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History

Since the practice of Hevajra is very elaborate, His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup initially chose (in 2009, 2010, and 2016) to bestow the empowerment and transmission of the Fifteen-Deity Nairatmya mandala to disciples in the Western world.

In August 2018 was held at Milarepa Retreat Zentrum the first Hevajra Drupchen during which the empowerment of the Nine-Deity Hevajra Mandala was given, together with a seven-day group practice (drupchen). In May 2019, the first Nairatmya seven-day drubchen was held.

His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup led again a Hevajra and Nairatmya drupchen in respectively 2023 and 2024, bestowing the empowerment for these mandalas on both occasions. From 2025, drupchen will be held anually at the Milarepa Retreat Zentrum during the long retreat of His Holiness.

Marpa’s Tradition of Hevajra is well-known for its commentaries of the Hevajratantra and the Vajrapanjaratantra, composed by Marpa and his disciple Ngok Zhedang Dorjé, and for the potency of their key instructions, coming from Naropa and Maitripa.

Until recently, these commentaries were rarely taught, and several of them had in fact disappeared for centuries. In the 20th and early 21st century, many old manuscripts were found in archives and libraries of Lhasa. In the past decades, these texts have been republished, in large part through the efforts of His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup.

Although the line of transmission for the explanation of these commentaries had in some cases been discontinued in the Kagyü school, His Holiness made great efforts to receive the explanation and reading transmission from Sakya and Kagyü masters, foremost among them Khenpo Appey.

In the interest of reviving the Hevajra-Nairatmya practice within the Drikung Kagyü lineage, His Holiness composed a commentary on the Hevajratantra very close to Marpa’s own commentary and introduced in it explanatory notes composed by Ngok Chodor. He gave it the same title than Marpa’s own commentary, the Bumchung Nyima, or Sun [Illuminating] the Shortened Hundred Thousand.

He commissionned the translation of this text, which was realized by Sonam Spitz between 2019 and 2022. His Holiness taught this commentary at the Milarepa Retreat Zentrum in September 2022, also giving the reading transmission of the complete root tantra and commentary.
It is hoped that in the future, it will be possible that Marpa’s commentary on the Vajrapanjara can be translated and that His Holiness can bestow teachings on it.
In this way, the explanatory lineage of Marpa’s tradition of Hevajra will be revived. A good knowledge of these texts will help practitioners of the Kagyü lineage to better understand the practice of the Hevajra system, and reach the fruit of their practice, like our Kagyü forefathers.

Marpa’s tradition of Hevajra has two main mandalas associated with it, the Fifteen-Deity Nairatmya mandala and the Nine-Deity Hevajra mandala. Both practices have had practice texts (sadhanas) since the begining of the tradition. Marpa composed a famous Hevajra sadhana, called in short the Dojar (“Recitation Manual Endowed with Scriptural Quotations“), which, together with his commentaries, constituted the basis of the tradition. Further practices texts were composed by Ngok Zhedang Dorjé (1078–1154), and by several other Kagyü masters over the centuries (see lineage for more details).
From 2006 to 2012, His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup composed several texts connected to the Hevajra practice both in union (Yabyum) and with only the Male form (Yabka). To accomodate various abilities, he composed two short daily practices, a middle-length one for daily practice, a long one for individual retreats, and a very extensive drubchen text for group practice. These texts were based on the [Sādhana] Endowed with Scriptural Quotations by Lord Marpa, and was completed with excerpts composed by Taranatha and Kongtrül Yonten Gyatso.

This Hevajra sadhana was revised over the years by several translators. It was initially translated by Carl Djung with the assistance of Sonam Spitz and Michael Essex for the 2018 Hevajra Drupchen in Milarepa Retreat Zentrum. It was revised by Senge Drayang, Carl Djung, and later on with Cécile Ducher between 2020 and 2022, with further help by Spencer Ames and Daniela König. It was again revised by the same group for the 2023 Drupchen with the addition of versified parts by Drupon Rachel Dodds. Final changes were implemented by Cécile Ducher in 2024 as an unabridged manual text of the Marngok tradition was found. Thus the torma ritual has been modified according to the MarNgok way to practice and a new visualization for the [mantra] recitation was added. Other changes brought the text more in line with the original Mar-Ngok tradition and Nairatmya sadhana of the same tradition.

Note: There is another Hevajra transmission within the Drikung Kagyu lineage composed by the 1st Chungtsang Rigdzin Chödrak which is called the Co-Emergent Hevajra. Unlike the Mar-Ngok nine-deity sadhana centered around 16-arm Hevajra, it is concerned with the two-arm single Hevajra.

With regard to the Nairatmya practice, like Hevajra, it relies on the two tantras of the Hevajra cycle, the Hevajratantra and the Vajrapanjara, with more emphasis on the latter. Nairatmya was Ngok Chödor (Marpa’s disciple) main yidam, and it is said that he had a vision of her.

As Marpa says in his commentary entitled Life-Tree of the Ḍākinī Vajrapanjara, “According to the instructions of the lineage gurus, this Hevajratantra is the summary of the essence of all tantras, and siddhis are especially close. Moreover, this sādhana of the goddess Nairātmyā is even closer to them, for it is said that the goddesses appear.”

The sādhana we use has had two main versions:

  • 2006-2022: a first Nairātmyā sādhana was composed by His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup – also known as Chetsang Rinpoche “Following the system of Marpa’s pure tradition, this ritual arrangement has been compiled exactly like Ngog Zhedang Dorje’s Rinchen Gyendra”. At that time, several manuscripts of the Marngok tradition were just published in Tibetan.
    The initial translation of the Nairātmyā sādhana was accomplished by Tara Chöying Lhamo in 2006. It was published in German and English due to the first Nairātmyā Retreat in Munich Germany in January 2009. From 2009 until 2016 on, Daniela D. König was in dialog with His Holiness about corrections. So Holiness instructed her in June 2017 to be the responsible person in all matter concerning Nairātmyā practice in Europe and to become the Umze for the drubchen / retreat. In 2018 the sādhana got revised by Tara Chöying Lhamo and Daniela D. König.
    For the 24 hour retreat a Nairātmyā drupchen text was developed by His Holiness in 2018-2019, based on this sādhana & on the Hevajra drupchen text. The revisions were done by Sonam Spitz, Daniela D. König & Carl Djung and the translation of the new parts by Sonam Spitz, Dr. Cécile Ducher & Carl Djung.
    For the second Hevajra drupchen in 2022, revisions were done and led to further revisions of the Nairātmyā sādhana. These were done by Cécile Ducher with support of the other Marngok committee members (Carl Djung, Daniela D. König, Spencer Ames, Westin Harris).
  • 2003-2024: In late 2023 Dr. Cécile Ducher undertook a new revision of the Nairātmyā sādhana for a complete long version. In the course of revisions, several questions arose, which led to His Holiness’s instruction to translate the Nairātmyā sādhana by Ngok Zhedang Dorjé. This led to large scale revisions of the 2022 text and the establishment of a completely new practice text. These changes also led to a major revision of the Nairātmyā drubchen text.

The new sādhana is entitled Recitation Manual Following the Oral Tradition of the Clear Realization of the Female-Only Fifteen-Deity Nairātmyā According to the Ngok Tradition of the Hevajratantra. It takes as basis the text composed by Ngok Zhedang Dorje, with whatever additions he said were necessary and is compiled by relying on Marpa’s Dojar.

For those who wish to go further, the following texts were used to establish this version of the Nairatmya sādhana :

Other texts have been used to clarify some points, such as the Marpa Dojar, another early Nairātmyā sādhana by a disciple of Ngok Zhedang Dorje called Jampal, as well as Kongtrül’s Nairātmyā sādhana and his Nairātmyā Empowerment Ritual.

No edition of the text was done in order to limit changes as much as possible. As expressed by His Holiness, “for Hevajra’s sādhana, we follow Marpa’s Dojar, and for Nairātmyā’s sādhana, we follow Ngok Zhedang Dorje.” In this way, the two closely linked practices are very clear, and leave no place for personal interpretations: they reflect the Marngok practice of Hevajra and Nairātmyā as it was transmitted in the 11th and 12th centuries by Marpa and his close disciples.

Marpa Lotsawa Chokyi Lodrö (1000-1081) was the founder of the Kagyü school of Tibetan Buddhism and as such his teachings and tantric transmissions spread to most Kagyu sub-lineages. Although most of the Kagyü lineages extant today come from Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa, his disciples (most notably teh first Karmapa and Pamo Drupa), and his disciples’s disciples (the four primary and eight secondary Kagyü lineages), Marpa’s legacy itself is best represented by what he transmitted to his disciple Ngok Chödor. Chödor was a non-monastic practitioner and he continued to practice mostly Marpa’s main yidams described in the Hevajratantra, Hevajra and Nairātmyā. These mandalas, within a group sometimes called “the Seven Mandalas of the Ngoks” continued to be transmitted within the Ngok family lineage over the centuries, and also spread in other lineages, most notably the Drikung lineage in the 16th century. In the 19th century, they were compiled by Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé (1813-1899) in the Treasury of Kagyü Mantras (Kagyü Ngakdzö) and have been transmitted within that context since that date.

Although the transmission of what can be called the Marngok tantras is uninterrupted, there were very few practitioners who actually engaged in them in the 19th century. The wish of His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup is therefore to give again a central place to practice of these yidams closely associated with Marpa.

There are two main traditions associated with the practice of the yidams described within the Hevajra cycle, Hevajra and Nairātmyā, namely the Sakya Tradition and the Marpa Tradition. This website is concerned mainly with the later, that is also called the Kagyü Tradition, or here more specifically the Mar-ngok Tradition.

Hevajra was the main practice deity of Marpa, and Nairatmya was that of his disciple Ngok Chödor. The two continued to be central in the Ngok family until the middle of the 15th century but was less emphasized in the other Kagyü lineages, who emphasized the practice of Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi.

H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup composed practices on Hevajra (Yabka and Yabyum) and Nairatmya (Yumka) between 2006 and 2011, relying largely on the texts written by Marpa. He lated revised these texts on the basis of ancient manuscript from the Marngok tradition that re-surfaced in the early 21st century from Drepung Monastery and other places in Central Tibet.

Previous Kagyü masters who played an important role in the spread of these practices were the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé (1284–1339), Gö Lotsawa Zhönnu Pal (1392–1481), the 4th Shamar Chödrak Yeshé (1453–1524), Taranatha (1575–1634), the 8th Situpa (1700-1774), Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé (1813-1899), and great Drikung Masters such as the 1st Chetsang (1590-1654) and the 1st Chungtsang (1595-1659), etc.

A short quick overview:
The Revitalizing of nearly Extinct Transmissions of the Mar-Luk Hevajra/Nairatmya Practices
 

Marpa Lotsawa (1000-1081) had four main disciples. One of them, Milarepa, shone like the sun over the Himalayas and far beyond. That was Milarepa (1028–1111), the heart-son that passed on most of what is today recognized as the Kagyu tradition. Another one, Ngok Chödor (1023–1090), also left a long-lasting legacy. He was said to be “inclined to give harmoniously flowing and ample explanations, like pearls of a necklace.”

Ngok Chödor continued what Marpa wished to start, a family lineage. Marpa and Dagmema had a son named Marpa Dodé, destined to be the primary heir of Marpa’s lineage, but obstacles prevented this. So later, when Ngok Chödor had a son, he named him Ngok Dodé (1078-1154), who is also known by his Empowerment name, Ngok Zhedang Dorje.

