Puktrül Gyurmé Ngedön Wangpo

Training

Teachers

• Düdjom Lingpa

Activity

Roles

• Student

Places of activity

• Arikdza Puk Khung
• Dartsang Kalzang
• Terkhok Nang

Dharma friends

• Chönjuk Lama
• Ling Lama Orgyen Chökyi Jorpa
• Pékö Lama Könchok Rabten

Students

• Düdjom Jigdrel Yéshé Dorjé

Timeline

Born

Age at death

Passed

c. 1840

c. 83

1923

Dergé

Terkhok

ཕུག་སྤྲུལ་གྱུར་མེད་ངེས་དོན་དབང་པོ།

Puktrül Gyurmé Ngedön Wangpo (Courtesy of Namtars Foundation).

Names

ཕུག་སྤྲུལ་གྱུར་མེད་ངེས་དོན་དབང་པོ།

Puktrül Gyurmé Ngedön Wangpo

phug sprul gyur med nges don dbang po/

Shortly before his death in 1903, Düdjom Lingpa entrusted Puktrül Gyurmé Ngedön Wangpo with a remarkable task: to journey to the hidden land of Pémakö and transmit his collected terma teachings and practices to his future incarnation, Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé (1904–1987). Over the ensuing sixteen years that followed his arrival in Pémakö, Puktrül Gyurmé Ngedön Wangpo faithfully fulfilled this mission, ensuring that the complete lineage of Düdjom Lingpa’s teachings would pass intact from master to reincarnation.

Trained as a Monk at Shechen Tenyi Dargyé Ling

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo was born in the 1860s in the verdant high-altitude region of Dergé, in Kham. Lineage accounts identify him as the reincarnation of the senior of two trülkus associated with Arikdza Puk Khung Monastery, a branch of Mindrol Ling Monastery located in the Arikdza region of Dzachukha. Owing to this association, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo was commonly known by the title Puktrül—the ‘Trülku of Puk Khung Monastery’—or more fully as Arikdza Puk Khung Trülku Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo.

During his early training at Puk Khung Monastery, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo displayed exceptional intelligence. According to Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorjé (1931–1999), samples of his calligraphy in sixty-four different scripts were preserved at Gyalwa Puk Khung Monastery, attesting to his early mastery and erudition.

At the age of six or seven, he left Puk Khung Monastery and continued his education at Zhechen Tenyi Dargyé Ling Monastery, renowned for its comprehensive curriculum in philosophy and ritual. There, he studied with accomplished teachers, including Shechen Öntrul Thubtop Namgyal (1787–1854), who nurtured his emerging qualities and bestowed a wealth of empowerments, oral transmissions, and pith instructions.

A dedicated student, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo mastered the full range of Sutra and Tantra and excelled in the classical Five Sciences—Buddhist philosophy and practice, language and philology, logic and epistemology, arts and crafts, and traditional Tibetan medicine. In due course, he took monastic ordination and remained a monk throughout the remainder of his life. As a threefold vajra holder—a fully ordained monk upholding the Vajrayana teachings—he stood out ‘like a mountain of gold’, according to Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorjé, in reference to his exceptional qualities.

A Close Student of Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo in Kham

At the age of fifteen, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo met his root teacher, Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo (1820–1892), who would have a defining influence on his spiritual development and the course of his adult life. He remained with him for seven years at Dzongsar Monastery, a long-established Sakya monastery in the Mesho Valley southeast of Dergé, where he witnessed firsthand the breadth and depth of Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo’s knowledge and activities.

At Dzongsar Monastery, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo became highly proficient in the contemplative practices of the Longchen Nyingtik tradition revealed by the Nyingma tertön Jikmé Lingpa (1730–1798) and was often entrusted to act as a substitute teacher. As Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorjé wrote of him:

‘Like one vase being filled from another, he received without omission the tantras, the explanatory commentaries, and the pith instructions of the earlier and later cycles of the secret Nyingtik teachings of the Dzogchen approach to utter lucidity, lineages that descended from Longchen Rabjam, the omniscient king of the Dharma. Thus, the ultimate enlightened intent of realization was born in his mind.’

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo also became adept in secular fields of knowledge such as medicine and astrology. Unsure of the relevance of applying his healing skills, he once asked Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo, ‘Could it be that practicing medicine is nothing more than a distraction? Should I give it up?’ Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo replied, ‘Would you renounce your altruistic attitude of bodhicitta? Your practice of medicine will benefit many beings!’ Following his root guru’s advice, he became an accomplished physician.

While devotedly supporting Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo’s manifold activities, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo held various positions of responsibility, ranging from exemplary disciple to shrine keeper to personal secretary.

