The Treasury of Lives

The Nineteenth Bakula Rinpoche, Ngawang Lobzang Tubsten Choknor (nag dbang blo bzang thub bstan mchog nor), popularly known as Kushok Bakula (sku shogs ba ku la), was born on May 25, 1918, the fifteenth day of the fourth month in the Tibetan Earth-Horse year, on the auspicious day of the birthday of Buddha Shakyamuni in the Stok royal palace just beside the village of Matho (mang spro). He was born into the lineage of Ladakh's former ruling Namgyal (rnam rgyal) dynasty, connecting him by family ties to royalty throughout the Himalayas.1 His royal lineage is reflected in another of his common epithets in Ladakh, Gyalsas Bakula (rgyal sras ba ku la).

His father was King Nangwa Tayas (rgyal po snang ba mtha' yas), a locally celebrated scholar, and his mother was Queen Yeshe Wangmo (rgyal mo ye shes dbang mo), the niece of the Eighteenth Bakula Rinpoche, Lobzang Yeshe Tenpa Gyaltsen (blo bzang ye she bstan pa rgyal mtshan). During his final visit to Stok Palace before his death at Stongde Gonpa in Zanskar, the Eighteenth Bakula Rinpoche is said to have given his niece a small silk carpet, a wall curtain, and parasol, telling her the items would be needed in the future.2

On the death of the Eighteenth Bakula Rinpoche, his disciples at Pethub Galdan Targyasling Monastery (dpe thub dga' ldan dar rgyas gling dgon pa), more commonly referred to as Spituk, requested the assistance of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Tubten Gyatso (ta la'i bla ma 13 thub bstan rgya mtsho, 1876-1933) to help find their teacher's reincarnation. The Dalai Lama indicated on a map of Ladakh that the Eighteenth Bakula Rinpoche's rebirth was in the village of Matho. Numerous signs were locally reported as well. One of the two oracles of Matho Monastery (mang spro dgon pa) is reported to have personally visited the queen during her pregnancy and presented her with a khatag (ceremonial offering-scarf) and a protection chord, indicating the auspiciousness of her coming child. During the Matho festival on the eighth day of the second lunar month, only a couple months before Rinpoche's birth, both Matho oracles picked up a large piece of juniper wood, which they smeared with butter and sent to the pregnant queen, an unusual display of respect. On the same occasion, they pointed to a single bird flying from the direction of Zanskar toward the palace, shouting, "Look!" All of these signs indicated the likelihood that the royal child would be the incarnation.3 In a striking parallel from the life of Buddha Shakyamuni, the queen tragically died only seven days after her son's birth.

When the prince was four years old, monks from Spituk Monastery came to the palace with a number of items that belonged to the former Bakula Rinpoche, including his rosaries, cups and articles of clothing, all of which the young boy correctly identified and declared to be his own. Tradition maintains when the young prince saw a monk who was an attendant of the Eighteenth Bakula Rinpoche, he rushed to meet him and held his hand. These observations were reported to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in Lhasa, who confirmed the boy was the previous Bakula Rinpoche's reincarnation. The incarnation lineage is regarded to originate with the Arhat Bakula (gnas brtan ba ku la), one of the Sixteen Arhats who were direct disciples of Buddha Śākyamuni and chosen by him to remain in the world upholding the Dharma until the time of the future Buddha Maitreya.

In 1922, at the age of six, the young prince was escorted by a caravan of horses from Stok Palace to Spituk Monastery, the seat of the Bakula lineage, where he was formally enthroned as the Nineteenth Bakula Rinpoche. At this time, he received the vows of a lay person (dge bsnyen gyi sdom pa) from the Second Rizong Sras Rinpoche, Lobzang Tsultrim Chospel (ri rdzong sras rin po che 02 blo bzang tshul khrims chos 'phel, 1860-1926?) and began his Buddhist studies.4 He spent his winters at Samstanling Monastery (bsam bstan gling dgon pa) in the lower elevation Nubra valley, memorizing scriptures and learning to read and write under the tutelage of the Rizong Rinpoche while his summers were spent at his home monastery of Spituk, where he studied under Yeshe Dawa (rgan ye shes zla ba) of Stok. In 1925, while still a child, he adopted the vegetarian diet that he would maintain for the rest of his life, having been disturbed to learn that Ladakhi villagers had slaughtered a sheep for his meal.5

Education in Tibet

In 1927, at barely ten years old, Bakula Rinpoche departed with a small retinue for Lhasa, where he would continue his studies. His father accompanied him to Nyemo village, about 35 kilometers from Leh, where he said a tearful goodbye to his youngest child.6 This was the last time Bakula Rinpoche saw his father, who passed away during his studies in Tibet.