Naropa told Marpa that his disciples would be especially blessed for seven generations, and this is generally considered to refer to the descendants of Ngok Chödor. The count of seven started with Chödor’s son, Ngok Dodé, and continued with later holders of the Ngok seat, called Treuzhing in Central Tibet. The seventh of the Ngok masters was Ngok Jangchub Pal (1360–1446).

In general, the tantric teachings of Marpa are divided into two streams, what are called the “stream of explanation” or “lineage of explanation” (bshad rgyun or bshad brgyud) and the “stream (or lineage) of practice (sgrub brgyud). The former refer to the transmissionn received by Ngok Chödor. Despite its name, it is very much concerned with tantric practice, but also has  a large component of tantric exegesis, with a fair amount of formal teachings on the theory, ritual details, and symbology of the tantras. The “lineage of practice”, the one especially transmitted by Milarepa, was not so much concerned with commentaries of tantras, but rather with the precise ins and out of putting into practice the key instructions Marpa had brought back from India.Although the two may seem quite different, in fact all of Marpa’s teaching is defined by the potency of his key instructions, and this is therefore was came to embody the Kagyü lineage in general.

The Ngok family lineage is known for having primarily propagated the “explanatory lineage” coming from Marpa. They especially held the “Seven Mandalas of Ngok”, i.e. seven mandalas central to Marpa’s and the Kagyü Lineage). Two of these deities were Hevajra and Nairatmya. These are the focus of the present day revitalization by His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup.

The reason of His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon’s interest for this lineage traces back to the 15th and early 16th centuries. The last important Ngok master, Ngok Jangchub Pal, gave the transmission of the Hevajra cycle to many lineage holders, among them Gö Lotsawa Zhonnu Pal and Lochen Sönam Gyatso, who later gave it to the 4th Shamar. The 4th Shamar was a very powerful Karma Kagyü master of the late 15th century. He composed many text on the Hevajra cycle and also continued to spread the Hevajra practice. It was especially one of his disples, the abbot of his monastery of Yangpachen, who gave Hevajra to Drikung Rinchen Püntsok, and the practice then continued within the Drikung lineage.

In the early 17th century, there were many political tensions in Central Tibet. Two strong parties were opposing each other in order to seize power over Tibet. One group, backed by Mongol troops, was headed by a group of people with a Gelukpa background and headed by the 5th Dalai-Lama. The other, led by the mighty King of Tsang, Tseten Dorjé, was more related to the Karma Kagyü order.

In 1642, the Dalai-Lama and Gushri Khan defeated their opponent and the Ganden Podrang rule was established over Tibet. In the process, many monasteries and libraries were seized, and many texts from different lineages were confiscated and sealed away. One Buddhist master estimated in the mid 1980s that “a fourth of the Buddha’s blessing in Tibet was lost at that time.” Countless volumes of texts from various lineages of Tibetan Buddhism were hidden away in a library of Drepung Monastery, stashed in the vaults and forgotten for centuries. Somewhat ironically, this hiding of tens of thousands of volumes allowed their preservation during the destructions that happened in Tibet in the 18th century or during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.

The library of Drepung Monastery was opened in the 1990s and since then a steady flow of henceforth lost volumes has reappeared.

As samaya is the lifeblood of the practice, the transmission lineages are the veins through which that lifeblood flows down to the present day. For this to occur, the veins of the lineage need to be unbroken. Many lineages have – over time – lost their lifeblood, partly when not enough beings realized through practiced a specific meditation and partly due to breakage in the continuity of samaya. Specific meditations still remain as texts without a lineage, but in many ways these texts are useless in that there are no living masters to pass on the unbroken lineage of blessings and explanations.

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé (1813–1899) wished to make sure that as many of these still vibrant lineages and transmissions of specific meditations would remain for centuries to come. He and a group of amazing masters worked for this purpose. Lodrö Thayé collected and compiled his Five Treasuries (mdzod lnga), one of them being the Kagyu Ngakdzöd (“The Treasury of Kagyu Mantras”) and another, the Damngak Dzö (“The Treasury of Precious Instructions”, transmitted by His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgön in 2024).It is in the Kagyü Ngakdzö that most of Marpa’s transmissions are preserved.

Lodrö Thaye had received the Seven Mandalas of the Ngoks from the 6th Tralep Tulku, Yeshé Nyima, and thus held the beating heart of Kagyu Tantras cherished by Marpa Lotsawa. He included in the Kagyü Ngakdzö the transmission for 13 highest yoga tantras, with 25 empowerments and authorizations of practices for all the tantras coming from Marpa, as well as a few others. The collection fills six volumes and includes many practice manuals on these tantras.

When Lodrö Thayé gathered what was “left” of the living kagyü transmissions of the Nine-Deity Hevajra mandala, he compiled a short sadhana named “Drenpa Chikpa” (dran pa gcig pa). In this he writes:

Having prostrated [to Hevajra], I will explain the words for the daily practice. For those of you who wish, here is the Yogi’s Daily Practice of Glorious Hevajra. For those who aren’t capable of purifying by using the extensive practice daily, the method is as follows: The three stages of 1) Generation [of the deity], 2) Recitation [of the mantra], and 3) Completion [of the dissolution] dispel attachment to the three aspects of body, speech, and mind. […]

“Because I fear that my mind is too small a vessel [to hold this meditation], it is better for this unique stream [of transmission] to emanate out into space. […] It is by the merit of Chogtrul Rinpoche [Karma Ratna] that this extraordinary masterpiece within the Practice Lineage has been completed. This work was gathered together from the sadhana entitled The Four Aspects of the Vajra by the great Ngoktön Zhedang Dorjé and by taking the words of the 4th Shamarpa as authoritative. [These words] have not been altered by my own inventions. This text was composed at the Palpung Retreat Center” [i.e. Tsadra Rinchen Drak].

According to the reading and studying of H.H. the 37th Drikung Kyabgön, Lodrö Thayé also wrote in his notes in the Damngak Dzö that “a big bulk of texts” were hidden away in the library of Drepung Monastery, and that within this collection would be the further important commentaries on the “extensive” practice of Hevajra.

For a transmission of Hevajra, or any other transmission, to be complete, three things are needed:

  • The empowerment [WANG] into the tantra itself. This is preserved in the Kagyü Ngakdzö.
  • The instructions [TRI] to understand the tantra by studying commentaries on the tantra written by past masters of the lineage (the “lineage of exegesis”) as well as key instructions on the practice as they were handed down through generations and as they are still practiced today (the “lineage of practice”).
  • The reading transmission [LUNG] of all of this, whether practice text, commentary or key-instructions.

Thanks to the efforts of Lodrö Thayé and the lineage of masters that preceded and followed him, the empowerments of Hevajra is still available today, as well as many instructions and reading transmission.

With regards to instructions, these had become very rare in the Kagyü lineage over the centuries. An important part of the revival of Marpa’s Hevajra practices in the 20th century has therefore been possible because His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgön received instructions within the Sakya Lineage, especially from Dezhung Rinpoche (1906-1987) and Khenpo Appey (1927-2010), who had themselves endeavored to revitalize the Hevajra transmissions within the Sakya. At the inauguration of the International Buddhist Academy in Kathmandu in 2001, for example, Khenpo Appey Rinpoche gave Grand Hevajra Teachings. Among the many prominent masters present was H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup, who received the transmission of the  Hevajratantra and its commentaries.

Some time after His Holiness had done a three-year retreat (1979-1982) with Chakrasamvara as the main focus, he decided to revitalize Marpa’s tradition, foremost among them Hevajra. in the 1990s, His Holiness received from a man from Eastern Tibet who had worked for a long time in the archives of the Potala a previously unknown text by Marpa on the Hevajratantra. This man had instantly recognized the work’s significance and had made a copy by hand.

Some years after that, countless volumes of texts from various lineages of Tibetan Buddhism that had been stored away in the vaults of the Nechu Lhakang within Drepung Monastery started to be revealed. Around 1999, a catalogue was made of the contents of the libraries of Drepung Monastery. Some estimate there to have been around 30,000 volumes. Among them were around 40 boxes (or volumes) of Drikung texts. Gochog Rinpoche passed this information on to H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup and described the specific location of the texts.

Shortly thereafter, on the wishes of His Holiness, a man named Mulam was hired to hand-copy a commentary on the Hevajratantra by Gyalwa Kunga Rinchen (1475–1527) and gave it to Chetsang Rinpoche. Later, in the early 2000s, Chetsang Rinpoche asked Nubpa Rinpoche for all the other texts. Through a lot of decisive aspirations and tireless effort over a period of several years, Nubpa Rinpoche and around six others photocopied the texts in small portions.

Later on, Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes (at that time connected to the University of Hamburg) and others gathered the many individual photocopies on micro-films. This was completed around 2004. One of these original microfilm with all the collected volumes is today at the University of Berlin.

In 2004, H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup found out that a Kagyu lama (maybe Karma Kagyu from Lhasa) had also published several volumes of the forefathers of the Kagyü school, be it the Indian masters or Marpa, in the ‘Bri gung bka’ brgyud chos mdzod chen mo (151 vol.). The origin of this collection is unclear. A large part seems to come from the Drepung, others from the Potala, and yet other from unknown places. These texts are said to contain personal notes from Marpa and his disciples.

Chetsang Rinpoche used all these sources to compile a three-volumes collection of Marpa’s texts, around 1,900 pages in total, including a special commentary on Hevajra. All these texts have been published through Songtsen Library.

In parellel to that, the Paltsek Preservation Center published reproductions of the manuscripts as well as computerized copies of the texts found in Drepung. A two-volume catalogue of the holding of the Drepung Monastery libraries was published in 2004. A ten-volume collection of Ngok manuscripts was published in 2007, and enriched in 2011 with a 34-volume book collection containing these manuscripts as well as many other texts composed by Marpa and Ngok masters, many of them first preserved within the large Drikung collection, and in the three-voume Marpa Sungbum compiled by His Holiness.

Over the years, the Mar-ngok committee has started to work on these texts and aim at continue to study and translate many of them in order to fulfill the wishes of His Holiness to “put back Marpa at his proper place of honor.”

Many texts preserved within these collection contain practice manuals on the Fifteen-Deity Hevajra and Fifteen-Deity Nairatmya mandalas that have served as a basis for reestablishing practice texts within the Marpa Tradition. During 2007-2009, His Holiness compiled sadhana texts about the Fifteen-Deity Nairatmya mandala, and during 2005-2012 he compiled sadhana texts about Nine-Deity Hevajra mandala. The Hevajra texts were compiled as a single volume consisting of eight titles and a total of 521 pages. His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup received the reading transmission (lung) for these texts from a Karma Kagyu master named Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoché, who had himself received it from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

In 2004 H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup did a six-month retreat on Hevajra at the holy place of Lapchi (Nepal). In 2006, he gave teachings on the Hevajratantra to around 40 khenpos, rinpoches, tulkus and drubpöns at Jangchubling, the main monastic seat of the Drikung Kagyu lineage in exile in Dehra Dun, India. That year; two rinpoches went into six-month retreat on the  Nine-Deity Hevajra practice of the Marpa Tradition. Also in 2007, the practice of Nairatmya fifteen-deity was done in short retreats. Later the Nairatmya empowerment was given in both Germany and USA, during 2009 & 2010. In this way a revitalized cycle of Hevajra and Nairatmya teachings and practice had been started.

