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The Third Yolmo Tulku, Tendzin Norbu

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ཡོལ་མོ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ ༠༣ བསྟན་འཛིན་ནོར་བུ། The Third Yolmo Tulku, Tendzin Norbu


The Third Yolmo Tulku, Tendzin Norbu (yol mo sprul sku 03 bstan 'dzin nor bu) was born in 1598, the male earth-dog year, in Kongpo. His father, Trinle Wangchuk ('phrin las dbang phyug, 16th century), was an accomplished practitioner of various Jonang teachings and was recognized as the reincarnation of Lochen Ratnabhadra (lo chen ratna bhadra, 1489–1563). One of Trinle Wangchuk's many teachers was the Second Yolmo Tulku, Namkha Gyajin (yol mo sprul sku 02 nam mkha' brgya sbyin, 16th century). Tendzin Norbu's mother, Kunzang Wangmo (kun bzang dbang mo, 16th century) was the daughter from the Sungkhar (srung mkhar) family of Upper Kongpo.

Immediately upon birth, the infant is said to have praised Padmasambhava by joining his hands in a gesture of prayer and saying, "Orgyen Khyen!" This and other miraculous signs led to the child’s eventual recognition as the reincarnation of the Second Yolmo Tulku by Nyangton Orgyen Dondrub Dorje (o rgyan don grub rdo rje, 16th century). Numerous biographers record that the definitive

indication of the boy’s identity was the physical mark on his back from the labors he performed in a previous life during the initial construction of the Jarung Kashor Stupa (bya rung kha shor) in Boudhanath, Nepal. In a treasure text revealed by the First Yolmo Tulku, Shākya Zangpo (yol mo sprul sku 01 shAkya bzang po, b.15th century), the origin story of the Yolmo Tulku lineage is connected with an aspiration vow made by a laborer who worked carrying bricks for the construction of the stupa in the ancient

past. Shakya Zangpo rediscovered the ruins of the ancient stupa and initiated a major reconstruction and re-consecration in the sixteenth century. Tendzin Norbu’s younger brother, Gamnyon Chakdor Norbu (sgam smyon phyag rdor nor bu, seventeenth century) was recognized as a reincarnation of Gampopa Sonam Rinchen (sgam po pa bsod nams rin chen, 1079-1153) and later inherited the throne Tangtong Gyelpo’s Chung Riwoche Monastery (cung ri bo che dgon) from Tendzin Norbu, who held it in the early seventeenth century.

After his father’s death, Tendzin Norbu traveled from Kongpo to Tsang with his mother and younger brother. En route, they visited numerous sites associated with the previous lives of the Yolmo Tulkus and Lochen Ratnabhadra. He received the upāsaka vows from the Sixth Zhamar Garwang Chokyi Wangchuk (zhwa dmar 06 chos kyi dbang phyug, 1583-1630) who gave him the ordination name Karma Tubten Nyingpo Nampar

Gyelwai De (karma thub bstan snying po nam par rgyal ba'i sde). During this trip he also made his first visit to the court of the Gungtang King Sonam Wangchuk (khri bsod nams dbang phyug, 1577-1621), the last throne-holder of a lineage traced back to the royal family of Tibet’s imperial period. The Gungtang kings were important patrons of numerous Buddhist teachers but held a particularly important connections with the “Northern Treasurestradition and the holders of Tangtong Gyelpo’s lineage. During this early visit to the court, Tendzin Norbu developed a childhood friendship with the king’s daughter that would become one of the most important connections in his life.

At Ngamring (ngam ring) Monastery, currently a Geluk monastery that then belonged to the Sakya tradition, Tendzin Norbu and his younger brother studied with the Jonang master, Lochen Gyurme Dechen (lo chen 'gyur med bde chen, 1540-1615). He was then moved to Zhe Dratsang

(bzhad grwa tshang) to commence with his formal monastic training but Tendzin Norbu felt that the burdens of his ceremonial obligations as a tulku were an obstacle to his education and found himself in conflict with the administrators. He was able to continue his much

more fruitful studies with Lochen Gyurme Dechen periodically and in 1614 eventually joined the Karma Kagyu monastery of Nyinje Ling (nyin byed gling) that was overseen by his first monastic preceptor, the Sixth Zhamar. His studies at Nyinje Ling were interrupted briefly in 1615 when Lochen Gyurme Dechen passed away and Tendzin Norbu was summoned to perform the funerary rites.

