The Treasury of Lives

Sindrang Yab Gomchen Chewang Rinzin Tagchungdarpa (sin da rang yab sgom chen tshe dbang rig 'dzin stag chung dar pa) was born in 1925 in Sindrang (sin da rang), a small village in the western region of Sikkim. He grew up in a landscape steeped in local Buddhist history. West Sikkim was held to be a hidden land (sbas yul) prophesied by Padmasambhava to act as a safe haven for Buddhists in times of need; and each morning his mother, Puntsogma (phun tshogs ma), offered juniper smoke (bsang) to propitiate the mighty mountain deity Kanchendzonga (gang chen mdzod lnga) who was the protector of the small kingdom. (The mountain's colonial spelling is Kanchenjangha.)

His father, Yab Wosel (yab 'od gsal), was a learned tantric practitioner, or ngakpa (sngags pa) from Pemayangtse (padma yang rtse), the royal monastery of the Namgyal (rnam rgyal) dynasty of Sikkim. His clan, from the Lhopo (lho po) ethnic community—known as Bhutia in contemporary Sikkim—had historically close ties to the kings of Sikkim, as the mother of the fifth king had been a Tagchungdarpa. Yab Wosel came from a generation of lamas, religious specialists and scholars; his brother was a scribe to the king and his sister became a renowned meditation teacher after studying in Kham. These religious pursuits were possible due to the strategic business decisions of their father, Aphur Mahazan (a 'phur ma ha jan), who ran a dairy business that exported butter, cheese, milk and wool down to the border trade hub of Kalimpong. He had moved his family to Sindrang from Singyang (sin g.yang), the clan center of the Tagchungdarpas.

Yab Wosel and Puntsogma had a large family of eight children, with four sons and four daughters. Yab Chewang was the fifth child. As with his brothers, Yab Chewang was sent to study at Pemayangtse at a young age. He took novice admission at the monastery when he was five, and learned reading, writing and grammar from his father. As a member of that community he was entitled to use the honorific "yab" (yab), which is put before the given names of monks and ngakpa who have taken admission at the monastery.

Yab Chewang Rinzin excelled in his studies, and soon moved on to master the Pemayangtse ritual curriculum. A Nyingma institution, Pemayangtse had its own distinctive lineage known as Denzong Dzogchen ('bras ljongs rdzogs chen) that originated from the terma (gter ma), or revelations, of Lhatsun Namkhai Jikme (lha btsun nam mkha' 'jigs med, 1597-1650) the Tibetan terton who had crowned the first king of the Namgyal dynasty in the seventeenth century. By the age of nineteen, Yab Chewang had completed this curriculum. Like most of Pemayangtse lamas of his time, he was never ordained, as Pemayangtse was a majority ngakpa institution.

Historically, talented students from Pemayangtse traveled to Tibet, and especially to Mindroling (smin grol gling), to continue their education. By the 1940s, with political changes and British influence in the Himalayas, cross border travel was not as easy. There were local alternatives. Rinchenpong (rin chen spungs), a nearby village in west Sikkim, was home at this time to a lively meditation community headed by the Bhutanese master Jikme Kunzang Chopel ('jigs med kun bzang chos 'phel, 187?-1953), or as he was known to his local community, Risung Rinpoche (ri gsung rin po che).

Risung Rinpoche was a lama from the Sharchop ethnocultural community in eastern Bhutan. He had traveled with many other Bhutanese students to Kham to study with the famous lama Tokden Shākya Shrī (shAkya shrI, 1853-1919). After completing his studies he moved to west Sikkim in the 1920s, drawn to its association with Padmasambhava. He quickly found local patrons and started to attract students from throughout the eastern Himalayas who came to study meditation and subtle body practices (rtsa rlung) with him. These students were residents at Rinchenpong during the winter, where they lived in tents, took teachings during the day, and at night practiced Chod and yogic heat (gtum mo) from the Six Yogas of Nāropa (nA ro chos drug) in the nearby charnel ground. Risung Rinpoche transmitted both Dzogchen and Mahāmudrā teachings to his students, and in the summer months, he sent them to practice and gather alms throughout the Himalayas.

As one of Risung Rinpoche's students, Yab Chewang spent his summers wandering in the jungle near Rabdentse, the former capital of Sikkim that was down the hill from Pemayangtse. The jungle there was dense enough that the only other beings he would meet during the summer months were snakes and wild boars. Yab Chewang did not let them disturb him, and he continued his practice even through times of tremendous personal challenge, such as when his parents both passed away when he was in his early twenties. By the end of the four years he spent studying with Risung Rinpoche and Rinpoche's teaching assistant, Gelong Shakya (dge slong shA kya), Yab Chewang received the title of "Gomchen" (sgom chen), great meditator. For the rest of his life he was most commonly known as Sindrang Yab Gomchen.