On arriving to Lhasa, he went directly to Drepung Monastery ('bras spung), where he was housed in the residence of the previous Bakula Rinpoche, Petub Khamtsen (dpe thub khams tshan) of Loseling College (blo gsal gling grwa tshang). Petub Khamsten was home to the majority of Drepung's Ladakhi monks. The following year, he received the novice monk vows (dge tshul gyi sdom pa) from the Thirteen Dalai Lama, who conferred on him the name Ngawang Lobzang Thubstan Choknor, which he would carry the rest of his life.7 The Dalai Lama took a keen interest in the young monk and personally appointed Geshe Lobzang Jungne of Gya Khamtsen (rgya khams tshan) to serve as his private tutor.8 While at Drepung, Rinpoche diligently studied the five core Buddhist subjects and under Geshe Lobzang Jungne's guidance. In 1937, he received his full-ordination vows (dge slong gi sdom pa) from the Fifth Reting Rinpoche, Tubten Jampel Yeshe Tenpai Gyeltsen (rwa sgreng 05 thub bstan 'jam dpal ye shes bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan, d. 1947), Tibet's Regent during the minority of the Dalai Lama.9

During Lhasa's Great Prayer Festival (smon lam chen mo), on February 22, 1940, the sixteenth day of the first Tibetan month, he performed the final of the public debates which served as the examinations for his Geshe (dge bshes) degree. The first debate occurred in the inner courtyard of the Jokhang (jo khang) in the presence of the Sixth Ling Rinpoche, Thubten Lungtok Tenzin Trinle (gling rin po che 06 thub bstan lung rtogs bstan 'dzin 'phrin las, 1903-1983), who had recently been appointed the main tutor to the young Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (ta la'i bla ma 14 bstan 'dzin rgya mtsho, b. 1935. The following debate session occurred within the Audience Hall of the Potala Palace (po ta la), where he was called to represent Drepung in a one-on-one debate with Geshe Gendun Kelzang (dge 'dun bskal bzang, du) from Ganden Monastery (dga' ldan dgon). The debate happened in the presence of Bakula Rinpoche's preceptor Reting Rinpoche as well as the young Dalai Lama, who had assumed the golden throne inside the Potala for the first time. His excellent performance granted him first position and he was awarded the degree of Geshe Lharampa of the first order (dge bshes lha rams pa ang tang po), the highest degree within the Gelukpa tradition.10

After being awarded his Geshe degree, he had planned to continue his studies at the Tantric Gyume Dratsang (rgyud smad grwa tshang). However, soon after his examinations, he received an urgent request from his home monastery for him to return to Ladakh. Taking permission to leave from Reting Rinpoche, less than two months after his final examinations, he was on the road back to Ladakh. It was nearly a decade and a half before he could return to Tibet, which was then firmly under the control of the newly established People's Republic of China. Bakula Rinpoche was thus among the last generation of Himalayan people able to receive a full monastic education within Tibet, an opportunity that would irrevocably end within his lifetime.

Assumption of Political Leadership in Ladakh

Once Bakula Rinpoche arrived back to Ladakh, he resumed his responsibilities as the head of Spituk Monastery and also gave teachings and empowerments throughout the region. His return coincided with India's transition from centuries of colonial rule to independence. On July 4, 1949, less than two years after Indian independence, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) made his first official state visit to Ladakh along with Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah (1905-1982), the Prime Minister of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, which controlled the region. Their visit coincided with Ladakh's first democratic election, which saw Bakula Rinpoche elected as the President of the Ladakhi branch of the Kashmir National Conference. This was the beginning of Bakula Rinpoche's long life in politics that would last fifty years. Despite Nehru’s insistence on secularization and modernity, he encouraged and supported the incarnate lama's involvement in political affairs from the start.11 During this visit, Nehru also made the promise to arrange for sacred relics of the Buddha and his two key disciples, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana, to be brought from Sarnath to Ladakh.