In this way, His Holiness reinstated the Hevajra/Nairatmya practices as Kyerim practices within the Kagyu school, and the role of the Marngok tradition within it. On February 26, 2018, H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup announced:

The Naropa tradition of Hevajra was Marpa Lotsa main Yidam and Marpa Kagyu’s main practice lineage. H.H. wants to revive Marpas important lineage as it is endangered and on the brink of extinction. In order to implement to this important teaching we setup a Mar-Ngok website. This website was authorised by Carl Djung and Jette Aarestrup Mortensen. For more details: http://www.mar-ngok.org

The following is taken from H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup biography, From the Heart of Tibet (Shambhala, 2011), pages 279-280:

Tantric practice consists of two stages, the generation stage and the completion stage. The process of generation (kyerim) contains visualizations and recitations, and the completion stage (dzogrim) encompasses work with subtle energies and the Path of Mahamudra. Today the Kagyupa mainly rely on the Chakrasamvara Tantra for the generation phase and the Six Yogas of Naropa for the completion stage, although the process of generation was originally based on the Hevajra Tantra. One may, of course, make use of any Highest Yoga Tantra, but if one takes the force of history into account, the transmission originated with Marpa and he taught the Hevajra Tantra for the generation stage, so Rinpoche has made it his mission to revive this original tradition and re-establish it in all Drikung monasteries. In the course of his studies, he has discovered additional remarkable commentarial works that he is examining and revising. He received a previously unknown text by Marpa on the Hevajra Tantra from a man from eastern Tibet who had worked for a long time in the archives of the Potala, where numerous works were simply jumbled together, but at least preserved. He discovered the unknown work by Marpa among them and instantly recognized the work’s significance, but because he was unable to take anything out of Potala, he carefully copied the text and added his copy to a collection of Taklung Kagyu texts. Rinpoche had access to that collection, and thus to the copy of Marpa’s text, because he actively supports the currently weak Taklung Kagyu lineage and is personally supervising the education of the young Taklung Shabdrung in Dehra Dun. He has painstakingly revised this previously unknown work containing unique teachings of Marpa and published it in a special edition containing the root text, Marpa’s commentary, and Rinpoche’s own notes, with his explanations of concepts that Marpa left unexplained or that are difficult to interpret. In addition, Marpa’s collected works are in the process of being edited by four monks at the Songtsen Library. Thanks to H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Thinle Lhundup efforts, Marpa is being returned to his proper place of honor in the lineage.

The texts mentioned here are today easily available:

  • Marpa’s commentary on the Hevajratantra, the Sun [Illuminating] the Shortened Hundred Thousand (Bumchung Nyima), was translated by Sonam Spitz, and taught by His Holiness in 2021 at the Milarepa Retreat Zentrum.
  • The three-volume edition of Marpa’s Collected Works was initially published by Songtsen Library, and later republished several times, by Songtsen Library and other institutions, see for example this edition from Lhasa published in 2009.

Since February 2016, when His Holiness gave the Hevajra Great Empowerment at Jangchubling, Dehra Dun, a world wide activity concerning Marpa’s Tradition of the Hevajra cycle is happening worldwide.

The Milarepa Retreat Zentrum, the Main Seat of the Drikung lineage in Europe, is hosting of drubchens for both Hevajra and Nairatmya from the Marngok tradition every year. The first Hevajra drupchen took place in 2018, and the first Nairatmya drupchen in 2019. After a break during the covid, a second Hevajra drupchen was held in 2023, and a Nairatmya drupchen in 2024. During all these events, His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche gave the empowerments of these deities and attended most sessions. From 2025 onward, the Milerepa Zentrum will continue to host a drupchen on Hevajra and Nairatmya every alternate year, starting on August 23-20, 2025.

The above was compiled by Carl Djung, between January – June 2017. Jeffrey Rosenfeld polished language, June 2017. It was revised by Cécile Ducher in December 2024.

Lineage Tree

All/
Drikung Kagyu Lineage/
Founding/
Karma Kagyu Lineage/
Ngok Lineage/

No. 1
Vajradhara

དམིགས་མྱེད་སིང་རྱེའི་རང་གཟུགས་རྡོ་རྱེ་འཆང་།
ཁྱབ་བདག་རྡོ་རྱེ་འཆང་ཆྱེན་པྡོའི་ཞལ་དུミ


Dorje Chang, the embodiment of the inconceivable compassion [a compassion, which arises for all beings still bound by worldly concerns and obstacles.]

No. 2
Jñānaḍākinī

གསང་སྔགས་མཛོད་འཆང་ཡེ་ཤེས་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ། །
Secret Mantra holder Jñānaḍākinī

The Ḍākinī endowed with Human Bone Ornaments from Uddiyana held the Hevajra Tummo lineage, transmitting the mother lineage, passing it down to the Kagyu lineage. Of the four streams (bka’ babs bzhi), the fourth was transmitted from Dakini Kalpabhadrī (mKha gro bsKal pa bzang mo) and includes the Hevajratantra and the practice of Tummo.

No. 3
Vajragarbha

རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས་པོ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སྙིང་པོའི་ཞབས། །
Vajragarbha, son of the Victorious.

On the Sambhogakaya level, the Hevajratantra was given by the Bhagavan to the ‘Son of the Victorious’ Vajragarbha. On the Nirmanakaya level, the Mahasiddha Vajragarbha, with several texts in the Tibetan Kangyur, was a holder of the Hevajra lineage.

Vajragarbha (Tib.: Dorjé Nyingpo) was a bodhisattva who compiled the Dzogchen teachings given by the Buddha Samantabhadra in Akanishtha. He is counted as one of Tertön Sogyal’s previous incarnations. The main interlocutor of the Buddha’s entourage in many Yoginītantras is also called Vajragarbha.

No. 4
Saraha

འཕགས་ཡུལ་གྲུབ་པའི་སྤྱི་མེས་ས་ར་ཧ། །

Siddha Saraha, Noble Land’s forefather

Saraha, the son of a Dakini, was born in the east of India in Roli. He observed the laws of the Brahmins by day, and received instruction in the tantric mysteries from Buddhist masters by night. Saraha then took a 15-year-old girl as his consort and moved to a distant land, where he practiced his sadhana in isolation. The teaching she gave was vital to Saraha: “The purest solitude is one that allows you to escape from the preconceptions and prejudices, from the labels and concepts of a narrow, inflexible mind.” He listened carefully and began to devote himself to ridding his mind of conceptual thoughts and belief in the substantiality of objective reality. In time, he attained the supreme realization of Mahamudra and spent the remainder of his life in service to others. Upon death, Saraha and his consort ascended to the bliss of the Paradise of the Dakinis.

No. 5
Nāgārjuna

མདོ་སྔགས་རྒྱུད་སྡེའི་གཏེར་འབྱུང་ཀླུ་གྲུབ་ཞབས།
Nāgārjuna, Source of the Treasure of Sutras and Tantras.

For the transmission of the practice of Hevajra, there is ‘the sadhana/empowerment transmission’ and teachings on the Hevajratantra. This tantra is traditionally said to have been given to Nāgārjuna in the 2nd century in a secret cave by Vajraḍākinī in Oḍḍiyāna and thus brought to the human realm to spread in what we today know as India.

Here Nāgārjuna is invoked for his transferring of the sadhana/empowerment transmission.

Some say that there are two Nāgārjunas, related to the sutra tradition and the tantra tradition. Others says Nagarjuna lived 600 to 800 years. Some sources say he was born in 482 AD, other in 212 AD. According to Mahāyāna scriptures, Nāgārjuna was born 1200 years after the Buddha’s parinirvana (483/400 BC +1200, which makes it around 717-800 AD).

No. 6
Āryadeva

རིག་པའི་འབྱུང་གནས་ཨཱརྻ་དེ་བ་དང་། །
Āryadeva, The source of Awareness

Āryadeva (3rd century CE) was a disciple of Nāgārjuna and author of several important Mahāyāna Madhyamaka Buddhist texts. He is also known as Kanadeva, the 15th patriarch in Chan Buddhism, and as “Bodhisattva Deva” in Sri Lanka. One source sets both the same as above: “Also known as Kanadeva. A scholar of the Madhyamika school in southern India during the third century and the successor of Nāgārjuna.” The same source also places him even earlier: “(2nd century): One of the ‘seventeen great panditas’ of ancient India and foremost disciple of Nāgārjuna.”

No. 7
Chandrakīrti

ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པའི་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །

Chandrakīrti: at your feet we pray!

The sources about the successors of Nagarjuna give different place and time in history for Chandrakīrti. One source places him in the 6th, maybe 7th century. Some say that Chandrakīrti’s efforts of purification and reform of the Buddhist sangha helped to open the way for the attempts of Harsha (606-647) to become, as it were, a second Ashoka enforcing Buddhist dharma by law. Some place him in the Gupta era (320-c.535).
Chandrakīrti is the next great exponent of the Madhyamaka system. He became an abbot of Nalanda. Chandrakirti was succeeded by Dharmapala (a.d. 635), and then for a short time by Jayadeva. Jayadeva’s disciple was Shantideva, the most famous writer on Madhamika system after Chandrakirti.

No. 8
Mātaṅgī

རྣལ་འབྱོར་དབང་ཕྱུག་མ་ཏངྒི་པ་དང་། །
Mātaṅgī, powerful lord of yogis

Was Mātaṅgī a male yogi or a female yogini? It seems not to be clear. Some refer to her as the Dakini called Matongha. In any case, the lineage prayer indicates that the both the Hevajra sadhana and empowerment rituals were passed on through Mātaṅgī to Tilopa.

Mātaṅgī is considered to be among the seven spiritual heirs of Nagarjuna. This list counts 1) Sakyamitra 2) Nagabodhi 3) Aryadeva 4) Matangi (ma tang ki). 5) Buddhapalita 6) Bhavaviveka and 7) Ashvagosha.

According to Padma Karpo’s biography, Tilopa met Nagarjuna’s female disciple, Matangi, when he sought to find Nagarjuna again and discovered that Nagarjuna had already passed away.

Also it is stated: “Tilopa received Guhyasamaja teachings on illusory body from Matangi, Mahamudra and Chakrasamvara teachings on Clear Light from Lalapa, Hevajra teachings on Tummo from Dakini Samantabhadri, and Chakrasamvara teachings from Nagpopa before being instructed by Matangi to work as a sesame oil maker and as a servant to a prostitute named Dharima.”

Some biographies state: “Sri Matangi passed on to Tilopa the teachings on resurrection of the dead body (according to other sources it was the Dakini Matongha). It was Matangi, who advised Tilopa to start to work at a brothel in Bengal for a prostitute called Dharima as her solicitor and bouncer.” “At night he assisted the prostitute by escorting men in and out; during the day he did the work of beating and grinding sesame seeds for his living.”

Another source describes: “Tilopa perfectly understood and fully mastered the common and supreme points of all instructions he had received, but Guru Matangi (according to Thrangu Rinpoche, the dakini called Kalpa Zangmo) did not allow him to enter into the action. When he showed the miracle of transferring the consciousness of a fish into space, his preceptor knew that he had attained the siddhis and let him go wherever he wanted so that he could benefit many living beings.”

