The Treasury of Lives

Polu Khenpo Dorje was born in 1897 in the Polu (spo lu) valley of Derge, eastern Tibet. As a young boy, he enrolled in the Sakya-affiliated Polu Monastery (spo lu dgon) in present-day Jomda county, TAR. There he studied under Gonchen Shar Lama Jamyang Khyenrab Taye (dgon chen shar bla ma 'jam dbyangs mkhyen rab mtha' yas, 1862–1937), who had been a student of the great scholar Mipam Gyatso (mi pham rgya mtsho, 1846–1912). For about a decade, he studied traditional fields of scholarship, madhyamaka philosophy, the Five Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga), and the systems of tantra.

Around the time he was fourteen, he entered a three-year retreat at an unspecified location, during which time he had many profound mediative experiences. When his retreat was over, however, he suspected that his level of realization was limited, and he felt inspired to seek Dzogchen teachings from one the greatest masters of the time, Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang (mkhan po ngag dbang dpal bzang, 1879–1941), who from 1909–1922 was the head khenpo of Katok Monastery (KaH thog dgon).[1]

He went to Katok around 1914, when he was seventeen. However, because of Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang's fame and busy schedule, Khenpo Dorje was at first unable to gain access to him. He therefore requested the menial position of being his tea server and for the next eight years he took every opportunity to discreetly ask questions during tea breaks about the subtlest points of Dzogchen meditation. In this way, Khenpo Dorje became one of Ngawang Pelzang's lineage heirs.[2]

After receiving extensive Dzogchen instructions in this way from Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang, he immersed himself in their practice to stabilize his mind in the natural state. Nyoshul Khenpo (smyo shul mkhan po, 1931–1999) tells a story of how, during this time, Khenpo Dorje visited the Sakya Dokol Monastery (rdo khol dgon) in the Trom Dokok (khrom rdo khog) section of Litang (li thang),[3] where he met a yogi known as Nyonpa Ngawang Chime (smyon pa ngag dbang 'chi med). This yogi was known in the area as a strange character (nyonpa means "mad," or "crazy man"), though most doubted that he was a realized practitioner. Nevertheless, Khenpo Dorje was drawn to him and asked him for feedback on his meditation practice.

The yogi ignored his attempts to converse, seemingly oblivious to his presence. Finally, Khenpo Dorje pulled on the yogi's robes, told him he was going to sit there in his best meditation, and begged him to at least nod his head if he was on the right track. At this, the yogi acknowledged Khenpo Dorje, who then did his best to rest in the state of awareness that Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang had trained him to recognize. Unimpressed, the yogi shook his head. After several minutes of this, sensing the yogi's disdain, Khenpo Dorje felt depressed and afraid he had wasted his precious teacher's instructions and his years of study and practice. Giving up his desire for the yogi's validation, he simply allowed himself to rest in melancholic devotion to Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang and the masters of his lineage. This devotion grew and suffused his mind until he was in a natural, nonreferential state. He then felt pulling on his arm, turned his head, and saw the yogi's face beaming in approval. Nyoshul Khenpo concluded that this episode was an excellent example of how effortful, intellectualized meditation is a dead end and that devotion to the guru is the surest lifeline to enlightenment.[4]  

Besides Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang, Khenpo Dorje received extensive empowerments, transmissions, and instructions from Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro ('jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse chos kyi blo gros, 1893–1959) and the Second Penor, Rigzin Pelchen Dupa (pad nor 02 rig 'dzin dpal chen 'dus pa, 1887–1932), both of whom were close associates of his root master.

In 1922, Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang stepped down from his leadership of Katok. It is most likely that this is when Khenpo Dorje finished his studies and was awarded his khenpo degree. It is unclear whether his degree came from Katok or Polu, where he accepted a teaching position, earning him the name Polu Khenpo Dorje. The length of his tenure there is also not clear; Nyoshul Khenpo only says that he taught there "for a long time."[5] Since little about Khenpo Dorje's life is recorded between 1922 and the 1940s, it is likely that most of the 1920s and 30s were spent teaching at Polu.[6]

At some point in the 1940s, Khenpo Dorje left his post at Polu Monastery and lived as a wandering yogi in U (dbu), Tsang (gtsang), Dakpo (dags po), Kongpo (kong po), Lhodrak Karchu (lho brag khar chu) and the famous Chimpu Caves around Samye (bsam yas mchims phu). During this period, it is said that his realization expanded, and he had extensive visionary experience, including a visionary encounter with the great eighth-century Dzogchen forebear Vimalamitra (bi ma la mi tra).[7]

In the latter half of that decade, he discovered Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang's reincarnation, Tekchok Tenpai Gyeltsen (theg mchog bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan, b. 1944/5) in eastern Tibet.[8] In the late 1940s or early 1950s he taught many disciples in central Tibet, including Thinley Norbu (phrin las nor bu, 1931–2011), who was studying at Mindroling (smin grol gling),[9] and Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche (stag lung rtse sprul phrin nyin byed bzang po, 1926–2015) of Dorje Drak (rdo rje brag), whom he empowered as a lineage heir.[10]

In 1955, while staying in Lhasa as a guest of the wealthy Pomdatsang (spom mda' tshang) family, Khenpo Dorje met Chagdud Tulku Pema Gargyi Wangchuk (lcags mdud sprul sku pad+ma gar gyi dbang phyug, 1930–2002) who had recently come from Kham and done retreat at Chimpu. Khenpo Dorje offered to let Chagdud Tulku share his room and, for about a year in and around Lhasa, taught him almost daily, especially in Dzogchen. Because of the Pomdatsang family's devoted patronage of Khenpo Dorje, he became known also as Pomda Khenpo—spelled "Bomta" in Tulku Urgyen's memoirs.[11]