The following year, in 1950, the Jammu and Kashmir government under Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah passed the Big Landed Estates Abolition Act, which placed a ceiling on land ownership at 186 kanals (approximately 22 acres), distributing the rest of an estate's land to landless labourers and share-croppers with no compensation to the landlord, be they a feudal estate or a monastery. While the communist-influenced Abdullah is still much beloved in Jammu and Kashmir for the Act, it caused outrage among Buddhists in Ladakh, where monasteries were amongst the largest estate owners, possessing some of the most fertile land in the region. A delegation composed of Bakula Rinpoche, Gergen Konchok Sonam (dge rgan dkon mchog bsod nams, nineteenth century), Lama Kunga (bla ma kun dga', nineteenth century), who was the manager of Hemis Gonpa (he mi dgon pa), and Sonam Wanggyel (bsod nams dbang rgyal, nineteenth century) traveled to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Nehru, with Sonam Wanggyel acting as translator. Together, they all expressed their opposition to the Act's application to the monasteries of Ladakh. The delegation also created the All Ladakh Gonpa Association in order to fight the Jammu and Kashmir state government against the Act, for which Bakula Rinpoche served as the president.12

After heated governmental debates between Bakula Rinpoche and Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and public protests held throughout Leh, the Jammu and Kashmir state government appointed Justice Jakinath Wazir, the Chief of Justice for the state, to head a committee of enquiry. The Wazir Committee visited Ladakh in 1953 to investigate the relationship between the local people and the monasteries and decide whether the Act should be applied in Ladakh as it was throughout the state. The Committee's report states, "It was rather surprising that the tenants who were likely to gain by the operation of the Act on the lands attached to the gonpas have unanimously desired that these lands should remain attached to the gonpa and be free of the Abolition Act."13

Following the Wazir Committee's report, the Gonpa Association won their case and Ladakhi monasteries were exempted from the Abolition Act, an exemption unique within the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The monastery which benefited most from the exemption was the Drukpa Kagyu Hemis Gonpa, as it was the largest landholder in the region. In gratitude for the outcome of the decision, the leader of Hemis, Stagtsang Rinpoche (stag tshang rin po che, nineteenth century) presented a site in Leh to be used as the headquarters of the All Ladakh Gonpa Association.14

Arrival of Buddhist Relics to Ladakh

During this same period, Prime Minister Nehru fulfilled the promise he made during his first visit to Ladakh, ensuring Buddhist relics usually housed at the Mulagandha Kuti Vihara in Sarnath were brought to the Himalayan region. On May 24, 1950, a delegation of senior monks from India and Sri Lanka accompanied the relics of the Buddha, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana on a flight from Calcutta to Srinagar, where they were met by Bakula Rinpoche and other high-ranking Ladakhi dignitaries. The relic procession was greeted by a military band playing the Indian national anthem. Two days later, the relics arrived in Leh where they were met by thousands of devotees who waited in line for hours to pay respect to the holy objects. This was also the first time in modern history religious relics had been brought to the region and as the vast majority of the Ladakhi population was too poor to undertake pilgrimage to the Buddhist holy lands in lowland India, the arrival of the relics was a momentous occasion.

As the relics arrived in Ladakh, Bakula Rinpoche is reported to have said, "This is the proudest day in my life and in the life of my people. Our gratitude to Pandit Nehru is immense."15 The relics remained in Ladakh for two and half months, during which time they were taken to monasteries and villages throughout the region, providing the whole of Ladakh the opportunity to pay reverence.

Work as a Member of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly

In 1951, Bakula Rinpoche was elected as a Member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly (MLA), a position he would occupy without interruption until 1967. As the Legislative Assembly was overwhelmingly dominated by delegates from the Kashmir Valley, he feared that Ladakh would not receive adequate governmental support from the state government. The following year, when Sheikh Abdullah presented the first proposed annual budget, Rinpoche's greatest anxieties were confirmed as there "was not a single mention of Ladakh in the Kashmiri leader's entire budget speech."16 Bakula Rinpoche sought out the guidance of his friend Pandit Shridhar Kaul Dulloo (1892-1967), affectionately called Masterji, and the two concluded the new MLA needed to voice his grievance in as public a manner as possible. He filed permission from the Speaker of the Assembly to publicly address the chamber regarding the budget. He also requested that he be allowed to deliver his speech in Ladakhi, after which an English translation, that he provided, would be read aloud to the Assembly Members. The Speaker accepted Bakula Rinpoche's requests and scheduled his speech for May 12, 1952. This marked this first occasion in which Ladakhi was spoken in an official legislative body of independent India.