No. 9
Tilopa, (988-1069)

རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་དངོས་ཏཻ་ལོ་ཤེས་རབ་བཟང་། །

Tilo Sherab Zangpo, Vajradhara himself

Continuing his journey in India, Tilopa received the Hevajratantra and dream yoga from Shri Rolpe Dorje, the disciple of Shri Lawapa. In this way, Tilopa was holder of the teachings on the highest yoga tantras’ phases of creation and perfection, which descended from the four lineages of instructions (bka’ babs bzhi). Considering the transmissions as four enables one to perceive of Tilopa at the centre of the maṇḍala, thus indicating that the transmission is complete, and that the guru is omniscience.
Tilopa was also holder of the actual transmission of ultimate reality, the “lineage of realization and blessing” (rtogs pa byin brlabs kyi brgyud pa), also called the “proximate lineage” (nye brgyud), referring to the fact that Tilopa received his transmission straight from the enlightened mind.

No. 10
Nāropa (956-1040)

ཀྱེ་ཡི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྣམ་རོལ་ནཱ་རོ་དང་། །

Nāro, Hevajra’s magical display

Holder of the “four lines of transmission”, which in fact can be counted as six, sometimes seven, or more.
We know many names of Indian mahasiddhas from the tantric era, which lasted from the sixth to the twelfth century. Some of them seem to be just legendary people, and some are surely historical. Naropa is definitely an historical person. A traveler named Nagtso Lotsawa who visited India in 1040, probably shortly before Naropa’s death, described him in the journal of his travels. He wrote that Naropa was extremely famous and respected. Even local kings considered it a big blessing to see him and to have him put his foot on their heads. He was “quite corpulent, with his white hair [stained with henna] bright red, and a vermilion turban bound on. He was being carried [on a palanquin] by four men and chewing betel-leaf…”
It was during Marpas final trip to India that Naropa, as a test of his student, manifested the Hevajra mandala, asking Marpa to whom he would bow first: to the vision of Hevajra, or to himself, Naropa, its creator. Overwhelmed by the grandeur of the Hevajra deity and retinue, Marpa made the mistake of bowing to the emanated mandala first. Naropa immediately corrected him, saying in effect that the guru always takes precedence because it is he who makes the deities real for us. But the damage was done, and Naropa warned Marpa that this was an omen that his biological descendants would die out, but that his spiritual lineage would continue as long as the Buddha’s teachings continued. Naropa named him as his regent. In such ways, Naropa guided Marpa both with regards to Yidam, as well as Protector.

No. 11
Marpa, (1000-1086)

མར་པ་ལོ་ཙཱའི་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །
སྒྲ་སྒྱུར་མར་པ་ལྡོ་ཙཱའིミ

Marpa the Translator, at your feet we pray

Marpa was born in the navel of the Tibetan land of snow, in the higher Lhodrag, in the snowy valley of Pesar.
Marpa’s lifestory is vast and deep. This little anecdote shows a little about Marpas connection to Naropa and Hevajra. When Marpa travelled to Nepal, he met Nyo Lotsawa, which would prove, in different ways, to be a catalyst to Marpa’s growth. Together, they encountered two disciples of Mahapandita Naropa, and just through hearing the latter’s name, Marpa felt an awakening Dharma connection. Marpa traveled on to Pullahari monastery to meet his predestined teacher. Naropa gave Marpa the empowerment for the Hevajra tantra. Meeting up with Nyo a year later, Nyo realized that Marpa’s understanding of the Hevajra surpassed his own.

In a song to Milarepa, with Dagmema at his side, the Lama sang:

“May all of those who take this as their central pillar.
May this person be blessed and enjoy the good that comes of the Kagyu lineage gurus.
May this person be blessed and enjoy the good of yidams in all their excellence.
May this person be blessed and enjoy the goodness of the lord Hevajra’s presence.
May this person be blessed and enjoy the good of Chakrasamvara’s and Guhyasamaja’s presence.
May this person be blessed and enjoy the good of excellent dharmapalas.
May this person be blessed and enjoy the good that comes about by Dakini Düsolma, the goddess.”

As one scholar describes the great translator: “Marpa was an undisciplined young man who first spent some time in Nepal before making extended travels to the jungles and forests of India in order to receive the most sophisticated spiritual technologies of the time, the highest yoga tantras (niruttaratantras). Unlike many of his colleagues, Marpa just passed through the illustrious Buddhist universities and headed for the yogis, foremost among them Nāropa and Maitripa. After some twenty years learning and training in India, accumulating gold and offering it to his masters, Marpa came back to Tibet in the mid-11th century and settled in Lhodrag. His fame soon spread, and disciples gathered. Marpa held several tantric cycles such as Hevajra, Catuṣpīṭha, and Mahāmāyā. Marpa was specialized in tantric exegesis, particularly distinguished through the key instructions (gdams ngag) given by Nāropa, and was known as an expert in these techniques.”

No. 12
Ngok Chödor (1023-1090)

རྒྱུད་སྡེ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་མངའ་བདག་རྔོག་སྟོན་རྗེ། །

Ngokton Chödor, owner of the ocean of tantras

Marpa had Twelve Great Disciples, enumerated as the four “dharma sons” (chos kyi sras), the four “disciples that pleased him” (mnyes pa’i bu), and the four “heart sons” (thugs kyi sras). Of the latter, there is Ngoktön Chödor from Zhung, who is associated with the south and is the disciple who pleases Marpa with his wisdom.
When seeing Ngoktön focusing on study, Marpa thought about this heart-son: “I have the explanatory tantras which are like a coursing river, he shall transmit this.”, and thus gave him the explanation of the Hevajratantra, etc., as well as ‘the merging and transference’ (bsre ’pho).
Ngok Chödor’s deity is said to be Nairātmyā, Hevajra’s consort. Chödor and his descendants had three visions of the fifteen-goddess maṇḍala of Nairātmyā over their family temple in Riwo, indicating the intimate relationship between Chödor and Nairātmyā, and him being welcome by the ḍākinīs of Khecara.
Parinirvana: Just after sunrise on the dragon (third) day of the dog (seventh) month of a horse year (1090), Ngoktön ChöDor went out, left a dazzling footprint, and ascended in the mist towards Kechara in the sound of the hand-drum, when he was sixty eight year old.

No. 13
Ngok Dodé (Zhedang Dorjé), (1078-1155)

བཤད་རྒྱུད་ཆུ་བོའི་བཀའ་བབས་རྔོག་མདོ་སྡེ། །

Ngok Dodé, Explanation lineage bearer.

Ngok Zhedang Dorje, also called Ngok Dodé was the only son of Ngoktön Chödor. He inherited his father’s full transmission and became the greatest proponent of Marpa’s tantric legacy in the 12th-century Tibet.
From an early age, Dode was in contact with the Dharma and received transmissions from Marpa and his father, especially Hevajra. When he was four, Marpa insisted that he attend his empowerments of the nine-deity Hevajra and fifteen-deity Nairātmyā maṇḍalas, although, as most children of that age, he caused havoc during the transmission by climbing on Marpa’s and his father’s backs and by pulling their beards. That transmission, despite the heir’s young age, established a direct link between Marpa and Dodé, which was crucial for the ensuing lineage as Chödor died when his son was only twelve. By that time, Dodé had learned the Two Segments (Hevajra Tantra) and knew who to turn to in order to further his training.
Chödor also gave his sister a few articles in a book-case and a bag that she was to hand over to Dodé at his becoming of age, making sure that his son received everything he needed to ensure his lineage’s continuation. In the book-case and bag were concealed the heart of the Ngok tradition. In the book-case, Dodé found the “Two Segments of the Ngok Tradition,” that is to say Chödor’s notes on Marpa’s oral transmission of the Hevajratantra called the Jewel’s Ornament. In the felt bag, Dodé found the six doctrines of Nāropa, key-instructions on the six practices as they are taught in the Hevajratantra, known as merging and transference (bsre ’pho) in the Ngokpa lineage.
Dode, a great learned one, held his father’s tantric transmissions and relied on many translators of the time. He wrote under the name Shedang Dorje and passed his legacy on to his grandson. Parinirvana was the 11th day of the 10th month (October 23?), in the year 1154 (wood dog year according to lHo rong chos ’byung). Dode was 76 year.

No. 14
Ngok Kunga Dorje, (1145-1222)

མར་རྔོག་རྒྱུད་འཛིན་ཀུན་དགའ་རྡོ་རྗེ་དང་། །
Ngok Kunga Dorje, Holder of the Marngok tantras

Kunga Dorje and Master Gyaltsa Ramo (1134-1170)  were both the grandsons of Ngok Dode. Kunga Dorje received most of the Ngok maṇḍalas before his 11th year, from Ngok Dode, thus holding the main Ngok spiritual lineage directly from Ngok Dode, as well as also receiving transmissions again from his uncle Ngok Gyaltsha Ramo.
Being from somewhat an outsider position, Kunga Dorje, through being this perseverant and talented master he was, insured his final position as Dodé’s main heir in the lineage.

Many of his other teachers are well-known. He received the Zhi byed precepts from ’Chus pa Dar ma brtson ’grus (1117-1192), an important master in that lineage. He also studied under rGa Lo tsā ba gZhon nu Pal, from whom he received a special transmission of Vajrapāṇi. He additionally attended masters about whom nothing is known, such as mGos Ri khrod dbang phyug, from whom he received the long-life practice of Amitāyus, and the siddha Shol po ba, who gave him the purification practice of Vajravidāraṇa.

No. 15
Ngok Ziji Dragpa, (1190-1269)

གཟི་བརྗིད་གྲགས་པའི་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་དེབས། །
Ngok Ziji Dragpa, at your feet we pray!

The son of Ngok Kunga Dorje, Ngok Ziji Dragpa completely received all Ngok cycles from his father. When he was twenty-five years, he was ordained as novice. He received many teachings, yet Ngok Ziji Dragpa mainly studied with his father.
Ngok Ziji had many students, foremost among which were his nephews, Ngok Senge Dra (1223-1296) and Ngok Rinchen Zangpo (1231-1307), who continued the lineage after him.

No. 16 Ngok Rinchen Zangpo, (1231-1307)

རྒྱུད་ཀུན་འཆང་བ་རིན་ཆྱེན་བཟང་པྡོ་དང་།
རྡོག་རིན་ཆྱེན་བཟང་པྡོའིミ

Ngok Rinchen Zangpo – Holder of the whole lineage

As nephew of Ngok Ziji Dragpa, Ngok Rinchen Zangpo was holder of the Ngok lineage, along with Ngok Senge Dra. From his father Ngok Gyalpo Ga, he received teachings on the Combined Families of Pañjara, on Cakrasaṃvara according to Marpa’s tradition and on the body maṇḍalas from Ghaṇṭāpā’s [tradition of Cakrasaṃvara]. Also, later Lama Rinchen Zangpo composed a maṇḍala-ritual for the Combined Families [Pañjara].
Their seems not to be any of Ngok Rinchen Zangpos writings today. Maybe they will turn up.

No. 17
Ngok Chökyi Gyaltsen, (1283-1359)

རིག་འཛིན་དྱེད་དཔྡོན་ཆྡོས་ཀི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དཔལ།
རྡོག་ཆྡོས་ཀི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་གིミ

Ngok Chökyi Gyaltsen Pal, Knowlegde-holder, Captain [stirring the lineage perfectly]

Ngok Chökyi Gyaltsen obtained most of his forefathers’ teachings and the six doctrines from Ngok Rinchen Zangpo, as well as from Ngok Senge Dra, from which he received the empowerments of the Combined Families of Pañjara. He received many teachings from many lineages and lamas, among them the Drikung Kagyu.
Ngok Chökyi Gyaltsen spread the teachings of the Ngok, and manifested great qualities, as well as wonders. For example, once when he was giving an empowerment at Drikung, a bonfire burnt outside of the building when he displayed the circle of protection.
Also, Ngok Chökyi Gyaltsen composed texts, among them a large commentary on the Hevajratantra, in the ways of the Ngok tradition.

