Rebkong Alak Gendün Gyatso
- Student
- Teacher
- Chödak
Together with Rebkong Aku Dorjé Namgyal (c. 1870s–c. 1940s) and Rebkong Sönam Gyal (c.1870s-c. 1940s), Rebkong Alak Gendün Gyatso was among the principal prophesied disciples of Düdjom Lingpa to emerge from Rebkong, a stronghold of the ngakpa tradition in Amdo.
A Tulku from Rebkong
Alak Gendün Gyatso was born in Rebkong, a region of northern Amdo long known as the Ngakmang, the ‘Community of Many Yogins’. This network of long-haired, non-celibate tantric householders—renowned for their ritual mastery—preserved the ancient Nyingma ideal of gökar janglo, ‘white-robed, long-haired’ yogic practice, first established by Guru Rinpoché when he arrived in Tibet around 760 A.D.
Although small-scale tantric communities existed in Rebkong as early as the twelfth century, the Rebkong Ngakmang as a coherent social formation emerged only in the seventeenth century, when Rigdzin Palden Tashi (1688–1743) settled thousands of ngakpa followers in the region, establishing hundreds of households. By the nineteenth century, the community was organized around six small yet influential Nyingma monasteries, aligned either with the Mindrol Ling tradition of Rigdzin Terdak Lingpa (1646–1714) or the Longchen Nyingtik lineage of Rigdzin Jikmé Lingpa (1730–1798). It remains unclear whether Alak Gendün Gyatso was formally affiliated with any particular ngakpa house or monastery prior to becoming a disciple of Düdjom Lingpa.
A Student of Düdjom Lingpa at Lama Rung
In Namtar Shyal Sungma, his outer autobiography, Düdjom Lingpa recounts a prophetic vision that he received after relocating from the Mar Chu region of Golok to the secluded encampment of Lama Rung located approximately thirty kilometers northwest of his birthplace of Nubzur in the Ser Chu river basin. The prophecy indicated that, for his terma cycles to flourish, he must connect with accomplished ngakpa practitioners from Rebkong in northern Amdo.
This prophecy accorded with an earlier one that Düdjom Lingpa had received in the Mar Chu Valley in conjunction with his revelation of the khajang, or inventory, of the Vajrakilaya Palchen Trinlé Chudün (‘The Seventeen Enlightened Activities of the Great Glorious Adamantine Dagger’) terma cycle contained within the larger Zabsang Khandro Nyingtik (‘Profound Heart Essence of the Ḍākinīs’) terma. Guru Rinpoché relates in the khajang that ‘In the land of Rebkong, a yogin named Gendun [Aku Gendün Gyatso] will receive the transmissions of all the profound secrets.’ The Khajang further indicated that the Vajrakīlāya sādhana itself should be ‘entrusted to Dorje Nampar Gyal [Aku Dorje Namgyal]’ while ‘a yogin with the name ending in ‘Gyal’ [Rebkong Sönam Gyal] will appear, to whom the complete Chönyi Namkha’i Long Dzö (‘Vast Treasury of the Sky-Like Expanse of Dharmatā’) terma cycle will be entrusted.’
Acting on this directive, Düdjom Lingpa dispatched one of his students on the arduous journey—some 700 kilometers across high plateaus, deep river gorges, and contested tribal territories—from Lama Rung to Rebkong. His task was to identify the ngakpa practitioners indicated in Guru Rinpoché’s khajang and invite them back to the Ser Chu Valley to receive the tertön’s transmissions.
The emissary returned in the late 1880s with three individuals: Alak Gendün Gyatso, Aku Dorje Namgyal, and Sönam Gyal. From their arrival in the Ser Chu Valley until Düdjom Lingpa’s passing in December 1903, the three long-haired yogins from Rebkong remained closely associated with him as he alternated his residence between the mountain hermitage of Lama Rung––which he had established in 1880––, Dartsang Kalzang, the monastery in the Li Gorge of the Do Chu which he headed from 1890 onward, and other places in the surrounding region.
