His Holiness 4th Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Jigme Thubten Trinley Palzangpo

Eh Ma
The enlightened mind, primordially pure,
Is never scorched by the fires of hell,
Nor deprived by the hungry ghost realm,

Nor dulled by the animal realm,
Nor overpowered by hordes of demons.
To the union of Emptiness and Compassion,
I supplicate.

– Supplication Prayer to the Successive Emanations of Dodrupchen

H.H. 4th Dodrupchen Rinpoche is the principal lineage holder of the Longchen Nyingtik Cycle of Teachings (The Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse), a treasure teaching revealed by the esteemed treasure revealer, Jigme Lingpa. 

In Tibetan, the term “Dodrupchen” means a greatly accomplished one from the Do Valley. The term derives from the first Dodrupchen Rinpoche, who was born in the upper Do Valley in the Gyalrong District of eastern Tibet. 

When the first Dodrupchen Rinpoche visited Master Jigme Lingpa, that master recognized Dodrupchen as being the incarnation of the sacred prince Murub Tsepo that was predicted in the “Guide to Longchen Nying-thik Predictions” and as being the sole possessor and successor to the Longchen Nying-thik teachings. 

Thus, Master Jigme Lingpa bestowed upon Dodrupchen the complete “Direct Transmission from Buddha” and “Terma (Hidden Treasures)” lineages and authorized him to be the fundamental dharma possessor of Longchen Nying-thik. 

 

In his childhood, Dodrupchen Rinpoche manifested various awe-inspiring actions, which brought tears to the students of his predecessor. A spontaneous learner and leader, Dodrupchen Rinpoche accomplished all of his studies in the Sutras, Tantras and the Great Perfection with effortless ease. This was reflected in the words of his root Guru, Yukhok Chatralwa Choying Rangdrol,

“Among hundreds of students who practice the Dzogchen, there is no one greater than you, my son.”

Dodrupchen Rinpoche has also set foot on multiple lands around the world where he transmitted important teachings of the Nyingma lineage, the root volumes of Longchen Nyingtik, the essential empowerments of Dzogchen and many others.

At present, Dodrupchen Rinpoche resides at Chorten Monastery and continues to guide and benefit countless sentient beings. His quite, gentle and unassuming demeanor, complemented by a tremendous presence, remains and aspiration for all.

Early Emanations

In a former time when the Bodhisattva Vajrapani expounded the cycle of Vajrayana teachings at Mount Malaya, there was a king called Za in Zahor, India. As one of Vajrapani’s five disciples, King Za accomplished the unwavering state of the Wisdom Mind and taught his entire retinue to the accomplishment of the Vidyadhara level. Thus was the first identified Dodrupchen emanation.

Among the successive births of Dodrupchen, there was the 28th Tibetan King named Thotori. In the 5th century CE during his reign, the sublime Buddha dharma first appeared in Tibet as in the form of holy objects and scriptures that fell upon the roof of the royal residence, Yumbu Lakhang Palace. 

Although the meaning of the objects and scriptures were not comprehensible at that time, King Thotori followed the prophetic instructions he received in a dream to preserve and revere them for five generations.

Notable incarnations of Dodrupchen thereafter include Prince Murub Tsenpo (c. 8th century CE), the elder son of the Dharma King Trisong Deutsen, as well as Sangye Lingpa (1340-1396), one of the eleven great Tertons (Treasure Revealers) and a heart son of Guru Padmasambhava.

The successive births of the three Dodrupchens

The 1st Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Jigme Trinle Ozer (1745 – 1821), was the chief disciple of the great treasure revealer Jigme Lingpa who revealed and expounded the cycle of teachings called Longchen Nyingtik (The Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse). As prophesized by Guru Padmasambhava, the 1st Dodrupchen Rinpoche manifested remarkable qualities and guided numerous disciples to accomplishment. Jigme Lingpa as the future lineage holder of the Longchen Nyingtik appointed him; the seat of which has been passed down to future emanations today.

The birth of the 2nd Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Jigme Phuntsok Jungne (1824-1863), was predicted directly by his predecessor. He was adept in advanced Vajrayana practice and his clairvoyance and accomplishment was on a par with the great Indian Mahasiddha Saraha.

