The Treasury of Lives

Ngawang Nyima (ngag dbang nyi ma) was born into the Raok Jokhor family (ra 'og jo khor) in the Ga (sga) region of northwestern Kham around the year 1872.^[1] He is said to have met the great Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo ('byam dbangs mkhyen brtse'i dbang po, 1820–1892) in his youth. He trained at Ngor Ewaṃ Choden Monastery (ngor e waM chos ldan) in Tsang province of central Tibet, where he received teachings from the Fifty-Ninth abbot of the monastery, Ngawang Lodro Nyingpo (ngag dbang blo gros sying po, d.1905/06). He was a violent and argumentative young man, albeit brave and dependable, and was known as Raok Drakseng (ra 'ok grags seng), Lion of the Raok Family.^[2]

On his return from Ngor he initially accompanied caravans to protect them from bandits, but after meeting the Sakya lamas Nyiga Dorjechang Kunga Nyima (nyi dga' rdo rje 'chang kun dga' nyi ma, 1846–1925), Dezhung Lungrik Nyima (gde gzhung lung rigs nyi ma, 1840-1898), and Rakshul Drukpa Tobchu Rinpoche (rag shul 'brug pa stobs bcu rin po che), he was inspired to enter retreat at Tarlam Monastery (thar lam) near Jyekundo. At some point he received teachings from Khenpo Zhenga (mkhan po gzhan dga', 1871–1927) such as Patrul Rinpoche's (dpal sprul rin po che, 1808–1887) Words of My Perfect Teacher (kun bzang bla ma'i zhal lung), Longchenpa's (klong chen pa, 1308–1364) Finding Comfort and Ease in the Illusoriness of Things (rgyu ma ngal so), and Jigme Lingpa's ('jigs med gling pa, 1730–1798) treasure cycle Yeshe Lama (ye shes bla ma).^[3]

From then on, for nearly fifty-four years, Ngawang Nyima lived almost entirely in retreat at Dzinda Neseb ('dzin mda' gnas gseb), a hermitage associated with Tarlam founded by Ngawang Shedrub Gyatso (ngag dbang bshad sgrub rgya mtsho). He recited the Vajrayoginī mantra one hundred million times, and performed the preliminary practices one million times. His main focus was the Chod (gcod) tradition of the Karma Kagyu, with the deities White Tārā, Mahākāla Lord of the Tent (gur gyi mgon po), and Sengdongma (seng gdong ma). He loved flowers and brightly colored birds, keeping multiple potted plants and cages of birds.

In 1910, after he had been in retreat for over ten years, his paternal nephew the Third Dezhung Rinpoche (sde gzhung rin po che, 1906-1987) then known as Konchok Lhundrub (dkon mchog lhun grub), who was just four or five years old, was brought to live with him. Due of the strictures of retreat, the boy's parents left him alone in a courtyard to wait for his uncle to emerge from his meditation session;^[4] because the doors were bolted shut, they had been required to climb down a ladder from an adjoining building. The child stayed with him for five years, helping to make tea and caring for Ngawang Nyima's potted flowers. Ngawang Nyima taught his nephew to read, sitting beside him during the day and grunting or whacking him on the head with a stick when the child made errors. For reading instruction he used The Words of My Perfect Teacher, the Bhadrakalpikāsūtra, which lists the names of the one thousand buddhas of our aeon, and biographies of Milarepa (mi la ras pa, 1040–1123), Karma Chakme (kar ma chags med, 1613–1678), and others.^[5] He later acquired biographies of Lamdre masters from a printed edition prepared by Jamyang Loter Wangpo ('jam dbyangs blo gter dbang po, 1847–1914).^[6]

When his young charge turned six, Ngawang Nyima invited the great meditator Nyiga Kunga Nyima to give the boy the Cakrasaṃvara initiation. Ngawang Nyima offered the lama a pair of cymbals, which the lama, having no use for, donated to Tarlam Monastery.^[7] Following the ceremony the young Dezhung Rinpoche vowed that he would recite the Cakrasaṃvara mantra one hundred million times, continuing into his next life if necessary. Ngawang Nyima was impressed, and related the vow to his friend and senior retreatant at Dzinda, Gaton Ngawang Lekpa (sga ston ngag dbang legs pa, 1864–1941).

Gaton Ngawang Lekpa would become one of Dezhung Rinpoche's main teachers. Ngawang Lekpa introduced the child to another primary teacher, his distant cousin Ga Lama Jamyang Gyeltsen (sga bla ma 'jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan, 1870–1940), whom Dezhung first met when he came to cure an illness.^[8]

Ngawang Nyima taught and cared for Dezhung Rinpoche until 1920, when Gaton Ngawang Lekpa decided it was time the boy went to Jyekundo for formal study. Ngawang Nyima objected, preferring that the child remain in retreat, but he could not refuse Gaton. Four years later, when Dezhung Rinpoche was sent to Derge to study Sanskrit, he again objected, fearing that the young man would fall under the influence of unruly monks; back in 1918 Dezhung had gone drinking with some older relatives and returned inebriated to his uncle's hermitage. Ngawang Nyima did successfully prevent Dezhung Rinpoche from being sent to Ngor in 1926 to join the Pende Palace ('phan bde) as candidate for the abbacy of the monastery.^[9]

To better keep an eye on his nephew Ngawang Nyima remained in Derge, settling in the Mesho region near Dzongsar (rdzong sar), even as he continued his objection to Dezhung Rinpoche's Sanskrit studies, then under the supervision of Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyeltsen (khu nu bla ma bstan 'dzin rgyal mtshan, 1894–1977). He accompanied his nephew back to Tarlam in 1930, and continued to scold him whenever he appeared to be drawn into teaching and away from retreat. He resided for many years in the house Dezhung Rinpoche constructed outside the walls of Tarlam Monastery.^[10]

In the mid 1940s he and his nephew constructed a reliquary for their teacher, Nyiga Dorjechang at Tarlam. The lama had died nearly twenty years earlier, but neither the monastery nor the man's disciples could afford a suitable monument. By the 1940s Dezhung Rinpoche had acquired sufficient wealth to sponsor a gilt-copper reliquary about a meter and a half in height.^[11]

Ngawang Nyima passed away in 1951, not quite eighty years old. His body remained in meditation posture for seventeen days, awaiting Dezhung Rinpoche's return to Tarlam Monastery from the nomadic regions he was visiting. Dezhung Rinpoche prepared his uncle's body for the funeral services, and he sponsored a monk and two nuns to perform the Avalokiteśvara fasting ritual (smyung gnas) for a period of nearly seven months.^[12]

 

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