While residing at Dzongsar Monastery, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo met the great polymath Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé (1813–1899), who was both a student and teacher of Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo. From him, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo received extensive empowerments, including transmissions from two of his Dzöchen Nga (‘Five Great Treasures’), the vast compilations he had developed in collaboration with Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo.

The first was the Rinchen Terdzö (‘Treasury of Precious Termas’), a monumental collection of treasure teachings revealed by masters such as Guru Rinpoché, Vimalamitra, and Vairotsana. This transmission would later prove of great significance in Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo’s life.

The second was the Damngak Dzö (‘Treasury of Precious Instructions’), a compilation of profound empowerments and liberating instructions belonging to the ‘eight great chariots of the practice lineage’, a traditional classification referring to the principal streams of tantric meditation practice transmitted from India to Tibet from the eighth century onward.

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo also visited Palpung Thubten Chökor Ling, the seat of the Tai Situ incarnations, where Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé resided. There he received further empowerments and instructions and met Phulung Trülku Garwang Sangyé Dorjé (d.1980–81), with whom he would later reunite in the 1910s after both had relocated to Béyül Pémakö.

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo also met other exceptional disciples of Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé from whom he received numerous oral transmissions of profound texts and pith instructions. Among these were teachings from the renowned Nyingma scholar Jü Mipham Gyatso (1846–1912), as well as Khenchen Tashi Özer (1836–1910), an accomplished Rimé scholar based at Palpung Thubten Chökor Ling, a major Karma Kagyü monastery in Dergé.

During a certain period—perhaps at Dzogchen Monastery—Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo also received many teachings from the incomparable itinerant Dzogchen master Dza Paltrül Orgyen Chökyi Wangpo (1808–1887).

A Student of Düdjom Lingpa in Dartsang Kalzang

Before passing away in 1892, Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo (1820–1892) gave Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo important advice. As Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorjé (1931–1999) recounted:

‘Now, return to your home country, and in time, go see Düdjom Lingpa. You have a karmic connection with him from past lifetimes, so meeting him will be enormously beneficial for the teachings and sentient beings.’

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo thus left Dzongsar Monastery and returned to Puk Khung Monastery, in Dzachuka, where he had resided as a child. There he devoted a year to settling his affairs, transferring all responsibilities and property to the junior Puk Khung trülku. He asked him to look after the monastery, explaining that he intended to relinquish all worldly activities—public and private—and devote himself entirely to spiritual practice. He informed his dharma heir that he would henceforth become ‘a wandering yogi with no fixed dwelling place’.

In the mid–1890s, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo traveled up the Do Chu Valley to Dartsang Kalzang, Düdjom Lingpa’s dharma encampment and principal residence from 1890 until 1903. Düdjom Lingpa delighted in meeting him and received him ‘like a father meeting a cherished son’. Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo settled into life at Dartsang Kalzang and remained there until the year of Düdjom Lingpa’s passing in 1903.

During his time at Dartsang Kalzang—when Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo was in his thirties—Düdjom Lingpa entrusted him with the transmission of his major terma cycles, including the Chönyi Namkha Long Dzö (‘Vast Space Treasury of the Nature of Reality’), the Zabsang Khandro Nyingtik (‘Profound Doctrine of the Heart Essence of the Ḍakinis’), the Daknang Yéshé Drawa (‘Wisdom Net of Pure Visions’), and the Zabchö Gongpa Longdrol (‘Assembly of the Peaceful Deities’ Naturally Liberated Wisdom Mind’).

Düdjom Lingpa recognized Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo as a heart son and appointed him as a chödak, or custodian, of his revealed teachings. This occurred followed a dialogue that Düdjom Lingpa had with Drongri Mukpo, the local deity of Drongri Mukpo (‘Wild Yak’) mountain, in 1897 concerning future warfare between the Golok tribes and Chinese Qing forces to the north.

In service to future generations, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo requested that Düdjom Lingpa produce written versions of his orally transmitted termas. In the colophons to the resulting texts, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo is cited as either the requester or the scribe for sādhanas from the Chönyi Namkha Longdzö cycle, including the Tamdrin Ludul Nakpö Drubtab Parol Pungjom (‘Practice Manual of Black Hayagriva Who Subdues the Nagas and Overwhelms Adverse Forces’) and the Tozhi Gyalto Dzukpé Lérim Düpa (‘Condensed Ritual Manual for Raising the Victory Banner of the Four Enlightened Activities’). Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo also composed numerous commentaries based on Düdjom Lingpa’s termas.