Bakula Rinpoche's speech proved to be legendary in Ladakh and India. He lambasted the budget on a number of fronts, including the failure to provide a budget for literary Tibetan textbooks for the schools (which he argued should be a mandatory language in Ladakh), the general lack of funds for education, and the poor state of infrastructure in Ladakh. He even went so far as to claim government "officers loot our people" and that the Jammu and Kashmir state policies cause Ladakhis to suffer "damage, humiliation and insult," explicitly framing Ladakh in the context of a conquered territory.17 As none of the other MLAs understood his Ladakhi, they only discovered the damning content once Bakula Rinpoche was finished speaking and the English translation began to be read aloud. The speech was so scathing that several MLAs and Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah himself demanded the English reading be stopped and the speech to be expunged from the parliamentary record, which the Speaker of the Assembly refused.

When a new session of the Assembly met a few days later on May 15, they failed to accept many points of Bakula Rinpoche's criticism but did acknowledge that compared to other regions of the state, Ladakh had been neglected in the budget and therefore created some district-level positions to assist in development and poverty alleviation. While Bakula Rinpoche would have to continuously fight within the Legislative Assembly for the rights of Ladakhis, his speech, which was widely covered throughout India, gave national awareness to the needs of India's high Himalayan people and provided the first premonition of the formidable political advocate Rinpoche would become.

On August 8, 1953, Sheik Abdullah was dismissed from his post Prime Minister and was soon after arrested on the accusation of attempting to create an independent Kashmir, for which he served eleven years in prison. His successor, Prime Minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed (1907-1972), agreed to Bakula Rinpoche's suggestion to create a cabinet-level minister of Ladakh Affairs. From 1953-1957, Bakula Rinpoche served as the first Deputy Minister of Ladakh Affairs, and continued to hold numerous Ministry level positions: Minister of State Ladakh Affairs and Trade Agencies (1957-62), Minister for Ladakh Affairs (1963-1964), and Minister of State for Health, Local Self Government, Ladakh Affairs and Trade Agencies (1964-1967).18

Throughout this long career in the Legislative Assembly, Bakula Rinpoche leveraged his Ministry level positions and significant popular support in Ladakh to fight for adequate allocations for medical aid, education, agriculture, infrastructure and community development in the region. However, as the state legislature remained overwhelmingly dominated by politicians from the Kashmir Valley, Rinpoche and his one fellow Ladakhi MLA were frequently ignored. This led Rinpoche to demand the creation of a separate parliamentary constituency for Ladakh in the national Parliament of India, which came to fruition in 1967.

Relations with Tibet and the Establishment of Leh's Central Institute of Buddhist Studies

Throughout Bakula Rinpoche's time as an MLA, Tibet's political autonomy continued to deteriorate under Chinese control. In 1954, Rinpoche returned to Tibet for a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash (G3247 gangs ti se), his first travel there since completing his Geshe degree in 1940. The following year, he went back to Tibet in an official capacity for the Government of India, which was preparing for an international celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the Buddha's birth. The official purpose of his visit was to liaise with the Government of Tibet and invite the Dalai Lama and the Tenth Paṇchen Lama, Trinle Lhundrub Chokyi Gyeltsen (paN chen bla ma 10 phrin las lhun grub chos kyi rgyal mtshan, 1938-1989) to India for the Buddha Jayanti celebrations the coming year. However, Bakula Rinpoche became increasingly concerned to witness the growing control of Chinese communist authorities, despite the fact that the Seventeen Point Agreement specified the Tibetan Government would maintain control over its domestic affairs. Over the course of his five-month stay, he noted the anxiety of many of his Tibetan friends as Chinese officials encroached evermore into Tibet's cultural and religious life.19

On his return to India, Baklula Rinpoche met with Prime Minister Nehru and warned him a total Chinese takeover of Tibet was imminent. He encouraged the Prime Minister to speak directly to the Dalai Lama regarding the political situation once he came to India later in the year, and to grant both the Dalai Lama and Paṇchen Lama political asylum should they request it. Bakula Rinpoche further warned that after the occupation of Tibet was complete, India's borders would also become vulnerable. This foresight was confirmed during the 1962 Sino-Indian war, when Chinese troops invaded India on two fronts, Ladakh in the western Himalayas and Tawang (in present day Arunachal Pradesh) in the east.

Bakula Rinpoche accompanied the Dalai Lama and Paṇchen Lama throughout their 1956 Indian visit, and helped facilitate dialogue between the Tibetan leaders and Prime Minister Nehru. Bakula Rinpoche would remain a staunch supporter of the Dalai Lama, politically and spiritually, throughout his life. Despite the rising tensions in Tibet, the yearlong Buddha Jayanti celebrations were marked by grand festivities and raised greater national awareness about Ladakh's Buddhist heritage.

