梅隆藏巴仁波切傳 Melong Tsampa Rinpoche

The Biography of Melong Tsampa Rinpoche

First generation · 1914–1981 · proofread English

Family and Siblings

Melong Tsampa Rinpoche had seven brothers and one sister, making a total of eight siblings. The names of the brothers were Chagdor (the eldest), Aseng Nyima, Karma Nyendrak, Kunkhyab, Lhundrup, Tokden, and Karma Ösal Gyurme — Melong Tsampa Rinpoche himself.

Chagdor spent his entire life practicing Chöd and remained in lifelong retreat. His primary lineage was the Nedo Kagyü.

Aseng Nyima and the Connection to Garchen Rinpoche

Aseng Nyima was the father of H.E. Garchen Rinpoche. The previous Garchen Rinpoche, Trinley Yangkhyab, had a very close relationship with the Drung Mase family and visited the Mase household several times. Before passing away, during a visit to Aseng Nyima's home, the family offered him a bag of high-quality tsampa. Rinpoche declined it, stating:

"I will not take this now. In the future, an excellent monk and bhikshu will come to your family. At that time, offer it to him."

Following this prophecy, the current reincarnation of Garchen Rinpoche was born as the son of Mase Aseng Nyima. During the political turmoil of 1959, Aseng Nyima traveled to the hidden land of Pemako, as prophesied by Guru Rinpoche, where he resided until his passing. Garchen Rinpoche's mother, Dekyi Yangzom, also lived and passed away in Pemako.

Karma Nyendrak Rinpoche

Karma Nyendrak Rinpoche belonged to the Karma Kagyu lineage. Although he married a woman named Rinchen Khandro, they had no children.

Initially he traveled to Pemako with his siblings. Later, because he had no children of his own, he took his elder brother Aseng Nyima's son Jamyang Gonpo and daughter Kunzang Chödron into exile toward India. They settled in Orissa, where they resided for many years.

While living in Orissa the local people held great faith in him, and he was widely addressed as the "Nangchen Lama". Most believed without doubt that all harm from illness and malevolent spirits would be pacified merely by his performing rituals of protection. He once traveled to Nyeshang to meet his sibling Melong Tsampa Rinpoche, before returning to Orissa to reside permanently.

When he was about to pass away in Orissa, he asked that all the settlement residents who had faith in him come to meet him, and granted an audience to everyone. In the morning, after tea, he sat all his family beside him. In his private quarters he opened the mandala within the shrine, partook of the purification vase water himself, then granted the purification to all his family. He received the blessings of the four empowerments through all the ritual substances, including the tsakli of the Five Buddha Families, the skull-cup, the mirror and the crystal. Because his primary heart-practice was Padmavajra, he dissolved the entire Padmavajra mandala into himself. Remaining in that absorption, he passed away into the Dharmadhatu.

Kunkhyab

Kunkhyab was the father of Bardo Tulku and of the Sakya Tulku Jamyang, both of whom reside in Tibet.

Lhundrup and the King of Bhutan

Lhundrup was a master of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage and served as personal chaplain to the King of Bhutan. Once, while the siblings were travelling from Kham on pilgrimage toward Kailash, they passed through Bhutan. Having run out of provisions, they began performing a Chöd ritual to beg for alms near the palace gates. Lhundrup, inside the palace, heard the melody of the Chöd, recognised it as identical to his own teacher's melody, looked out, recognised his siblings, and they stayed together with him for five or six days.

The Realization of Tokden

Tokden renounced sleep from a very young age and exerted himself with great diligence. He passed away at about twenty-one. When his body was offered to the cremation fire, only a single relic was produced, said to be a Dharmakaya relic. There is a tradition that if only one relic appears, it is a sign that the master will not return in a future incarnation.

The Sister and the Terton

The family had one sister, who became the consort of Rathro Terton. She had prepared everything to enter a three-year retreat when people came to request that she become the Terton's spiritual consort (Teryum). Her father did not at first grant permission, but relatives said that if she were not given it would cause obstacles to the Lama's life and to the Dharma; so she was offered. She later passed away at Tsurphu. Rathro Terton had a son who has passed away, but the lineage is said to continue through his daughter's descendants today.

The Birth of Melong Tsampa Rinpoche

Melong Tsampa Rinpoche was born in 1914 — the Wood-Tiger year of the 15th Rabjung — in Chamzhi, Nangchen, into the noble lineage of Drung Mase Tokden Lodro Rinchen, a heart-disciple of the 5th Gyalwa Karmapa, Deshin Shekpa.

Among the seven brothers he was the youngest. His father passed away while he was still very young. The family faced many difficulties, including the death of several of Aseng Nyima's children.

When all the brothers turned toward the Dharma and prepared to be ordained, they met the previous Garchen Rinpoche, Trinley Yangkhyab, who stated that the lineage of the Drung Mase household was a lineage of great Bodhisattvas and must not be broken. He said it was extremely important that both the family lineage and the Dharma lineage flourish, and expressed his own aspiration for this. After bestowing empowerments, transmissions and pith instructions, he had all the brothers enter retreat at a place called Nangchen Nyagya. In this way the previous Garchen Rinpoche showed great kindness to the family of Drung Mase.

Heart Practice and Consort

The Condensed Essential Heart Practice (Thukdrub Yangnying Dupa) of Ratna Lingpa was Rinpoche's specific karmic share of the Dharma.

His consort was named Ngödrub Tentso; after falling ill her name was changed to Tsering Paldzom. She belonged to the noble Kyura lineage of Drikung. Her mother was Pema Dal-dro Khyilma and her father Pema Wangchen. She was one of three sisters: one became a bride in a wealthy household in Nagchu, another in Töd. When they came on pilgrimage from Drikung to Mount Kailash, Rinpoche was in retreat there. Faith was born in her toward him, and she stayed to serve.

Marriage and the Birth of His Sons

• The union: Rinpoche took Tsering Paldzom as his consort.
• The first son: at Northern Tsakha in the Kailash region a son named Azhang Sonam was born. Rinpoche remarked that his birth there was a sign of great merit and named him Sonam Lhundrup.
• The second son: Azhang Drubgyü was recognized as a tulku of Selung Monastery in Upper Kailash — a monastery of the Drikung tradition.

The "Small Meditator" of the Snow Mountain

Rinpoche stayed in the Mount Kailash region for a total of thirteen years, and became widely known as "Gangri Tsampa Chung" — the Small Meditator of the Snow Mountain. He resided at Selung Monastery for a long period and served as its Vajra Master for approximately three years. He also stayed at a place called Langna Monastery.

Prophecy and the Move to Jangchub Ri

While in retreat at Kailash he received repeated prophecies in dreams from Zidän Wangchuk, the primary protector of the Kailash region, commanding that he must go to Jangchub Ri.

Melong Jangchub Ri is shaped like a bell, with its peak resembling a vajra. On the side of that mountain sits another mountain representing the consort of Chakrasamvara. Rinpoche and his attendants made their residence between the two. He stayed in a meditation cave that had previously belonged to the Drikung siddha Jangchub Senge. Below the cave were many meditation huts, and stacks of beams and planks intended for building; these materials were said to have been offered to Lama Jangchub Senge by local spirits and deities.

The Legend of the Spirits and the Stones

According to oral tradition the local deities would address Lama Jangchub Senge:

"Whatever the Lama needs, we provide! Oh, Lama Jangchub Senge! If you need long stones, so be it! If you need short stones, so be it!"

The spirits would then pile the stones before him. At Jangchub Ri there is a stone pillar where Lama Jangchub Senge tethered his horse; the hole used for the rope can still be seen. His stone walking staff bears the visible imprints of his hands. During Rinpoche's stay the local spirits were said to be fierce, occasionally causing ten or fifteen sheep and goats to die at once.

The Abandoned Settlement and the Restoration of Prosperity

In earlier times many villagers lived near Jangchub Ri. Later they began to harm one another — putting pus inside pieces of coral and selling them, spreading disease — so that a plague broke out and most of the inhabitants died. By the time Rinpoche arrived only about five households remained, with a single horse, one or two yaks, and a few goats and sheep. After he had resided there several years the livestock of all the villagers flourished and they became wealthy. Because he spent a total of nine years in strict retreat on that mountain, he became universally known as Melong Tsampa Rinpoche.

The Healing Power of the Meditation Cushion

The local people developed immense faith in him. Later, when people visited the cave where he had stayed, they would tear off small pieces of the meditation cushion he had used. It is said that by eating these pieces or burning them as incense the sick were healed and harm from malevolent spirits pacified.

Prophecy to Depart for Dolpo

As Rinpoche prepared to leave for Dolpo, a majestic local deity from Chakyung Ri in the Melong region appeared before him in the form of a virtuous layman, exceptionally grand, riding a dark brown horse with saddle and bridle of gold and turquoise. The deity pleaded with him not to leave but to remain at Jangchub Ri. According to the oral tradition of Ani Chödrön, this protector had previously met Guru Padmasambhava and received commands and oaths in his presence.

Three Years in Dolpo

Because the guardians of Dolpo Shelri belong to the same class as the Dharmapalas of Mount Kailash, Rinpoche resided at Dolpo Shelri Druk-drak for three years, using Tarap as a summer residence and Tsalkha as a winter residence.

He was accompanied by his sibling Drodön Tharchin, rich in practice and a particularly compassionate physician for the sick, who left behind handwritten medical tantras and copies of the Rinchen Trengwa Chöd liturgy. While in Dolpo his brother fell ill and passed away at Dolpo Tsalkha. His medicines and instruments were given to a Dolpo physician named Amchi Karma. A Bonpo lama named Nyima was one of Rinpoche's students.

The Prophecy of Dhanakota

Subsequently Zidän Wangchuk and the guardians of Jangchub Ri prophesied that he must go to Dhanakota, the palace of Chakrasamvara. He travelled toward the northern plains and stayed there one summer. The local guardians of Dhanakota are said to be students of Zidän Wangchuk.

The "Pang Lama" and the Founding of Kyung Monastery

Rinpoche then travelled toward Nar-töd, where the manifestations of the local spirits were said to be extremely fierce. While staying at Pang Ri in Nar-töd, the people of Nar encountered him while visiting the Tashi Lhakhang and the secret cave of Guru Rinpoche. Because he resided at Pang Ri they began to address him as the "Pang Lama". Later, out of great faith, they requested him to stay at Tashi Lhakhang, and he agreed.

Subsequently Rinpoche's two sons suggested he should go to Nyeshang and invited him there. In a place called Kyung in Nyeshang, a local resident offered a piece of land. With the support of students of Lama Gyalpo and some villagers of Kyung, a small monastery was built and offered to him, where he then resided.

The Dispute over Tarab Monastery

Some villagers from Nyeshang Ngari pleaded with him to come to Tarab Monastery. The people of Kyung contested this, refusing to let the Lama be taken away. They argued that if he must go they would dismantle the monastery they had built — returning the earth and stones to their original places — so that no trace remained. Because of their persistence it was decided he would remain at Kyung.

Tarab Monastery was originally named "Tasrab Monastery". It is said that in the past a Mahasiddha's horse bridle fell at that site, taken as a sign that a monastery should be built there.

The Protector's Promise and Miraculous Signs

While residing in Kyung, Rinpoche considered stopping the daily protector offerings to Zidän Wangchuk. The protector appeared to him in person and requested:

"Please do not stop the offerings. I shall protect your entire Dharma lineage and your family lineage."

The Purification Festival and the Miraculous Footprint

During the annual purification festival (Khrus-tshe) Rinpoche would travel to a secluded spot near the monastery to perform purification rituals for the local people, both sick and well.

Many years after his passing, a footprint appeared on the stone pile where he used to sit during those rituals; this footprint can still be seen today. Rinpoche's son Drubgyü Rinpoche encountered it while travelling through the area and remarked that it must be his father's, recalling a conversation with him before his passing about how he had left footprints in the past.

A Life of Retreat

Although he would occasionally visit other monasteries in Nyeshang to lead large ceremonies at the villagers' request, he primarily remained in strict retreat in his quarters in Kyung. Between meditation sessions he granted empowerments and pith instructions to those seeking the Dharma.

Mastery of Phowa and the Survival of Jampa

When performing Phowa Rinpoche would sometimes remark: "Today, while performing Phowa, there were no difficulties in transferring the consciousness; they have taken a good rebirth." Conversely he might say the deceased had very great negative karma and that it had been extremely difficult to lead the consciousness. Of others he would simply state, "It seems they have not died yet."

He once mentioned to close attendants that if a person is in the process of dying and the consciousness has not yet left the body, Phowa is easy; once it has completely exited, it is extremely difficult to hook it back. It was rare for signs of successful Phowa not to appear. He bestowed the practice not only on humans but on goats and sheep, birds, mice and other small creatures, always producing signs of accomplishment. After finishing the purification ritual for the deceased he did not discard the ashes of the name-inscription but used them to make tsha-tshas.