During this period, Alak Gendün Gyatso received extensive instruction in Düdjom Lingpa’s terma cycles, alongside senior disciples such as Lingtrul Péma Lungtok Gyatso (1856–1920s). At the request of the Rebkong ngakpas, Düdjom Lingpa revealed a number of previously concealed teachings. From the Daknang Yeshe Drawa (‘Wisdom Net of Pure Visions’) terma cycle, revealed in 1857, Alak Gendün Gyatso served as scribe for the Jampal Mawé Sengé Ngöntok (‘Direct Realization of Mañjuśrī, the Lion of Eloquent Wisdom’), jointly requested with Aku Dorje Namgyal.
He is also listed as a scribe for a series of Mañjuśrī-related practices, including empowerment rites, supplications, accomplishment practices, mantra recitations, fulfillment rites, and wrathful exhortations, among them the Jampal Sangwa Düpé Kuldok Dorjé Palam (‘The Vajra Splendor Path of Mañjuśrī’s Secret Gathering that Reverses All Obscurations’).
From the Chönyi Namkha Long Dzö (‘Treasury of the Vast Expanse of Dharmatā’) terma cycle, Alak Gendün Gyatso requested and recorded a number of protector practices, including Ngaksung Shaza Hormö Sokwang Yizhin Charbeb (‘A Wish-Fulfilling Rain of Life-Force Empowerment for the Mantra Protectors Shaza and Hormö); Ngaksung Shaza Chenmö Drubpa Ngönchö Lhündrub (‘The Spontaneously Accomplished Preliminary Practice for the Great Mantra Protector Shaza’); the Drekpa Yongdü Kyi Chikang Dorjé Gemo (‘The Vajra Command Seal that Subjugates the Entire Assembly of Arrogant Drekpa Spirits’); and the Lamé Soldeb Tukjé Trinpung (‘A Supplication to the Lama: A Precious Gathering of Compassion’).
A Propagator of the Düdjom Tersar in Rebkong
Following Düdjom Lingpa’s death in 1903, Alak Gendün Gyatso returned to Rebkong with Aku Dorje Namgyal. Despite resistance from local ngakpa communities toward new terma cycles revealed by a then-unfamiliar tertön from Golok, the two persistently propagated the Düdjom Tersar. Alak Gendün Gyatso focused primarily on transmitting the Tröma Nakmo cycle of Chö (‘Severing’), while Aku Dorje Namgyal emphasized Vajrakīlāya practices from the Phurba Deshek Nyingpo (‘Essential Heart of the Blissful Magical Dagger’) and protector rituals associated with Lhachen Wangchuk Chenpo, a Tibetan form of Śiva.
Over time, their complementary activities—together with displays of realization and ritual efficacy—led to a gradual acceptance of the Düdjom Tersar throughout northern Amdo. Their efforts unfolded amid profound regional instability, as Chinese Muslim Ma-family warlords aligned with the Nationalist (Kuomintang) state imposed increasing military, fiscal, and administrative pressures on eastern Amdo from the late 1920s onward. For Rebkong communities, this period was marked by heavy taxation, conscription, insecurity, and sporadic violence—conditions that further amplified the reputation of the Rebkong Ngakmang for powerful tantric intervention, to which Düdjom Lingpa’s wrathful termas significantly contributed.
A teacher of Rebkong Lama Shérab Dorjé
Rebkong Alak Gendün Gyatso passed away in his homeland sometime in the 1940s, amid the political upheavals of China’s Republican era (1912–1949) and the predations of the Ma-family warlords across Amdo and Golok. Among his principal students was Rebkong Lama Sherab Dorje, the uncle and one of the root teachers of Tsédrub Lama Tharchin (1936–2013), a foremost disciple of Düdjom Jigdrél Yéshé Dorjé—thus ensuring the continuity of Düdjom Lingpa’s terma lineage across generations and regions.
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