The Treasury of Lives

Achi Chokyi Drolma (a phyi chos kyi sgrol ma) is said to have been born in Zhoto (gzho stod) in the Drigung valley ('bris gung) in the early eleventh century, while other sources place her even earlier, in the eighth or ninth century. The earliest textual evidence for her life is from the sixteenth century, the period in which her position as a protector deity of the Drigung tradition initially developed and many of the details of her hagiography came into being. The earliest images of her date to the fourteenth century.

Achi's parents are said to have traveled to the Swayambhunath stūpa in Nepal in hopes of conceiving a child. After circumambulating and making offerings there, they both had auspicious dreams that caused them to expect the birth of a son. Upon the birth of a daughter, Achi's father was slightly disappointed, but her mother immediately recognized the child's special qualities.

Her birthplace was originally known as Kyedrak Tang (skyes grags thang), meaning "meadow  of famous birth," and later evolved into Tetraktang (lte khrag thang) meaning "meadow of the umbilical blood." Her father was a Nyingma yogin named Jowo Pel (jo bo dpal), who belonged to the prosperous Nanam clan (sna nam), and her mother was named Driza Dardzom ('bri bza' dar 'dzoms) or Driza Chammo ('dri bza' lcam mo).^[1] Her ancestor was Nanam Jowo Dorje Dudjom (sna nam jo bo rdo rje bdud 'jom), one of the twenty-five disciples of Padmasambhava.

The Fifth Dalai Lama (ta la'i bla ma 05, 1617–1682), in his Chronicles of Tibet (bod kyi deb ther), recorded the following:

A woman called Lady Nanam belonging to the ḍākinī lineage took up with a tantrika of the Kyura clan (skyu ra). She displayed various kinds of mundane emanation. These days, this person is exclaimed as Drigung Achi.^[2]

According to modern oral tradition, as an infant, Achi displayed the auspicious signs of a ḍākinī, including a third eye and speech abilities, leading her parents to attempt to drown the newborn.^[3] From four years old, she encouraged neighbors and friends to recite the Tārā mantra, earning her the name Drolma (sgrol ma), or Tārā, and by the age of five, often expressed that the Drigung Valley was not her true dwelling place.

Achi's father succumbed to smallpox before she reached eighteen, and shortly after her eighteenth birthday, her mother also died. After their death, she was cared for by an uncle.

While living with her uncle, news of Achi's qualities began to spread, as well as concerns regarding her marriage prospects. It is said that many suiters appeared, but that Achi would have none of them. Tradition holds that Achi rejected the notion of remaining in her uncle's home and receiving the family fortune bequeathed to her, prophesying a connection to Kham and the Kyura clan into which she would marry:

I will not stay in this place. There is a person of a good family in the direction of Kham. We have a profound connection with that place. From our great inseparable method and wisdom a fortunate person of a good family will arise.^[4]

According to her hagiography, Achi Chökyi Drolma secretly left central Tibet with the entourage of a long-distant merchant, possibly involved in the tea trade with China. In some accounts she enters into a marriage with the trader as a means to escape her homeland, and then dissolved the union on separating from the group.

Eventually, she arrived in the town of Tsungu (tsu ngu), in Denma, where Achi met Kyura Amey Tsultrim Gyatso (skyu ra a myes tshul khrims rgya mtsho), who was meditating in a cave at Kyura Drak (skyu ra brag). He is sometimes said to have been the last male member of the Drugyel Kyura clan ('brug rgyal skyu ra). According to legend, the Kyura bloodline had originated from the union of a goddess and a human and was one of the six original clans of Tibet (mi'i gdung drug). She identified Amey Tsultrim Gyatso as a ḍāka of the Vajra family and the one she was destined to marry, so she declared her intentions by recounting her journey and purpose to him.

However, Kyura replied hesitantly, stating that he had no worldly attachments, few resources, and no aspirations for family life because of his religious commitments. He also noted that they lacked the necessities for a wedding, but the headstrong Achi insisted that their union was destined, assuring him that she would secure any material needs and emphasizing the auspicious nature of their connection:

I also do not have great worldly attachment. Due to the both of us, auspicious connections will be created which will bring forth many great beings who will accomplish activities for the precious teachings of the Buddha. We exist for this. Because of this wealth of prosperity, we need not fear destitution. This is what must be done to make attainments for everyone.^[5]

Chokyi Drolma asked that the merchants be summoned as her guests, since they were the closest she had to family so far from her birthplace. The wedding was officiated by a priest who was given a zi (gzi) bead in payment. On the day of the wedding, using a damaru drum and skull bowl Achi is said to have performed a dance that caused a feast to appear.

The newlyweds settled in the southern region of Kham, in the Tsungu (tsu ngu) foothill near Den Drolma cliff ('dan sgrol ma brag) in Denma, a center of the Kyura lineage.

Achi Chokyi Drolma continued to reassure Tsultrim Gyatso with prophetic accounts, including the following bold statement that followed a dream she had on their wedding night:

If you do not know who I am, I am the mother of Akṣobhya. All the sons in your lineage will be born in his pure land Abhirati. I will protect our descendants' line.^[6]

Achi gave birth to four sons: Namkha Wangchuk (nam mkha' dbang phyug), Peka Wanggyel (dpe ka dbang rgyal), Nanggakpa Sonam Pel (nang dgag pa bsod nams dpal), and Ka Tung Druzhi (ka thung gru bzhi). Peka Wanggyel had a son named Neljor Dorje (rnal 'byor rdo rje), whose son, Jikten Gonpo Rinchen Pel ('jig rten mgon po rin chen dpal, 1143–1217), became the founder of the Drigung Kagyu lineage.

As her sons grew, Achi taught them the practice of Vajrayoginī, and inscribing the caves at Denma with her miraculous powers. For example, at Namkha Drak (nam mkha' brag) above their cave dwelling, she crafted a four-petaled lotus from the center of the dharmodaya (chos 'byung) of the Vajravarahī maṇḍala, writing the syllables bam hi ri ni sa in stone. The footprints of her children are said to be visible in the rock at Den Drolma, on the shore of the Pelmey River (dpal smad chu bo) near a cave known as the Achi Cave (a phyi phug).

Achi presided over gatherings and conducted gaṇacakras, or tantric feasts. It is said that she wandered through charnel grounds, collecting corpses to cut up with a curved knife (gri gug) and transform into torma offerings. It is also said that she traveled unobstructed through rocky precipices.

According to tradition, as Achi approached the end of her life, she composed a sādhana for her propitiation and told her sons to transmit it secretly for fifteen generations, after which it could become public. This corresponds to the sixteenth century, when her worship indeed became widespread.

Before her passing, she conducted a tantric feast in which she transformed a human corpse into a sacred offering while vowing to protect Buddhism. Those among her followers who dared to eat from the transmogrified corpse are said to have attained realization.

She is said to have lived more than seventy years, and that without renouncing her body she departed to the celestial realm (mkha' spyod), a phenomenon known as the great transference rainbow body ('ja' lus 'pho ba chen po). The cave at Denma where Achi passed away is known as Khacho Cave (mkha' spyod phug).

According to legend, when her great-grandson Jikten Sumgon was in residence at his seat at Drigung Til ('bri gung mthil), while conversing one day with Khampa Gyagarwa (khams pa rgya gar wa), they both heard a damaru drum sounding in the sky, at which point Achi appeared to them and promised to protect the Drigung lineage.

 

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