In 1959, when the Dalai Lama and tens of thousands of Tibetans fled to India, Bakula Rinpoche immediately advocated to Nehru to support the refugees. He also sought to build an institution of higher Buddhist learning in Ladakh itself, realizing the historic links with Tibet were now severed by the complete Chinese annexation. On October 23, 1959, the Buddhist Philosophy School (nang pa'i mtshan nyid slob gnyer khang) was established in Leh, originally with only ten students, each from a different monastery representing the various Buddhist traditions of Ladakh. The institution was formally recognized by the government in 1962 and eventually evolved into the present university, the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies (dbu gzhung nang pa'i rig gnas gtsug lag slob gnyer khang), currently Ladakh's most important institution of higher Buddhist learning.

A Decade in the National Parliament of India (1967-1977)

After many years of advocacy by Bakula Rinpoche and other supporters in Ladakh, in 1967, the Parliamentary Delimitation Commission recommended the creation of a separate seat for Ladakh in the Lower House (Lok Sabha) of the Parliament of India. Rinpoche was elected, unopposed, to this position. No longer would Ladakh be nationally represented by parliamentarians from the Kashmir Valley, who rarely concerned themselves with the sparsely populated region with little power and few votes.

Bakula Rinpoche's work in his decade in the Lower House is too vast to be detailed here. A major accomplishment was ensuring the completion of the Leh-Manali highway, as previously Ladakh's only land connection to the rest of India traveled through the volatile Kashmir Valley. In terms of international affairs, he remained a tireless advocate for his religious homeland of Tibet, urging India to take a forceful stand against Chinese policies. Throughout his time in the Parliament, he frequently spent his weekends in Dharamsala meeting with the Dalai Lama, leaving Delhi on Friday and turning on Monday.

Domestically, his central areas of his advocacy were for Ladakh to become a Union Territory (UT), placing the region directly under the central government rather than that of the Jammu and Kashmir state, and for Ladakhis to receive Scheduled Tribe status, a "positive discrimination" that would allow them special government assistance. While neither of these goals were accomplished in his parliamentary tenure, his constant advocacy undoubtedly laid the groundwork for their later fruition: Ladakhis were given Scheduled Tribe status in 1989, and Ladakh became a Union Territory in 2019.

During his time in the Parliament and later as a Member of the National Minorities Commission, Bakula Rinpoche made extensive use of his diplomatic passport, which allowed him to travel widely. As an elected official in India, a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, he could travel extensively to countries on both sides of the Cold War. He visited countries in Western Europe and the USA, as well as the USSR and other Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and East Germany. The promotion of Buddhism and Buddhist values were central aims of all of these visits and also drove his widespread travels to fellow Asian countries such as Burma, Nepal, Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka.20

Member of the National Minorities Commission (1978-1989)

In 1977, at the end of his second term in the Lower House, Bakula Rinpoche decided to retire from his position as MP. He gave his blessing to Diskit Wangmo (bde skyid dbang mo), who also went by the Hindu name Rani Parvati Devi, who won the election to become Ladakh's first elected female politician. The new national government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai (1896-1995) established a Commission to safeguard the constitutional freedoms of India's minority religious communities, and the Prime Minister personally selected Bakula Rinpoche to serve as a founding Member. The fact that Prime Minister Desai, of the Janata Party, selected Bakula Rinpoche, a member of the opposing Congress Party, stands as a testament to the incredible esteem in which Bakula Rinpoche was held.

In keeping with his preceding political career, Bakula Rinpoche's time in the National Minorities Commission was marked by dedicated advocacy for Ladakh and India's other Buddhist populations. He traveled extensively throughout India's Himalayan regions and was dismayed to see the poor state of many Buddhist monasteries, temples, antiques and scriptures. Through his work, the central government's Ministry of Culture provided financial assistance to maintain monasteries and other Buddhist institutions in order to preserve India's Himalayan Buddhist heritage. The Archeological Survey of India also funded major renovations of important Himalayan historical sites, including the Leh Palace.21

Throughout his time in the Commission, he sought for complete Buddhist control over the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, arguing that Buddhists, like other religious communities in India, deserved to control their own holy sites. He also advocated for Bhoṭi (bho Ti, or literary Tibetan) to be made an officially recognized language of India, within the purview of the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Rinpoche argued Bhoṭi was the shared literary language of all of India's Himalayan regions, used alike in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.22 While neither of these goals have yet been accomplished, Bakula Rinpoche brought national attention to them and India's Buddhist communities continue to fight for these aims. In 1988, during his tenure at the Minorities Commission, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards bestowed by the Republic of India.