No. 18
Ngok Sangyé Yönten, (1330?-1394?)

བདེ་སྟོང་ཟུང་འཇུག་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡོན་ཏན་དང་། །
Sangyé Yönten, bliss and emptiness union

Ngok Sangyé Yönten received all Ngok cycles from his spiritual forefathers. He was adorned by the three trainings and gained mastery other many tantras, reading transmissions and key instructions.
Ngok Sangyé Yönten does not figure among the main Ngok lineage-holders as he was not an abbot of their Treuzhing Monastery. Nonetheless he received all the Ngok cycles and played an active role in the transmission of the Ngok tradition, also accounted by Lodro Thaye the Great, in the Kagyu Ngagdzö. His nephew Ngok Jangchub Pal received explanations on Hevajra and Mahāmāyā from both Ngok Dondrub Pal and Sangyé Yönten.

Precious signs manifested when Sangyé Yonten died, such as rainbow lights and relics appearing on his body. He was born on a snake year and died in a monkey year 63 years later, in his sixty-fourth year.

No. 19
Ngok Jangchub Pal, (1360-1446)

རྔོག་བརྒྱུད་བྱང་ཆུབ་དཔལ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །

Ngok Lineage Jangchub Pal to you we pray

Ngok Jangchub Pal was born in 1360, having as father Lama Dondrub Pal and as mother Kartrom. Jangchub Pal studied with his father and many other Ngok Masters all the Ngok cycles of teachings without exception until they penetrated his mind. His life and activity flourished, and he was blessed with remaining a long time: it is said that Lord Marpa had blessed the Ngok seat during seven generations, and lama Ngok Jangchub Pal was that seventh.
The 2nd Drukchen Kunga Paljor, among many others, refers to Ngok Jangchub Pal as “the last of seven generations of Ngok jewels.” And also the 15th century historian lHo rong chos ’byung refers to him as the “the seventh generation on the Ngok seat blessed by Lord Marpa”. Some stories related to the Ngok tradition also refer to a prediction by Naropa that he would bless Marpa’s lineage for seven generations or thirteen generations, and that the Ngok would all know how to hold a vajra and bell in their hands.
This the seventh and last Ngok, the great Jangchub Pal, played an important role in the Ngok lineage at a crucial time in the history of Central Tibet.
A skilled player in a world that was becoming more complex, he managed to gather together the spiritual capital of his ancestors and complement it with most of Marpa’s esoteric transmissions extant at the time. This contributed to the transfer of most of his knowledge and assets to other hierarchs and orders, which eventually contributed to the continuation of Ngok lineage until today, though not anymore in the Ngok family-line.
All in all, Jangchub Pal made special efforts to receive all the transmissions that had become representative of the Ngok tradition and weave together the threads that became loose over the years, sometimes receiving several times and from several persons the empowerments (wang), reading transmissions (lung) and key instructions (tri) for each of the Ngok cycles.
He also received some of Marpa’s teachings that were not among the Ngok’s legacy, such as Marpa’s tradition of Guhyasamāja and the Sekarma, a collection of fifteen scrolls expounding Marpa’s core instructions revealed in the 13th century by Guru Chöwang.
Jangchub Pal was instrumental in reshaping and rebuilding a recognizable Ngok tradition that could from that time onwards be transmitted as a collection, called the Seven Mandalas of the Ngok, rather than as individual tantras. In this way, Jangchub Pal brought together the Ngok traditions and Marpa’s legacy, thus appearing as the legitimate holder of the Marpa Ngok Kagyü lineage and continuing the endeavor started by his ancestor, Ngok Dodé.
He is said to have had a vision of Mañjuśrī according to the Namasamgiti Tantra when he was thirteen and to have reached the capacity to perceive that he was inseparable from the deity. He also saw the deities of the Hevajra maṇḍala when consecrating statues of his predecessors, and those of Catuṣpīṭha when giving explanations of that tantra. When he died, there were numerous miraculous events, such as a rain of flowers and so on.
Jangchub Pal stayed in retreat much of his life in a site on the slopes opposite the Treuzhing temple, which is considered to be the location from which Chödor originally departed for Khecara.
Gö Lotsawa states in the Blue Annals that Jangchub Pal was holding yearly transmissions and marked his copy of the Hevajratantra commentary each time he was teaching it, and that he saw 182 such marks.
Unlike many of his ancestors and later hierarchs such as the 4th Shamarpa who travelled incessantly, Jangchub Pal is not said to travel much, and most of his disciples came to meet him in Treuzhing. This may be because he mostly stayed in retreat, and also because it was located in a central yet quiet place, with easy funding from local rulers.
Jangchub Pal was not ordained and had two sons. One of them, Tashi Paldrup became a monk as a child and went to study in Tsetang Monastery, in particular Buddhist logic. He then received all the Ngok traditions from his father and became very learned. As Jangchub Pal had a long life, Tashi Paldrup did not teach other students. He became Treuzhing’s abbot during the life of his father, possibly in 1426.
In 1408, Jangchub Pal met Tsongkapa who had been invited by the Pamodrupa ruler Drakpa Gyaltsen (1374-1432, r. 1385). He had long discussions with him, although it is not recorded that the two hierarchs received transmissions from each other.
Tsongkapa was very impressed by Jangchub Pal’s knowledge and repeatedly praised him. After that time, due to that praise, the reputation of Jangchub Pal soared and he attracted many of the powerful figures of Central Tibet, such as members of the royal court, Gö Lotsawa, and Lochen Sönam Gyamtso.
One of Jangchub Pals disciple was exactly the above mentioned Sönam Gyaltsen (1386-1434), the influential 12th abbot of Densatil Monastery and the brother of the Pamodrupa ruler Drakpa Gyaltsen. Sonam Gyaltsen encouraged Ngok Jangchub Pal to teach more widely.
Parinirvana:
Jangchub Pal died on the 7th of May 1446, in his 87th year. (the second day of the fourth month of the fire male tiger year)
According to Mi bkyod rdo rje, one of his students, He was considered an emanation of Marpa, something that he acknowledged as well.

No. 20
Sönam Gyamtso, (1424-1482)

རབ་བྱམས་ལྡོ་ཆྱེན་བསྡོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དང་།
ལྡོ་ཆྱེན་བསྡོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོའིミ

Sönam Gyamtso – Great Sanskrit Scholar – Doctor of Buddhist Philosophy

One of Jangchub Pal’s disciples was Chennga Sönam Gyaltsen (1386-1434), the influential 12th abbot of Densatil Monastery and brother of the Pamodrupa ruler Drakpa Gyaltsen .
Drakpa Gyaltsen was a sponsor of many religious leaders, including Jangchub Pal and Lochen Sönam Gyamtso who came there as a teenager. When Lochen was in his eighteenth year, Drakpa Jungne sent him a message: “I invited Ngok Jangchub Pal and preparations are being made in order to receive the Ngok teachings. I want to request the empowerments for the seven maṇḍalas of the Ngok. As this Dharma-Lord is the last of the lineage of seven Ngok, Ithink it is very important if one can receive them from him, so I sent someone to call you.”
Lochen went and received the empowerments while serving as the Ruler’s personal attendant. Afterwards, he said: “At that time, I was a young monk and my studies were in progress. To receive or not to receive the empowerments for the seven maṇḍalas did not depend on me; even though I had begun my studies, that very intention was really [a mark] of the affection the Ruler had for me!” Although he is not said to have met Jangchub Pal later on, that transmission was significant for him and for the future of the Ngok pa teachings as it created a direct link between the old Ngok master and the young scholar. Lochen further studied the Ngok traditions with Gö Lotsawa and passed on the transmission to his disciple, the 4th Shamar.

No. 21
4th Shamarpa Chödrak Yeshé (1453-1524)

ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྤྱན་སྔ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན། །
The Dharma King, the Omniscient Chen-nga

The fourth Shamar Chödrak Yeshé (1453-1524) was most instrumental for the further transmission of the Ngok tradition.
Jangchub Pal’s disciples, i.e. Gö Lotsawa and Lochen Sönam Gyamtso passed on their transmission to many, among them the 4th Shamar.
The 4th Shamar was born a few years after Jangchub Pal’s demise, one year before the 7 th Karmapa Chödrak Gyamtso (1454-1506). In the absence of the two heads of the Karma Kagyü order, the central figure of the lineage was the Tsurpu abbot, the first Gyaltsab Paljor Dondrup (1427-1489). He recognized the young Shamar and gave him the novice ordination.
In his youth, the 4th Shamar toured Eastern Tibet in order to visit the monasteries and retreat hermitages founded by his predecessors and received teachings from many masters. He travelled to Central Tibet at 22, in 1476. He visited Densatil Monastery, where he was welcome by the abbot Ngakgyi Wangpo (1439-1491), the son of Drakpa Jungne (1414-1445).
He then paid his respect to Gö Lotsawa and Namka Lodrö of Tsetang, who were the preceptors of the Pamogrupa dynasty. He took his final ordination with them, and received many teachings from Gö Lotsawa during a period of six months. It was also at that time that he met Lochen Sönam Gyamtso, from whom he received, among others, Marpa’s tradition.
Gö Lotsawa and Sönam Gyamtso were very close. They were the preceptors of many rulers of south Central Tibet (lHo ka), and enjoyed a central position in the religious landscape of the period. When the 4th Shamar arrived in Central Tibet, he was directly introduced to the court and had access to funding from many of the wealthy patrons of the period, who help him enlarge the monasteries of Nenang and Ganden Mamo. In 1478, Chödrak Yeshé met again with Gö Lotsawa and Lochen. He spent time with Lochen at the residence of the Yargyab rulers in the lower part of the Dol valley and received the Ngok traditions. These transmissions induced deep experiences in him, and he developed a great aspiration to go and meditate in Marpa’s seat in Lhobrag. He made offerings and meditated at many of the places related to Marpa.
He came back to Central Tibet in 1481, and met Gö Lotsawa one last time. He gave teachings on the Ngok traditions to Ngagi Wangpo, who became the ruler of sNe’u gdong later that year.
In 1482, the 4th Shamar performed the funeral rituals for Lochen Sonam. One evening, he had a vision of Gö Lotsawa and Lochen Sonam in front of him in the sky, with masses of fire penetrating his body and transferring to him their realization of the wisdom body as it is taught in the Kālacakra system.
The Shamarpa remained a powerful figure until his death in 1524, travelling incessantly between the various monasteries and hermitages he was in charge of, and relating to most of the important religious hierarchs of his time. In that way, he spread the Ngok maṇḍalas (as well as all the other traditions he held) far and wide.

No. 22
Khenchen Sherab Palden

མཚུངས་མྱེད་མཁན་ཆྱེན་ཤྱེས་རབ་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཞབས།
མཁན་ཆྱེན་ཤྱེས་རབ་དཔལ་ལྡནミ

Khenchen Sherab Palden – uncomparable Learned One

Khenchen Sherab Palden was the second abbot of Yangpachen, the monastery of the 4th Shamar. He first studied the Kadampa precepts in Nartang Mponastery and received initiations from Shakya Chokden and Langtangpa. He then met the 4th Shamarpa, as well as many other masters, and later became a teacher and finally abbot of Yangpachen. He was equally respected as Shamarpa and was considered an incarnation of Aṅgaja, one of the sixteen arhats. He took the regency after Shamarpa’s passing. Rinchen Phuntsok, the next holder in the Hevajra lineage and Drikung monastery’s abbot spent several years in Yangpachen in the end of the life of the 4 th Shamar’s life, and Sherab Paldan was instrumental in his integration of the Hevajra practice, reflected by his place in the transmission line.