Long ago, at a place in Nyeshang called Koto, a conflict broke out between the Lo-Khampa and the Drakthang-Khampa in which many died. A soldier named Jampa went missing; thinking him dead, his family asked Rinpoche to perform the purification ritual. After the prayers, Ani Düdul was preparing to take the ashes to make tsha-tshas. Rinpoche stopped her:

"There is no need to make tsha-tshas with those ashes; that man has not died. It would be better if we could accumulate some longevity dharanis this evening."

He spent the evening reciting longevity dharanis. About a month later, exactly as he had said, it emerged that the man had been shot and captured by the Lo-Khampas but neither killed nor executed, and had managed to return.

Prophecy of Rebirth

When the mother of Rinpoche's neighbour Sindar passed away, he remarked during the ritual:

"The deceased departed upward from the east side of her house. It is difficult for her to go toward the pure land of Sukhavati. However, she will not fall into the lower realms; she will take a human rebirth within our valley."

Later a child was born in Kyung who could remember and speak of a previous life. There are many such accounts of Rinpoche knowing without obstruction whether someone had died and where they would be reborn.

Control Over the Elements

When a great windstorm occurred Rinpoche would recite prayers and place a bowl upside down on his offering table, which would immediately cause the storm to subside. If he turned the bowl right-side up the wind would return as before.

Rainmaking Rituals

When it had not rained for a month or two and the crops were failing, the villagers would ask him to bring rain. After examining the astrology and the site he would take his tent and travel there, performing the rainmaking rites — recitation of the Klu-bum, the offering of a hundred tormas, and Chöd feast offerings. Sometimes rain fell after two or three days; in any case it never took longer than seven days.

Teaching Discipline and the View on Gossip

He granted instructions on Mahamudra and Dzogchen to capable students who possessed faith and diligence, but he was very strict: he would not grant the main-practice instructions unless the student had accumulated the four-hundred-thousand-fold preliminaries three or four times. Most of the preliminaries were taught according to The Words of My Perfect Teacher.

"If negative karma and obscurations are well-purified, the qualities of realization can arise quickly. Without first completing the accumulation of merit and the purification of obscurations, even if one requests many profound instructions from the very beginning and attempts the main practice, no results of realization will ever come to fruition."

"If the root and foundation are good and stable, the upper floors can be built slowly. If one tries to hurriedly raise many upper floors without a stable foundation, it is useless and no effective benefit can be achieved."

In former times sorcery was widespread in Nubri and neighbouring regions and had spread into Nyeshang, so villagers would cast curses on one another. Certain ill-intentioned people directed curses at Rinpoche too; when his family told him, he replied:

"It is good if gossip arises; gossip is the 'father's portion' of the gods. It is not good if praise arises; praise only serves as a cause for pride to grow."

Regarding those who performed black magic against him:

"One should regard these actions as emptiness, like an illusion and like a dream. Meditate on compassion for such people — they are wasting their human lives. In future lives, such individuals will be born into the retinue of malevolent nagas, and thus find it extremely difficult to gain liberation from the animal realm. If one has not accumulated the specific karma, others' actions cannot truly harm them."

1980 — The Iron Monkey Year

In 1980 Rinpoche fell seriously ill and remarked:

"Since this Monkey year is a 'black year,' it is not an auspicious time to pass away. It would be better to remain for now, focusing on practices like tonglen, and a more auspicious time will come after the black year has ended."

1981 — The Iron Bird Year

Finally in 1981, on the 7th day of the 3rd Tibetan month, Rinpoche told his family:

"Tomorrow, the 8th day of the 3rd month, is a Monday — it is an auspicious time to depart."

Before passing he gave final instructions on the stages of dissolution: while a master is alive they remain in the generation stage; at death all generation-stage appearances gather into the stages of dissolution and settle into the luminosity of the completion stage; the assembly of peaceful and wrathful deities dissolves into one another, eventually into Samantabhadra, before the mind settles into the Dharmadhatu. He advised:

"Remain focused with great faith and devotion, avoiding distractions and praying one-pointedly during the meditative absorption. For those who do not know how to meditate, this could be a moment of recognizing the nature of mind; for those who do, it will greatly enhance their practice. Remain quiet and avoid making noise — focused attention will allow you to witness signs of the path, such as celestial sounds or the earth shaking."

On the morning of the 8th day Rinpoche uttered the syllable "A, A, A" three times. Immediately his breathing ceased and he passed away into peaceful stillness. The three sounds were clearly heard by Ani Düdul and her mother, who were at his side.

Signs of Accomplishment

Following his instructions, those present refrained from weeping and prayed one-pointedly. Shortly after his passing a self-arisen celestial sound, like the soft ringing of ting-sha, was clearly heard above his head by Ani Düdul. His son Lama Drubgyü performed the final thukdam offerings.

Before passing he had told his students:

"After the generation stage dissolves and I settle into the completion stage, I will meet Amitabha Buddha and receive prophecies. As a sign of attainment of the spiritual levels, a minor earthquake will occur that will cause no harm to living beings — look out for it."

As predicted, at about 10:00 pm on the night of the 8th, those staying nearby felt a slight tremor. At the time of his passing the clouds were filled with rainbow-coloured light shaped like peacock feathers, parasols and victory banners.

His holy body was kept for seven days, during which prayers were offered and the public granted an audience. On the 15th day the cremation took place. Circular rainbows swirled directly above the crematorium, and rainbows stretched from East to South and toward the North.

On the evening of the cremation, before dusk, a younger daughter witnessed a round white luminous sphere ascending from the top of the crematorium into the sky. Ani Düdul and others also saw it rise, become like a star, move toward the West and vanish. This was understood to be the Dakinis carrying away the holy relics.

After the cremation many relics of different colours — white, blue, green, dark brown, red and black — were found in the ashes. Later his son Drubgyü Rinpoche mixed the ashes and bone fragments into medicinal pills; while he was performing the practice many more relics spontaneously multiplied from within them.

Drubgyü Rinpoche gave a single relic to a patroness named Sonam Wangmo, who placed it in her shrine and made offerings. Later, when a Mani temple was being built at Bodhanath and relics were needed, she opened the container and found that the single relic had multiplied into more than eighty.

Secret Mantra Pills

Rinpoche had given a secret mantra pill, created through ritual accomplishment, to an old lama named Ba-me. Those pills also multiplied. Whenever the old lama suffered wounds or illness he would take one to apply or ingest, and the wounds healed and the illnesses were cured. It is said the pills multiplied until the cloth bag holding them wore through. When a new bag was made the multiplication ceased, and eventually they were all used.

Rinpoche had two younger daughters, whom he had enter preliminary practices at Melong Jangchub Ri.

Family Members and Associates

The Zhingdrub Lopön of Rumtek was likewise a man of the Mase family — a togden. He resided and passed away at Rumtek Monastery. Lama Sherab Gyaltsen received teachings on the Dechen Zhingdrub from him.

Regarding Ani Chödrön

Ani Chödrön completed her training in Chöd after practising in a hundred different mountains and a hundred different valleys. She possessed exceptional realization and was able to command the gods and spirits of the phenomenal world as her servants. She would remain in each mountain retreat until signs of accomplishment manifested — in some within three days, in others five, in some as many as nine.

According to the teachings on the signs of Chöd practice, superior practitioners see the gods and spirits directly, as clearly as one person meets another, and can command them as servants; middling practitioners see them through visions and can converse with them; lesser practitioners receive signs in dreams. Ani Chödrön was one who saw them directly. Spirits would bring her white, yellow and red butter, and deliver bundles of firewood and water to the door of her retreat quarters.

Occasionally she would take her two sisters in turn to remote retreats where no other humans travelled. Her sisters frequently witnessed that although no wood, butter or water was available in the evening, by the next morning firewood and water had been delivered to the door. They also reported butter unlike ordinary livestock butter in colour and richness. This account was heard directly from both sisters.

The Invisible Escort

The distance between Rinpoche's quarters and where Ani Chödrön and her daughter lived was about fifty paces. Once Ani Düdul had to visit Rinpoche's quarters in the evening and asked her mother to accompany her, being afraid to go alone. Chödrön replied that she was busy but said:

"You do not need to be afraid; I will send a companion named Loma Zangmo. She is also a student of Rinpoche and is currently accumulating her preliminary practices."

Reassured, Ani Düdul went. Although she saw no physical form, she clearly heard someone walking beside her, reciting the refuge prayers.

The Non-Human Student and the Capturing of the Fox

Ani Chödrön had a non-human student named Chödpa Palden, originally a local deity of Jangchub Ri. While Rinpoche was residing at Jangchub Ri, Ani Chödrön was performing the Chöd ritual in a secluded retreat when two or three foxes surrounded her and began crying out. She wondered whether it was an illusion, but thinking that if it were real they were welcome to consume her "body of suffering," she abandoned self-attachment and fearlessly completed the entire liturgy. The foxes would leave when the ritual concluded — a phenomenon that occurred several times.

When she told Melong Tsampa Rinpoche, he advised:

"Check whether it is an illusion or reality. Try to catch it; if it is real, you will be able to catch it."

She obtained a multi-coloured rope known as "Nine-Coiled Springs." One evening, while she was sitting in the ritual, the fox returned, circled her, cried out and tugged at her robes. Continuing her recitation without interruption, she slowly drew out the rope, reached for the fox's leg and bound it. After completing the liturgy she looked — and the fox spoke in a human voice:

"Ani, please let me go! I will obey whatever you say."

She replied:

"What is the point of you wandering about, harming birds, mice, and other small creatures? Since you clearly understand human speech, you must abandon harming sentient beings. See if you can learn even a single letter of the alphabet. If you promise to practice the Dharma, I will let you go; otherwise, I will not."

The fox initially resisted: "Currently, in this fox body, I am living a very pleasant life — this situation is actually quite happy." Ani Chödrön taught it extensively on the consequences of killing, the sufferings of the lower realms and the laws of karma. Eventually it changed its mind:

"Very well, I will make a vow not to harm others and I agree to practice the Dharma. However, you must provide me with one meal and one Dharma lesson each time. Furthermore, I can only come at night; I am too afraid to come during the day."

She agreed, and led the spirit toward the path of the Dharma.

The Spiritual Progress of Chödpa Palden

From then on, every evening the spirit came before her — not as a fox but in human form — to study reading and writing. When it first began to read it showed great fear of certain letters. Learning the Mani mantra it would pronounce "Ma," "Ni" and "Pad," but was terrified to utter "Om" and refused to do so.

After studying a long time it completed the entire four-hundred-thousand-fold Ngöndro — refuge, bodhichitta, the hundred-syllable mantra, mandala offerings and guru yoga — and also learned the complex liturgical melodies and performance methods of the Chöd feast offerings. Whenever it performed the Chöd feast it took six full days to complete.

Ani Chödrön gave the spirit the name Chödpa Palden. When she sent it to fetch wood or water it would bring back small amounts, learning to perform humble service for its teacher.

This biography was compiled from oral accounts and written records of the Mase family tradition.