At the age of twenty-four, Yab Chewang was dispatched by Pemayangtse to serve as the Khangsol Lama responsible for propitiating the wrathful deities in Tsuklakhang (gtsug lag khang), the royal temple in Gangtok. He remained there for four years—until 1954—in the service of the eleventh king of Sikkim, Chogyal Tashi Namgyal (chos rgyal bkra shis rnam rgyal, 1893-1963). Despite Yab Chewang's youth, the king came to see him as a valued advisor. In turn, Yab Chewang referred to Tashi Namgyal as a bodhisattva whom he found to be generous, kind, and quite unlike the politicians around him.

This concern for service was intertwined with Yab Chewang's deep commitment to his meditation practice. While he considered Rinchenpong Rinpoche to be his root guru, later he also formed a strong connection to Dudjom Rinpoche Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje (bdud 'joms rin po che 'jigs bral ye shes rdo rje, 1904-1987), then the head of the Nyingma tradition in exile. Yab Chewang traveled to Kathmandu to invite Dudjom Rinpoche to Pemayangtse in 1978.

In Gangtok, Yab Chewang's reputation for his ritual excellence and mastery of meditation grew. After he returned to west Sikkim he was sought after as a ritual specialist. When he was thirty-two, his visit to perform rituals for Lasso Kazi (la sogs bka' blon), the landlord at Tashiding in west Sikkim, was to have a transformative impact on his life. It was there that he fell in love with and married Chum Sonam Ongmu (bsod nams dbang mo, b. 1930), the daughter of Lasso Kazi.

Chum Sonam Ongmu was a beautiful young widow who had returned to Tashiding after her husband, Maling Kazi (ma gling bka' blon), passed away in north Sikkim. She already had a young son, whom Yab Chewang took as his own, and within a year, they had a second child. After fulfilling the obligations of a son-in-law by staying at Lasso Dzong (la gogs rdzong) for several years, Yab Chewang and Chum Sonam Ongmu moved with their children back to Pemayangtse. Yab Chewang had bought them a house in Sindrang near his family's land, but during this period the village was beset by dysentery. It was only after the illness cleared—and the old house was thoroughly renovated according to Chum Sonam Ongmu's specifications—that they moved to the village. The family quickly grew, and eventually Yab Chewang and Chum Sonam had one daughter and seven sons. The growing family was supported by Yab Chewang's prudent investment in cardamom, a sought-after cash crop in Sikkim that allowed him to care for his siblings and children without, in his words, "killing any chickens."

This concern with upholding Buddhist tenets was central to Yab Chewang's family and public life. Although he was a devoted and loving father, brother and uncle, he was deeply dedicated to his responsibility as a ngakpa and the vow he had taken with his root lama, Risung Rinpoche, to never turn down a request from a layperson in need. Despite his family responsibilities, Yab Chewang continued to travel to perform funerary rituals, including powa (pho ba), the transference of consciousness. He developed a reputation for serving any and all members of the community: if a bereaved family could not afford to invite lamas for a funeral, Yab Chewang would take his bedroll to their home, along with a gift of rice and vegetables from his own garden, and would sit and complete the necessary rituals.

At Pemayangtse, Yab Chewang enthusiastically carried out the responsibilities of rotating monastic positions. His dedication to the monastery led him to be elected into the position of Vajra Master, or Dorje Lopen (rdo rje slob dpon) in 1995. The position could only be occupied by a lama who was skilled in meditation and ritual, and he was the longest serving in Pemayangtse's history. Right up into his nineties, he would only miss weekly and annual rituals at Pemayangtse very reluctantly if he was very ill. Even though Tibet had been cut off as a place for Sikkimese students to study after 1959, Yab Chewang hosted many significant Tibetan teachers at Pemayangtse, and arranged scholarships for talented students to study at the leading Nyingma institutions in exile, including Mindroling, Namdroling (rnam grol gling), Taktse (stag rtse) and Nyingma Shedra (rnying ma bshad grwa). Late in his life he was thrilled to see a number of these students return to Pemayangtse and establish a monastic college there to maintain the institution's distinctive Buddhist traditions.

