The Treasury of Lives

Drenpa Namkha (dran pa nam mkha') is claimed by both the Buddhist and Bon traditions as an important religious figure. The sources discussing Drenpa Namkha’s life vary widely, even within a single tradition: within Bon sources there are three beings named Drenpa Namkha: a deity who first transmitted the Yungdrung Bon teachings, a man in Zhang Zhung who lived in the tenth century BCE, and the eighth-century Tibetan master. 

According to Buddhist sources Drenpa Namkha was initially a Bon master who converted to Buddhism. He later became one of the twenty-five disciples of Padmasambhava, and is said to have gained the yogic power of being able to tame wild yak with the wave of a hand.

Padmasambhava initiated him into the secret mantra and gave him a red lotus hat, earning him the name Pungbon Gomar (phung bon mgo dmar), the source of his being depicted with a Bonpo hat. He instructed him to practice at Lake Namtso (gnam mtsho). He is said to have expressed his realization with the statement: “There is no use to introduce distinctions into the shining knowledge of the mutual sphere of sentient beings.”

Drenpa Namkha is given credit for organizing many of the Dzogchen Semde (rdzogs chen sems sde) and then disseminated the translations, commentaries, and oral teachings of Padmasambhava.

Drenpa Namkha is credited with authoring a number of texts, both written and orally transmitted through a terma system. He is said to have written the most important commentary on the Dzopuk (mdzod phug), a text that is thought within the Bon imagination to be the word of Tonpa Shenrab (ston pa gshen rab), the founder of the Bon tradition.

Bon sources maintain there was a persecution of Bon adherents and Bon practices in Tibet after the establishment of Samye (bsam yas) Monastery, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet. It is said that many Bon priests were banished from U-Tsang, and those that stayed outwardly adopted Buddhist practices and concealed their scripture in order to save them from destruction. Bon histories have it that Drenpa Namkha was one of these who remained, thereby explaining his conversion to Buddhism as an act of preservation of the Bon tradition.

Several later masters were said to be reincarnations of Drenpa Namkha, both Bon and Buddhist treasure revealers. These include Bonpo Traksel (bon po brag tshal, d.u.), Rigdzin Trinle Lhundrub (rig 'dzin phrin las lhun grub, d.u.), and Drenpa Zungi Namtrul (dren pa zung gi rnam 'phrul, d.u.).

Gyermi Nyi Wo (gyer mi nyi 'od, d.u.), who lived in the twelfth century, claimed to be a disciple of his and to have received orally transmitted texts from him via visions. The Bon treasure revealer Sanggye Lingpa (sangs rgyas gling pa, b.1700) also received visions of Drenpa Namkha. He taught that Drenpa Namkha had visited both Mt. Murdo (dmu rdo) in Gyelrong (rgyal rong) and Mt. Kailash in Ngari (mnga' ris). Sanggye Lingpa established a pilgrimage, circumambulating Mt. Kailash and Mt. Murdo in the horse month and especially in the horse year.

The stone statue depicted here was excavated from a hilltop in western Tibet by the celebrated Bon lama Khyungtrul Jikme Namkha Dorje ('khyung sprul 'jigs med nam mkha' rdo rje, 1897-1956) in the 1930s. According to him it is a likeness of Drenpa Namkha. It was found at a site that in the local Bon tradition is identified with the Khyunglung Ngulkhar (khyung lung dngul mkhar), a capital of Zhangzhung. This exceptionally rare statue appears to have been fashioned in a style peculiar to Zhangzhung.