The Tibetan original

Biography of Melong Tsampa Rinpoche(Tib-Eng)

Last updated time: July 16, 2026 10:12 PM Category: Manang

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མེ་ལོང་མཚམས་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྣམ་ཐར་བཞུགས་སོ༎

The Biography of Melong Tsampa Rinpoche

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[PAGE 1] མེ་ལོང་མཚམས་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྣམ་ཐར་བཞུགས་སོ༎ མེ་ལོང་མཚམས་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལ་སྐུ་མཆེད་བུ་བདུན་དང་བུ་མོ་གཅིག་བཅས་བརྒྱད་ཡོད་པ་ལས། བུ་སྤུན་ཆེ་ཤོས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ལ་ཕྱག་རྡོར་དང༌། དེ་མཚམས་ཨ་སེང་ཉི་མ། ཀརྨ་སྙན་གྲགས། ཀུན་ཁྱབ། ལྷུན་འགྲུབ། རྟོགས་ལྡན། ཀརྨ་འོད་གསལ་འགྱུར་མེད་བཅས་སོ༎

ཕྱག་རྡོར་ནི་སྐུ་ཚེ་ཧྲིལ་པོ་གཅོད་ཀྱི་ཉམས་ལེན་གནང་ནས་ཚེ་མཚམས་བཞུགས་གནང་བ་རེད། ཁོང་གི་ཆོས་ལུགས་ནི་གཙོ་བོ་གནས་མདོ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་རེད། ཨ་སེང་ཉི་མ་ནི། འབྲི་གུང་གི་མགར་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཡབ་ཡིན། མགར་ཆེན་སྐུ་གོང་མ་ཕྲིན་ལས་གཡང་ཁྱབ་དྲུང་རྨ་སེ་ཚང་ལ་ཐུགས་འདྲིས་ཆེན་པོ་ཡོད་ཅིང༌། རྨ་སེ་ཚང་གི་ཁྱིམ་དུ་ལན་འགའ་ཞབས་པད་མངོན་པར་བཀོད་ཅིང་། ཞིང་མ་ཕེབས་སྔོན་ལ་ཨ་སེང་ཉི་མའི་ཁྱིམ་དུ་ཕེབས་པའི་ཚེ། ཁོང་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མགར་ཆེན་སྐུ་གོང་མ་ལ་ཙམ་པ་ཡག་པོ་ཁུག་མ་གང་ཕུལ་བའི་ཚེ། རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་ནས་ཙམ་པ་དེ་ད་ལྟ་ཁོང་གིས་མི་བསྣམ། མ་འོངས་པར་ཁྱེད་རང་གི་ཁྱིམ་ཚང་དུ་གྲྭ་པ་དགེ་སློང་ཡག་པོ་ཞིག་ཕེབས་འོང༌། དེའི་ཚེ་ཁོང་ལ་འབུལ་ཞིག་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར། མགར་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཆུང་སྲིད་རྨ་སེ་ཨ་སེང་ཉི་མའི་སྲས་སུ་ཕེབས་པ་རེད། སྤྱི་ལོ་༡༩༥༩ ལོར་དུས་ཟིང་བྱུང་བའི་ཚེ་གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་ལུང་བསྟན་པའི་གནས་སྦས་ཡུལ་པདྨ་བཀོད་ལ་ཕེབས་ནས་དེར་བཞུགས་ཤིང་མཐར་དེར་ཞིང་ཕེབས་པ་རེད། མགར་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཡུམ་བདེ་སྐྱིད་གཡང་འཛོམས་ཡང་པདྨ་བཀོད་རང་ལ་བཞུགས་ནས་ཞིང་ཕེབས་པ་རེད།

ཀརྨ་སྙན་གྲགས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ནི་ཀརྨ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་ཡིན། ཁོང་གིས་བཙུན་མོ་རིན་ཆེན་མཁའ་འགྲོ་ཞེས་པ་ཞིག་བཞེས་ཡོད་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ལ་སྲས་དང་སྲས་མོ་མེད།

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Family and Siblings

Melong Tsampa Rinpoche had seven brothers and one sister, making a total of eight siblings. The names of the brothers were:

• Chagdor, the eldest
• Aseng Nyima
• Karma Nyendrak
• Kunkhyab
• Lhundrup
• Tokden
• Karma Ösal Gyurme (Melong Tsampa Rinpoche himself)

Chagdor

Chagdor spent his entire life practicing Chöd and remained in lifelong retreat. His primary lineage was the Nendo Kagyu.

Aseng Nyima and the Connection to Garchen Rinpoche

Aseng Nyima was the father of H.E. Garchen Rinpoche. The previous Garchen Rinpoche, Trinley Yangkhyab, had a very close relationship with the Drung Mase family and visited the Mase household several times.

Before passing away, during a visit to Aseng Nyima's home, the family offered the previous Garchen Rinpoche a bag of high-quality tsampa. Rinpoche declined to take it at that moment, stating:

"I will not take this now. In the future, an excellent monk and bhikshu will come to your family. At that time, offer it to him."

Following this prophecy, the current reincarnation of Garchen Rinpoche was born as the son of Mase Aseng Nyima. During the political turmoil of 1959, Aseng Nyima traveled to the hidden land of Pemako, as prophesied by Guru Rinpoche, where he resided until his passing. Garchen Rinpoche's mother, Dekyi Yangzom, also lived and passed away in Pemako.

Karma Nyendrak Rinpoche

Karma Nyendrak Rinpoche belonged to the Karma Kagyu lineage. Although he married a woman named Rinchen Khandro, they had no children.

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[PAGE 2] ཁོང་ཡང་ཐོག་མར་སྤུན་མཆེད་རྣམས་དང་ལྷན་དུ་པདྨ་བཀོད་ལ་ཕེབས་པར་མཛད། ཕྱིས་སུ་ཁོང་ལ་སྲས་མེད་སྟབས་གཅེན་པོ་ཨ་སེང་ཉི་མའི་སྲས་འཇམ་དབྱངས་མགོན་པོ་ཞེས་པ་དང་། སྲས་མོ་ཀུན་བཟང་ཆོས་སྒྲོན་གཉིས་འཁྲིད་དེ་རྒྱ་གར་ཕྱོགས་སུ་བཙན་བྱོལ་ལ་ཕེབས་ནས་རྒྱ་གར་ཨུ་རི་སར་གཞི་ཆགས་ནས་ལོ་མང་བཞུགས་པར་མཛད། ཨུ་རི་སར་བཞུགས་པའི་ཚེ་ཡུལ་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་དད་པ་ཆེན་པོ་བྱེད་ཅིང་ཁོང་ལ་ནང་ཆེན་བླ་མ་ཞེས་ཀུན་གྱིས་འབོད་ཅིང་གྲགས། ནང་ཆེན་བླ་མས་བཀའ་བསྒོ་བགེགས་བསྐྲད་གནང་བ་ཙམ་གྱིས་ནད་དང་གདོན་བགེགས་ཀྱི་གནོད་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དེ་མ་ཐག་ཏུ་ཞི་བར་ཐེ་ཚོམ་མེད་ཅེས་ཡུལ་མི་ཕལ་ཆེ་བས་ཡིད་ཆེས་དང་དད་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡོད། ཁོང་གཉི་ཤང་དུ་རང་གི་སྤུན་མཆེད་མེ་ལོང་མཚམས་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དང་ཐུག་འཕྲད་ལ་ཕེབས་ནས་སླར་ཨུ་རི་སར་གཏན་བཞུགས་མཛད། མཐར་ཨུ་རི་སར་ཁོང་ཞིང་ཕེབས་ཁར་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་ནས་གཞིས་ཆགས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་མི་ཁོང་ལ་དད་པ་ཡོད་མཁན་དགའ་ཞེན་ཡོད་མཁན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཐུག་འཕྲད་ལ་ཤོག་གསུངས་ནས་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་མཇལ་ཁ་གནང་། སྔ་དྲོའི་ཚེ་གསོལ་ཇ་བཞེས་ཟིན་ནས་ནང་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་སྐུ་འཁྲིད་ལ་བསྡད་བཅུག དེ་མཚམས་ཁོང་གི་གཟིམས་ཆུང་དུ་མཆོད་གཤོམ་ནང་གི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་སྒོ་ཕྱེ། བུམ་པའི་ཁྲུས་ཆུ་ཐོག་མར་ཁོང་རང་གིས་བཞེས་ནང་མི་ཀུན་ལའང་ཁྲུས་གནང་། རིགས་ལྔའི་ཙཀྑི་དང་ཐོད་པ་མེ་ལོང་ཤེལ་རྡོ་སོགས་དབང་རྫས་ཐམས་ཅད་ནས་དབང་བཞིའི་བྱིན་བརླབས་ལེན། ཁོང་གི་ཐུགས་དམ་གཙོ་བོ་པདྨ་བཛྲ་ཡིན་པས་པདྨ་བཛྲ་ཡི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྡུ་བར་མཛད་ཅིང་མཐར་ཐུགས་དམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པར་མཛད་ནས་དགོངས་པ་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་སུ་ཕེབས་པ་རེད།

ཀུན་ཁྱབ་ནི་བོད་ན་བཞུགས་པའི་འབར་རྡོ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་དང་། ས་སྐྱའི་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་གཉིས་ཀྱི་ཡབ་རེད།

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Exile and Life in Orissa

Initially, he traveled to Pemako with his siblings. Later, because he had no children of his own, he took his elder brother Aseng Nyima's son, Jamyang Gonpo, and daughter, Kunzang Chödron, and went into exile toward India. They settled in Orissa, India, where they resided for many years.

The "Nangchen Lama"

While living in Orissa, the local people held great faith in him, and he was widely known and addressed by everyone as the "Nangchen Lama". Most of the local people possessed such deep conviction that they believed, without doubt, that all harm from illnesses and malevolent spirits would be immediately pacified merely by the Nangchen Lama performing rituals of protection and subduing obstacles. He once traveled to Nyeshang to meet his sibling, Melong Tsampa Rinpoche, before returning to Orissa to reside permanently.

Final Acts and Passing

When he was eventually about to pass away in Orissa, Rinpoche requested that all the settlement residents who had faith in and affection for him come to meet him, and he granted an audience to everyone.

In the morning, after having tea, he sat all his family members beside him. Then, in his private quarters, he opened the mandala within the shrine. He first partook of the purification vase water himself and then granted the purification to all his family members. He received the blessings of the four empowerments through all the ritual substances, including the tsakli of the Five Buddha Families, the skull-cup (thödpa), mirror (melong), and crystal.

Because his primary heart-practice was Padmavajra, he dissolved the entire Padmavajra mandala into himself. Finally, remaining in that state of meditative absorption, he passed away into the expanse of reality — the Dharmadhatu.

Kunkhyab

Kunkhyab was the father of Bardo Tulku and the Sakya Tulku Jamyang, both of whom reside in Tibet.

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[PAGE 3] ལྷུན་འགྲུབ་ནི་འབྲུག་པ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་རེད། ཁོང་ནི་འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོའི་དབུ་བླ་ཡིན། སྔོན་མེ་ལོང་མཚམས་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྤུན་མཆེད་རྣམ་པ་ཁམས་ནས་གངས་རིའི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་གནས་སྐོར་ལ་ཕེབས་ཞོར་འབྲུག་ལ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྐབས། ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱགས་ཕྱེ་རྫོགས་ནས་འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོའི་རྒྱལ་སྒོ་དང་ཉེ་བའི་སར་བསོད་སྙོམས་སློང་བའི་ཆེད་གཅོད་འདོན་སྐབས། ལྷུན་འགྲུབ་རྒྱལ་ཁང་ནང་དུ་བཞུགས་ཡོད་པས་ཁོང་གིས་གཅོད་ཀྱི་གདངས་ཐོས་པའི་ཚེ་ཁོང་གི་བླ་མའི་གཅོད་གདངས་དང་འདྲ་བོ་འདུག་གསུངས་ནས་གཟིགས་པས་སྤུན་མཆེད་ངོ་ཤེས་ནས་ཞག་ལྔ་དྲུག་ཁོང་དང་ལྷན་དུ་བཞུགས་པར་མཛད་ཅེས་ཐོས།

རྟོགས་ལྡན་ནི་དགུང་བགྲང་ཆུང་ངུའི་དུས་ནས་གཉིད་སྤངས་ནས་ཉམས་ལེན་ལ་ཧུར་བརྩོན་གནང་མཁན་ཞིག་བྱུང་། འོན་ཀྱང་དགུང་གྲངས་ཆུང་ངུ་ཉེར་གཅིག་ཙམ་ལ་ཞིང་ཕེབས་པ་རེད། ཁོང་གི་སྐུ་གདུང་ཞུགས་ལ་ཕུལ་སྐབས་རིང་བསྲེལ་གཅིག་ལས་འཁྲུངས་མེད་ཅིང་། དེ་ནི་ཆོས་སྐུའི་རིང་བསྲེལ་ཡིན་པར་བཤད། རིང་བསྲེལ་གཅིག་ལས་འཁྲུངས་མེད་ན་ཡང་སྲིད་མི་ཕེབས་པའི་རྟགས་མཚན་ཡིན་པའང་བཤད་སྲོལ་འདུག །སྲས་མོ་གཅིག་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ནི་ར་ཁྲོ་གཏེར་སྟོན་གྱི་བཙུན་མོ་རེད། སྲས་མོ་ལོ་གསུམ་མཚམས་ལ་བཞུགས་པའི་ཆེད་མཆོད་པ་དང་གཏོར་མ་སོགས་ཐམས་ཅད་གྲ་སྒྲིག་ལེགས་པར་གྲུབ་ནས་མཚམས་ལ་བཞུགས་གྲབ་བྱེད་པའི་སྐབས་ར་ཁྲོ་གཏེར་སྟོན་གྱི་གཏེར་ཡུམ་བཞེས་དགོས་འདུག་གསུངས་ནས་སློང་མི་བྱུང་། ཐོག་མར་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་མ་གནང་མཐར་གཉེན་ཚན་དང་ནང་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མ་སྟེར་ན་བླ་མའི་སྐུ་ཚེ་དང་ཆོས་ལ་བར་ཆད་འབྱུང་འོང་གསུངས་ནས་གཏེར་ཡུམ་ལ་ཕུལ་བར་མཛད། བཙུན་མོ་དེ་མཚུར་ཕུ་ལ་ཞིང་ཕེབས་པ་རེད།

མེ་ལོང་མཚམས་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ནི། སྤྱི་ལོ་༡༩༡༤ རབ་བྱུང་བཅོ་ལྔ་པའི་ཤིང་སྟག་ལོར་ནང་ཆེན་ཆམ་གཞི་རུ་རྗེ་ཀརྨ་པ་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་ལྔ་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཐུགས་སྲས་ཞལ་སློབ་

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Lhundrup and the King of Bhutan

Lhundrup was a master of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage. He served as the personal chaplain (U-la) to the King of Bhutan. It is told that once, while the siblings including Melong Tsampa Rinpoche were traveling from Kham on a pilgrimage toward the sacred snow mountain (Kailash), they passed through Bhutan. Having run out of travel provisions, they began performing a Chöd ritual to beg for alms near the palace gates of the King of Bhutan. Lhundrup, who was inside the palace, heard the melody of the Chöd. Recognizing it as identical to his own teacher's melody, he looked out, recognized his siblings, and they stayed together with him for five or six days.