Through his dedication to advancing Düdjom Lingpa’s lineage, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo developed close relationships with other disciples at Dartsang Kalzang, including Ling Lama Chökyi Jorpa (1850s–c.1920), Pékö Lama Könchok Rabten (c.1870–c.1940), Lama Péma Samphel (1870s–1930s), Lama Khédrub Gyatso (c.1870s–1930s), Péma Dégyal (1873–1933), and Tsok Khang (1870s–1930). Collectively, they promoted the Düdjom Tersar in Golok and Kham, and later in Powo, Pémakö, and at Mount Kailash in far western Tibet.

With deep devotion, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo served Düdjom Lingpa at Dartsang Kalzang until 1903, when Düdjom Lingpa—recognizing that he would soon depart to celestial realms—instructed him, together with other senior disciples, to travel to Guru Rinpoche’s secret land of Pémakö, assuring them that he would be reborn there. He specifically entrusted Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo with the responsibility of transmitting the entirety of his teachings to his subsequent reincarnation in Béyül Pémakö.

Exodus to a Hidden Land

Heeding prophecies he had received from an early age, Düdjom Lingpa aspired throughout his life to travel to Béyül Pémakö, the preeminent sacred realm of Guru Rinpoché located in the semi-tropical borderlands between Tibet and northeastern India. In accordance with visions of Guru Rinpoché, Düdjom Lingpa’s previous incarnation, Rigdzin Düdul Dorjé (1615–1672)—‘Vajra Demon Tamer’—had journeyed into the hidden land in the seventeenth century with his consort, Lhachik Pemakyi (‘Sole Goddess, Lotus Joy’) and a retinue of devoted pilgrims in search of Pémakö’s innermost sanctuary, Chimé Yangsang Né, the ‘Immortal Secret Place’.

Düdjom Lingpa was familiar with Rigdzin Düdul Dorjé’s Dzogchen-infused terma treatise, Tödröl Rangdröl Pémakö Gawé Zhinggi Lamyik (‘Self Liberation Upon Hearing: A Guidebook to the Joyful Land of Pémakö), attributed to Guru Rinpoché. Tibet had been invaded in the 1600s by Zungkar Mongolian forces led by Gushri Khan, and Pémakö was viewed as a prophesied refuge from the resulting political turmoil and civil wars that had broken out across the Tibetan plateau.

Düdjom Lingpa recalled lines in Düdul Dorjé’s terma text extolling Pémakö as the ultimate place of pilgrimage. ‘Just by recalling [Pémakö] for only a moment’, the scripture claims, ‘opens the path to Buddhahood. There is no need to mention the benefit of actually going there.’

Düdjom Lingpa knew of the considerable challenges of such a journey. The rain-saturated jungles, unfamiliar illnesses, tigers, snakes, predatory insects, and hostile tribes were legendary. Yet he was fully convinced that it was his destiny to reach Pémakö and further open its innermost realms, which Guru Rinpoche had blessed as havens from ongoing conflicts that had reached as far as Golok.

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo and other close students often heard Düdjom Lingpa speak of bringing his followers to Béyül Pémakö and establishing his lineage there amid the remote semi-tropical jungles. Spiritually, politically, and materially, such an undertaking could only be achieved with the support of Trépo Sang Ngak (d. 1910s), the twenty-fourth Kanam Dépa and ruler of Powo, a mountainous semi-independent kingdom directly north of Pémakö through which all pilgrims bound for the hidden land were compelled to pass. The Kanam Dépas—the hereditary rulers of Powo—also laid claim to Pémakö as part of their territorial domain.

Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé––Düdjom Lingpa’s subsequent incarnation, born in Pémakö in June 1904—later recounted circumstances in which Düdjom Lingpa had been assured of support from Powo’s ruling dynasty:

‘Düdjom Lingpa, my former incarnation, always had thoughts of going to Pemakö, in southern Tibet. A daughter of Trépo Sang Ngak had entered the Dharma, become a nun, and taken the name Ani Nangsal. She distinguished herself in the Dharma and was renowned for her administrative activities. Düdjom Lingpa wrote a letter to her, saying that he was planning to come to Pémakö. Upon receipt of this letter, Ani Nangsal was elated. She replied, “If you come here, I’ll provide lodging, food, and clothes without fail for up to a thousand of your students.” Along with the letter, enfolded in a white scarf, she sent her own golden ring.’

Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé further recounted that Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo—who reached Pémakö in 1907—later told him that he had been present when Ani Nangsal’s letter and ring arrived at Dartsang Kalzang in the late 1890s. Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé recalled that Düdjom Lingpa ‘had been very happy to receive the letter and the present. Immediately, he tried the ring on his index finger, but it didn’t fit. He slipped it onto his ring finger, and it seemed as if it were made for him.’