In 1617, Tendzin Norbu’s scholastic training was again interrupted as he was invited to travel to Kathmandu by King Śīvasiṃha (d. 1619). During this journey Tendzin Norbu visited the sacred sites of the Kathmandu Valley including the Jarung Kashor Stupa that had been renovated by the First Yolmo Tulku Shākya Zangpo. Tendzin Norbu’s autobiography records his observations of Nepal and his audience with the

king. In one of the reported conversations with Śivasimha, the king recollects the Second Yolmo Tulku and asks why the revered monk would have died and taken rebirth while the king himself has remained alive. Tendzin Norbu elegantly responds by attributing his own death and

rebirth to the compassionate vow to continually be reborn for the benefit of beings while praising the king’s longevity as the result of his great merit. The king was also in attendance when Tendzin Norbu performed a large public empowerment in the square in front of the palace.

On the way back to Tibet he stayed briefly in the Yolmo Valley, which had been “opened” as a hidden land by Shākya Zangpo who spent the last part of his life in retreat there. Upon returning to Tibet, Tendzin Norbu spent more time at the Gungtang court of the King Sonam Wangchuk and at the Samdrubtse Palace (bsam grub rtse) in Shigatse, the seat of the Tsangpa Desi, Karma Puntsok Namgyel (karma

phun tshogs rnam rgyal, c.1597-c.1632). The early decades of the seventeenth century were years of intense political instability in Tibet. Tendzin Norbu enjoyed allegiances with the powerful King of Gungtang through his identity as an important tulku of the Northern Treasures tradition and with the Tsangpa Desi through his connection to the Sixth Zhamar. As these two centers of power moved ever closer to direct warfare, Tendzin Norbu was forced to exercise his diplomatic skills in order to avoid offending either patron.

In his autobiography, Tendzin Norbu also describes a victorious performance at the annual debate festival at Ngamring Monastery but this report is difficult to corroborate with other sources that describe the destruction of Ngamring Monastery in the Tsangpa Desi’s campaign against the growing power of Geluk institutions in Tsang. It is possible that his “victory” on the famous debating grounds of the Geluk monastery was a symbolic epilogue to his patron’s military conquest of Ngamring but Tendzin Norbu makes no mention of these events in his autobiography. Late in 1617, Tendzin Norbu received complete ordination as a bhikṣu from the Sixth Zhamar.

In 1618, Tendzin Norbu met the Third Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Ngakgi Wangpo (rdo rje brag rig 'dzin 03 ngag gi dbang po, 1580-1639), who had been a disciple of his own previous incarnation. It seems that upon meeting this Nyingma master the newly-ordained Tendzin Norbu was beset

by doubts concerning the ethical validity of certain wrathful practices that were specialties of the Northern Treasures (byang gter), a tradition primarily based on the revelations of Rigdzin Godemchen (rid 'dzin rgod ldem can, 1337-1409). Ngakgi Wangpo is said to have clairvoyantly understood the doubts and summoned Tendzin Norbu to his room where he revealed his knowledge of the monk’s doubts and eliminated them with a powerful gaze. This anecdote marks a turning point in the life of Tendzin Norbu and his studies and practice came to be increasingly focused on the Nyingma tradition.