The Realization of Tokden

Tokden was someone who, from a very young age, renounced sleep and exerted himself with great diligence in spiritual practice. However, he passed away at the young age of about twenty-one. When his body was offered to the cremation fire, only a single relic was produced, which was said to be a Dharmakaya relic. There is a tradition that says if only one relic is produced, it is a sign that the master will not return in a future reincarnation.

The Sister and the Terton

The family had one sister who became the consort of Rathro Terton. She had prepared everything — offerings and torma — to enter a three-year retreat. Just as she was about to begin her retreat, people came to request her to become the spiritual consort (Teryum) of Rathro Terton. Initially, her father did not grant permission, but eventually, relatives and family members stated that if she was not given, it would cause obstacles to the Lama's life and the Dharma; thus, she was offered as the Teryum. This consort later passed away in Tsurphu. Rathro Terton had a son who has passed away, but it is heard that the lineage continues through his daughter's descendants today.

The Birth of Melong Tsampa Rinpoche

Melong Tsampa Rinpoche was born in the year 1914 (the Wood-Tiger year of the 15th Rabjung cycle) in Chamzhi, Nangchen. He was born into the noble lineage of Drung Mase Tokden Lodro Rinchen, who was a heart-disciple and student of the 5th Gyalwa Karmapa, Deshin Shekpa.

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[PAGE 4] དྲུང་རྨ་སེ་རྟོགས་ལྡན་བློ་གྲོས་རིན་ཆེན་གྱི་གདུང་བརྒྱུད་ལ་སྐུ་འཁྲུངས། བུ་སྤུན་བདུན་གྱི་ནང་ནས་ཆུང་ཤོས་དེ་ཡིན་པར་ཐོས། དགུང་བགྲང་ཆུང་ངུའི་དུས་ནས་ཡབ་འདས། བུ་སྤུན་ཆེ་བ་ཨ་སེང་ཉི་མའི་སྲས་འགའ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་འདས་པ་སོགས་ནང་མི་རྣམས་ལ་དཀའ་ངལ་མང་པོ་བྱུང་ཞིང་། སྤུན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱང་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་སྒྲུབ་པ་ལ་བློ་ཁ་གཅིག་ཏུ་ཕྱོགས་ནས་རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་གྲབས་ཡོད་པའི་ཚེ། མགར་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྐུ་གོང་མ་ཕྲིན་ལས་གཡང་ཁྱབ་དང་མཇལ། མགར་ཆེན་གོང་མས་རྨ་སེ་ཚང་གི་རིགས་བརྒྱུད་དེ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོའི་རིགས་བརྒྱུད་ཡིན་པས་ཆད་མི་ཉན། རིགས་བརྒྱུད་དང་ཆོས་བརྒྱུད་དེ་འཕེལ་དགོས་པ་ཤིན་ཏུ་གལ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡིན་པས་ཁོང་གིས་ཀྱང་ཐུགས་བསྐྱེད་སྨོན་ལམ་ཡོད་གསུངས་ཤིང༌། དབང་ཁྲིད་གདམས་པ་མན་ངག་གི་རིམ་པ་རྣམས་གནང་ནས་བུ་སྤུན་ཐམས་ཅད་ནང་ཆེན་གནས་རྒྱ་ཞེས་པར་སྐུ་མཚམས་ལ་བཞུགས་བཅུག་པ་སོགས་དྲུང་རྨ་སེ་ཚང་གི་ནང་མི་ལ་མགར་ཆེན་སྐུ་གོང་མས་བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་གནང་ཡོད། རཏྣ་གླིང་པའི་ཐུགས་སྒྲུབ་ཡང་སྙིང་བསྡུས་པ་དེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཆོས་སྐལ་ཡིན།

མེ་ལོང་མཚམས་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ལྷ་ལྕམ་གྱི་མཚན་ལ་དངོས་གྲུབ་བསྟན་མཚོ་ཟེར། ཕྱིས་སུ་སྨྱུང་ནས་ཚེ་རིང་དཔལ་འཛོམས་ཞེས་མཚན་བརྗེ་གནང་བ་རེད། མ་མ་དེ་འབྲི་གུང་སྐྱུ་རའི་གདུང་བརྒྱུད་རེད། མ་མའི་ཨ་མའི་མཚན་ལ་པདྨ་དལ་འགྲོ་འཁྱིལ་མ་དང་། མ་མའི་ཨ་པའི་མཚན་ལ་པདྨ་དབང་ཆེན་རེད། མ་མ་ལ་བུ་མོ་སྤུན་གསུམ་ཡོད་རེད། བུ་མོ་གཅིག་དེ་ནག་ཆུའི་མི་ཚང་ཕྱུག་པོ་ཞིག་གི་མནའ་མ་ལ་འགྲོ་བ་རེད། བུ་མོ་གཅིག་དེ་སྟོད་ཀྱི་མི་ཚང་ཕྱུག་པོ་ཞིག་གི་མནའ་མ་ལ་འགྲོ་བ་རེད། འབྲི་གུང་ནས་གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེར་སྐྱེས་སྐོར་ལ་ཡོང་དུས། རིན་པོ་ཆེ་གངས་རི་ལ་སྐུ་མཚམས་བཞུགས་ཡོད་པས། མ་མ་དེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལ་དད་པ་སྐྱེས་

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Childhood Hardships and the Garchen Lineage

It is heard that among the seven brothers, Melong Tsampa Rinpoche was the youngest. His father passed away while he was still at a very young age. The family faced many difficulties, including the death of several of his eldest brother Aseng Nyima's children.

When all the brothers were turned toward the holy Dharma and preparing to be ordained, they met with the previous Garchen Rinpoche, Trinley Yangkhyab. The previous Garchen Rinpoche stated that the lineage of the Drung Masehousehold was a lineage of great Bodhisattvas and must not be broken. He said it was extremely important for both the family lineage and the Dharma lineage to flourish and expressed his own aspiration for this. After bestowing various stages of empowerments, transmissions, and pith instructions, the previous Garchen Rinpoche had all the brothers enter retreat at a place called Nangchen Nyagya. In this way, the previous Garchen Rinpoche showed great kindness to the family of Drung Mase.

Heart Practice and Consort

The Condensed Essential Heart Practice (Thukdrub Yangnying Dupa) of Ratna Lingpa was Rinpoche's specific karmic share of the Dharma.

The name of Melong Tsampa Rinpoche's consort was Ngondrup Ten-tso. Later, after falling ill, her name was changed to Tsering Palzom. She belonged to the noble Kyura lineage of Drikung.

Lineage of the Consort

The name of the consort's mother was Pema Dal-dro Khyilma, and her father's name was Pema Wangchen. She had three sisters:

• One sister became a bride in a wealthy household in Nagchu.
• Another sister became a bride in a wealthy household in Töd (Upper Tibet).

When they came on a pilgrimage from Drikung to Mount Kailash, Rinpoche was in retreat there. Faith was born in her toward Rinpoche, and she stayed to serve him.

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[PAGE 5] ནས་ཞབས་ཕྱིས་ཞུས་ནས་བསྡད། དེར་ལྕམ་དུ་བཞེས། གངས་རིའི་བྱང་ཚ་ཁ་ལ་ཨ་ཞང་བསོད་ནམས་སྲས་སུ་འཁྲུངས། དེར་འཁྲུངས་པས་བསོད་ནམས་ཆེན་པོ་རེད་གསུངས་ནས་མཚན་ལ་བསོད་ནམས་ལྷུན་འགྲུབ་ཅེས་གསོལ། སྲས་གཉིས་པ་ཨ་ཞང་སྒྲུབ་བརྒྱུད་ནི་གངས་རི་སྟོད་ཀྱི་སེ་ལུང་དགོན་པའི་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཞིག་རེད། དགོན་པ་དེ་ཡང་ཆོས་ལུགས་འབྲི་གུང་ཡིན་ས་རེད། རིན་པོ་ཆེ་གངས་རིའི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཁྱོན་བསྡོམས་ལོ་བཅུ་གསུམ་བཞུགས་ཡོད་པ་རེད། དེར་བཞུགས་པའི་ཚེ་གངས་རིའི་མཚམས་ཆུང་ཞེས་མཚན་སྙན་གྲགས། གངས་རིའི་སེ་ལུང་དགོན་པར་ཡུན་རིང་པོ་བཞུགས། དགོན་པ་དེའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཡང་ལོ་གསུམ་ཙམ་གནང་ཡོད་པ་རེད། གཞན་ཡང་གླང་སྣ་དགོན་པ་ཞེས་པར་ཡང་བཞུགས་པར་མཛད།

རིན་པོ་ཆེ་གངས་རི་ལ་སྐུ་མཚམས་བཞུགས་བསྡད་པའི་སྐབས་གཟིམས་ལམ་དུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་རི་ལ་ངེས་པར་ཕེབས་དགོས་པ་གངས་རིའི་གནས་སྲུང་གཙོ་བོ་ཞིང་སྐྱོང་གཟི་ལྡན་དབང་ཕྱུག་གིས་ལུང་བསྟན་ཡང་ཡང་བྱུང་བས། དེར་འགྲོ་བའི་ལམ་ཤིན་ཏུ་དོག་པོ་ཡོད་ཀྱང་ཞིང་སྐྱོང་གིས་ལུང་བསྟན་པ་ལྟར་ཕེབས་རྒྱུའི་ཐུགས་ཐག་བཅད། མེ་ལོང་བྱང་ཆུབ་རི་དེ་དྲིལ་བུའི་དབྱིབས་དང་རྩེ་འདི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་དབྱིབས་ལྟ་བུ་ཡོད་པ་རེད། རི་དེའི་ཟུར་ལ་འཁོར་ལོ་བདེ་མཆོག་གི་ཡུམ་མཚོན་བྱེད་རི་ཞིག་ཡོད་པ་རེད། རི་དེ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་བར་ལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྐུ་འཁོར་ལྷན་རྒྱས་བཞུགས་གནས་མཛད། རི་དེར་སྔོན་འབྲི་གུང་གི་གྲུབ་ཐོབ་བླ་མ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེང་གེའི་མཚམས་ཁང་བྲག་ཕུག་ཞིག་ཡོད་པ་དེར་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་སྐུ་མཚམས་བཞུགས་ས་མཛད།

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Marriage and the Birth of His Sons

• The Union: Rinpoche took Tsering Palzom as his consort.
• The First Son: At Northern Tsakha in the Kailash region, a son named Azhang Sonam was born. Rinpoche remarked that his birth there was a sign of great merit and gave him the name Sonam Lhundrup.
• The Second Son: The second son, Azhang Drugyu, was recognized as a tulku of Selung Monastery in Upper Kailash — a monastery of the Drikung tradition.

The "Small Meditator" of the Snow Mountain

• Duration: Rinpoche stayed in the Mount Kailash region for a total of thirteen years.
• Renown: During his time there, he became widely known by the name "Gangri Tsampa Chung" — the Small Meditator of the Snow Mountain.
• Leadership: He resided at Selung Monastery in Kailash for a long period and served as its Vajra Master (Dorje Löpön) for approximately three years.
• Other Residences: He also stayed at a place called Langna Monastery.

Prophecy and the Move to Jangchub Ri

While Rinpoche was in retreat at Kailash, he received repeated prophecies in his dreams from Zidän Wangchuk, the primary protector of the Kailash region. The protector commanded that he must definitely go to Jangchub Ri.

