The Garchen incarnation line is based at Gar Gon Jangchub Choling Monastery in Nangchen. There is some confusion about the origin of the line. It either began in the thirteenth century when the First Garchen, Ngawang Dondrub, was identified as the reincarnation of the twelfth-century Drigung master Gar Dampa Shakya Pel, or these two men were in fact the same, and Gar Dampa was the First Garchen.
Biographies
Gar Dampa Chodingpa
b.1180 - d.1240
Śākya Pel, or Gar Dampa Chodingpa, was a disciple of Jikten Gonpo. He wrote one of the three earliest works on the Gongchik, the Single Intention, and he was one of the three masters who ‘opened’ the region of Tsari for retreatants and pilgrims. He founded Choding Monastery and, in the last days of his life, a monastery called Rinchen Ling. His reincarnations are known as the Garchen Rinpoche.
