palnam lived there too.) Meanwhile, eight-year-old Lama Chönyi Longdröl (c.1910s–1970) was absorbed into the growing household of Düdjom Jikdral Yéshe Dorjé and his consort, Kushok Tséten Yüdrön (c.1890–c.1970), joining what later became an extended spiritual family of sons, daughters, and close disciples.

This arrangement reflected the fluid and interconnected nature of ngakpa family life in Pémakö, where spiritual lineage, kinship, and communal practice blended into a single living tradition centered around Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé’s expanding community at Terkong Nang.

Lama Könchok Rabten’s Passing and Relocation to Southern Pemakö

Lama Könchok Rabten passed away at Khorlo Dratsang around 1950, and his relics were enshrined in a reliquary stupa that became an object of devotion for Nyingma practitioners in Pémakö. In the early 1960s, as political turmoil intensified across Tibet following the aftermath of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising, Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé instructed Togden Künzang Longdröl, one of his principal students at Terkong Nang, to relocate the community’s teaching center—along with its sacred objects—to the India-administered region of southern Pémakö, further down the Tsangpo–Brahmaputra River, which prophetic Pémakö texts liken to the fluvial spine of the wisdom dakini Vajravarahi.

After fulfilling this request, Togden Kunzang Longrol established a temple known as Déden Tashi Chöling, meaning ‘Auspicious Blissful Dharma Sanctuary’, perched above the Yangsang Chu, which revealed pilgrimage guides (néyig) describe as issuing from Vajravarahi’s womb. Senior practitioners from upper Pemakö and Powo gradually migrated southward, settling in small retreat huts in the subtropical forests surrounding the new temple. In this way, the contemplative culture first established by Düdjom Lingpa and later consolidated by his incarnation took root in a new environment beyond the shifting political boundaries of Tibet.

The migrating practitioners carried with them numerous sacred relics, including the reliquary stupas of Lama Könchok Rabten and his consort, Namgyal Drölma (Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé’s mother). Also relocated to Déden Tashi Chöling was the reliquary stupa of Puktrül Gyurmé Ngedön Wangpo, who had traveled alongside Lama Könchok Rabten from Golok to Pémakö between 1903 and 1907, during a period when British and Qing military incursions destabilized vast regions of Tibet and intensified the search for prophesied places of refuge such as Béyül Pémakö.

Reliquary stupa at Déden Tashi Chöling

Today, Lama Könchok Rabten’s reliquary stupa at Déden Tashi Chöling, in the Indian part of Pémakö, remains a quiet yet enduring beacon for practitioners, symbolizing the continuity of the Düdjom Tersar tradition as it extended beyond Tibet into the borderlands of the eastern Himalaya during a period of increasing political violence, strife, and uncertainty. The urgent need to pacify both tangible and intangible threats is reflected in many of the Düdjom Tersar sadhanas of this time.

Endnotes

↑ Péko is short for Pémakö, so ‘Péko Lama’ means “The Lama from Pémakö”.

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[1] Péko is short for Pémakö, so ‘Péko Lama’ means “The Lama from Pémakö”.

[1]