Sacred Geography of Melong Jangchub Ri

• The Shape: Melong Jangchub Ri is shaped like a bell, with its peak resembling a vajra.
• Spiritual Significance: On the side of that mountain sits another mountain that represents the consort of Chakrasamvara. Rinpoche and his attendants made their residence between these two mountains.
• The Master's Cave: Rinpoche stayed in a meditation cave that had previously belonged to the Drikung Siddha, Jangchub Senge.
• The Miraculous Timber: Below the cave were many meditation huts. Stacks of beams and wooden planks intended for building monasteries and huts were found there. It is said that these materials were originally offered to Lama Jangchub Senge by local spirits and deities.

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[PAGE 6] ལ། མི་དགོས་དགོས་མཁོ་བླ་མ། །བླ་མ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེང་གེ། །རྡོ་རིང་དགོས་ན་ལ་སོ། །རྡོ་ཐུང་དགོས་ན་ལ་སོ། །ཞུས་ནས་ལྷ་འདྲེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བླ་མའི་མདུན་དུ་སྤུངས་ཡིན་པར་བཤད་སྲོལ་འདུག གཞན་ཡང་བྱང་ཆུབ་རིར་བླ་མ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེང་གེའི་ཆིབས་རྟ་འདོགས་ས་རྡོ་རིང་བཙུགས་ཡོད་ཅིང་། དེར་ཐག་པ་བཏགས་ཆེད་རྡོའི་ཨི་ཁུང་ཡང་མཇལ་རྒྱུ་ཡོད་པར་བཤད་སྲོལ་འདུག །ཁོང་གི་ཕྱག་མཁར་ཕྱག་རྟེན་རྡོ་ལས་གྲུབ་པ་ཡོད། ཕྱག་རྟེན་རྡོ་དེའི་མགོ་ལ་ཕྱག་རྗེས་ཀྱང་མཇལ་རྒྱུ་ཡོད། རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དེར་བཞུགས་སྐབས་ལྷ་འདྲེ་རྩུབ་པོ་ཡོད་པར་བཤད་སྲོལ་འདུག །སྐབས་སྐབས་ར་ལུག་བཅུ་བཅོ་ལྔ་མཉམ་དུ་ཤི་བ་སོགས་ལྷ་འདྲེ་རྩུབ་པོ་ཡོད་པར་བཤད།

བྱང་ཆུབ་རིའི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་སྔོན་གྲོང་པ་མང་པོ་ཡོད་ཀྱང་། ཕྱིས་སུ་གྲོང་པ་ནང་ཕན་ཚུན་བྱི་རུའི་ནང་དུ་རྣག་བཅུག་ནས་བཙོང་བ་སོགས་ཀྱིས་ནད་ཡམས་བཏང་ནས་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དེའི་མི་ཕལ་ཆེ་བ་འདས་གྲོངས་སུ་ཕྱིན་ནས། རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྐུ་འཁོར་ཕེབས་དུས་ཕྱོགས་དེར་གྲོང་པ་མི་ཚང་ལྔ་ཙམ་ལས་ལྷགས་མེད་ཅིང་། གྲོང་པ་ལྔ་པོ་དེ་ལ་ཡང་རྟ་རེ་རེ་གཡག་རེ་གཉིས། ར་ལུག་འགའ་ཞིག་ལས་མེད་ཀྱང་། རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དེར་ཕེབས་ནས་ལོ་ཁ་ཤས་བཞུགས་པའི་རྗེས་གྲོང་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྒོ་ཕྱུག་འཕེལ་ནས་ཕྱུག་པོར་གྱུར། རི་དེར་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱོན་བསྡོམས་ལོ་དགུ་སྐུ་མཚམས་བཞུགས་པས་མེ་ལོང་མཚམས་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་མཚན་སྙན་ཡོངས་སུ་གྲགས་པ་བྱུང་།

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The Legend of the Spirits and the Stones

According to oral tradition, the local deities and spirits would address Lama Jangchub Senge, saying:

"Whatever the Lama needs, we provide! Oh, Lama Jangchub Senge! If you need long stones, so be it! If you need short stones, so be it!"

It is said that the spirits would then pile these stones before the Lama. Furthermore, at Jangchub Ri, there is a stone pillar where Lama Jangchub Senge used to tether his horse; a hole in the stone used for the rope can still be seen today. His walking staff, made of stone, also bears the visible imprints of his hands. During Rinpoche's stay there, it was said that the local spirits were quite fierce, occasionally causing fifteen or twenty sheep and goats to die at once.

The Abandoned Settlement and the Restoration of Prosperity

In earlier times, there were many villagers in the vicinity of Jangchub Ri. However, a plague swept through the settlements, leaving most of the inhabitants dead. By the time Rinpoche and his attendants arrived, only about five households remained, possessing only a single horse, one or two yaks, and a few goats and sheep.

After Rinpoche had resided there for several years, the livestock of all the villagers began to flourish and they became wealthy. Because Rinpoche spent a total of nine years in strict retreat at that mountain, he became universally renowned by the name Melong Tsampa Rinpoche.

The Healing Power of the Meditation Cushion

The local people developed immense faith in him. Later, when people came to visit the meditation cave where Rinpoche had stayed, they would tear off small pieces of the meditation cushion he had used during his retreat. It is said that by eating these pieces or burning them as incense, the sick were healed and harm from malevolent spirits was pacified, proving to be of great benefit.

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[PAGE 7] སུ་ཕེབས་པར་མཛད། ཕེབས་གྲབ་གནང་བཞིན་པའི་ཚེ་བྱང་ཆུབ་རི་དང་ཉེ་བའི་ས་མེ་ལོང་ཡུལ་གྱི་འབ་ཆེན་བྱ་ཁྱུང་རིའི་གཞི་བདག་དགེ་བསྙེན་གྱི་ཆ་ལུགས་ཅན་ཆིབས་རྟ་སྨུག་ནག་ག་ཞུར་ལ་བཞོན་པ་གསེར་གཡུའི་རྟ་སྲབ་དང་སྒ་ཆས་སྤྲས་པ་ཆེས་གཟི་བརྗིད་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཞིག་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་སྐུ་མདུན་དུ་ཕེབས་ནས་ཡུལ་གཞན་དུ་མི་ཕེབས་པར་བྱང་ཆུབ་རི་ལ་བཞུགས་པར་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ། དགེ་བསྙེན་དེས་སྔོན་གུ་རུ་པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་ཀྱང་མཇལ་མྱོང་། གུ་རུའི་སྐུ་མདུན་དུ་བཀའ་བསྒོ་དམ་བཞག་ཀྱང་མཛད་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཞུས་པར་མཛད་ཅེས་ཨ་ནི་ཆོས་སྒྲོན་གྱི་ཞལ་རྒྱུན་ལས་བྱུང་།

དོལ་པོ་ཤེལ་རིའི་གནས་སྲུང་རྣམས་གངས་རིའི་གནས་སྲུང་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་རྣམས་དང་རིགས་གཅིག་པ་ཡིན་པས། དོལ་པོ་ཤེལ་རི་འབྲུག་བསྒྲགས་ལ་ལོ་གསུམ་བཞུགས་པར་མཛད། དོལ་པོ་ཏ་རབ་དང་ཚལ་ཁ་ལ་དབྱར་ས་དང་དགུན་ས་བྱེད་ནས་བཞུགས། དོལ་པོར་ཕེབས་སྐབས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དང་ལྷན་དུ་ཁོང་གི་སྐུ་མཆེད་འགྲོ་དོན་མཐར་ཕྱིན་ཡང་ཡོད། ཁོང་ནི་ཉམས་ལེན་གྱིས་ཕྱུག་ཅིང་ལྷག་པར་ནད་པ་རྣམས་ལ་སྙིང་བརྩེ་ལྡན་པའི་སྨན་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ཞིང་། ཁོང་གིས་ཕྱག་བྲིས་གནང་བའི་སྨན་རྒྱུད་དང་། གཅོད་ཚོགས་རིན་ཆེན་ཕྲེང་བའི་ཕྱག་དཔེ་སོགས་ཡོད།

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Prophecy to Depart for Dolpo

The Pleading Deity of Chakyung Ri: As Rinpoche was preparing to depart for Dolpo, a majestic local deity (gzhi-bdag) from Chakyung Ri in the Melong region appeared before him. This deity, appearing in the form of a virtuous layman, was exceptionally grand, riding a dark brown horse adorned with a saddle and bridle of gold and turquoise. The deity pleaded with Rinpoche not to leave for other lands but to remain at Jangchub Ri. According to the oral tradition of Ani Chözom, this protector had previously met Guru Padmasambhava and had received commands and oaths in the Guru's presence.

Three Years in Dolpo

Because the guardians of the sacred site of Dolpo Shelri belong to the same class as the Dharmapalas of Mount Kailash, Rinpoche resided at Dolpo Shelri Druk-drak for three years. During this time, he used Tarap as a summer residence and Tsalkha as a winter residence.

His Brother, Drodön Tharchin

He was accompanied to Dolpo by his sibling, Drodön Tharchin, who was rich in spiritual practice and was a particularly compassionate physician for the sick. His brother left behind handwritten medical tantras and copies of the Rinchen Trengwa Chöd liturgy. While in Dolpo, his brother fell ill and eventually passed away at Dolpo Tsalkha. His medicines and medical instruments were gifted to a Dolpo physician named Amchi Karma. It is also noted that a Bonpo lama named Nyima was one of Rinpoche's students.

The Prophecy of Dhanakota

Subsequently, the primary guardian of Mount Kailash, Zidän Wangchuk, and the guardians of Jangchub Ri prophesied that he must go to Dhanakota, as it is the palace of Chakrasamvara. Accordingly, he traveled toward the northern plains and stayed at the site of Dhanakota for one summer. The local guardians of Dhanakota are said to be students of Zidän Wangchuk.

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[PAGE 8] ནི་གངས་རི་ཏི་སེའི་གནས་སྲུང་ཞིང་སྐྱོང་གཟི་ལྡན་དབང་ཕྱུག་གི་སློབ་མ་ཡིན་པར་བཤད་སྲོལ་འདུག དེ་ནས་སྣར་སྟོད་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཕེབས། དེར་ཕེབས་སྐབས་ལྷ་འདྲེའི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་ཧ་ཅང་གི་རྩུབ་པོ་ཡོད་པར་བཤད་ཚུལ་འདུག སྣར་སྟོད་སྤངས་རི་ལ་བཞུགས་བསྡད་སྐབས་སྣར་པའི་ཡུལ་མི་རྣམས་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷ་ཁང་དང་གུ་རུའི་གསང་ཕུག་མཇལ། དེའི་ཞོར་སྤངས་རི་ལ་བཞུགས་པའི་བླ་མ་ལ་མཇལ་ཁ་ཞུས་ནས། ཕྱིས་སུ་སྣར་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྤངས་བླ་མ་ཞེས་མཚན་དུ་འབོད་པར་མཛད། ཕྱིས་སུ་སྣར་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དད་པ་ཆེན་པོ་བྱས་ནས་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷ་ཁང་དུ་བཞུགས་པར་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་པས་དེར་བཞུགས་པར་མཛད། དེའི་རྗེས་སྲས་རྣམ་པ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལ་གཉི་ཤང་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཕེབས་དགོས་པའི་བསམ་འཆར་ཞུས་ནས་གཉི་ཤང་ལ་གདན་འདྲེན་ཞུས་པར་མཛད། དེ་ནས་གཉི་ཤང་སྐྱུང་ཞེས་པའི་ས་གནས་སུ་གཉི་ཤང་གཅིག་གིས་ས་ཆ་ཕུལ། བླ་མ་རྒྱལ་པོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཞལ་སློབ་དང་གཉི་ཤང་སྐྱུང་གི་ཡུལ་མི་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་མཐུན་སྦྱོར་གནང་སྟེ་དགོན་པ་ཆུང་ངུ་ཞིག་བཞེངས་ནས་ཕུལ་བར་མཛད་པས་དེར་བཞུགས།

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The "Pang Lama" and the Founding of Kyung Monastery

• Arrival in Nar-töd: Rinpoche then traveled toward Nar-töd. It is said that at the time of his arrival, the manifestations of the local spirits there were extremely fierce.
• Becoming the "Pang Lama": While staying at Pang Ri in Nar-töd, the local people of Nar encountered him while visiting the Tashi Lhakhang and the secret cave of Guru Rinpoche. Because he resided at Pang Ri, the people of Nar began to address him as the "Pang Lama". Later, out of great faith, the people of Nar requested him to stay at Tashi Lhakhang, and he agreed.
• Invitation to Nyeshang: Subsequently, Rinpoche's two sons suggested that he should go to Nyeshang and invited him there.
• Founding of the Monastery in Kyung: In a place called Kyung in Nyeshang, a local resident offered a piece of land. With the support of students of Lama Gyalpo and some villagers of Kyung, a small monastery was built and offered to him, where he then resided.