The 3rd Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Jigme Tenpei Nyima (1865 – 1926), was a steadfast and accomplished scholar-practitioner. A gifted child, he gave teachings on The Way of the Bodhisattva at the age of eight and profoundly inspired the audience, including the acclaimed master Patrul Rinpoche. A prolific author, the 3rd Dodrupchen Rinpoche wrote an important and illuminating commentary on Guhyagarbha (The Essence of Secrets) Tantra. A disciplined monk, he attained the fragrance of virtue through strict observance of his vows. An accomplished practitioner, he beheld and conversed with his yidam deity through one-pointed practice of sadhanas.

The fourth Dodrupchen Rinpoche: Early years

“During the times of misfortune in Sikkim
Dwells a hidden yogi,
The emanation of Murub Tsenpo and Sangye Lingpa.
Those who have connection to him
Will be liberated from the lower realms”.

–       Prophecy of the birth of the 4th Dodrupchen Rinpoche from the Terma revealed by Orgyen Laytro Lingpa Jatson Nyingpo)

–       

The birth of the 4th Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Jigme Thubten Trinley Palzangpo, was stated in the above prophecy from a treasure text revealed by Orgyen Laytro Lingpa (1585 – 1656)

and was also predicted by the 3rd Dodrupchen Rinpoche. His Holiness KYABJE Thupten Thrinle Palzang was born in the Fire Hare year of the sixteenth Rabjung (1927) in Tsi village in the Ser (Serta) Valley of Golok in Eastern Tibet. Rinpoche's father was Drala of the Jekar clan, and his mother was Kali Kyi of the Kazhi clan.

Between his conception and the age of six, Rinpoche displayed many miraculous signs. Lushul Khenpo and Lauthang Tulku made a record of these signs up to the age of four. 

Around the time that he was conceived, his father had a dream in which he was brandishing a crystal sword, which was so long that the end was not visible in the sky. That year almost every day, rainbows appeared over Tsi village, and the monks of the monastery across the river used to joke, "This year all the people of Tsi village are going to attain rainbow body."

While Rinpoche was in the womb, there were many occasions on which his mother entered a dark place, but she could see because of the appearance of a light, which sometimes scared her. One day a snake holding a shining object in its mouth came into the house and then disappeared into the wall in front of a couple of people.

Almost every night a za kept appearing on the roof of the house. The raven without the upper part of its beak, which lives at Dodrupchen Monastery, was seen many times at this distant village. Without any seeds having been sown, a kind of flower unknown in that part of the country covered the roof of the house.

When he was born before dawn, although it was still dark, things became clearly visible because of a light. Many times the baby was found on the upper floor of the house, although he could not walk. His parents, thinking that he must be climbing the stairs, sealed them off. Still they found him on the upper floor a number of times.

Once a big mani stone, a stone on which prayers are carved, fell on Rinpoche. Many of his bones seemed to have been broken, but after a few hours all trace of damage had disappeared. Many people heard him reciting the siddhi mantra, the prayer mantra of Guru Rinpoche, many times.

One day, a disciple of the third Dodrupchen named Guru came to see him. When Rinpoche saw him, he instantly said, "Guru! Guru!" and blessed him by putting his hand on Guru's head and chanting, OM AH HUM, VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUM.

The fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche Thupten Chokyi Dorje (1872-1935) gave the following prophecy for Dodrupchen Monastery to indicate where the Tulku of the third Dodrupchen would be found.

“The main source of manifestation of the vajra master,

The lord of the Buddha lineages, is the Glorious Mountain of Ngayab Continent.

In the center, which is the great pure land of Sambhogakaya,

There are four emanations: of his body, speech, mind, and virtues.

The manifestation of his action

Has taken birth to the south of the monastery,

At a place among mountains with rocks and trees,

To a skillful means [father] and a wisdom [mother] named Ka and Da

As an auspicious child of the Earth Hare.

There are signs that he will benefit the Dharma and beings.

At the request of devotees,

I, the fifth Dzogchen Tulku Dharmavajra,

Wrote whatever was recalled to my deluded mind.

May the dawn of virtues and goodness fill the earth”.

