The Kagyu Tulkus are a Barawa Kagyu incarnation line based at Kagyu Gonsar Monastery in the Chumbu valley, southern Tibet. The line originated when Tenzin Nyida was identified as the reincarnation of the prominent seventeenth-century Barawa Kagyu lama Konchok Gyeltsen. The line is also known as the Drubtob Tulkus.
Biographies
Konchok Gyeltsen
b.1601 - d.1687
Konchok Gyeltsen was a Barawa lama active in Tibet, Bhutan, and Sikkim during the seventeenth century. He is counted among the "five lama factions" in Bhutan that did not support Zhabdrung Rinpoche's unification of the country and, as a result, he was forced to leave Bhutan, after which the Barawa monasteries were taken over by the Drukpa Kagyu. Relocating to Sikkim, he established the Barawa tradition there with the sponsorship of the first Buddhist ruler. His incarnation line is known as the Kagyu Tulkus and also the Drubtob Tulkus.
Tenzin Nyida was a Barawa Kagyu lama who was identified as the reincarnation of Konchok Gyeltsen and given the title Second Kagyu Tulku, after his institutional seat, Kagyu Gonsar Monastery in the Chumbi valley.
The Third Kagyu Tulku, Ngawang Chokyi Gyatso
b.1755 - d.1831
Ngawang Chokyi Gyatso, the Third Kagyu Tulku, was a Barawa Kagyu lama based at Kagyu Gonsar Monastery on the border of Tibet and Sikkim.
The Fourth Kagyu Tulku, Kelzang Choying Gyatso
early 19th cent.
The Fourth Kagyu Tulku, Kelzang Choying Gyatso was a Barawa Kagyu lama based at Kagyu Gonsar Monastery in the Chumbi valley. Little information about his life is available.
The Fifth Kagyu Tulku, Tubten Woden
19th cent.
The Fifth Kagyu Tulku was a nineteenth-century Barawa Kagyu lama. He passed away in his early twenties.
The Sixth Kagyu Tulku, Sanggye Gyatso
b.19th cent. - d.20th cent.
The Sixth Kagyu Tulku was a twentieth-century Barawa incarnation who passed away at the age of seventeen.
The Seventh Kagyu Tulku, Ngawang Tenpai Gyeltsen
b.1937 - d.2007
The Seventh Barawa Tulku was a twentieth-century Barawa Kagyu lama based at Kagyu Gonsar Monastery in the Chumbi valley. He established Kagyu Tsechok Ling, his seat in exile in Sikkim.
