The Treasury of Lives

Jamyang Kunzang Tenpai Gyeltsen ('jam dbyang kun bzang bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan) was born in the 1860s. His mother was from the Sangdak Drolpukpa lineage (gsang bdag sgrol phug pa). His father was Zhabdrung Namkha Zangpo (thar rtse zhabs drung nam mkha' bzang po), from the Drangti family (brang ti) that had largely controlled the Tartse Labrang (thar rtse bla brang) of Ngor Ewaṃ Choden (ngor e waM chos ldan) since the seventeenth century. His father had initially been ordained and had been assigned as an abbatial candidate, or zhabdrung (zhabs drung), of Ngor from the Tartse Labrang, but when the Drangti family line was at risk of ending in the 1860s, his maternal great uncle Jamyang Rinchen Dorje ('jam dbyangs rin chen rdo rje, 1837–1901), who served as the fifty-eighth abbot of Ngor, had him disrobe and marry.^[1]

Jamyang Kunzang Tenpai Gyeltsen was one of possibly eleven children, of whom he was the only son. Among his sisters were Sonam Dolma (bsod nams sgrol ma), who was the maternal grandmother of Chogye Trichen (bco brgyad khri chen, 1920–2007), and Tsering Yudron (tshe ring g.yu sgron), who married the Tibetan minister Yutok Puntsok Pelden (g.yu thog phun tshogs dpal ldan, b. 1860).

He was sent to the Tartse Labrang to ordain and stand as an abbatial candidate. He was also identified as the reincarnation of the fifty-fifth abbot of Ngor, Jampa Kunga Tenpai Gyeltsen (byams pa kun dga' bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan, 1829–1870) of the Tartse Labrang.^[2] His maternal great-uncle, the fifty-eighth abbot of Ngor, Jamyang Rinchen Dorje ('jam dbyangs rin chen rdo rje, 1837–1901), gave him novice ordination and Lamdre teachings and empowerments. He also received teachings from Khenpo Nyendrak Tarpa (mkhan po snyan grags thar pa) of Nalendra Monastery (nA len+dra dgon).^[3]

He was installed as the sixty-third abbot around the year 1904.^[4] The exact dates of his tenure are not known. Jackson gives the year 1912/1913 as the end of his term, but his successor, the sixty-fourth abbot, Pende Khenpo Jamyang Kunzang Tubten Chokyi Gyeltsen (phan bde mkhan po 'jams dbyangs kun bzang thub bstan chos kyi rgyal mtshan, c. 1870s–c.1930) began his tenure around the year 1920.^[5]

Around the year 1925 or 1926 he gave ordination vows to Chogye Trichen, and proposed that the boy be identified as the reincarnation of Wara Zhabdrung Namkha Gyeltsen (wa ra zhabs drung nam mkha' rgyal mtshan, born 1830s, died before 1919). The designation was rejected, however, as his family had already decided to place him in the Chogye Labrang (bco brgyad bla brang) at Nalendra Monastery (na len+dra dgon).^[6]

Jamyang Kunzang Tenpai Gyeltsen died around the year 1929.

 

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