No. 23
Rinchen Phuntsog, (1509-1557)

རིན་ཆྱེན་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཞབས་ལ་གསྡོལ་བ་འདྱེབས།
རྒྱལ་དབང་རིན་ཆྱེན་ཕུན་ཚོགསミ

The 17th Drigung Kyabgon – Gyalwang Rinchen Phuntsog

Rinchen Phuntsog, the 17th Drikung Denrab, was a great reformer. After receiving transmissions from various lineages, he integrated doctrines, rituals, and meditational practices above all of the Nyingma order into the traditional Drikung Kagyu teachings, thereby opening up and augmenting its dogmatic orientation. Rinchen Phuntsog discovered the treasure text Gongpa Yangzab in the Kiri Yangdzong Cave in the valley of Terdrom. Rinchen Phuntsog was an assiduous author whose writings are also highly regarded by the Nyingma and were included in the collection of Nyingma tantras.
Kunga Rinchen, the 16th Drikung Denrab, and his younger brother and successor on the seat of Drikungtil, Rinchen Phuntsog, were both disciples of the 4th Shamar. Kunga Rinchen and the 4th Shamar were invited together to the Ruler’s Donyö Dorje’s court and Kunga Rinchen later invited the Karma Kagyü hierarch to Drikungtil. ToRinchen Phuntsog took the monastic ordination with the 4th Shamar in Densatil in 1516, and later spent several years (1521-1524/5) in Yangpachen: “For seven years he stayed in Yangs [pa] can. The 4th Zhwa dmar and many other teachers gave him many empowerment and authorizations of the Secret Mantrayāna.” He also studied the writings of the successive holders of the Black and Red Hat as well as many instructions. He later imported many Nyingma teachings in the Drikung lineage and became a treasure-revealer, establishing his own seat of Yangrigar in 1534, when he was demoted from the Drikung throne.
Given the personal and prolonged relationship of Kunga Rinchen and Rinchen Phuntsog with the 4th Shamar and the later bond formed between the Drikung and Shamar incarnation lines, it seems very likely that Kunga Rinchen received texts on the Ngok tradition from the 4th Shamar, and included them in the large collections he was building. This would explain the amount of Ngok texts in the Drikung Chödzö Chenmo, that were stored in the Nechu Lhankang of Drepung Moanstery and probably came from Drikung. Thus, the Drikung lineage played a decisive role in the preservation of the Ngok tradition, even in one of its last avatars, the Kagyü Ngakdzö. As shown below, Kongtrül received the transmission of the works the 4th Shamar lineage from Traleg Rinpoche (see no. 35), himself a holder of the Drikung lineage.
There are several lineages of Hevajra preserved in the Kagyü Ngak Dzö. One is considered to be the “Ngok only Lineage” or “pure Ngok Lineage” (rngog brgyud kha rkyang), as opposed to the Kaṃtsang tradition that branches out after the the 3 rd or 4th Ngok, and thus reached the Karmapas earlier on. The former (“Ngok only Lineage”) passed through all the Ngok and then goes out of the family to Lochen Sönam Gyamtso, and then to the 4th Shamar, Sherab Paldan and Rinchen Phuntsog.

No. 24
Trungpa Rinchen, (1519-1586)

སྡོས་པ་མཐའ་བྲལ་དྲུང་པ་རིན་ཆྱེན་དང་།
དྲུང་པ་རིན་ཆྱེན་དཔལ་གིミ

Trungpa Rinchen, precious special one with unending activity.

Trungpa Rinchen Pal is described as a pupil of Rinchen Phuntsog, among others like Lochen Phuntsog Namgyal, Lama Chökyong Rinchen, Togden Dorje Pelbar, Togden Kunga Sherab and Togden Khetsun Dragpa Tsültrim. He was one of the main disciples of Gyalwang Rinchen Phuntsok (1509-1557) the 17th Seat-holder. He was born in the Drikung area and became monk under Rigdzin Puntsog, becoming a great Vinaya holder. He also did lots of retreats.
Trungpa Rinchenpal was named the first Trungpa Changlochen Tulku of Drigungtil Changchubling. Later he became the tutor (Yongdzin) of several lineage-holders of the Drikung Kagyu Tradition. Trungpa Yongdzin Rinchenpal passed on many lineages. Notably in this context of the Hevajra Transmission, is that the connection to 4th Sharmapa is mentioned: “the 4th Sharmapa, who gave it to Rinchen Phuntsok who made Trungpa Changlochen the main transmitter (to his own son and) to Khenchen Namjom Phuntsok (1566-1631) of the Yangrigar monastery. “

No. 25
The 21st Drikung Kyabgön Sangyé Chögyal Püntsok, (1547-1602)

དང་པོའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་ཕུན་ཚོགས་དཔལ། །

Glorious Chögyal Püntsok, primordial Buddha

The 21st Drikung Kyabgön Chogyal Rinchen Phuntsog was the only son of Rinchen Phuntsog. Several conditions were not easy during these times. At the end of Rinchen Phuntsog’s life, mother, father and son were united, and the son, the 21st Denrab, went into retreat. During this time Rinchen Phuntsog died. The death of Rinchen Phuntsog was kept secret for 3 years. Also, several conditions led to that the 21st Denrab moved to Katsel monastery, rather than stay at Drikungthil. The stupa with his father’s remains was built in Katsel. During this time, Püntsok Pal established a 3-year retreat, and a new teaching curriculum. In between these cycles of 3 year retreat, teachings were given on “The Five Fold Path of Mahamudra”, and “The 6 Yogas of Naropa”.
In 1573 he married Ache Yang Khyung, and they had 4 sons. His eldest son, Naro Tashi Phuntsog (1574–1628), called Naro Nyipa (“The second Naropa”), succeeded to the throne, while his younger son, Garwang Chökyi Wangchug (1584–1630), was recognized as the 6th Shamarpa. His two youngest sons, Gyalwang Konchog Rinchen (1590–1654) and Kunkhyen Rigzin Chödrak (1595–1659) became the last heirs to the throne of Drikung; the Kyura lineage died out with them.
Upon the death of Konchog Rinchen, the Drikungpa began to seek the reincarnations of their throne holders instead of having an hereditary lineage. A system of two lineage holders was established, that of the elder (Chetsang) and the younger (Chungtsang) brother. In the Drikung chronology Konchog Rinchen is considered as the first Chetsang and Rigzin Chödrak as the first Chungtsang. Both bear the title Drikung Kyabgon.
Rinchen Phuntsog’s only son, Chogyal Rinchen Phuntsog was the 21st Denrab on the Drikung throne when Altan Khan (1507–1582), the powerful ruler of the Tumat Mongols, entered into an alliance with Sonam Gyatso (1543–1588) from the Gelugpa sect that was to influence the future course of Tibetan history decisively. The Mongolian ruler conferred the title of Dalai Lama on Sonam Gyatso and accorded him extensive privileges. Sonam Gyatso became the 3rd Dalai Lama because his two predecessors were given the title of Dalai Lama posthumously. As a result of many armed conflicts during the latter part of the 16th century, Chogyal Rinchen Phuntsog had the Drikung Dzong complex expanded into a fortress.

No. 26
22nd Denrab on the Drikung throne, Tashi Puntsog, (1574-1628)

ནཱ་རྡོ་གཉིས་པ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཞབས།
ནཱ་རྡོ་བཀིས་ཕུན་ཚོགསミ

Like a second Naropa, Tashi Puntsog

Tashi Puntsog was considered an incarnation of Naropa, referred to as ‘a second Naropa’, and called Naro Nyipa (“The second Naropa”). He became the 22nd Denrab on the Drikung throne. Tashi Puntsog was the oldest of the four brothers.
Like stated, the first phase of succession to the highest office within the lineage ended with 3 of the 4 sons of Chogyal Rinchen Phuntsog. The first of these to succeed to the Drikung Throne was exactly the eldest, i.e. Naro Tashi Phuntsog.
He became a monk at only 7 years old. From age 8 to 16, he stayed at Drikungtil and practiced the “The five Fold Path to Mahamudra”.
During the difficult times, with the troops of the Mongols all around, the 22nd Denrab navigated as best possible. In the years up to 1615 he visited the Mongolian camps and gave teachings and initiations. As he returned from that visit, the 22 nd Denrab withdrew, and passed the Throne to his younger brother.
Continuing his dharma activity, he established retreat centers in many places. Later, around 1625, he tried to negotiate with the Mongolian, but on the travel there, he died. At first, the Drikung lamas tried to get Tashi Phuntsogs body back to Tibet for the rituals, but did not manage. Much later, his body was smuggled to Kham, and burnt. Some ashes were brought to Drikung.

No. 27
24th Drikung Kyabgön, the 1st Chungtsang Tulku, Chökyi Dragpa, (1595-1659)

ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཆྡོས་ཀི་གགས་པར་གསྡོལ་བ་འདྱེབས།
ཀུན་མཁྱྱེན་ཆྡོས་ཀི་གགས་པའིミ

All-knowing Chökyi Dragpa

All-knowing 1st Chung-Tsang Chökyi Dragpa, [Great Magician, ruler of the elements], [The youngest of the four – the ‘Little Brother’, or ‘the younger relative’].
The 22nd Denrab was the youngest son of the 21st throne holder of the Drikung Kagyü lineage, Chögyal Rinchen Phuntsok. He was considered a reincarnation of his grandfather Rinchen Phuntsog and an emanation of Jigten Sumgön as well as several other great masters. Some time after the age of eleven he did retreats, and realized the signs of Tummo-practice.
In the time around 1613 he studied medicine. Later he traveled to Kailash, Kham as well as Tsari.
In 1627 he married Tashi Pelzom. During the next years, he studied intensively. It was difficult times, and many properties of the Drikung Kagyu were lost in that period. In1645, the 24th Denrab divorced his wife. They did not have any children.
In the midst of devastation and ruin in Tibet [from the start to mid 17th century], Drikung became famous far and wide as well as an admired and feared center of magic. This reputation was traceable to the activity of exactly Konchog Rinchen’s brother, i.e. the 1st Chungtsang Rinpoche, Rigzin Chödrak, ‘all-knowing Chökyi Dragpa’.
In the early 1650s the central government imprisoned the 24th Denrab. In jail, the prison guards reported of special light etc. coming from his cell. Later, the 5th Dalai Lama showed him great respect.
Rigzin Chödrak founded an important school of astrology and divination in Drikung and was also the founder of the Drikung system of medicine, one of Tibet’s four medical traditions.

No. 28
Panchen Konchog lhundrub

ཁབ་བདག་པཎ་ཆྱེན་དཀྡོན་མཆྡོག་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་དང་།
པཎ་ཆྱེན་ དཀྡོན་མཆྡོག་ལྷུན་གྲུབミ

All pervading Lord, Great learned one, Konchog Lhundrub

Panchen Konchog lhundrub was born in Lowotö in Limi. (Full name in tibetan: ལྷྡོ་མཆྡོག་སྤྲུལ་དཀྡོན་མཆྡོག་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་འཕིན་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་). He was a personal disciple of Rigdzin Chödrak and received all his teachings, later practicing all stages of creation and completion of the new and old mantras, especially Yamantaka. He brought his studies of the Kanjur and Tenjur to perfection and thus became a Pandita. For a long time, he served as teacher at the monasteries Katsel and Ön Rinchen Drak. He was very close to the Fifth Dalai Lama and received great honors. He was the root guru of Lord Bhadra (dKon mchog ‘phrin las bzang po), the Drikung Chetsang, and offered him many empowerments and teachings of the new and old mantra school.