In the following years, Tendzin Norbu traveled throughout Tsang but spent an extended period of time in retreat at the sacred Mount Pelbar (ri bo dpal 'bar) in Gungtang. During this retreat he experienced numerous visions of ḍākinī and protectors who urged him to take on the practice of a tantric adept and treasure-revealer. His decision to pursue this path was widely met with consternation and he

was criticized for abandoning his monastic vows. After this transformative retreat, Tendzin Norbu returned to the newly established Dorje Drak Monastery to continue his studies with Ngakgi Wangpo and to teach. In 1622, following prophecies he received at Mount Pelbar and interpreted with the assistance of Ngakgi Wangpo, he performed another retreat at Gyang Yonpolung (rgyang yon po lung) in Tsang where he revealed a treasure including a practice-cycle focused on Dorje Drolo (rdo rje grol lod).

In 1629, a daughter of the King of Gungtang, whose name is not known, attended Tendzin Norbu’s teachings on the Self-existing and Self-arising Primordial Purity (ka dag rang byung rang shar). In his autobiography, Tendzin Norbu writes that he had a great affection for the princess from the bond that they had forged as young children when he was a guest at the court of her father. The princess became Tendzin Norbu’s principal consort and she was soon pregnant with their daughter. In 1630 Tendzin Norbu spent several months at the

encampment of the Tenth Karmapa, Choying Dorje (karma pa 10 chos dbyings rdo rje, 1604-1674) and performed martial rites at Shelkar (shel dkar) for the Tsangpa Desi Tenkyong Wangpo (gtsang pa de srid bstan skyong dbang po, 1606-1642). These two figures -- the Tenth Karmapa and the Tsangpa Desi -- were joined together in Tibetan history as adversaries of the Fifth Dalai Lama Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (ta la'i bla ma 05 ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, 1617-1682). The forces allied with the Dalai Lama would eventually kill the Tenkyong Wangpo in their conquest of Tsang and force the Tenth Karmapa into exile. In 1630, however, tensions between the factions were escalating and the eventual outcome was still unclear.

He eventually joined his consort and their infant daughter at a residence in the forests of Kyirong (skyid rong) where the couple engaged in practice of the Northern Treasures. This retreat in Kyirong, called Ngodrub Tsoling (dngos grub tsho gling) would be Tendzin Norbu’s principal residence for the rest of his life. His activities in Kyirong included overseeing the renovation and re-consecration of

Jampatrin (byams pa sprin), one of the original temples constructed by Songtsen Gampo (srong brtsan sgam po, 617-698), and an unsuccessful attempt to reveal a prophesied treasure from Mount Pelbar. This attempted treasure recovery in 1639 was interrupted by the death of the Third Dorje Drak Rigdzin Ngakgi Wangpo and Tendzin Norbu’s resultant duties at Dorje Drak Monastery.

In 1642, the war between the Tsangpa Desi and the Mongol forces allied with the Fifth Dalai Lama concluded with the defeat of Tsang and the unification of Tibet under the rule of the Dalai Lama’s Ganden Podrang government. Given Tendzin Norbu’s close ties with the Tsangpa Desi and the Karma Kagyu tradition, he might have found himself on the losing side of history. However, due to his family ties to the Northern Treasures tradition, the Fifth Dalai Lama held the Dorje Drak Rigdzin Ngagki Wangpo in high esteem. During the last years of his

life, Tendzin Norbu turned his attention to the monastic community of his teacher and it is in this capacity that he cultivated ties with the new ruler of Tibet. During a trip to Lhasa during the New Year festivities of 1643, Tendzin Norbu won the support of the Fifth Dalai who praised Tendzin Norbu as “an authentic treasure revealer” and secured the institutional stability of Dorje Drak Monastery.

Tendzin Norbu’s final act of service to the Northern Treasures was the recognition of Ngagki Wangpo’s reincarnation as the child who would eventually become the Fourth Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Pema Trinle (rdo rje brag rig 'dzin 04 padma 'phrin las, 1641-1717). Despite

indications in his own writings that he may not take rebirth in Tibet, his reincarnation was recognized in the person of Zilnon Wangyel Dorje (zil gnon dbang rgyal rdo rje, b. 1647).



Benjamin Bogin is Assistant Professor in the Asian Studies Program at Skidmore College.

Published January 2014


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Benjamin Bogin

January 2014



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