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo further informed Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé that Düdjom Lingpa frequently showed the ring to others, saying, ‘This ring is a gift from Ani Nangsal, daughter of the Kanam Dépa Trépo Sang Ngak, isn’t it beautiful?’

Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé explained that, had circumstances unfolded as originally envisioned, Ani Nangsal would have become Düdjom Lingpa’s consort in Pémakö. As he related, ‘This would have greatly benefited the dharma and many beings, and ensured the full opening of Béyül Pémakö, but due to unfavorable circumstances, this never came to be.’

In 1903, as Düdjom Lingpa’s vitality waned, he told his disciples, ‘Now, in this degenerate age, those of you who rely on me should journey to the sacred land of Pémakö. Before any of you younger ones reach there, I, the old one, will already be there!’

Many of Düdjom Lingpa’s students and followers heeded his words and began the hazardous thousand-kilometer journey from the high plateau environment of Golok through the rolling grasslands of Dzachuka and, after crossing the upper reaches of the Dri Chu (Yangtze) and Dza Chu (Mekong), made their way along traditional trading corridors into the wooded valleys and ravines of Kham, with its numerous monastic centers and pilgrimage sites. Once in Kham, pilgrims traveling to Pémakö typically continued to Chamdo and Riwoché, crossed the Nak Chu (Salween), and then headed southwest toward the temperate lower-altitude kingdom of Powo—the principal gateway to the hidden lotus-land of Pémakö.

By many accounts, numerous devotees died along the way. Others, forced to replenish dwindling food supplies, resorted to caravan raiding and subsistence banditry when supplicatory begging—despite the Golokpas’ notoriously intimidating appearance—failed to yield sufficient results.

Journey to the Heart of Pémakö

After Düdjom Lingpa assured his disciples that he would be reborn in the hidden land of Pémakö, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo left Dartsang Kalzang in the summer of 1903—several months prior to Düdjom Lingpa’s passing—in a group of senior students led by Ling Lama Orgyen Chökyi Jorpa and including Pékö Lama Könchok Rabten, Lama Pema Samphel, and Lama Khédrub Gyatso. Their express mission was to discover Düdjom Lingpa’s trülku after reaching the prophesied hidden paradise of Guru Rinpoché.

The journey from Golok to Pémakö would normally have taken two to three months on foot and horseback. But conditions in eastern Tibet had deteriorated, and it took three years before Düdjom Lingpa’s heart disciples reached the promised land. Along the way, they sought refuge at fortified monasteries and pilgrimage sites to engage in Vajrakilaya rites––such as the Phurba Sangwa Gyachen (‘Vast Secret Cycle of the Adamantine Dagger’)––to subdue adverse circumstances and repel the ruthless military campaigns of General Zhao Erfeng (1845–1911) that were penetrating ever deeper to their ancestral territory and devastating local communities. They also practiced Chö, or ‘Severance’, using double-headed drums and femur-bone trumpets to invoke fearless, self-transcendent awareness.

In the meantime, Düdjom Lingpa’s son, Trülku Drimé Özer—who had remained at Dartsang Kalzang to oversee his father’s posthumous rituals—undertook a pilgrimage to Lhasa and central Tibet together with other disciples who had stayed behind after Düdjom Lingpa’s passing. Drimé Özer felt conflicted about not traveling to Béyül Pémakö as his father had advised. Yet while at Gangri Tökar—a principal practice site of Longchenpa (1308–1364), of whom Drimé Özer was considered an incarnation—the long-life goddess Tsheringma appeared to him in a vision and affirmed that all pure lands, holy sites, and prophesied paradises were present within his own subtle anatomy. Pointing fiercely at his lower abdomen, she reminded him that all was within and that there was no need for him to travel to Pémakö. Thus, by 1907, Drimé Özer was already returning to Golok from Lhasa, while the bands of pilgrims who had departed Dartsang Kalzang in the summer of 1903 were finally approaching Béyül Pémakö.

Despite the earlier letter of support that Düdjom Lingpa had received from Ani Nangsal—the daughter of the Kanam Dépa Trépo Sang Ngak—the Golok yogins received no assistance in Powo. Nonetheless, they managed to cross the formidable Po Tsangpo Chu that runs through the heart of Powo as well as the snow-covered Gawalung La pass that brought them to the Chimdro Valley, in northern Pémakö.

