The Dorje Drak Rigdzin is a Nyingma incarnation line with its seat at Dorje Drak, one of the main Nyingma monasteries in Tibet. The line began when the Second Dorje Drak Lekden Dorje was posthumously recognized as the reincarnation of Rigdzin Godemchen and given the title of the Second Dorje Drak in the 16th century. There is a separate enumeration that counts the Third Dorje Drak Rigdzin Ngakgi Wangpo as the First, the Fourth as the Second and so on.
Biographies
The First Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Rigdzin Godemchen Ngodrub Gyeltsen
b.1337 - d.1409
Rigdzin Godemchen was a Nyingma treasure revealer who discovered the Jangter, or Northern Treasures. He was posthumously known as the First Dorje Drak Rigdzin after the Third Dorje Drak Rigdzin claimed to have been the reincarnation of Lekden Dorje, who was himself identified as the reincarnation of Godemchen. Some scholars have suggested that Godemchen revealed Bon treasure as well, but there seems no evidence for this.