In 1956, with the Chinese presence in Tibet growing, Khenpo Dorje and Chagdud Tulku decided to leave the capital and move to the southeastern region of Kongpo, with the intention to settle in the remote hidden land of Pemako (pad+ma bkod) where many Tibetans believed they would be safe from the Chinese invasion. Once they arrived in Kongpo, he and Chagdud Tulku stayed in a small hermitage together for about six months before Khenpo Dorje returned to Lhasa in early 1957 to close some of his affairs and arrange the transport of his books and valuables. His return to Kongpo was delayed until the end of the year by the deteriorating state of the Chinese occupation. When he arrived late in Kongpo in late 1957, he relayed stories of the fighting that had broken out on the outskirts of Lhasa itself.[12]

During a large religious ceremony in early 1959, Khenpo Dorje's community in Kongpo was attacked by Chinese troops. As Khampa resistance fighters pushed back, everyone who could fled to the Indian border. Khenpo Dorje had to abandon all his books, statues, and relics there in Kongpo.[13] In a large group with his brother, nephew, and Chagdud Tulku, he crossed the Dakpo Pass (dwags po la) toward Sang-ngak Choling Monastery (gsang sngags chos gling) near the border with Arunachal Pradesh. Pursuing Chinese troops captured anyone who fell behind. They crossed the Lungjuk Pass (klung 'jug la) and stayed near Saru Mountain in the Arunachal Pradesh/Nagaland border region near Bhutan. There was very little to eat, and the climate was sweltering for highland Tibetans. Finally, they reached an Indian army encampment where they stayed for a few days before it was attacked by the much stronger Chinese forces. Both India and China continue to assert sovereignty over Arunachal, which is de facto Indian territory.

Their considerably reduced party continued south for twelve more days to an army post at Lemigang, where the Indian army was granting identification papers and food to the refugees. Khenpo Dorje, his brother, and Chagdud Tulku were unable to continue walking and were flown by helicopter to a refugee center called Dakpo Richok (dwags po ri mchog), where they stayed for a month before being transferred to a large Tibetan resettlement camp in Missamari in the Indian state of Assam. A sponsor then invited Khenpo Dorje and his family to relocate to Kalimpong,[14] where the Nyingma leader Dudjom Rinpoche Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje (bdud 'joms 'jigs bral ye shes rdo rje, 1904–1987) was resettling with tens of thousands of Tibetans and preparing to transmit the Treasury of Revelations (rin chen gter mdzod) and the Nyingma Kama (rnying ma bka' ma).

Within the next year or two, Khenpo Dorje was invited to stay in Darjeeling, and after a short time there, he moved to Bhutan, where he stayed mostly at a hermitage near the royal palace Dechen Choling (bde chen chos gling) on the outskirts of Thimphu, which was offered to him by Queen Mother Ashi Phuntsho Chodron (rgyal yum a zhe phun tshogs chos sgron). He also lived and taught sometimes in Tashigang (bkra shis sgang), eastern Bhutan. It is said that while visiting the sacred valley of Bumthang (bum thang), where Longchenpa (klong chen pa, 1308–1364) had lived in the fourteenth century, he encountered that master in a vision.

In the early to mid 1960s, Tulku Urgyen (sprul sku o rgyan, 1920–1996) traveled to Bhutan to learn from Khenpo Dorje, staying in a hut next to his for three months. From him, he received Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang's rare Dzogchen pith instructions that had passed to him from Patrul Rinpoche (dpal spul rin po che, 1808–1887). During this time, Khenpo Dorje remarked to Tulku Urgyen,

I'm an old man now and I tell you this without bragging, but this old man is a bearer of the authentic Dzogchen teachings. Still, what good does that do? No one comes here to request them, and even when they do, they rarely understand. A lecturer without an audience is no more than a barking dog. What's the use of me teaching into the air?...It seems that I am going to take them with me when I die.[15]

Tulku Urgyen was as impressed by Khenpo Dorje's clear and incisive instructions as he was by his eccentric, almost otherworldly bearing. At times, Khenpo Dorje would ask Tulku Urgyen if he could see the dharma protectors and deities in the air. Another time, after giving a brilliant teaching to a large gathering of lamas, he began shouting at himself to stop talking so much while slapping his own cheek. Later, he confided in Tulku Urgyen that the inner expanse of his realization had grown so vast that he had access to limitless stores of dharma; if he was not careful, he could go on talking interminably, which is why he sometimes slapped himself to end his teachings or to fit them within appropriate time frames.[16]

In 1964 or 1965, when Thinley Norbu's wife, Mayum Jamyang (ma yum 'jam dbyangs), was pregnant, Khenpo Dorje told her that she was carrying an emanation of Garab Dorje (dga' rab rdo rje). The child turned out to be Dungse Garab Rinpoche (gdung sras dga' rab rin po che, b. 1965), an important master of the Dudjom Tersar tradition.[17]

According to Tulku Urgyen, Khenpo Dorje had immense devotion for the Sixteenth Karmapa (karma pa 16, 1924–1981, although he had never met him. When the Karmapa came to Bhutan in 1969, Khenpo Dorje was invited to lunch with him. After the khenpo had left, Tulku Urgyen noticed that the Karmapa looked very sad, and he asked him what was wrong. He replied that Khenpo Dorje would soon die, which happened within a few months, in 1970.[18] His cremation was conducted by Dudjom Rinpoche and Dzongsar Khyentse Norbu (rdzong gsar mkhyen brtse 03 mkhyen brtse nor bu, b. 1961).[19]