Work in the USSR

Bakula Rinpoche first visited the USSR in 1968 on the invitation of Lama Gonpo Jampel Dorje (1897-1983, bla ma mgon po 'jam dpal rdo rje, known also as Khambo Lama Zhambaldorj Gomboyev), who served as the Supreme Head of Buddhists in the USSR and had met Bakula Rinpoche during an official visit to India. Bakula Rinpoche flew into Moscow and was accompanied on this first visit by his assistant and fellow monk Gen Thupstan Targyas (rgan thub bstan dar gyas) and by Mr. Sonam Gyalstan (bsod nams rgyal mtshan), who served as interpreter. They were met at the airport by representatives of the Council of Religious Affairs in the USSR, which represented the Russian Orthodox Church, Islam, and Buddhism, the three major religions within the country.23 While in Moscow, Bakula Rinpoche met with many local Buddhists, both ethnically Mongolian and Russian, most of whom had been practicing in secret under the communist regime. He noted their constant anxiety and fear and made a commitment to benefit such Buddhists in the USSR as much as he could.24

From Moscow, the party flew to Ulan Ude, the capital of the Buryat Autonomous Republic in the USSR. As he was the first reincarnate lama of Tibetan Buddhism to visit the region in decades, his visit caused great excitement. He stayed at a guesthouse built especially for him at Ivolgnisky Temple, the only government approved Buddhist temple in the entire region.25 The hundreds of other temples, monasteries and holy places were largely derelict and in ruin, having been destroyed under communist rule. At the request of the local community, Bakula Rinpoche gave empowerments, oral transmission, and teachings, expressing great joy at being the first to perform such dharma activities in some seventy years.26

While in Ulan Ude, Bakula Rinpoche had extensive discussions with Khambo Lama Zhambaldorj Gomboyev and Khambo Lama Samaageen Gombojav, the respective heads of the Buddhist clergy of the USSR and Mongolia and the following year, in 1969, they together founded the International Non-Governmental Organization the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace.27 The organization, which was based in Ulaanbaatar, had the tacit support of Soviet officials in both Moscow and Mongolia and provided a critical platform for the revitalization of Buddhism in the Soviet bloc. Under the auspices of the organization, Bakula Rinpoche would travel many more times to the USSR, and later to Mongolia.

Among the most significant of these travels occurred in 1979, when he accompanied the Fourteenth Dalai Lama on his first travels to the USSR and Mongolia.28 The visit required Bakula Rinpoche to leverage his extensive diplomatic connections, as the Dalai Lama was a politically divisive figure and his visit occurred at the peak of the Cold War.29 The Dalai Lama's visit to the USSR also happened before he had traveled to the USA. In later years, while serving as India's ambassador to Mongolia, Bakula Rinpoche continued to receive the Dalai Lama on his subsequent travels to Mongolia.

At the beginning of 1989, Bakula Rinpoche visited Kalmykia in the USSR at the initiation of local Buddhists. He was the first Buddhist lama to visit the region since Agvan Dorjiev (ngag dbang blo bzang) in 1931.30 A small house in the capital of Elista was converted into a make-shift temple, which he consecrated. Later that year, he also ordained a group of novices, the first such ordination ceremony in generational memory.31 Throughout his life, he would continue to support the revitalization of Buddhism in the USSR, using his diplomatic connections to travel during these politically contentious times.

Ambassadorship to Mongolia and Revitalization of Buddhism (1990-2000)

In 1989, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (1944-1991) appointed Bakula Rinpoche, already seventy-three years old, as India's Ambassador to Mongolia. Despite Gandhi's Congress Party losing power to the Janata Party, the new Prime Minister V. P. Singh (1931-2008) re-confirmed the appointment, another testament to the high regard with which Bakula Rinpoche was held by politicians of all parties. By this point, he had already made numerous visits to both Mongolia and Mongolian regions of the USSR and was working toward the revitalization of Buddhism in spite of strict communist governmental controls.