There, in a simple stone-and-timber hut surrounded by dense forests of bamboo, pine, and rhododendron, they encountered the Khampa tertön Jédrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné (1856–1922), who had fled to Pémakö several years earlier with a large following to escape invading Qing forces in their homeland of Kham Riwoché. But once in Pémakö, they faced unrelenting altercations with indigenous Chulikata Mishmis––in the Mipi Valley of lower Pémakö––who preyed upon the would-be Khampa settlers with aconite-tipped arrows despite their attempts to appease them with woven cloth, cooking pots, and steel swords. Jédrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné had retreated north with some of the pilgrims to the Chimdro Valley, where they established a temple called Tashi Chöling, ‘Auspicious Place of the Dharma’. Many of Jédrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné’s followers had perished while crossing the high-altitude marshes and precipitous passes between Mipi and the more accommodating Chimdro Valley.

In response to their inquiry about where to search for Düdjom Lingpa’s reincarnation, Jédrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné told them that he had identified him as the son of Trülku Jampal Norbu Wangyal (c.1870–c.1930)—a Kanam Dépa prince and brother of Ani Nangsal—who was living with his consort, Namgyal Drolma (c.1887–early 1960s), a nineteen-year-old noblewoman from Bhutan, in Terkong Nang, closer to what––in 1914––became the defacto border between British India and Tibet.  

‘Your trülku is already three years old’, Jédrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné informed them. ‘Go to him quickly and impart the knowledge from his former life.’

As tendrel, he sent offerings with the group, including a poetic long-life prayer for the young Trülku—Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé (1904–1987)—and directed Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo and the others southward toward Terkong Nang. Along the way, they crossed hooped rattan bridges and spent nights in makeshift shelters fashioned from the leaves of wild banana trees, whose unfamiliar fruit they left uneaten. Wielding their double-sided drums and femur-bone trumpets—essential implements of Düdjom Lingpa’s Chö transmission—they burnt fragrant juniper boughs and invoked local spirits to sever attachment to mundane appearances and open the gates to the promised land, both within and without.

They also found solace in a practice text written by Jatson Nyingpo (1585–1656)—the teacher of Düdjom Lingpa’s previous incarnation, Rigdzin Düddul Dorjé—for clearing obstacles to entering Béyül Pémakö. The text prescribed ritual smoke offerings prepared with the flesh of snakes, fish, and birds, especially ravens and owls, to pacify obstructing forces and facilitate entry into the hidden land.

A Principal Teacher of Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé in Béyül Pemakö

Despite his young age, Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé seemed already aware of the approaching group of Golok pilgrims. As Khenpo Tséwang Dongyal (b. 1950) recounts:

‘A few days before their arrival, the young Düdjom Trülku told his parents, “We are going to have very important guests, please prepare the rooms and make other preparations.” The parents weren't expecting anyone, so they neglected his request.

The next day, the young Trülku again insisted that they prepare. They thought that since he was not an ordinary child, maybe visitors were coming and they made preparations. By mid-afternoon, some nomadic monks and nuns were seen approaching the house. When they came closer, the young trülku ran toward them and, in the Golok dialect, called out the names of some of them, saying, “How are you? Are you well? It took a long time for you to get here,” and so forth. They were awestruck. If there had been any lingering doubts about who this was, their hesitation vanished instantly.’

Khenpo Tséwang Dongyal further relates that, ‘on the throne of their confidence and devotion’ Düdjom Lingpa’s disciples from Golok presented the child with the offerings from Jédrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné while ‘tears fell like rain from their eyes, and they touched their heads to the little feet of the Trülku.’ As Khenpo Tséwang Dongyal relates, ‘Thus, was he enthroned.’

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo became the one to ‘offer knowledge’, as both Düdjom Lingpa and Jédrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné had instructed, and––along with Ling Lama Orgyen Chökyi Jorpa and Pékö Lama Könchok Rabten––he served as one of Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé’s principal teachers over the ensuing sixteen years. Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé received from him a vast treasury of empowerments, oral transmissions, and Dzogchen pith instructions.

Because of his accomplishment in traditional Tibetan medicine, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo first transmitted the Gyü Shyi (‘Four Medical Tantras’), compiled by the twelfth-century physician, scholar, and tantric yogin Yuthok Yönten Gönpo (1126–1202). He then imparted all existing teachings of the Nyingma scholar-yogin Longchen Rabjam Drimé Özer (1308–1363), with particular emphasis on the Dzö Dün (‘Seven Treasures’) and the Rangdrol Korsum (‘Trilogy of Natural Freedom’).