The Dispute over Tarab Monastery

Some villagers from Nyeshang Ngari arrived and pleaded with him to come to Tarab Monastery. However, the people of Kyung contested this, refusing to let the Lama be taken away. They argued that if he must go, they would dismantle the monastery they had built — returning the earth and stones to their original places — so that no trace of the monastery remained. Because of their persistence, it was finally decided that he would remain at the monastery in Kyung.

The name of Tarab Monastery was originally "Tasrab Monastery", which eventually became known as "Tarab." It is said that in the past, a Mahasiddha's horse bridle fell at that site, which was taken as a sign that a monastery should be built there.

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[PAGE 9] ཆིབས་པ་ཤོར་སྐབས་ཆིབས་ཐག་འདྲུད་འགྲོ་སའི་ས་གནས་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་ཕྱིས་སུ་ཤིང་སྡོང་སྐྱེས་ཡོང་བ་རེད་ཅེས་བཤད་སྲོལ་འདུག གཉི་ཤང་སྐྱུང་ལ་བཞུགས་བསྡད་སྐབས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་ནས་ཞིང་སྐྱོང་གཟི་ལྡན་དབང་ཕྱུག་གི་གསོལ་ཀ་མཚམས་འཇོག་བྱེད་དགོངས་པའི་ཚེ། ཞིང་སྐྱོང་གིས་ཞལ་དངོས་སུ་བསྟན་ནས་གསོལ་ཁ་མ་ཆད་པར་གསུངས་རོགས། རིན་པོ་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཆོས་རྒྱུད་དང་མི་རྒྱུད་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་བདག་གིས་སྲུང་སྐྱོབ་བྱའོ་ཞེས་ཞུས་ཤིང་། རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གཟིམས་ཆུང་གི་སྟེང་གི་བར་སྣང་ལ་སྤྲུལ་པའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བཞེངས་ནས་ཡིད་སྤྲུལ་གྱི་ཕོ་བྲང་ནང་དུ་བཞུགས་པར་མཛད་པས། རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གིས་ཏི་སེ་ཞིང་སྐྱོང་གི་གསོལ་ཀ་མུ་མཐུད་ནས་མ་ཆད་པར་གསུངས་པར་མཛད་ཅེས་ཐོས།

ཁྲུས་ཚེས་སྐབས་སུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གིས་དགོན་པ་དང་ཉེ་བའི་ས་དབེན་པ་ཞིག་ཏུ་ནད་པ་ཡིན་པ་དང་མ་ཡིན་པའི་མི་དམངས་ཡོང་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་གནང་བར་མཛད་ཅིང་། ཕྱིས་སུ་ཞིང་ཕེབས་ནས་ལོ་མང་པོའི་རྗེས་སུ་ཁྲུས་བྱེད་པའི་སྐབས་ཀྱི་བཞུགས་གནས་རྡོ་ཕུང་དེའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཞབས་རྗེས་ཤིག་ཀྱང་འཁྲུངས་པ་དེང་སང་མཇལ་དུ་ཡོད།

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The Protector's Promise and Miraculous Signs

• The Appearance of the Protector: While residing in Kyung, Nyeshang, Rinpoche considered stopping the daily protector offerings (gsol-ka) to Zidän Wangchuk.
• The Protector's Promise: The protector Zidän Wangchuk appeared to him in person and requested:

"Please do not stop the offerings. I shall protect your entire Dharma lineage and your family lineage."

The Purification Festival

During the annual purification festival (Khrus-tshe), Rinpoche would travel to a secluded spot near the monastery to perform purification rituals for the local people, both those who were sick and those who were not.

The Miraculous Footprint

Many years after his passing, a footprint appeared on the stone pile where he used to sit during those purification rituals; this footprint can still be seen today. Rinpoche's son, Drugyu Rinpoche, encountered this footprint while traveling through the area and remarked that it must be his father's. He recalled a conversation with his father before his passing about how he had left footprints in the past.

A Life of Retreat

Although Rinpoche would occasionally visit other monasteries in Nyeshang to lead large ceremonies at the request of the villagers, he primarily remained in strict retreat in his private quarters in Kyung. During the intervals between his meditation sessions, he would grant empowerments and pith instructions to those seeking the Dharma, leading them toward spiritual maturity and liberation.

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[PAGE 10] གཞན་ཡང་འཕོ་བ་སོགས་གནང་བའི་ཚེ་སྐབས་འགར་འདི་རིང་འཕོ་བ་བྱེད་སྐབས་རྣམ་ཤེས་སྤར་ཡ་ཁག་པོ་མ་བྱུང་སྐྱེ་བ་བཟང་པོ་ལེན་ས་རེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ་དང་། ཡང་སྐབས་འགར་གཤིན་པོ་འདི་ཧ་ཅང་གི་སྡིག་སྒྲིབ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ས་རེད། འཕོ་བ་བྱེད་དུས་རྣམ་ཤེས་འདྲེན་ཡ་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཁག་པོ་བྱུང་ཞེས་དང་། འགའ་ཞིག་ལ་ནི་ཤི་ཡོད་ས་མ་རེད་གསུངས་པ་ལྟ་བུ་གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་བདེ་ཅན་དག་པའི་ཞིང་དུ་སྤར་བའི་ནུས་མཐུ་གནད་དུ་སྨིན་པ་མངའ་བ་དང་། མི་གྲོང་སྐབས་རྣམ་ཤེས་ཕུང་པོའི་ནང་ནས་ཕྱིར་མ་འདོན་པའི་སྐབས་འཕོ་བ་བྱེད་ཡ་ལས་སླ་བོ་ཡོད་ཅིང་། རྣམ་ཤེས་ཕུང་པོའི་ནང་ནས་ཕྱིར་འདོན་ཚར་ན་རྣམ་ཤེས་ཕུང་པོའི་ནང་དུ་ཚུར་བཀུག་ཡ་ཧ་ཅང་གི་ཁག་པོ་གདའ་ཞེས་ཉེ་གནས་རྣམས་ལ་གསུངས་འཕྲོས་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཐོས།

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Mastery of Phowa and the Survival of Jampa

• Signs of Transference: When performing the practice of Phowa (transference of consciousness), Rinpoche would sometimes remark:

"Today, while performing Phowa, there were no difficulties in transferring the consciousness; they have taken a good rebirth."

• The Burden of Karma: Conversely, he might say: "This deceased person seems to have had very great negative karma and obscurations. While performing Phowa, it was extremely difficult to lead the consciousness."
• A Living Presence: Regarding others, he would simply state, "It seems they have not died yet." His power to effectively transfer the consciousness of the deceased to the pure land of Sukhavati was precisely tuned and realized.
• The Ease of Phowa: He once mentioned to his close attendants that if a person is in the process of dying and the consciousness has not yet left the body, performing Phowa is easy. However, once the consciousness has completely exited the body, it is extremely difficult to "hook" it back.
• Signs for All Beings: It was rare for signs of successful Phowa not to appear when he performed the rite. He bestowed this practice not only upon humans but also upon domestic animals like goats and sheep, as well as birds, mice, and other small creatures, always producing the signs of accomplishment.
• The Tsha-tsha Tradition: Generally, after Rinpoche finished the Jang-chok (purification ritual) for the deceased, he did not simply discard the ashes of the name-inscription; instead, he would use them to create tsha-tshas (small clay stupas or icons).

The Case of the Missing Soldier

Long ago, at a place in Nyeshang called Koto, a conflict broke out between the Lo-Khampa and the Drakthang-Khampa, during which many people died. A soldier named Jampa went missing during the battle. Thinking he was deceased, his family requested Rinpoche to perform the Jang-chok purification ritual.

On that day, after the prayers were finished, Ani Düdul was preparing to take the ashes to make tsha-tshas. Rinpoche stopped her, saying:

"There is no need to make tsha-tshas with those ashes; that man has not died. It would be better if we could accumulate some longevity dharanis this evening."

Rinpoche spent the evening reciting longevity dharanis. When the family and relatives heard this through Ani Düdul, they were overjoyed.

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[PAGE 11] སུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར་མི་དེ་ལ་མེ་མདའ་ཕོག་ཅིང་གློ་ཁམས་པས་ཟིན་ནས་ཁྱེར་ཡོད་ཀྱང་མ་ཤི་མ་བསད་པར་གློ་ནས་བྲག་ཐང་ཏུ་ལོག་ཐུབ་པ་བྱུང་བས་འཇམ་པ་དེའི་ངོ་ཤེས་དང་གཉེན་ཚན་རྣམས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལ་ཧ་ཅང་གི་དད་པ་ཆེན་པོ་སྐྱེས་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ་འདི་འདྲ་དངོས་སུ་བྱུང་ཡོད།

ཡང་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཁྱིམ་མཚེས་སིན་དར་ཞེས་པའི་ཨ་མ་དེ་ཚེ་ལས་འདས་ནས། དེའི་ཆེད་དུ་བྱང་ཆོག་གསུངས་པའི་སྐབས། རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཞལ་ནས་ཚེ་འདས་དེ་མོ་རང་གི་ཁང་པའི་ཤར་གྱི་ཕྱོགས་ནས་ཡར་འགྲོ་སོང་། བདེ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་འགྲོ་ཡ་ཁག་པོ་འདུག འོན་ཀྱང་ངན་སོང་དུ་མི་ལྟུང་ཞིང་ང་ཚོའི་ལུང་པའི་ནང་དུ་མི་ལུས་ཞིག་ལེན་ས་རེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར། ཕྱིས་སུ་སྐྱུང་རང་དུ་སྐྱེས་ནས་སྐྱེ་བ་སྔོན་མ་དྲན་ཐུབ་ནས་བཤད་མཁན་ཞིག་བྱུང་བའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཡོད།

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The Return of Jampa

Exactly as Rinpoche had spoken, the man had been shot and captured by the Lo-Khampas. However, he was neither killed nor executed and managed to return from Lo to Drakthang. Because of this, Jampa's acquaintances and relatives developed exceptionally great faith in Rinpoche.

Prophecy of Rebirth

In another instance, the mother of Rinpoche's neighbor, Sindar, passed away. During the purification ritual, Rinpoche remarked:

"The deceased has gone eastward from her house. It is difficult for her to go toward the pure land of Sukhavati. However, she will not fall into the lower realms; she will take a human rebirth within our valley."

Later, a child was born in the village of Kyung who was able to remember and speak of their previous life. There are many such accounts of Rinpoche knowing without obstruction whether someone had passed away and where they would be reborn.

Control Over the Elements

At times when a great windstorm occurred, Rinpoche would recite various prayers and place a bowl upside down on his offering table. This would immediately cause the windstorm to subside. If he then turned the bowl right-side up, the wind would return as before. In this way, he easily subdued even the most violent windstorms.

Rainmaking Rituals

On occasions when it had not rained for a month or two and the crops were beginning to fail, the local villagers would request Rinpoche to bring rain. After examining the astrology and the site, he would take his tent and other necessities and travel to the location. He would then perform the rainmaking rites, including the recitation of the Klu-bum (Naga scriptures), the offering of a hundred tormas, and the performance of Chöd feast offerings.

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[PAGE 12] སྐབས་འགར་ཞག་གཉིས་རེ་གསུམ་རེ་སོགས་གང་ལྟར་ཞག་བདུན་ལས་མི་འགྱངས་པར་ཆར་འབེབས་པར་མཛད་ཅེས་གྲགས། གཞན་ཡང་སློབ་མ་སྣོད་ལྡན་དད་པ་དང་དོན་གཉེར་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་སོ་སོའི་མོས་པ་དང་མཐུན་པར་ཕྱག་ཆེན་དང་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཁྲིད་ཀ་གནང་བར་མཛད་ཅིང་། འོན་ཀྱང་སྔོན་འགྲོ་འབུམ་བཞི་ཐེངས་གསུམ་བཞི་མ་བསགས་པ་ལ་དངོས་གཞིའི་ཁྲིད་ཀ་མི་གནང་བ་སོགས་ཆོས་བཀའ་དོག་པོ་ཡོད་ཅིང་།

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Teaching Discipline and the View on Gossip

Completion of Rainmaking: It is said that sometimes rain would fall after two or three days; in any case, it never took longer than seven days.

Strictness Regarding Ngöndro: Rinpoche granted instructions on Mahamudra and Dzogchen to capable students who possessed faith and diligence, according to their individual inclinations. However, he was very strict: he would not grant the instructions for the main practice unless the student had accumulated the four-hundred-thousand-fold preliminaries (Ngöndro) three or four times. Most of the preliminaries were taught according to The Words of My Perfect Teacher(Kunzang Lame Sharlung). Depending on the student's inclination, he would have some focus primarily on the Könchok Chidü and others on the Nyingthig practices.

