The Treasury of Lives

Ngadak Drowagonpo Namkha Pel (mnga' bdag 'gro ba mgon po nam mkha' dpal) was born to Nyangrel Nyima Ozer (nyang/myang ral nyi ma 'od zer, 1124-1192) and his wife, Jobuma (jo 'bum ma, d.u.) in the mid to late twelfth century. His father had gained renown as a Buddhist treasure revealer and Namkha Pel, the second of his two sons, was born to him amidst auspicious signs and dreams as he expanded Mawochok (smra bo lcogs) hermitage in the Lhodrak (lho brag) region of south-central Tibet. Nyangrel identified him as an emanation of his tutelary deity, Hayagrīva and noted that the child bore the marks of Avalokiteśvara on his body. Namkha Pel grew up at Mawochok under his father's tutelage amongst the retinues of his disciples, receiving the ancient instructions and transmissions of the Nyang clan as well as his those of his father's recently recovered treasures.

Having been designated as Nyangrel's primary heir, Namkha Pel took up the abbacy of Mawochok after his father's death in 1192. He neither continued the practice of treasure recovery nor taught extensively, but invited various lamas to teach at Mawochok and thus fostered an ecumenism where tantric transmissions from New School (gsar ma) lineages such as the Kagyu (bka' brgyud), which was developing nearby, were bestowed there.

Namkha Pel is known for sponsoring a number of meritorious endeavors, such as the construction of dikes in Lhasa as well as early compilations of sūtra and tantra, the latter of which appears to have been a predecessor of The Collected Tantras of the Ancients (rnying ma rgyud 'bum). Another major project was the construction of a massive reliquary stupa to hold and honor his father's remains. To consecrate the stupa he invited the great Indian master Śākyaśrībhadra (1127/45-1225) in the early thirteenth century. Namkha Pel became his disciple and even considered monastic ordination, but was dissuaded so as to continue the family lineage of the Nyang clan.

He succeeded in doing so by producing his only son, Ngadak Loden Sherab (mnga' bdag blo ldan shes rab, d.u.), who would assume the abbacy of Mawochok after Namkha Pel's death at the age of sixty-six in the early to mid thirteenth century (perhaps 1235). Continuing with the patrilineal inheritance model of his clan, Namkha Pel bequeathed Mawochok, his material wealth and all of his transmissions to his "one supreme son", Loden Sherab, but he appears to have named various sets of successors for specific cycles as well.

One among these disciples who would go on to great renown was Guru Chowang (gu ru chos dbang, 1212-1270), a treasure revealer noted in Namkha Pel's biography as "skilled in the melody of the maṇi" mantra, who claimed to be the reincarnation of his father, Nyangrel, and whose treasure cycles on Avalokiteśvara as the Great Compassionate One would go on to eclipse Nyangrel's as The Maṇi Kambum (ma ṇi bka' 'bum). 

Namkha Pel's death and sky burial were said to have been attended by auspicious signs, and many relics appeared among his remains. These were interred in a massive reliquary beside that of his father, both of which still stand at Mawochok.