The next major transmissions that Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo gave to Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé were the Döjo Bumzang (‘Collected Sādhanas of the Excellent Wish-Fulfilling Vase’) and the entire Minling Tersar, both composed by Orgyen Terdak Lingpa (1646–1714), one of the great Nyingma tertöns and the founder of Mindrol Ling Monastery, in Central Tibet.

He then imparted the Rinchen Terdzö (‘Treasury of Precious Termas’), one of the Five Great Treasures of Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, and the Kabab Dün (‘Cycle of Teachings of the Seven Entrusted Transmissions of Lord Khyentse’), revealed by Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo and Chökgyur Déchen Lingpa (1829–1870). After that, he transmitted the Düdjom Tersar termas revealed by Düdjom Lingpa, which Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo had received from him directly. He then bestowed personal teachings that he had received from Dza Paltrül (1808–1887) and Ju Mipham Gyatso (1846–1912) while residing in Kham.

As the eighth in this series of major transmissions, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo imparted the Kadü Chökyi Gyatso (‘Ocean of Dharma, the Great Gathering of Transmitted Precepts’), a terma cycle extracted by Orgyen Lingpa (b. 1323) from a cliff at Yarlung Sheldrak and later rediscovered as a yangter by Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo’s root teacher in Kham.

Years later, in 1951, while residing at Rigdzin Gatsal Ling––his retreat center in Kongpo––Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé compiled a sadhana based on the Kadü Chökyi Gyatso entitled ‘Joyful Feasts of Practicing on the Ocean of Dharma’, along with several accompanying instruction manuals. As Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé wrote:

‘I compiled this according to the pith instructions of the true lineage teachers, in honor of my crown jewel, Gyurmé Ngedön Wangpo, from whom I received the complete empowerment of the Kadü Chökyi Gyatso, and who was the supreme inner heart disciple of the great chariot of the secret teaching, Pema Ösel Dongak Lingpa [Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo.]’

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo also transmitted a treasury of secret oral Dzogchen instructions received directly from Düdjom Lingpa. These included the Namkha Sum (‘Threefold Sky’) practice, which Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé later summarized as follows:

‘To keep the body unmoving is the settling of the mountain; to keep the eyes without attachment is the settling of the ocean; to keep the mind without cognition is the settling of rigpa [undivided awareness]. Relying on the vital point of these three forms of settling, meditate continually like the flow of a river. As is said, it is not meditation, but familiarization. When familiarization enters the expanse, it is supreme meditation.’

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo also instructed Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé in all aspects of ritual performance, including the construction of tantric maṇḍalas, the choreography of monastic cham dances, and conducting tantric fire ceremonies (jinsek). These instructions enabled Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé to become one of the most renowned vajra masters of the twentieth century.

Upon completing his disciple’s training, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo told him: ‘As a maṇḍala offering, I now present to their rightful heir the wealth of instructions of all the great ancestral teachings that I have received. I have now completed my responsibility and fulfilled the wishes of my root teacher, Düdjom Lingpa. You, noble one, Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé, practice these teachings and gain realization. Use them to help sentient beings.’

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo thus honored Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé by naming him the vajra regent of all the great masters, including himself.

After granting the Rinchen Terdzö empowerments to Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé during the 1920s, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo made a prophecy that Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé would bestow them numerous times. Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé later recalled:

‘When I received the empowerments and teachings on the Rinchen Terdzö from Gyurmé Ngedön Wangpo, he jokingly told me, “The Rinchen Terdzö represents the activity of the two great Jamgöns [Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé] and, among their disciples, I have given these empowerments five times, which is a record. But you will give them ten times.” With much laughter, he said this to me many times. I thought to myself, “How can this be possible?”’

In 1922, prior to Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo’s death the following year, Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé––then eighteen––first bestowed the Rinchen Terdzö in Déwakota, in lower Pémakö. By the 1970s, long after having left Tibet, he had already given the Rinchen Terdzö nine times. As he related to his attendant and disciple, Khenpo Tséwang Dongyal (b. 1950), ‘I now realize that the words of Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo were truly prophetic.’ Tsédrup Lama Tharchin (1936–2013), a direct student of Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé, added further context to Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé connection with the Rinchen Terdzö.

‘I heard that Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo and Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé sent someone to Düdjom Lingpa asking him if he would like his termas to be included in the Rinchen Terdzö, the collection of termas they were compiling’, Lama Tharchin related.

But Düdjom Lingpa kindly replied, ‘I don’t need your patchwork. Wherever the Rinchen Terdzö will be propagated in the future, my termas will be there also!'