No. 29
The 25th Drikung Kyabgön, 2nd Chetsang Konchog Thrinley Zangpo

ྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲ་བ་འཕིན་ལས་བཟང་པྡོའི་དཔལ།
དཀྡོན་མཆྡོག་འཕིན་ལས་བཟང་པྡོའིミ

Tailor of Magical Deception, Thrinley Zangpo

The 2nd Che-Tsang Konchog Thrinley Zangpo was a great artist and painter, founder of the Driri-school of Drikung. It was during his reign that the custom of first enthroning the Kyabgon Rinpoches in Drikung Tse Monastery was introduced.
In 1673, Konchog Thrinle Zangpo introduced new ritual dances, based on a vision. In the Snake Year 1677 he introduced the Snake Year Teachings on the threshing ground of Drikung Tse, where he gave initiations and teachings on the Chakrasamvara and Guhyasamaja tantras. Some time after he had established the Snake Year teachings, the 2nd Chetsang also introduced the Monkey year teaching cycle.
In 1681, he had Yangrigar Monastery completely rebuilt, as it had been largely destroyed by the ceaseless warfare. Today he is regarded as the monastery’s founder. He also started to restore Drikung Dzong amidst the turmoil of another Mongolian invasion in 1717, during which the Dzungars overran Lhasa and burned and plundered numerous Nyingma monasteries. Thrinle Sangpo guided the lineage alone for a long time, because the reincarnation of Chungtsang, which was recognized by the 10th Karmapa, had died in a smallpox epidemic before he could be brought to Drikung.

No. 30
The 26th Drikung Kyabgön 2nd Chuntsang Döndrub Chökyi Gyalpo (1704-1754)

ཨྱེ་བཾ་དྡོན་གྲུབ་ཆྡོས་ཀི་རྒྱལ་པྡོའ་ ི ཞབས།
དྡོན་གྲུབ་ཆྡོས་ཀི་རྒྱལ་པྡོའིミ

Evam, mystical union of method and wisdom, Döndrub Chökyi Gyalpo

The 2nd Chung-Tsang Döndrub Chökyi Gyalpo, [Drikung Bhande Dharmaraja] received in 1710 the complete transmission from Marpa, Milarepa etc. At the age of 12 he went into retreat, with focus on several yidams.
During these difficult times in Tibet, many monasteries were destroyed, but Drikung was to some degree spared. During the time before 1718, he was in Lhasa, which he then re-visited in 1721, giving a long-life ritual for the 7th Dalai Lama. After a great assembly in Tibet, Döndrub Chökyi Gyalpo came back with an inspiration to re-vitalize the discipline of the Vinaya, taking back to writings by Jigten Sumgön.
Also during this time, the Chakrasamvara practice was declining in Tibet. The 2nd ChungTsang composed texts for regular daily usage.
In 1747 he withdrew and passed the leadership of the Drikung Kagyu to the 3rd Chetsang.

No. 31
8th Tai Situ Rinpoche, Chökyi Jungne, (1700-1774)

ཆྡོས་ཀི་འབྱུང་གནས་ཞབས་ལ་གསྡོལ་བ་འདྱེབས།
ཀུན་མཁྱྱེན་ཆྡོས་ཀི་འབྱུང་གནསミ

Kunchen Chökyi Jungne, 8th Tai Situ Rinpoche

Situ Panchen (full name Situ Panchen Chögyi Jungney), also known as the 8th Tai Situ Rinpoche, was an influential Tibetan painter, writer and medical innovator as well as a notable figure in the histories of Karma Kagyu and the Kingdom of Dergé, where he served as senior court chaplain.
The birth of the eighth Situpa Chokyi Jungne, was recorded in many texts and literatures, and many great masters made the prophecies of his arrival. For example, the 11th Karmapa, Yeshe Dorje (1676-1702), even predicted the place where Chokyi Jungne was born.
At the age of 14, he was recognized according to predictions left by Karmapa Mikyo Dorje, by Terton Sangye Lingpa, Takshampa Mingyur Dorje and by the eighth Shamar Chokyi Dondrup. He was taken to Tsurphu monastery for his enthronement and he received all the teachings and empowerments and studied philosophy and medicine from Karmapa Jangchub Dorje (1703-1732), Shamar Rinpoche, and Rigzin Tsewang Norbu.
On the second day of the third month in the female fire sheep year (1727), at the age of 28 years, Chokyi Jungne, under the permission of the king of Derge, began to build the great Palpung monastery, and accomplished the founding on the tenth day of the eighth month in the year. He also built and restored countless other monasteries throughout his life.
At the age of 63, he visited Central Tibet on pilgrimage for the fifth time. He retreated in a Drikung monastery. At that time, when he performed any kind of offering ceremony, a miracle emanation vision of Dorje Drolo showed up. Once in a Tara fire offering ceremony, the tent he slept grew many blue lotuses. During the day, he kept reciting mantras except short rest time at noon and night. He recited three hundred million times of all kind of mantras. He showed many miracles like just an intention to stop a rainstorm, spreading barley to the sky and the barley straightened on the ground.
The 8th Situpa was one of the most famous masters in Tibetan history. He was acknowledged as a supreme scholar who had no equal in the five knowledge-areas. He was honored the title “Maha Pandita”. It is said that his limitless activities were equal to those of Nagajuna’s in India. It was also a common saying at the time, that if all of the other Kagyu monasteries came together, their activity wouldn’t be equal to that of Situ Chokyi Jungne.
His foremost disciples were the thirteenth Karmapa, the tenth Shamarpa, Gyalwang Drukpa Trinley Shingta, Drikung Chokyi Gyalwa, Pawo Tsuklag Gyalwa, Drubtop Choje Gyal, Khamtrul Chokyi Nyima, and Lotsawa Tsewang Kunchab.

No. 32
Karma Ngelek Tenzin, (1700?-1768?)

གསང་ཆྱེན་རྱེ་དཔྡོན་ངྱེས་ལྱེགས་བསན་འཛིན་དང་།
རྱེ་དཔྡོན་ངྱེས་ལྱེགས་བསན་འཛིནミ

Great Secret [Vajra] Master, Ngelek Tenzin

Karma Ngelek Tendzin Trinle Rabgye was born in 1700 in Derge, Kham. He was the nephew of the Eighth Situ, Chokyi Jungne (1699-1774). As a youth, he started a basic education of Tibetan reading, writing, and daily prayers, and eventually joined a monastery, most likely Karma Gon and later Palpung, which his uncle established in 1727. He studied both exoteric and esoteric courses under the guidance of his illustrious uncle, specializing in Tibetan medical science. He later trained a number of disciples, including Yilhung Jamyang (yid lhung ‘jam dbyangs), Chokyi Dorje (chos kyi rdo rje), and Drime Zhingkyong Gonpo (dri med zhing skyong mgon po, 1724-1760). He composed a number of medical treatises.

No. 33
Karma Mingyur Dechen, (1700?-1780?)

བདྱེ་ཆྱེན་མི་འགྱུར་ཚེ་དབང་ཀུན་ཁབ་དཔལ།
ཀརྨ་ཚེ་དབང་ཀུན་ཁྱབミ

Unchanging Great Bliss, Glorious Tsewang Kunkyab

Zurmang Lotsawa Tsewang Kunkyab figured among the foremost disciples of the 8th Situpa, together with the thirteenth Karmapa, the tenth Shamarpa. He was also a disciple of the 7th Pawo Tsuklak Gawe Wangpo.
Belo Tsewang Kunkyab, is co-author of the Rosary of Crystal Gems (Zla ba chu shel gyi phreng ba), which he wrote with the 8th Situ.

No. 34
Karma Ratna, (1750?-1800?)

དྡོན་གཉིས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་རཏྣའ་ ི ཞབས།
མཆྡོག་སྤྲུལ་ཀརྨ་རཏྣའིミ

He who Spontaneously Accomplishes the Benefit of Self and Others, Karma Ratna

Chabtsa Tulku Karma Ratna, also known as Öntrül Karma Rinchen, was a disciple of Belo Tsewang Kunkhyab of Zurmang Monastery.
Among his students were Karma Ösal Gyurme and Gönpo Tsewang.

No. 35
The 6th Traleb Yeshe Nyima, (1775?-1850?)

ཁྲ་ལྱེགས་ཡྱེ་ཤྱེས་ཉི་མར་གསྡོལ་བ་འདྱེབས། །
ཁྲ་ལྱེབ་ཡྱེ་ཤྱེས་ཉི་མའིミ

Traleg Yeshe Nyima

The 6 th Traleg Yeshe Nyima was the incarnation of a disciple of Gampopa, Saltong Shogan, one of the important Kagyu Tulku lineages in Tibet. Saltong Shogam is known as one of the Three Men of Kham who were among the five closest students to Gampopa and the only student to receive the complete transmission of both Vajrayana and Mahamudra instructions from him. Among his previous incarnations were Ananda, pupils of Saraha, Nagarjuna, Tilopa, Naropa, as well as being Ngok Choku Dorje, pupil of Marpa.
The 9 th Traleg Tulku, Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche was well-known in the west and died in 2012.

No. 36
Jamgon Kongtrül Lodro Thaye, (1813-1899)

མཚུང་མྱེད་ཀྡོང་སྤྲུལ་ཡྡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དང་།
ཀྡོང་སྤྲུལ་ཡྡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོའིミ

Without Equal, Kongtrül Yönten Gyamtso

Jamgon Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye had a great veneration and awareness about Marpa and Hevajra: “In the south, in the land of herbs, the valley of Trowo, the translator, (who) emanated from Hevajra, established the source of the river of all siddhas.” Lodro Thaye compiled an important collection, the Treasure of Kagyü Mantras (Kagyü Ngak Dzö), which assembles all the transmissions coming from Marpa together with some others, thus constituting an complete compendium of cycles related to the Highest Yoga Tantras in the Kagyü school.
From the autobiographical notes Lodro Thaye made during his life, we can get a feeling of his veneration for Marpa, the Ngok Tradition and Hevajra.
For instance, we can read about the time of the passing of Lodro Thaye’s main teacher, the Ninth Situ Pema Nyinje Wangpo, who lived from 1774 to 1853, and passed at the end of the fourth month in the Water Ox Year (1852-1854).
Lodro Thaye was involved in ceremonies connected with the arrangement of Situpas funeral. He discussed with Öngen which offering ceremonies to begin with. Öngen had previously said, “Since the refuge lord himself was widely known to be an emanation of Lord Marpa, in the future the two rituals of Hevajra and Guhyasamaja, being Marpa’s principal practices, cannot be omitted.” Öngen added, “You should codify the sadhanas and mandala rituals and detail all the practical methods associated with these.”
Lodro Thaye writes: “I began the project by arranging the sadhana and mandala ritual for the tantra of Hevajra. Among the books in my spiritual master’s residence were texts by such authors as Thrükhang Lotsawa and Rinchen Zangpo of the Ngok clan, but the oral transmissions were no longer available. Among the later works was a manual of medium length by the Fourth Zhamar Chen-nga Chökyi Drakpa, which was incontestably part of the Ngok tradition; and in the collected works of Jonang Jetsün Rinpoché I found several texts, like pure gold, dealing with the tantras transmitted by Marpa. I took these two latter sources as my basis.” … Further, he continues: “While I was compiling the texts, Traleg Yeshé Nyima arrived when the requisite period after Situ Rinpoché’s passing had elapsed. He brought with him the tantric works of Chen-nga Chökyi Drakpa, which he had received from Öntrul Karma Ratna. He had received all the empowerments and oral transmissions for these texts, and so I requested all of thesefrom him. So my lineage of empowerments was totally pure and the line of oral transmission, too, needed no further support from other sources.”
The ‘Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia’ writes: “The Hevajra Tantra was transmitted by Marpa as part of a series of Tantras that became known as the Seven Mandalas of Ngok to one of his four main disciples, Ngok Chöku Dorje (1036–1106). This tradition was … upheld by the Drikung Kagyu lineage. To save these teachings from oblivion, Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye (1813-1899) combined them with other teachings of Marpa to form the Kagyu Ngag Dzö (bka’ brgyud sngags mdzod, ‘The Kagyu Treasury of Oral Instructions’).”
From his autobiography one can read: “In 1855 (the wood hare year), I undertook a personal retreat on the practice of Hevajra according to the tradition of Marpa; some very auspicious omens occurred on the first day. In three months I had completed thephase of approach, along with the supplementary fire ritual. In the fourth month, I went to Palpung Monastery, attending the vase consecration ritual and group offering rituals. I also presided as vajra master over the Hevajra ritual to commemorate Situ Rinpoché.”
Later, in the fourth month of 1869 (fire serpent year): “I had planned to write a commentary on The Hevajra Tantra, and to request permission for this I performed the guru sadhana of Marpa in conjunction with more than a hundred repetitions of rituals to purify myself of obscurations. I also practiced means to gather merit and deepen awareness, prayed, and performed feast offerings and fulfillment rituals. I began writing methodically, beginning with the chapter on the vajra family in the first section. In the tradition of explanation deriving from Marpa and Ngok, there has been no one definitive method of exegesis as there is, for example, in the Sakya tradition. Nowadays, the two commentaries most widely used are Ngok’s Like a Jeweled Ornament and the venerable Rangjung Dorjé’s commentary. But the former is entirely an explanation of the “hidden import” of the text, while the latter emphasizes the meanings of the words themselves, but the description of the deity is somewhat imbedded, which makes it difficult to use when one is explaining it (or listening to the explanation) in connection with the basic tantra. Chen-nga Chökyi Drakpa bases his treatment on so many Indiancommentaries that his explanation is not easy to understand. Such ancient explanations as the commentaries of Ram and Tsak are extremely unclear. The commentary by Thrinlépa is somewhat clearer, and the excellent commentary by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal is so fine that I kept it aside as an overview. Taking the meaning of the words as myprimary concern, I sought to clarify them further in light of the hidden meaning and, distinct from that, the ultimate meaning.”
Also relevant in this connection is Lodro Thayes text: “The Essential Oral Instructions of the Creation and Completion Stages” or “Creation and Completion – Essential Points of Tantric Meditation”
In 1870 (Fifth month of the Iron House Year), Lodro Thaye wrote: “During the monastic summer retreat I taught on the three levels of ordination and the entire texts of The Profound Inner Meaning, The Hevajra Tantra in Two Chapters, and The Highest Continuum, as well as performing a ritual in honor of the tantras.
Gradually, I also wrote an overview of The Hevajra Tantra in Two Chapters. During this period I had very positive signs in my dreams; for example, I dreamed of Vajradhara Pema Nyinjé being very pleased with me and encouraging me, placing a crystal mala around my neck.”

No. 37
Khenchen Karma Tashi Özer, (1836-1910)

མཁན་ཆྱེན་ཀརྨ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འྡོད་ཟྱེར་དཔལ།
མཁན་ཆྱེན་བཀིས་འྡོད་ཟྱེར་གིミ

Khenchen Karma Tashi Özer

The Glorious One Popular with the Gods, Lama Tashi Lhadar [བླ་མ་བཀིས་ལྷ་དར་], more commonly known as Khenchen Lama [Karma] Tashi [Özer].
His Holiness Drikung Kyabgön Trinle Lhundrub said that Khenchen Tashi Özerwas invited from Palpung monastery to Palme monastery, and that Zhiwä Lodrö (the 6th Chetsang Tulku) received the Kagyü Ngagdzö from him.
Khenchen Tashi Ozer, also known as Shiwai Nyingpo, was an important student of the 19th century Rime masters Jamgon Kongtrul and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. He was born in 1836 in the Dilchung region of Alo Shega county of Dokham, to his mother Lhadron and father Tsetra. From a very early age he always behaved in perfect accordance with the Vinaya and displayed natural compassion.
At eighteen, he went to Palpung monastery and met with Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, from whom he received lay vows and the name Tashi Ozer Lodro Gyepe De (bkra shis ‘od zer blo gros rgyas pa’i sde). On that occasion he received from Kongtrul instructions on the Three Levels of Vows (sdom gsum) composed by Ngari Panchen Pema Wangyal (1487-1542), and on the Wish-fulfilling Treasury (yid bzhin mdzod) by Longchen Rabjam (1308-1363), as well as empowerments and explanations on various tantra cycles.
At twenty, he received ordination from Khenchen Dawa Sangpo, and the name Karma Sopa Rabten Palsangpo was given to him. He then continued his studies under Jamgon Kongtrul and learned all of Madhyamika, Prajnaparamita andVinaya from him. He also received extensive teachings on the five cycles of teachings of Maitreya (byams chos skor) and was introduced to Mahamudra. Not only did Tashi Ozer receive the entire transmissions of both the Karma Kagyu and Shangpa Kagyu lineages from Kongtrul and other masters, but also those of the Sakya, Zhalu, Bodong and Jonang. In particular, he received various streams of Kalacakra transmissions, along with instructions on this system’s special set of perfection process meditations, the so-called Six Vajra Yogas.
At twenty-four, he entered into the lower retreat centre of Palpung and did the traditional three-year retreat under the guidance of the retreat master Karma Ngedon Nyingpo, a close student of Jamgon Kongtrul. After having completed the retreat he went to see the great bodhisattva Patrul Rinpoche (1808–1887) and received extensive instructions on Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara from him. In particular, he received teachings on the wisdom chapter seven times. At twenty-seven he again went into the presence of Khenchen Dawa Sangpo and received full monastic ordination. For several years he then continued his studies and received teachings from such outstanding masters as H.H. the 14th Karmapa Thegchog Dorje (1797-1867), the two Jamgons (Kongtrul and Khyentse), Terchen Chokgyur Lingpa (1829-1870), Khenchen Dawa Sangpo and others. There is not a subject of either sutra or tantra that he did not study under one of these masters.
After Khenchen Dawa Sangpo had passed away, and upon the insistent advice of the two Jamgons, Tashi Ozer was enthroned as the main Khenpo of Palpung monastery. He began extensive teaching activity and ordained large numbers of monks during his life. On various occasions, he was graced by visions of Buddha Shakyamuni and Tara. In one of his visions of Shakyamuni, he received from him the oral transmissions of various sutras. He was continuously engaged in the practice of the creation and perfection stages and his realization was boundless. There never was a time when he was not involved in either studying, teaching or practicing the holy dharma, and he was eventually closely involved in the upbringing and education of the 11th Tai Situpa Pema Wangchok Gyalpo (1886-1952).
Having studied under some of the greatest masters of his time, he in turn became a teacher to several of the most illustrious masters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries of eastern Tibet. In his old age Khenchen Tashi Ozer spent most of his time up in Jamgon Kongtrul’s hermitage of Tsadra Rinchen Drak. He stayed there with his old friend Khedrub Tashi Chopel, another old and close student of Kongtrul’s. They were famous for never keeping more provisions in Tsadra than what would last for a single day, in order to constantly remind themselves of impermanence. In 1910, after having fulfilled the length and purpose of his life, Khenchen Tashi Ozer dissolved his awareness into the dharmadhatu.

No. 38
The 35th Drikung Kyabgön, 6th, (1886-1943?)Chetsang Rinpoche, Shiway Lodro

ཐུབ་བསན་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ཞི་བའི་བླྡོ་གྡོས་ཞབས།
ཐུབ་བསན་ཞི་བའི་བླྡོ་གྡོསミ

Thubten Gyaltsen Shiway Lodrö

The 6th Chetsang Rinpoche Thubten Gyaltsen Shiway Lodrö was found through a vision by the 34th Drikung Denrab, the 6th Chung-Tsang Tulku.
During a visit of Lhasa in 1893 together with Chungtsang Rinpoche, the two were bestowed the Manchurian title of hotogthu. Since that time, the Drikung Kyabgon Rinpoches have always worn the golden hotogthu hat on official journeys, in accordance with an ancient prophecy of the 1st Chungtsang Rigzin Chödrak that in the future he would wear a golden hat.
Later, Shiway Lodrö wrote comprehensive guidebooks to holy places about his pilgrimages to Mt. Kailash and Lapchi.
Shiway Lodrö’s main interest lay in integrating meditative practice and philosophical teaching, as these were the central pillars of education and training in the Drikung Kagyu tradition. Also, Shiway Lodrö built by himself a retreat-cabin at Drikung Thil, and was often in singular retreat.
He also gained great fame on account of his clairvoyant abilities. He arranged for the renovation of Yangrigar Monastery and the addition of a building for storing the wooden blocks used for printing Buddhist texts, and also introduced the first committee in Drikung Til to improve the monastery administration. However, the poor educational leve in his monasteries remained his greatest concern. In 1932, he established the Nyima Changra academy of higher Buddhist studies.
After the untimely death of the 7th Chungtsang, Tenzin Chökyi Jungne (1909–40), Shiway Lodrö became heavy-hearted and soon thereafter, on a journey to Kham, he suffered a stroke from which he did not recover. He spent most of his time inmeditation until his death. Shiway Lodrö died in 1943.

No. 39
Drikung interim Regent, H.E. Tritsab Gyabra, Tenzin Thubten, (1924 or 1921?-1979)

བསན་འཛིན་ཐུབ་བསན་ཞབས་ལ་གསྡོལ་བ་འདྱེབས།
དཀྡོན་མཆྡོག་བསན་འཛིན་ཐུབ་བསན

Tritsab Tenzin Thubten

The 6th Tritsab Rinpoche incarnation, Gyabra Thubten Wangpo, was the heart disciple of the 34th Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche and the 35th Drikung Kyabgon Chungtsang Rinpoche. After the two Holinesses passed away, he became the acting head of the Drikung Kagyu order. Upon the recognition of the reincarnations of the two present Holinesses (the 36th and 37th Throneholders) in the late 1940s, he became responsible for their education. He transmitted all the Dharma teachings, empowerments and practices of Drikung Kagyu to the two reincarnated Holinesses and many other rinpoches, tulkus and lamas of Drikung Kagyu. In the history of Drikung Kagyu, the reincarnations of Thritsab Rinpoche can be considered as one of the masters who makes great contribution to the preservation of the Drikung Kagyu lineage. When trying to locate the tulku of the 7th Chetsang, Tritsab Rinpoché had a vision while he was at Namtso Lake. On the surface of this sacred lake, he saw the image of a house with two upper stories, a victory banner and the surrounding garden and paths. He saw a puppy circling around the victory banner, which confirmed the incarnation had been born in the Year of the Dog.