The Importance of the Foundation: Rinpoche used to say:

"If negative karma and obscurations are well-purified, the qualities of realization can arise quickly. Without first completing the accumulation of merit and the purification of obscurations, even if one requests many profound instructions from the very beginning and attempts the main practice, no results of realization will ever come to fruition."

He famously taught:

"If the root and foundation are good and stable, the upper floors can be built slowly. If one tries to hurriedly raise many upper floors without a stable foundation, it is useless and no effective benefit can be achieved."

Accordingly, he taught extensively on the four thoughts that turn the mind, karma, and cause and effect.

Subduing Curses and Gossip: When certain ill-intentioned people placed curses on Rinpoche, and his family members informed him, Rinpoche replied:

"It is good if gossip arises; gossip is the 'father's portion' of the gods. It is not good if praise arises; praise only serves as a cause for pride to grow."

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[PAGE 13] ནས་ཐུགས་དགྱེས་སྣང་མཛད་པ་དང་། ཡང་དེ་ལྟར་བྱད་ཁ་གཏད་བསྣན་བྱེད་པའི་ཚེ་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་སྟོང་ཉིད་ཡིན་སྒྱུ་མ་དང་རྨི་ལམ་ལྟ་བུ་ཡིན་བསམ་དགོས་རེད། དེ་འདྲ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཚོ་ལ་སྙིང་རྗེ་སྒོམ་དགོས་རེད། ཁོ་རང་ཚོ་མི་ཚེ་འཕྲོ་བརླག་རེད། ཚེ་ཕྱི་མ་ཀླུ་གདུག་པ་ཅན་གྱི་འཁོར་དུ་སྐྱེས་ནས་དུད་འགྲོའི་གནས་ནས་ཐར་ཁག་པོ་རེད། ང་རང་ཚོས་ལས་བསགས་པ་མེད་པར་ཁོ་ཚོས་བྱས་པ་གང་ཡང་ཡོད་མ་རེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་ནས་དེ་འདྲའི་རིགས་ལ་འཇིགས་སྣང་དང་དོ་སྣང་གང་ཡང་མཛད་སྲོལ་མེད།

སྤྱི་ལོ་༡༩༨༠ ལྕགས་སྤྲེལ་ལོར། སྐུ་ལ་སྨྱུང་གཞིས་ཆེན་པོ་བཞེས། རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཞལ་ནས་ད་ལོ་སྤྲེལ་ལོ་འདི་ལོ་ནག་ཡིན་པས་ན་ཞིང་ལ་ཕེབས་པའི་དུས་ཚོད་བཟང་པོ་མ་ལགས་པས། གཏོང་ལེན་གྱི་དམིགས་པ་སོགས་གནང་ནས་བསྡད་ཐུབ་ན་ཡག་པོ་ཡོད་རེད། ལོ་ནག་འདི་རྫོགས་ཚར་བའི་རྗེས་སུ་ཞིང་ལ་ཕེབས་ནའང་དུས་ཚོད་བཟང་པོ་ཡོད་རེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་པར་མཛད།

མཐར་སྤྱི་ལོ་༡༩༨༡ བོད་རྒྱལ་ལོ་༢༡༠༨ རབ་བྱུང་ལྕགས་བྱའི་ལོར་བོད་ཟླ་གསུམ་པའི་ཚེས་བདུན་ཉིན། རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་ནས་ནང་མི་རྣམས་ལ་སང་ཉིན་བོད་ཟླ་གསུམ་པའི་ཚེས་བརྒྱད་གཟའ་ཟླ་བ་ཡིན་པས་ཞིང་ལ་ཕེབས་པའི་དུས་ཚོད་བཟང་པོ་འདུག་ཅེས་གསུངས།

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Compassion Toward Those Who Curse

Regarding those who performed black magic or curses against him, Rinpoche taught:

"One should view these actions as being like a dream or an illusion. Meditate on compassion for such people — they are wasting their human lives. In future lives, such individuals risk being born into the retinue of fierce nagas or in the animal realm, from which liberation is extremely difficult. If one has not accumulated the specific karma, others' actions cannot truly harm them."

Thus, he showed neither fear nor concern toward such things.

The Year 1980 — The Iron Monkey Year

In 1980, the Iron Monkey year, Rinpoche fell seriously ill. He remarked:

"Since this Monkey year is a 'black year,' it is not an auspicious time to pass away. It would be better to remain for now, focusing on practices like tonglen, and a more auspicious time will come after the black year has ended."

His mastery over his own life-force and his unobstructed clairvoyance regarding the future were clearly evident.

The Year 1981 — The Iron Bird Year

Finally, in 1981 (the Iron Bird year), on the 7th day of the 3rd Tibetan month, Rinpoche told his family:

"Tomorrow, the 8th day of the 3rd month, is a Monday — it is an auspicious time to depart."

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[PAGE 14] པས། ཞི་ཁྲོའི་ལྷ་ཚོགས་ཐམས་ཅད་གཅིག་ནང་གཅིག་ཐིམ་ནས་མཐར་གཙོ་བོ་ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་ཐིམ་ནས་དགོངས་པ་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ངང་ལ་མཉམ་པར་བཞག་འགྲོ་བ་ཡིན། དེའི་ཚེ་སྐུ་དྲུང་དུ་བཞུགས་ཡོད་པ་ཚོས་དད་པ་དང་མོས་གུས་ཆེན་པོས་སེམས་མ་ཡེངས་པར་གསོལ་བ་རྩེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་བཏབ་ནས་མཉམ་བཞག་ངང་ལ་གནས་ཐུབ་ན། མཐར་བོད་ཟླ་གསུམ་པའི་ཚེས་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་སྔ་དྲོའི་ཆར་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གིས་ཞལ་ནས་ཨ་ཨ་ཨ་གསུངས་ནས་དབུགས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཆད་ནས་ཁུ་སིམ་པོའི་ངང་ལ་ཞི་བར་གཤེགས་པར་མཛད། ཨ་ལན་གསུམ་གསུངས་པའི་སྒྲ་སྐུ་གམ་དུ་ཡོད་པའི་ཨ་ནི་མ་སྨད་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་གསལ་བར་ཐོས།

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Instructions on the Final Transition

Before Rinpoche passed away, he gave final instructions regarding the stages of dissolution (thim-rim):

• While a master is alive, they remain in the state of the generation stage (kyerim) of the deity.
• At the moment of death, all generation-stage appearances are gathered into the stages of dissolution and settle into the luminosity of the completion stage (dzogrim).
• The entire assembly of peaceful and wrathful deities dissolves into one another, eventually dissolving into the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra, before the mind settles into the expanse of the Dharmadhatu.

He advised those present:

"Remain focused with great faith and devotion, avoiding distractions and praying one-pointedly during the meditative absorption. For those who do not know how to meditate, this could be a moment of recognizing the nature of mind; for those who do, it will greatly enhance their practice. Remain quiet and avoid making noise — focused attention will allow you to witness signs of the path, such as celestial sounds or the earth shaking."

The Final Moments and the Syllable "A"

On the morning of the 8th day of the 3rd Tibetan month, Rinpoche uttered the syllable "A, A, A" three times. Immediately following this, his breathing ceased, and he passed away into the state of peaceful stillness. The three distinct sounds of "A" were clearly heard by the mother and daughter — Ani Düdul and her mother — who were by his side.

Signs of Accomplishment

Following Rinpoche's instructions, those present refrained from weeping and instead prayed with one-pointed devotion. Shortly after his passing, a self-arisen celestial sound, like the soft ringing of ting-sha (cymbals), was clearly heard in the space above his head by Ani Düdul. Rinpoche's son, Lama Drugyu, performed the final heart-offering prayers (thukdam) and completed the offerings for the transition.

Before passing, Rinpoche had told his students:

"After the generation stage dissolves and I settle into the completion stage, I will meet Amitabha Buddha and receive prophecies. As a sign of attainment of the spiritual levels, a minor earthquake will occur that will cause no harm to living beings — look out for it."

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[PAGE 15] མཛོད་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར། ཚེས་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་དགོང་མོ་ཆུ་ཚོད་བཅུ་པ་ཙམ་ལ་ས་གཡོ་འགུལ་ཅུང་ཟད་བྱུང་ཞེས་ཉེ་བར་གནས་པ་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་ཚོར་འདུག ཞིང་ཕེབས་པའི་ཚེ་ནམ་མཁའི་སྤྲིན་ཐམས་ཅད་རྨ་བྱའི་སྒྲོ་ལྟ་བུ་དང་གདུགས་དང་རྒྱལ་མཚན་གྱི་དབྱིབས་ལྟ་བུའི་འཇའ་སྤྲིན་གྱིས་གང་བར་གྱུར། ཞག་བདུན་གྱི་བར་སྐུ་གདུང་བཞུགས་སུ་གསོལ་ཞིང་གསོལ་འདེབས་དང་སྐུ་གདུང་མཇལ་ཁ་སོགས་ཞུས། ཚེས་བཅོ་ལྔའི་ཉིན་པོར་སྐུ་གདུང་ཞུགས་ལ་ཕུལ་བའི་ཚེ་པུར་ཁང་གི་སྟེང་གི་ཐད་དུ་འཇའ་གོར་མོ་འཁྱིལ་བ་དང་། ཤར་ནས་ལྷོ་རུ་འཇའ་གཅིག་ཟུག བྱང་གི་ཕྱོགས་སུའང་འཇའ་གཅིག་ཟུག

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Miraculous Signs and the Multiplication of Relics

The Earth Tremor and Celestial Signs: As predicted, at approximately 10:00 PM on the night of the 8th day, those staying nearby felt a slight earth tremor. At the time of his passing, the clouds in the sky were filled with rainbow-colored light shaped like peacock feathers, parasols, and victory banners.

Cremation and Rainbows: His holy body was kept for seven days, during which prayers were offered and the public was granted an audience. On the 15th day, the cremation took place. At that time, circular rainbows swirled directly above the crematorium (purkhang), and rainbows stretched from the East to the South, as well as toward the North.

The Ascending Sphere of Light: On the evening of the cremation, before dusk, a younger daughter witnessed a round, white luminous sphere ascending from the top of the crematorium into the sky. Ani Düdul and others also looked and saw the round white object rise into the heavens, becoming like a star before moving toward the West and vanishing. This was understood to be the Dakinis carrying away the holy relics, though many people at the time remained unaware of the significance.

The Discovery of Multi-colored Relics: After the cremation was completed, many relics of different colors — white, blue, green, dark brown, red, and black — were found within the funeral ashes. Later, his son, Drugyu Rinpoche, mixed the cremation ashes and bone fragments into medicinal pills (rilbu); while he was performing the practice, many more relics spontaneously multiplied from within those pills.

The Miracle of Sonam Wangmo: Drugyu Rinpoche gave a single relic to a patroness named Sonam Wangmo. She placed the relic inside her shrine and performed offerings and prostrations. Later, when a Mani temple was being built at Bodhanath (Phagpa Shingkun) and relics were needed, she opened the container and saw that the single relic had miraculously multiplied into more than eighty.

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[PAGE 16] པར་མངོན་སུམ་གྱིས་མཐོང་བས་ཤིན་ཏུ་ངོ་མཚར་ཆེན་པོ་བྱུང་བ་དང་། གཞན་ཡང་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་དྲིལ་སྒྲུབ་གནང་བའི་གསང་སྔགས་ཀྱི་རིལ་བུ་ཞིག་སྔོན་བླ་རྒན་སྦ་སྨེ་ཞེས་པ་ཞིག་ལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་གནང་།

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Secret Mantra Pills

Additionally, Rinpoche himself had given a secret mantra pill (gsang-sngags ril-bu), which he had created through ritual accomplishment, to an old lama named Ba-me. Later, those secret mantra pills also multiplied in number. Whenever the old lama suffered from wounds or illnesses, he would take one pill to apply to the wound or to ingest, and the wounds would immediately heal and the illnesses were cured, proving to be of immense benefit. It is said that the pills multiplied to the point that the cloth bag containing them wore out and developed holes. When a new cloth bag was made to hold them, the spontaneous multiplication of the secret mantra pills ceased and eventually they were all used.

Rinpoche had two younger daughters, whom he had enter preliminary practices (ngöndro) at Melong Jangchub Ri.

Family Members and Associates

The Shidrub Lopön of Rumtek was also a member of the Mase family. He resided and passed away at Rumtek Monastery. It is noted that Lama Sherab Gyaltsen received teachings on the Dechen Shidrub (Pure Land practice) from him.