Over the course of his life, Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé bestowed the Rinchen Terdzö thirteen times. Wherever he granted the empowerments, he also often imparted the entire Düdjom Tersar. Thus, it was the reincarnation of Düdjom Lingpa who propagated the Rinchen Terdzö most extensively, and wherever the Rinchen Terdzö spread, the Düdjom Tersar also flourished—fulfilling Düdjom Lingpa’s earlier prediction.

Dharma Activities in Pémakö and Powo

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo’s extensive activities in Pémakö to ensure the preservation and expansion of the Düdjom Tersar led Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé to refer to him as an emanation of Vajrapaṇi—‘wielder of the thunderbolt’—the bodhisattva associated with the transmission of the Buddhist tantras and a symbol of indestructible awakening.

In addition to ensuring the seamless continuity of the Düdjom Tersar from Düdjom Lingpa to his reincarnation, Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo also propagated their combined terma tradition throughout the wider Pémakö region. Alongside the termas of Düdjom Lingpa and Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé, he taught his own commentaries on the composite Düdjom Tersar, including his incisive synopsis of Shérik Dorje Nӧnpo Gyü (‘Sharp Vajra of Awareness Tantra’), one of the five Dzogchen termas revealed by Düdjom Lingpa through a pure vision (daknang).

Although Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo taught extensively, regrettably little of his teaching corpus survives. Nevertheless, Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé later recalled that his root teacher would transmit the Tsikdün Soldeb––Guru Rinpoche’s Seven Line Prayer––to everyone he encountered. ‘He would even give it to mothers and children,’ he remembered. ‘Whoever approached him for teachings, he would simply say: “Just recite the Seven Line Prayer and have devotion while reciting it. Recite this, then that is enough!”’

Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé further explained that Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo distilled all practices into the Tsikdün Soldeb (Seven Line Prayer), saying, ‘There is no need to get bogged down in the complexities of the kyérim (generation) and dzogrim (completion) stage and things like that, which we don’t really understand. Simply doing this practice alone is sufficient.’ In his own exegesis, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo drew extensively from Jü Mipham Gyatso’s renowned Péma Karpo (‘White Lotus’) commentary on the Seven Line Prayer, which reveals it as a direct introduction to unfabricated, all-revealing luminous awareness.

Although Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo is said to have upheld his monastic vows throughout his life, Lopön Orgyen Tenzin—a direct student of Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé—humorously remarked that any of Düdjom Lingpa’s disciples who had been monks eventually succumbed to the charms of Pémakö maidens who, in his estimation, ‘make love like goddesses’. The exceptional quality of Pémakö’s fermented rice and millet chang likewise presented a challenge for monks attempting to uphold the fifth monastic precept—abstention from intoxicants.

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo also extended his teaching activities north of Pémakö into the Kingdom of Powo, where prominent disciples of Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé were then residing. These included Dorjé Drakpa, a prominent administrator for the Kanam Depa; Tokden Kunzang Longdrol (19th–20th century), an accomplished master of the Tröma Nagmo Chö practice of the Düdjom Tersar lineage; and Phulung Trülku Garwang Sangyé Dorjé (d. 1980–81), a Rigdzin Düddul Dorjé lineage holder whom Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo had first met years earlier at Palpung Monastery in Kham.

As circumstances in eastern Tibet deteriorated, Chinese Revolutionary forces invaded Powo in 1911. They burned the Showa palace of the Kanam Depas to the ground and decapitated all but two queens and a fourteen-year-old princess. Those in Pémakö—including Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé’s father, the son of the Kanam Dépa—were compelled to remain entrenched in the hidden land to avoid the lethal hostilities.

Then, in the mid–1920s, conflict broke out between the Kingdom of Powo and the Central Tibetan government in Lhasa. After prolonged resistance, Trülku Jambal Norbu Wangyal—Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé’s father—was forced to leave Terkong Nang and settle for his own safety near the Indian Line of Control (McMahon Line).

Many of Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé’s students in Powo, including the dread-locked yogin Tokden Kunzang Longdrol relocated from Powo to Terkong Nang. Rituals performed at Khorlo Dratsang––Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé’s tantric training center near Terkong Nang–– were specifically aimed at invoking tantric protector deities and safeguarding the hidden land, and Tibet as a whole, from both internal and external threats.

Relocating to Lower Pémakö

As unrest intensified in central Tibet, the community at Terkong Nang began setting their sights further south, beyond the Indian Line of Control. Not long after the depredations in Powo, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo followed prophecies by the visionary lama Düdjom Drakngak Lingpa (1871–1929), who described Pémakö’s innermost reaches in symbolic, tantric terms. In these prophecies, the Yangsang Chu—a tributary flowing into the Tsangpo Chu south of the Tibet–India border—was likened to the womb fluids of the wisdom goddess Vajravarahi, identifying the Yangsang Chu Valley as intimately connected with Pémakö’s innermost center, and thus a fertile landscape for spiritual practice and revelation.

