Lochen Dharmashri

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Lochen Dharmashri (Tib. ལོ་ཆེན་དྷརྨ་ཤྲཱི་, Wyl. lo chen d+harma shrI) aka Ngawang Chöpal Gyatso (Tib. ངག་དབང་ཆོས་དཔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wyl. ngag dbang chos dpal rgya mtsho) (1654-1717) — one of the greatest scholars of the Nyingma school,

whose collected writings fill twenty volumes and include important commentaries on the Guhyagarbha Tantra.

He was an emanation of Yudra Nyingpo and the younger brother of Minling Terchen Gyurme Dorje, the founder of Mindroling Monastery.

He was tragically killed during the Dzungar war of 1717-8, during which Mindroling was destroyed.

Lochen Dharmashri received refuge and bodhicitta vows from Terdak Lingpa, who was his principle guru.

At the age of twelve, Dharmashri received the empowerment of Rigdzin Thugthig (Innermost Spirituality of the Vidyadharas) from Terdak Lingpa, due to which his mind matured,

and the pratimoksha and bodhicitta vows that he later received arose as the essence of the discipline of secret mantra.

When Dharmashri was fifteen, he received novice monastic vows from the Fifth Dalai Lama, from whom he also received full ordination when he reached the age of twenty.

Fulfilling the instruction of the Dalai Lamae later received the pure lineage of the Lower Tibetan Vinaya of the Nyingma.

This was the Vinaya lineage from Kham that had survived the persecution of the buddhadharma by King Langdarma.

Dharmashri became a great preserver of this tradition, widely propagating its explanation and practice.

He and his elder brother, Terdak Lingpa, both sought out the great doctrine holders of the time and received an enormous number of transmissions on an equally vast number of topics.