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[PAGE 17] རིག་རྟགས་མཚན་མ་འདོན་པའི་བར་དུ་བཞུགས་པར་མཛད། རི་ཁྲོད་འགའ་ཞིག་ལ་ཉིན་གསུམ་ནང་རྟགས་མཚན་བྱུང་བ་དང་། འགའ་ཞིག་ལ་ཉིན་ལྔར་རྟགས་མཚན་འདོན་པ་དང་། འགའ་ཞིག་ཏུ་རྟགས་མཚན་འབྱུང་བ་ལ་ཉིན་དགུ་འགོར་བ་ཡིན། ཉིན་ལྔ་གསུམ་དགུའི་བར་རྟགས་མཚན་མ་བྱུང་གི་བར་རི་ཁྲོད་ལ་བཞུགས་ནས་གཅོད་བཏང་བར་མཛད།

གཅོད་ཀྱི་ཉམས་ལེན་གནང་ནས་རྟགས་མཚན་བྱུང་བའི་ཚེ་གང་ཟག་རབ་ལ་སྣང་སྲིད་ལྷ་འདྲེ་རྣམས་དངོས་སུ་མི་དང་མི་འཕྲད་པ་བཞིན་མཐོང་ནས་དེ་རྣམས་བྲན་དུ་བཀོལ་ནུས་པ་དང་། འབྲིང་ལ་དངོས་སུ་མ་མཐོང་ནའང་ཉམས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བ་ལ་མཐོང་ནས་བཀའ་མོལ་བྱེད་ནུས་པ་དང་། ཐ་མ་རྨི་ལམ་གྱི་སྐབས་སུ་རྟགས་མཚན་བྱུང་བ་སོགས་ཡོད་པ་ལས་ཨ་ནི་ཆོས་སྒྲོན་ནི་དངོས་སུ་ལྷ་འདྲེ་རྣམས་མཐོང་ནས། དེ་རྣམས་ལ་བྲན་དུ་བཀོལ་བས་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་མར་དཀར་སེར་དམར་པོ་སོགས་མི་འདྲ་བ་ཁྱེར་ནས་ཕུལ་ཡོང་བ་དང་། འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་གཟིམས་ཆུང་གི་སྒོ་འགྲམ་དུ་ཤིང་ཁུར་སྐྱེལ་ཡོང་བ་དང་། འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་ཆུ་ཁྱེར་ཡོང་བ་སོགས་དེ་འདྲ་བྱུང་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན།

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Regarding Ani Chözom

Mastery of Chöd: Ani Chözom completed her training in Chöd after practicing in a hundred different mountains and a hundred different valleys. She possessed exceptional realization and was able to command the gods and spirits of the phenomenal world as her servants.

The Method of Her Training: She would remain in each mountain retreat until signs of accomplishment manifested. In some mountain retreats, signs appeared within three days; in others, it took five days; and in some, it took as many as nine days. She would stay and perform the Chöd rituals for however long was necessary until the signs occurred.

Levels of Realization and Command over Spirits

According to the teachings on the signs of Chöd practice:

• Superior practitioners see the gods and spirits of the phenomenal world directly, as clearly as one person meets another, and are able to command them as servants.
• Middling practitioners see them through spiritual visions and are able to converse with them.
• Lesser practitioners receive signs during their dreams.

Ani Chözom was one who saw spirits directly and commanded them as her servants. Spirits would bring her various types of butter — white, yellow, and red — and deliver bundles of firewood and water to the door of her retreat quarters.

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[PAGE 18] མི་འདྲ་བའི་མར་སེར་པོ་དང་དམར་པོ་སོགས་རོ་བཅུད་གཞན་དང་མི་འདྲ་བ་དེ་འདྲ་མང་པོ་གནང་མྱོང་ཡོད་ཅེས་སྲིང་མོ་གཉིས་པོའི་ངག་ནས་དངོས་སུ་ཐོས།

རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གཟིམས་ཆུང་དང་ཨ་ནི་མ་སྨད་གཉིས་བཞུགས་སའི་བར་ལ་ཐག་རིང་ཐུང་གོམ་པ་ལྔ་བཅུ་ཙམ་ཡོད། སྔོན་ཨ་ནི་བདུད་འདུལ་ཐེངས་གཅིག་དགོང་དྲོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གཟིམས་ཆུང་དུ་བཅར་དགོས་པའི་ཕྱག་ལས་ཞིག་བྱུང་སྐབས། རང་གི་མ་ཨ་ནི་ཆོས་སྒྲོན་ལ་ཁོང་གཅིག་པུ་འགྲོ་ཡ་འཇིགས་པར་འདུག་པས་རོགས་པ་ཕེབས་རོགས་ཞུས་སྐབས། ཆོས་སྒྲོན་ནས་ཁོང་ལ་ཐུགས་ཁོམ་མེད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་འཇིགས་མི་དགོས་ངས་ལོ་མ་བཟང་མོ་ཞེས་པའི་རོགས་པ་ཞིག་གཏང་ཡོང་། མོ་ཡང་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཞལ་སློབ་རེད་ད་ལྟ་སྔོན་འགྲོ་བསགས་བཞིན་པ་རེད་ཅེས་གསུངས།

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Witnessed Miracles

Occasionally, Ani Chözom would take her two sisters in turns to remote retreats where no other humans traveled, to stay for several days. Her sisters frequently witnessed that even though no wood, butter, or water was available in the vicinity during the evening, by the next morning, bundles of firewood and water had been delivered to the door of the residence. They also reported experiencing butter that was unlike ordinary livestock butter in its color and richness — yellow and red butters of extraordinary taste. This account was heard directly from the mouths of both sisters.

These are the traditional signs of success in Chöd practice: the signs of completion (tshar-tshad), severing (chöd-tshad), and descent (lhung-tshad).

The Invisible Escort

The distance between Rinpoche's private quarters and where Ani Chözom and her daughter lived was approximately fifty paces. Once, Ani Düdul had a task that required her to visit Rinpoche's quarters in the evening; she asked her mother, Ani Chözom, to accompany her because she was afraid to go alone. Chözom replied that she was busy but said:

"You do not need to be afraid; I will send a companion named Loma Zangmo. She is also a student of Rinpoche and is currently accumulating her preliminary practices."

Afterwards, Ani Düdul felt reassured and went to Rinpoche's quarters. Although she saw no physical form with her eyes, she clearly heard the sound of someone walking beside her, reciting the refuge prayers:

"I take refuge in the Guru, I take refuge in the Buddha..."

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[PAGE 19] མཚམས་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་བྱུང་བའི་སྐོར་ཞུས་པ་ན། རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཞལ་ནས་འཁྲུལ་སྣང་རེད་དམ་ངོ་མ་རེད་འདུག་ཁྱེད་རང་གིས་ཟིན་ཨེ་ཐུབ་ལྟོས་དང་། ངོ་མ་ཡིན་ན་ཟིན་ཐུབ་ཀྱི་རེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་པས།

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The Non-Human Student and the Capturing of the Fox

The Non-Human Student: Ani Chözom had a non-human student named Chödpa Palden, who was originally a local deity (gzhi-bdag) of Jangchub Ri. Earlier, while Rinpoche was residing at Jangchub Ri, Ani Chözom was performing the Chöd ritual in a secluded retreat when two or three foxes surrounded her and began crying out. Ani wondered if she was experiencing an illusion, but thinking that if it were real, they were welcome to consume her "body of suffering," she abandoned self-attachment and fearlessly completed the entire liturgy. The foxes would leave when the ritual concluded, a phenomenon that occurred several times.

Testing the Illusion: When Ani Chözom informed Melong Tsampa Rinpoche about the foxes appearing during her retreat, Rinpoche gave her this advice:

"Check whether it is an illusion or reality. Try to catch it; if it is real, you will be able to catch it."

The Capture: To prepare, Ani obtained a multi-colored rope known as "Nine-Coiled Springs" (chu-mig dgu-'khril). One evening, while she was sitting in the Chöd ritual, the fox returned. It circled her, crying out and tugging slightly at her robes. While continuing her recitation without interruption, she slowly drew out the rope, reached for the fox's leg, and bound it.

A Spirit in Human Speech: After completing the entire liturgy, she looked — the fox spoke in a human voice, pleading:

"Ani, please let me go! I will obey whatever you say."

The Condition for Freedom: Ani replied:

"What is the point of you wandering about, harming birds, mice, and other small creatures? Since you clearly understand human speech, you must abandon harming sentient beings. See if you can learn even a single letter of the alphabet. If you promise to practice the Dharma, I will let you go; otherwise, I will not."

The Spirit's Change of Heart: The fox initially resisted:

"Currently, in this fox body, I am living a very pleasant life — this situation is actually quite happy."

In response, Ani Chözom taught the spirit extensively on the negative consequences of killing, the sufferings of the lower realms, and the laws of karma. Eventually, the fox had a change of heart (blo-ldog):

"Very well, I will make a vow not to harm others and I agree to practice the Dharma. However, you must provide me with one meal and one Dharma lesson each time. Furthermore, I can only come at night; I am too afraid to come during the day."

Ani Chözom agreed to these terms and officially led the spirit toward the path of the holy Dharma.

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[PAGE 20] བཀོད་པར་མཛད། དེའི་རྗེས་དགོང་དྲོ་རྟག་པར་ཨ་ནིའི་སྐུ་མདུན་དུ་ཝ་མོའི་གཟུགས་མིན་པར་མིའི་གཟུགས་སུ་སྤྲུལ་ནས་ཡོང་ཞིང་ཡི་གེ་སྦྱངས། ཐོག་མར་ཡི་གེ་སློབ་པའི་ཚེ་ཡི་གེ་ནང་ལ་དབྱེ་བ་ཕྱེ་ནས་འགའ་ཞིག་ཁ་ནས་འདོན་པ་ལ་སྐྲག་སྣང་བྱེད་ཅིང་འདུག་ཟེར། དཔེར་ན་མ་ཎི་བསླབ་པའི་ཚེ་མ་དང་ནི་དང་པད་རྣམས་ཁ་ནས་འདོན་ཀྱང་ༀ་ཁ་ནས་འདོན་པ་ལ་སྐྲག་སྣང་བྱེད་ཅིང་མི་འདོན་ཟེར་བ་ལྟ་བུའོ། །དེ་ལྟར་ཡུན་རིང་སྦྱངས་ནས་ཕྱིས་སུ་སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཡིག་བརྒྱ་མཎྜལ་བླ་མའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་བཅས་སྔོན་འགྲོ་འབུམ་བཞི་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་བསྐྱལ། དེ་ཙམ་དུ་མ་ཟད་གཅོད་ཀྱི་ཚོགས་ལས་འདོན་སྟངས་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བསླབས་པས་གཅོད་ཚོགས་འདོན་ཤེས་པ་བྱུང་། འོན་ཀྱང་གཅོད་ཚོགས་འདོན་པའི་ཚེ་ཞག་དྲུག་འགོར་ཞེས་བཤད། ཨ་ནི་ཆོས་སྒྲོན་ནས་དེའི་མིང་ལ་གཅོད་པ་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཞེས་བཏགས། ཨ་ནི་ནས་ཤིང་དང་ཆུ་སོགས་མངགས་པའི་ཚེ་ཆུ་ཉུང་ངུ་ཁྱེར་ཡོང་བ་དང་། ཤིང་ཁུར་ཆུང་ངུ་ཞིག་ཁྱེར་ཡོང་བ་སོགས་ཨ་ནི་ལ་ཞབས་ཕྱི་ཡང་ཞུ་ཤེས་པ་ཞིག་བྱུང་།

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The Spiritual Progress of Chödpa Palden

A Human Form: From that time on, every evening, the spirit would come before Ani Chözom — not in the form of a fox, but manifesting in human form to study reading and writing.

Fear of the Sacred Syllables: When the spirit first began learning to read, it showed great fear when trying to pronounce certain letters. When learning the Mani mantra (Om Mani Padme Hum), it would pronounce the syllables "Ma," "Ni," and "Pad," but it was terrified to utter the syllable "Om" and would refuse to do so.

Completion of Practices: After studying for a long period, the spirit eventually completed the entire four-hundred-thousand-fold Ngöndro (preliminary practices), including Refuge, Bodhichitta, the Hundred-Syllable Mantra, Mandala offerings, and Guru Yoga. Beyond the preliminaries, it also learned the complex liturgical melodies and performance methods of the Chöd feast offerings. However, whenever the spirit performed the Chöd feast ritual, it would take six full days to complete it.

Naming and Service: Ani Chözom gave the spirit the name Chödpa Palden. When the Ani sent it to fetch wood or water, it would bring back small amounts of water or small bundles of firewood, learning how to perform humble service for its teacher.

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This biography was compiled from oral accounts and written records of the Mase family tradition.