The great Dzogchen yogi Yukhok Chatralwa also said, "In a dream I saw two sacred vases on one mandala, so there will be two incarnations. If the offerings are made to the protectors, you shall find the tulkus very soon."

Then Dzogchen Rinpoche instructed them to conduct the search south of the monastery up to the valleys of Li and Tsang. When the search party from Dodrupchen Monastery visited Tsi village, before his parents knew of their arrival, Rinpoche told them, "Today guests are coming," and he sang happily. When the party who came to examine him presented him with books, rosaries, and other possessions of the previous Dodrupchen mixed with those belonging to other people, he picked up his predecessor's things without a single mistake, saying, "This is mine."

Then the list of names was presented to Dzogchen Rinpoche for his final determination. He picked the name of the present Dodrupchen Rinpoche and composed a long-life prayer for the child, and gave him the name Thupten Thrinle Palzangpo. Many other great lamas also confirmed the recognition, about which they were of one mind.

The 4th Dodrupchen Rinpoche manifested various awe-inspiring actions in his childhood. At the age of four, he was enthroned at Sangchen Ngodrup Palbar Ling, the Dodrupchen Monastery in Tibet. During the enthronement ceremony, he recited The Seven-line Prayer to Guru Padmasambhava,

ཧཱུྃ༔ ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཡུལ་གྱི་ནུབ་བྱང་མཚམས༔

hung, orgyen yul gyi nup jang tsam

Hūṃ. In the north-west of the land of Oḍḍiyāna,

པདྨ་གེ་སར་སྡོང་པོ་ལ༔

pema gésar dong po la

In the heart of a lotus flower,

ཡ་མཚན་མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་བརྙེས༔

yatsen chok gi ngö drup nyé

Endowed with the most marvellous attainments,

པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་ཞེས་སུ་གྲགས༔

pema jungné shyé su drak

You are renowned as the Lotus-born,

འཁོར་དུ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མང་པོས་བསྐོར༔

khor du khandro mangpö kor

Surrounded by many hosts of ḍākinīs.

ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་བདག་བསྒྲུབ་ཀྱིས༔

khyé kyi jesu dak drup kyi

Following in your footsteps

བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས་ཕྱིར་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ༔

jin gyi lop chir shek su sol

I pray to you: come and bless me with your grace!

གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ༔

guru pema siddhi hung

which brought the students of his predecessor to tears. At one time, during his visit to the temple of Dharma protectors near the Dodrupchen Monastery, he recited a prayer to Ekajati, Protectress of the Secret Mantra, even though he had not learned how to read. Similar stories of his miraculous capabilities and extraordinary faculties as a child have been widely circulated among his tutors and former students.

At the age of five, the 4th Dodrupchen Rinpoche learned to read and write, and thereafter began hearing and contemplating the Sutras and Tantras. From Khenpo Kunpal, Dodrupchen Rinpoche received the transmission, empowerments and teachings of the entire cycle of Longchen Nyingtik. The experience was recounted with joy by Khenpo Kunpal as a father-to-son transmission.

At the age of five, the 4th Dodrupchen Rinpoche learned to read and write, and thereafter began hearing and contemplating the Sutras and Tantras. From Khenpo Kunpal, Dodrupchen Rinpoche received the transmission, empowerments and teachings of the entire cycle of Longchen Nyingtik. The experience was recounted with joy by Khenpo Kunpal as a father-to-son transmission. 

During his teenage years, Dodrupchen Rinpoche completed three sets of the preliminary practices of Longchen Nyingtik and other supplementary practices.

Dodrupchen Rinpoche received teachings from many other highly-accomplished teachers of his time. 

At the age of fourteen, Dodrupchen Rinpoche drank the alcohol given by Apang Terton who thereby transmitted his realization of the essence of the Dzogpachenpo (Great Perfection) to Dodrupchen Rinpoche.

Between ages twenty and twenty-five, Rinpoche received secret teachings of the Great Perfection called Trekchö and Thögal as well as its complete pith instructions from his root guru, Yukhok Chatralwa Choying Rangdrol. 

“Among hundreds of students who practice the Dzogchen, there is no one greater than you, my son,” praised his root guru. Excelling at his study and practice, Dodrupchen Rinpoche pleased his glorious guru and became a powerful upholder of the ocean-like teachings of the Nyingma Lineage.

