The Treasury of Lives

Dampa Lodro Gyeltsen (dam pa blo gros rgyal mtshan) was born in Chobipa (cho bi pa) in Nyaksho (nyag shod), into the Ranak (dbra nag) clan. His father was called Pawo (dpa' bo) and his mother, Tazemin (tha ze min).

According to his hagiography, as a young child, Lodro Gyeltsen demonstrated a great faith and devotion toward the teachings of Bon. He was endowed with a very keen intelligence and a very peaceful behavior, and is said to have learned to write and read without any difficulty.

At the age of twenty-one, he traveled to U (dbus) and Tsang (gtsang) where he met the abbot of Menri Monastery (sman ri dgon), the foremost Bon institution in central Tibet, as well as numerous lamas from the Dru (bru), Zhu (zhu), Pa (spa) and Me'u (rme'u) clans, from whom he received initiations (dbang), reading authorizations (lung) and blessings. In particular, he received the quintessential instructions of Dzogchen from Tagu Nyigyel (sta gu nyi rgyal), who was the twenty-first lineage holder of the Atri (a khrid) system of Bon Dzogchen practice. It is said that at that time he experienced the arising of the self-arisen Wisdom (rang byung ye shes) in his continuum.

Following the reception of the teachings, he retreated to the mountains, wandering from one hermitage to the other. After a while, he built the monastery of Senmo (bsen mo) at the great religious sanctuary of Kongpo Bonri (rkong po bon ri). He settled there and taught. Disciples, both male and female, gathered around him in large numbers. According to the legendary accounts of his life, Dampa Lodro had the prodigious ability to read the mind of other people, to impress footprints and handprints onto rocks, and so forth.

Following his death his body was cremated and many crystal-like relics were said to have been found within his ashes and placed in a reliquary.

During his lifetime, he had numerous disciples, the foremost among them being a group of eight who were known as his heart-sons (thugs kyi sras brgyad), as well as his two spouses (lcam gnyis). His spiritual heir in the Atri lineage of transmission was Ronggom Yungdrung Yeshe (rong sgom g.yung drung ye shes) to whom he gave the quintessential instructions he himself had received from Tagu Nyigyel.