The Treasury of Lives

Courtesy of Collected Works of of Sprul sku tshul lo. Used by permission.

Khordong Terchen Nuden Dorje ('khor gdong gter chen nus ldan rdo rje) was born in 1802[1] in the family line of Khordong ('khor gdong) in the Golok Serta area ('go log gser thar) on the border of Kham and Amdo. He was born in the Khordong Dewadong family ('khor gdong bde ba gdong). His father was Bochung Agye (bo chung a rgyas) and his mother was Trabu, the Lady of Awo (a bo bza' khra 'bu). He was the paternal nephew of a prominent teacher named Khamtrul Sherab Mebar (khams sprul shes rab me 'bar, 1752-1814), who was also his first main teacher. Over the course of his life he was mostly known under three names: Nuden Dorje, Dropen Lingpa ('gro phan gling pa), and Drolo Tsel (gro lod rtsal).

He was educated at Khordong Monastery (khor gdong dgon) and subsidiary monasteries such as Shukjung (shugs 'byung) in the Do region (rdo yul) of Golok, both of which are Nyingma monasteries in the Northern Treasures (byang gter) tradition that he would later promote.

He studied under some of the greatest Nyingma masters of his era, including Barchung Jigme Gocha ('bar chung 'jigs med go cha, b. 1763), Lhari Zimpukpa Jigme Pawo (lha ri gzims phug pa 'jigs med dpa' bo), and the Eighth Dorje Drak Rigdzin Kelzang Pema Wanggye (rdo rje brag rig 'dzin 08 skal bzang pad+ma dbang rgyal).

In 1812 he received various empowerment and transmissions from Dodrubchen Jigme Trinle Wozer (rdo grub chen 'jigs med 'phrin las 'od zer, 1745-1821), together with a prophecy that he must take Dorje Drolo (rdo rje gro lod) as his main deity, and that he should go meet Kelzang Norbu (skal bzang nor bu) of Baḥne Monastery (baH nas dgon). On his way there he stopped over at Shukjung Monastery and received a Jangter Vajrakīla empowerment from a lama named Kelzang Yonten (skal bzang yon tan).

At Baḥne, from Kelzang Norbu, he received the empowerments, transmissions and instructions for the main Northern Treasures scriptures, the Unimpeded Access to Samantabhadra's Mind (dgongs pa zang thal) which was revealed by Rigdzin Godemchen (rig 'dzin rgod ldem chen, 1337-1409), together with other Northern Treasures cycles. He also received the "Sole Golden Syllable of the Black Quintessence" (yang tig nag po gser gyi 'bru gcig), which is a treasure of Dungtso Repa (dung mtsho ras pa, fifteenth century), and the "Vajravārahī Sealed with Profundity" (phag mo zab rgya), a section of the Unimpeded Realization. For nine months he recited Ratna Lingpa's (ratna gling pa, 1403-1479) Wrathful Guru cycle (gu ru drag po). He later received a second transmission of the Unimpeded Access in 1844 from Trukri Pema Choying (dkrug ri padma chos dbyings), also known as Jadrel Choying (bya bral chos dbyings).

He engaged in a one-year retreat at Baḥne of the "self-illuminating eight commands" (bka' brgyad rang shar), a revelation of Rigdzin Godemchen, and three months of recitation of "Mañjuśrī Master of Life" ('jam dpal tshe bdag) -- a form of Yamāntaka originated by Gya Zhangtrom (rgya zhang khrom, ninth or possibly eleventh century) and adopted by the Northern Treasures tradition -- and he experienced many visions in which he obtained various prophecies. Impressed with his student's progress, Kelzang Norbu enthroned him as his successor in the lineage. In 1815 Kelzang Norbu died and Nuden Dorje returned to Khordong.

His uncle Sherab Mebar had passed away in 1814 while Nuden Dorje was still at Baḥne, and in 1816 Nuden Dorje recognized his reincarnation, Kunzang Nyendrak (kun bzang snyan grags), who became a close disciple.

In 1820 he received multiple teachings and transmissions from Jampel Dorje ('jam dpal rdo rje) of Zhichen Monastery (gzhi chen dgon pa), a man also known as Dongak Tendzin Pawo (mdo sngags bstan 'dzin dpa' bo). Jampel Dorje gave him the complete revelations of Godemchen and of Pema Lingpa (padma gling pa, 1450-1521) and multiple Nyingma "oral tradition" (bka' ma) and treasure scriptures, including the Vajra Bridge (rdo rje zam pa) and the Seventeen Tantras. Around this time he also received teachings from Katok Getse Gyurme Tsewang Chokdrub (dge rtse 'gyur med tshe dbang mchog grub, 1761-1829).

In 1823, in his twenty-second year, from Khenpo Lozang Tsultrim (mkhan po blo bzang tshul khrims), he received the complete monastic consecration. [2] Until his thirtieth year, he would live according to the monastic discipline. Later on, he took a consort (see below).
 
In the late 1820s he began an intensive practice of Chod, studying the practice from multiple traditions and then entering a retreat "in one hundred haunted places, one hundred graveyards, one hundred sources, narrow passages, towns, bridges, cairns at mountain passes, forests, places owned by local spirits."
 