Many Mongolians saw Bakula Rinpoche's work as the fulfillment of a prophecy by the well-known Mongolian monastic scholar Zava Damdin Kachu (rtsa ba rta mgrin dka 'bcu, 1867-1937), who in the late nineteenth century foretold of the destruction of Mongolia's Buddhist tradition by "the red barbarians" and instructed Mongolians to supplicate to Arhat Bakula for Buddhist revival. Zava Damdin Kachu had even composed a prayer praising Arhat Bakula, titled Opening the Door of the Space Treasure of a Compilation of Homage and Worship of the Elders Led by Arya Bakula ('phags pa ba ku las thog drangs pa'i gnas brtag phyag mchod gyi tsogs nam mkha' mdzod kyi sgo ba byed), which was recited in Mongolian monasteries. Bakula Rinpoche's personal secretary Sonam Wangchuk Shakspo (bsod nams dbang phyug shag po) reports that throughout the 1930s, when communist purges resulted in horrific violence against Mongolian Buddhism, many Mongolians heeded Zava Damdin's warning began supplicating Arhat Bakula.33 When Bakula Rinpoche came on his first visit to Mongolia in 1969, they saw his arrival as the fulfilment of their ardent wishes.

On his arrival to Ulaanbaatar as Ambassador in 1990, Mongolia, like other Soviet bloc countries, was undergoing dramatic changes but was still firmly under communist control, and the country was without guaranteed freedom of religion or speech. Bakula Rinpoche therefore initially spoke of the need to restore Mongolian "history and culture," while clearly meaning Buddhism. He also forged a close relationship with Mongolia's President Jambyn Batmönkh (1926-1997). While President Batmönkh was a member of the communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, he nevertheless refused to violently crackdown on the peaceful protestors urging the overthrow of the communist system. Bakula Rinpoche remained in close touch with President Batmönkh until his death.

In March 1990, during this transitional period to democracy, a group of young Mongolian protestors leaders requested an audience with Bakula Rinpoche, ostensibly to gain his blessing, but they quickly turned to political matters. Despite such an inherently delicate situation given his role as Ambassador, he handled their questions with compassion and grace. He emphasized the importance of maintaining a non-violent struggle and highlighted Mongolia's Buddhist heritage, as well as Gandhi's non-violent freedom movement in India.34 As he spoke neither Mongolian nor Russian, he relied on his personal secretary Sonam Wangchuk Shakspo to act as his translator, both during this meeting and throughout his time as in Mongolia.

In the course of Bakula Rinpoche's decade-long role as Ambassador, he traveled extensively throughout the country, often staying in gers (yurts) in rural areas without hotels. He was essential in rebuilding Mongolia's Buddhist institutions, which had been thoroughly attacked throughout the communist period. Major accomplishments include inviting the Dalai Lama for his first and second visits to Mongolia (1991 and 1994), forming the Mongolian Buddhist Association (1992), arranging for Buddhist relics to be taken from the Indian National Museum in New Delhi to Mongolia for public worship (1993), inviting the head of the Sakya lineage, the Forty First Sakya Trizin, Ngawang Kunga Tekchen Pebar (sa skya khri 'dzin 41 ngag dbang kun dga' theg chen dpal 'bar, b. 1945), for his first visit to Mongolia (1995), and opening Pethub Stangey Choskhorling Monastery (dpe thub bstan rgyas chos 'khor gling dgon pa) in the Ulaanbaatar (1999).35 In the mid-1990s, Lama Zopa Rinpoche traveled for the first time to Mongolia at the invitation of Bakula Rinpoche. This visit facilitated the establishment of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) in Mongolia.36

For these and his many other accomplishments, the Government of Mongolia awarded him the Polar Star, one of the highest honors bestowed to foreign citizens. Bakula Rinpoche continues to be revered in Mongolia, where he still holds the affectionate title of “Ambassador Teacher” (Elchiin Bagsh).

Retirement and Passing Away

In 2000, after serving a decade as India's Ambassador to Mongolia, and over the age of eighty, Bakula Rinpoche retired from his position and returned to Ladakh. At the request of his many followers and disciples, both inside and outside of Ladakh, in 2001 he completed his autobiography, Autobiography of the White Lotus Rosary (rang rnam padma dkar po'i phreng ba). In 2002, realizing his health was declining, he outlined ten instructions to guide Ladakhi people moving forward.37 Echoing concerns from the very beginning of his political career, he emphasized the Jammu and Kashmir state government's neglect of Ladakh and advocated that both Buddhist and Muslim communities unite for Union Territory status under the Central Indian Government. He also stressed the general importance of non-sectarianism in the diverse Buddhist traditions of Ladakh, the need for internalized practice of Buddhism, not only outward shows of devotion, and the importance of equal rights for men and women. His tenth and final instruction emphasized the need for Ladakhi language, literature, religion and culture within the modern educational system; he stressed that Bhoṭi language education was absolutely critical for the perpetuation of Ladakhi culture into the future.