Yab Chewang's dedication to his community meant that he was often called upon to represent Pemayangtse, and Sikkimese Buddhism more generally, on a number of occasions. In the 1950s, he served as President of the Sikkim Monasteries Association, and in the following decades he continued to act as a mediator between state authorities, different communities, and the sangha. After Sikkim was absorbed into India in 1975, he continued to maintain good relations with the chief ministers of the new democratically-elected government, acting as a valued mediator in issues related to the dharma and Sikkimese culture. His social concern was by no means limited to Buddhist communities; in Gezing (rgyal shing) Bazaar, where he lived a lot of the time from 1980 onwards, he was affectionately known as "Lama-sahib" or "Guruji" among members of Hindu and Muslim communities, as he also carried out prayers for their communities in times of need and participated in their festivals.

Yab Chewang also studied with Khachod Rinpoche (mkha' chos rin po che, d.1980s) and Sedrub Dongdzin Jigme Rinpoche (bse sgrub gdung 'dzin 'jigs med rin po che, 1917-1980), the Tibetan lama brothers who were invited to reside at Pemayangtse in the 1950s; as well as with Khyentse Choki Lodro (mkhyen brtse chos kyi blo gros, 1893-1959), Chatral Sanggye Dorje (bya bral sangs rgyas rdo rje, 1913-2015) and the Fourth Dodrubchen Rinpoche, Jigme Choying Rangdrol (rdo grub chen 04, 'jigs med chos dbyings rang grol, b.1927).

He received empowerments from many of the Tibetan lamas who visited Sikkim in the 1950s, including Dilgo Khyentse Tashi Peljor (dil mgo mkhyen brtse bkra shis dpal 'byor, 1910-1991), the Sixteenth Karmapa Rangjung Rigpai Dorje (karma pa 16 rang byung rig pa'i rdo rje, 1924-1981), the Forty-first Sakya Tridzin, Ngawang Kunga Tekchen Pelbar (sa skya khri 'dzin 41 ngag dbang kun dga' theg chen dpal 'bar, b.1945), and the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (ta la'i bla ma 14 bstan 'dzin rgya mtsho, b. 1935). Yab Chewang met many of these lamas when they arrived in Sikkim after 1959, and he was a strong advocate for Tibetans in exile.

He had a close lifelong friendship with Yangtang Rinpoche (g.yang thang rin po che, 1930-2016), whose mother was Sikkimese. Yab Chewang and Yangtang Rinpoche grew up together at Pemayangtse before Rinpoche took up his responsibilities as the tulku of Dorje Dechen Lingpa (rdo rje bde chen gling pa, 1857-1928) in Kham. During Yab Chewang's tenure as Dorje Lopen at Pemayangtse, he invited a number of other lamas to the monastery for gatherings, and formed close relationships with Lachung Rinpoche Jigme Namgyel (la chung rin po che 'jigs med rnam rgyal), Lachen Gomchen Rinpoche (la chen sgom chen rin po che, 1949-2012) and Sogtse Rinpoche (sog rtse rin po che, b. 1928)

After their children grew up, Yab Chewang and Chum Sonam became dedicated pilgrims. They completed pilgrimages several times to Bodh Gaya, Tso Pema (mtsho padma), Mindroling in exile, Dharamsala and other Buddhist sites in India; Kathmandu and Maratika Cave in Nepal; Paro Takstang (spa gro stag tshang) and Bumthang in Bhutan; and to Borobodur in Indonesia.

In 2013, when Yab Chewang was eighty-eight he slipped and broke his hip. After this incident, his general physical health started to decline, though he still remained dedicated to his practice (and continued to do tsalung with a metal rod inserted in his leg). He was also an inquisitive and encouraging grandfather to his twenty-one grandchildren and great-grandfather to his five great-grandchildren. He was passionate about sharing his deep wisdom, and would often launch into impromptu meditation lessons. The photograph shows Yab Chewang giving a blessing to his wife Chum Sonam Ongmu, surrounded by his family at Pemayangtse. 

In 2020, after several months of fragile health, he passed away on January 5 at his family home in Gezing. Local social media commentators remarked on the sudden appearance of hail and snow in west Sikkim, rainbows, and a resounding roll of thunder with no accompanying rain. Yab Chewang remained in meditative position, known as tukdam (thug dam) for three days and his body was visibly smaller by the time he was put into his reliquary, or kuden (sku ldan). His cremation took place on January 17 at Sangha Choeling (gsang ngags chos gling) in west Sikkim. In the weeks following, his family offered butter lamps at all the monasteries in Sikkim. Participants noted that the forty-nine days ceremony was also marked by extraordinary weather events, including rainbows, rain and hail between each section of the ritual. His reliquary is under construction near Pemayangtse.