The Treasury of Lives

Orgyen Tsomo (o rgyan mtsho/gtso mo) was born in a place named Sowa Zhi (so ba bzhi), in Chamdo (chab mdo), possibly around the year 1545, although other sources give the unlikely year of 1586.^[1] Her father was named Pawo Chuden (dpa' bo bcud ldan), and her mother was named Khandro Takgi (mkha' 'gro thag gi).

Her previous incarnation's tutor Jorra Chime Pelzang (sbyor ra 'chi med dpal bzang, 1480s–1550s) identified her as the reincarnation of Nyendrak Zangmo (snyan grags bzang mo, 1503–1542/3) and enthroned her at Samding Monastery (bsam sding dgon).

She received instruction from both Jorra Chime Pelzang and Jorra Chetsang Jamyang Tenzin Drakpa (sbyor ra che tshang 'jam dbyangs bstan 'dzin grags pa). Although she was still quite young at the time, when Chime Pelzang passed away she supervised his funeral and the construction of his reliquary.^[2]

It appears that she had a consort, a man named Chime Wozer ('chi med 'od zer). He was the author of the History of Bodong (bo dong chos 'byung) and may have been the person to initiate the identification of Orgyen Tsomo's incarnation line with the deity Vajravārāhī, or Dorje Pakmo (rdo rje phag mo) in Tibetan. Orgyen Tsomo thus became known as the Fourth Samding Dorje Pakmo, and her previous incarnations have been known by that title ever since. Chime Wozer himself appears to have claimed to have been the reincarnation of Chime Pelzang and an emanation of Vajravārāhī's consort Cakrasaṃvara.^[3]

At age twenty-three, around 1567, she traveled with Chime Wozer in southern Kongpo and, with the patronage of the rulers of Nakartse (sna dkar rtse), founded a tantric college at Yargyeb Tem (yar rgyab them), a place in the Yargyab region on the south bank of the Tsangpo under the jurisdiction of the Yargyab Depa (yar rgyab sde pa).^[4]

The dates of her death vary considerably across different sources. Dorje Pakmo Dechen Chodron (rdo rje phag mo bde chen chos sgon) and Dra Tubten Namgyel (grwa thub bstan rnam rgyal) state that she passed away at the age of ten, presumably in the 1550s,^[5] which would suggest the activities of her later life were in fact those of a different incarnation, whose dates would have to be revised. Rase Konchok Gyatso (ra se dkon mchog rgya mtsho), gives her dates as 1586–1596,^[6] but this is unlikely given that she supervised the funeral of her tutor Chime Pelzang, who passed away in the 1550s. Orgyen Tsomo's reincarnation, the Fifth Samding Dorje Pakmo, Yeshe Tsomo (bsam sding rdo rje phag mo 05 ye shes mtsho mo), was likely born around 1588 or 1597.

 

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