The Treasury of Lives

Tartse Zhabdrung Namkha Zangpo (thar rtse zhabs drung nam mkha' bzang po) was born into the illustrious Drangti family (brang ti) that had produced several famous doctors and numerous abbots to Ngor Ewaṃ Choden Monastery (ngor e waM chos ldan dgon). His birth name was Sherab Sengge. As a child or young man, he was ordained at Ngor and assigned as an abbatial candidate, or zhabdrung (zhabs drung) to the Tartse Labrang (thar rtse bla brang), which had been a familial lama palace of the Drangti family since the sixteenth century.

He returned his vows to marry, however, so as to continue the Drangti family line. This occurred during the abbacy of his mother's brother, the fifty-eighth Ngor abbot, Jamyang Rinchen Dorje ('jam dbyangs rin chen rdo rje, 1837–1901). That abbot was himself the maternal nephew of the fifty-fourth Ngor Khenchen, Jampa Kunga Tenpai Gyeltsen (byams pa kun dga' bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan, 1820–1870), the last Ngor abbot of the paternal Drangti line.^[1]

Despite this intervention, Namkha Zangpo's only son became a monk, and so the line officially came to an end. The son was Jamyang Kunzang Tenpai Gyeltsen ( 'jam dbyang kun bzang bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan, died circa 1929), who served as the sixty-third Ngor abbot.

Namkha Zangpo had six daughters, the eldest of whom was Sonam Drolma (bsod nams sgrol ma). His second daughter was ordained, while the third and fourth married into noble families of Tsang. The fifth daughter was Peling Tsering Yudron (dpal gling tshe ring g.yu sgron), who married the government minister (bka' blon) Yutok Puntsok Pelden (g.yu thog phun tshogs dpal ldan, b. 1860). His sixth daughter, whose name is not recorded, was married to Sonam Sengge Wangchuk (bsod nams sengg ge dbang phyug, 1873–1928) of the Zhalu Kuzhang family (zhwa lu sku zhang). Sonam Sengge Wangchuk was the father of Chogye Trichen (bco brgyad khri chen, 1920–2007). His second wife, Chime Dolkar ('chi med sgrol dkar, 1895–1966), was the daughter of Namkha Zangpo's eldest daughter Sonam Dolma.^[2]

 

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