In 2003, Bakula Rinpoche spent time in New Delhi for treatment for his failing health. This same year, he went for a final visit to Mongolia and was forced to return to New Delhi via Beijing in an Indian government aircraft. After spending one month in hospital, he passed away on November 4, in his residence in New Delhi. His body was brought to Leh and appropriate death rituals were carried out at his home monastery of Spituk.

In 2008, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama recognized Stanzin Ngawang Jigme Wangchuk (bstan 'dzin ngag dbang 'jigs med dbang phyugs) as the twentieth incarnation of Bakula Rinpoche. The boy was born two years earlier, on January 23, 2006, at the village Kyagar in Nubra amid many auspicious signs.  


1 Van Beek 2011, 75. The author would like to thank Sonam Wangchuk Shakspo, Martijn Van Beek, and Nawang Tsering Shakspo, who were generous with their time and knowledge in answering many questions essential for this entry.

2 Shakspo 2017, 11.

3 Shakspo 2017, 11-12.

4 'Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan 2004, 1.

5 Wallace 2014, 4.

6 Shakspo 2017, 13.

7 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 12; 'Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan 2004, 2.

8 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 12.

9 'Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan 2004, 2.

10 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 14-15.

11 Van Beek 2011, 76.

12 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 38-41.

13 Quoted by Shakspo 1998, 56.

14 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 38-41; Shakspo 1998, 56.

15 Shakso 1998, 57.

16 Shakspo 2017, 74.

17 Shakspo 2017, "Annexure-3," 370-374.

18 Shakspo 2017, 83.

19 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 44-52.

20 Shakspo 2017, 219.

21 Shakspo 2017, 178.

22 Shakspo 2017, 177-178.

23 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 72.

24 Shakspo 2017, 222.

25 Shakspo 2017, 223.

26 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 72-73.

27 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 74.

28 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 76.

29 Shakspo 2017, 226.

30 Shakspo 2017, 232.

31 Shakspo 2017, 232.

32 Wallace 2014, 1-2

33 Shakspo 2017, 239.

34 Shakspo 2017, 254.

35 'Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan 2004, 43-44.

36 Kunsang 2000, 36.

37 Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor 2001, 184-187.

 

Patrick Dowd is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on the culture of Tibetan language within the world of Tibetan Buddhism.

Published August 2020

Bibliography

Ba ku la thub bstan mchog nor. 2001. Rang rnam padma dkar po'i phreng ba. Leh: Bakula Foundation.

Bawden, Charles R. 1989. The Modern History of Mongolia. London, New York: Kegan Paul International.

'Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan. 2004. Rgyal sras ba ku la. New Delhi: Dorje Tsering.

Kunsang, Roger. 2000. “The Reawakening of Buddhadharma in Mongolia.” Mandala. Accessed at: < https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/mandala-issues-for-2000/january/the-reawakening-of-buddhadharma-in-mongolia/>

Shakspo, Nawang Tsering. 1998. A History of Buddhism in Ladakh. New Delhi: Ladakh Buddhist Vihar.

Shakspo, Nawang Tsering. 1999. “The Role of Incarnate Lamas in Buddhist Tradition: A Brief Survey of Bakula Rinpoche's Previous Incarnations.” The Tibet Journal. 24.3: 38-47.

Shakspo, Sonam Wangchuk. 2017. Kushok Bakula Rinpoche: The Architect of Modern Ladakh. New Delhi: Sonam Wangchuk.

Van Beek, Martijn. 2011. “Enlightened Democracy: Normative Secularism and Spiritual Authority on the Margins of Indian Politics.” In Varieties of Secularism: Modernity, Religion and Spiritual Politics in Asia. Routledge. 75-99.

Wallace, Vesna. 2014.“Bakula Arhat’s Journeys to the North: The Life and Work of the Nineteenth Kushok Bakula in Russia and Mongolia.” In Buddhists: Understanding Buddhism Through the Lives of Practitioners. Edited by Todd Lewis. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 218-227.

View this person’s associated Works & Texts on the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center’s Website.