At the age of thirty-one, due to the changes of political circumstances in Tibet and also based upon the predictions of the Dakinis in 1957 concerning the circumstances Tibet would face, H.H. Dodrupchen Rinpoche arrived in Sikkim. At first His Holiness did not reveal His status. However, a greatly accomplished person in Sikkim who was the master of the king of Sikkim told the king that the true Padmasambhava had arrived in Sikkim and strongly urged the king to become a disciple of H.H. Dodrupchen Rinpoche. Later, after repeated entreaties by the king of Sikkim, His Holiness assumed the position of National Master of Sikkim. His Holiness also recognized the identity or status of H.E. the seventh Dzogchen Dharma King and conducted the enthronement ceremony for that dharma king.

Excelling at his study and practice, Dodrupchen Rinpoche pleased his glorious guru and became a powerful upholder of the ocean-like teachings of the Nyingma Lineage.

The Fourth Dodrupchen: Illustrious deeds

For the benefit of the monastic community, Dodrupchen Rinpoche ordered the construction of a new temple in extension to Dodrupchen Monastery and oversaw the restoration of the monastery’s retreat center. He further acquired the essential texts for the study and practice of the sangha, such as The Nyingma Kama, Rinchen Terdzod’s Treasury of Previous Termas, The United Intent of the Gurus, the earlier and later Nyingtik volumes, the nine volumes of Jigme Lingpa, the collected works of Rongzom Pandita, Dzogchen Patrul Rinpoche, Gyalse Shenphen Thaye, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and others. For numerous times in various occasions, Dodrupchen Rinpoche bestowed transmissions and empowerments of these texts.

At the age of thirty-one, due to the changes of political circumstances in Tibet, Dodrupchen Rinpoche journeyed to the hidden land of Sikkim where he resided as a hidden yogi since then. Trulshik Rinpoche, 

the guru of the Sikkimese King, offered the current Chorten Monastery and a residence to Dodrupchen Rinpoche and Rinpoche accepted.

Under the auspice of Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Chorten Monastery has developed into a base for nearly a thousand sangha over the years. Among his great disciples, H.E. Lopon Kunzang Thegchok Yeshe Dorje Rinpoche has been appointed as the principal lineage holder. Following Dodrupchen Rinpoche’s sublime greatness, excellent disciples emerged in succession like a golden mountain range.

Dodrupchen Rinpoche further set foot on multiple lands around the world where he transmitted important teachings of the Nyingma lineage, the root volumes of Longchen Nyingtik, the essential empowerments of Dzogchen, among many others. 

At present, Dodrupchen Rinpoche resides at Chorten Monastery and continues to guide and benefit countless sentient beings. His quiet, gentle and unassuming demeanor, complemented by a tremendous presence, remains an inspiration for all.

Long life prayer

༈ བསླུ་མེད་སྐྱབས་གནས་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་བྱིན་མཐུ་ཡིས།།

Lu-med kyab-ne gya-tsho'i chin-thu yee
-By the power of the ocean-like infallible refuges;

འཇིགས་མེད་ཐུབ་བསྟན་འཕྲིས་ལས་དཔལ་འབར་གྱི།།

Jig-med Thub-ten Thrin-le Pal-Bar Kyi
-May Jigme Thubten Thrinle Palbar's;

ཞབས་པད་མི་ཤིགས་བསྐལ་བརྒྱར་རབ་བསྟན་ནས།།

Zhab-ped mi-shig kal-gyar rab-ten ne
-Lotus feet remain indestructible and stable for a hundred eons;

རླབས་ཆེན་བསྟན་འགྲོའི་བཞེད་དོན་མཐར་ཕྱིན་ཤོས།།

Lab-ch'en ten dro'i zhed-ton thar-chin shog
-And may he accomplish his wishes for the doctrine and beings.

མཆོག་གསུམ་ཀུན་འདུས་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་ལ།།
གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་སྤྱན་གྱིས་གཟིགས།།
རང་འབྱུང་སེམས་ཉིད་འོད་གསལ་ཆོས་སྐུག་དོན།།

LONG LIVE RINPOCHE