Following the directives of Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé, Togden Kunzang Longdrol established a retreat center in the Yangsang Chu Valley known as Déden Tashi Chöling, near a village known as Yoltong. Around the same time, Dorjé Drakpa, who had previously served as a dzongpön, or district governor, during the reign of Powo’s last Kanam Depa, made a substantial land offering to Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo, consisting of an expansive, forested region on the Tibet-India border known as Nyatsolungpa, ‘Fish Lake Valley’.

With the support of Dorjé Drakpa, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo imparted many empowerments and transmissions along the shores of the lake, benefiting large numbers of pilgrims and practitioners. He remained there for several years before moving north to Rinchenpung Monastery, situated in a verdant valley above the Tsangpo Chu–Brahmaputra River likened to the navel of the tantric wisdom goddess Vajravarahi. There, he bestowed the Rinchen Terdzö empowerments and oral transmissions to many young reincarnate lamas, including Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé.

In 1922, at the invitation of the Khampa tertön Düdjom Drakngak Lingpa, Düdjom Jikdral Yeshé Dorjé—then eighteen years old—granted the Rinchen Terdzö empowerments for the first time in Déwakota, in the Yangsang Chu Valley, a short walk from Déden Tashi Chöling and Yoltang. This marked the beginning of what would become one of the most extensive transmissions of the Rinchen Terdzö––and the Düdjom Tersar––in modern Tibetan Buddhist history.

Death and Liberation

After spending sixteen years in Pémakö—from 1907 to 1923—Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo passed away. According to Nyoshul Khenpo,

‘At a certain point, Gyurmé Ngedön Wangpo directed his enlightened intent toward his final act to benefit others. Amid a great, boundless display of amazing signs … his emanated form dissolved back into the supreme inner illumination of primordial being’

Nyoshul Khenpo further explained that during his cremation, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo’s heart, tongue, and eyes coalesced into an image of Guru Rinpoche known as Guru Déwachenpo, ‘Guru of Great Bliss’. This sacred formation was widely understood to be the result of Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo’s near-continuous recitation of Guru Rinpoché’s Seven-Line Prayer in a region––Béyül Pemako––held to be an earthly counterpart of Guru Rinpoché’s celestial mountain paradise.

Trülku Orgyen Phüntsok (b. 1970s), the reincarnation of Togden Kunzang Longdrol and the current head lama of Déden Tashi Chöling, in lower Pémakö, further clarified that Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo’s postmortem anatomical remains were originally enshrined in his reliquary stupa at Khorlo Dratsang, near Terkong Nang in upper Pémakö. In 1959, when Chinese Communist forces invaded Tibet, the tantric community at Khorlo Dratsang migrated down the Tsangpo Chu to Tüting—south of the Indian Line of Control—and then followed the Yangsang Chu upstream to the retreat site of Déden Tashi Chöling that Togden Kunzang Longdrol had established under Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé’s guidance.

The reliquary stupa of Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo now resides at Déden Tashi Chöling as one of the temple’s principal sacred objects, alongside a reliquary stupa containing the remains of Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé’s mother, Namgyal Dolma. These and other precious objects were carried from Khorlo Dratsang to Déden Tashi Chöling—a journey of approximately one week on narrow mountain trails.

The temple was fully renovated in 2013 and now takes the form of Zangdok Palri––Guru Rinpoche’s three-tiered Copper-Colored Mountain––as Togden Kunzang Longdrol had originally envisioned.

In the late 1920s, Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé recognized the reincarnation of Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo as Trülku Dawa (c. 1923–2002), also known as Jikmé Lodrö Sengé, ‘Fearless Wisdom Lion’. With direct training from Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé, Trülku Dawa became a prominent Düdjom Tersar lineage holder in lower Pémakö, dedicating much of his energy and vision to locating Chimé Yangsang Né, the ‘immortal innermost secret realm’ at the heart of the hidden land.

Serving two successive incarnations

Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo was one of the principal disciples and lineage holders of Düdjom Lingpa’s terma tradition, and he became a root teacher of Düdjom Lingpa’s reincarnation, Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé. By serving the supreme holder of the Düdjom Tersar across two successive incarnations, Gyürmé Ngedön Wangpo ensured the seamless continuation of the Düdjom lineage in the modern era. Through his tireless efforts—transmitting empowerments, oral transmissions, and pith instructions over many years in Pémakö—he played a decisive role in developing Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé into one of the most renowned and respected vajra masters of the twentieth century.