Rigdzin Gödem
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Rigdzin Gödem, revealer of the Northern Treasures
Rigdzin Gödem Ngödrup Gyaltsen (Tib. རིག་འཛིན་རྒོད་ལྡེམ་དངོས་གྲུབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་, Wyl. rig 'dzin rgod ldem dngos grub rgyal mtshan) (1337-1408) — a major tertön who discovered the Northern Treasures (Tib. བྱང་གཏེར་, Chang Ter; Wyl. byang gter). He became known as Rigdzin Gödem because, at the age of twelve, three vulture feathers spontaneously grew from the crown of his head. When he was twenty-four, five more grew. Rigdzin Gödem literally translates as "Vidyadhara Vulture Feathers".
He was an emanation of Nanam Dorje Dudjom and a previous incarnation of Tertön Sogyal.
Further Reading
- Dudjom Rinpoche, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Its Fundamentals and History, trans. and ed. Gyurme Dorje (Boston: Wisdom, 1991), pages 780-783.
- Dr. Rigzin Ngodrup, རིག་འཛིན་རྒོད་ཀྱི་ལྡེམ་འཕྲུ་ཅན་གྱི་མཛད་རྣམ་མདོར་བསྡུས་, rig 'dzin rgod kyi ldem 'phru can gyi mdzad rnam mdor bsdus, Gangtok: Bulletin of Tibetology, No. 2, 1999
- Jurgen Wilhelm Herweg, The Hagiography of Rig 'dzin Rgod kyi ldem 'phru can and Three Historical Questions Emerging from It (M.A. thesis), University of Washington, 1994