He began to teach at Khordong in 1821, giving empowerments and oral transmissions of the Northern Treasures tradition and various other Nyingma teachings. He would eventually serve as the head of both Khordong Monastery and Shukjung. His disciples included Gonpo Wangyel (mgon po dbang rgyal), also known as Pawo Gyerab Dorje Tsel (dpa' bo dgyes rab rdo rje rtsal), and Orgyen Puntsok (o rgyan phun tshogs) of Baḥne. He was also the maternal grandfather of one of the most remarkable recent Nyingma writers, Tulku Tsultrim Zangpo (sprul sku tshul khrims bzang po, 1895-1954), popularly known as Tulku Tsullo (sprul sku tshul lo). 
 
According to his autobiography, starting in 1811, Nuden Dorje began to experience signs that he was destined to reveal treasure: it is said that he obtained the key to his first treasures, a sword and a hammer of meteoritic iron, and later on in the same year, from a red ḍākinī, a paper scroll with the alphabetic key of the symbolic script of the ḍākinī, and then, the "certificate," or inventory of his forthcoming revelations. He continued to reveal treasures until at least 1848.
 
For example, according to his hagiography, in 1828, at lake Tsonakma (mtsho nag ma) while performing a ritual of water offering (chu gtor) with a group of monks companions, he took a butter lamp and dove into the lake, having commanded the monks saying "As long as I have not come back up, let the ritual music resound uninterruptedly." He later re-emerged with his clothes dry, still holding the lit lamp and carrying several treasure items.

A recent edition of his revelations published in Khordong between 2011 and 2014 comprises fourteen volumes, the two last ones including the treasures of his successor, Gonpo Wangyel.

Of his many treasures two appear to have gained some reputation: the Primordial Wisdom Vast Sphere of the View of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities (zhi khro lta ba ye shes klong yangs) and the Biography of Padmasambhava in the form of Dorje Drolo (gro lod bka' thang),[3] although the transmission was preserved largely in the family line and not distributed widely. 
 
Even as Nuden Dorje developed his own revelations he brought Khordong Monastery into perfect conformity with Dorje Drak (rdo rje brag), the mother monastery of the Northern Treasures tradition, and he continued to receive teachings. He developed relationships between his monasteries and the Dorje Drak branches in eastern Tibet, such as Do Dorje Drak (mdo rdo rje brag) in Dartsedo (dar rtse mdo) and Batang Drubgon ('ba' thang grub dgon), where he received teachings from a Kunzang Jigme Chodrak (kun bzang 'jigs med chos grags). He constructed a large temple at Shukjung in 1831. 
 
By the 1830s Nuden Dorje had successfully cultivated numerous patrons among the local ruling families. Among these were the "the king, queen, princes and ministers of Trehor (tre hor)" who were surely supporting him; in 1837, he reported, he gave them empowerments. In 1841 he performed empowerments and other rituals under the sponsorship of a man named Lhachen (lha chen), the chief of the Akyong clan (a skyong).
 
It could have been around this time that he married Tamdrin Wangmo (rta mgrin dbang mo), who is said to have been a daughter of the Akyong clan. She later became one of the main lineage-holders of Nuden Dorje's revelations, a role that was not uncommon for the wife of a treasure revealer, even in a society in which few women were permitted to attain the status of a religious teacher. He had at least two children with Tamdrin Wangmo: a daughter named Zhiwa Tso (zhi ba 'tsho) and a son named Pema Donsel (padma don gsal), both of whom also became lineage-holders of his revelations.
 
In 1847, together with two disciples, Nuden Dorje went to Do Dorjedrak. There they received additional transmissions of the Unimpeded Realization and Karma Lingpa's (karma gling pa, fourteenth century) Peaceful and Wrathful Deities (kar gling zhi khro) from Trukri Pema Choying. Lama Gyurme Rabten ('gyur med rab brtan) taught them Northern Treasures cycles such as "ocean of dharma that gathers all teachings" (bka' 'dus chos kyi rgya mtsho), a revelation of the Fifth Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Kelzang Pema Wangchuk (rdo rje brag rig 'drin 05 skal bzang padma dbang phyug, 1719-c.1770). Back at Khordong he practiced the alchemical fasting rituals (bdud rtsi bcud len) of the Unimpeded Access.
 
In the final fifteen years of his life Nuden Dorje went on pilgrimage in central Tibet, visiting Lhasa, Samye (bsam yas), Dorje Drak, and other sacred sites. At Dorje Drak, Chubzang Namkha Longyang (chu bzang nam mkha' klong yangs) gave him the empowerment for the Sūtra that Gathers Intentions (dgongs pa'i 'dus pa'i mdo) on the basis of the ritual texts composed by the Fourth Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Pema Trinle (rdo rje brag rigs 'dzin 04 padma 'phrin las, 1641-1717). On his return to the east be brought back editions of the Tibetan canon and the Collected Nyingma Tantras (rnying ma rgyud 'bum).
 
Khordong Terchen Nuden Dorje passed away in the ninth month of the wood-bird year, 1864. His subsequent incarnations include: Drodul Lingpa ('gro 'dul gling pa), who died in infancy, then Kelden Lingpa (bskal ldan gling pa) who lived to be thirty-seven years old, and most recently Chimed Rigdzin Rinpoche ('chi med rig 'dzin, 1922-2002, mostly known as "C. R. Lama").

[1] Khordong Terchen Nuden Dorje was born in 1802 and passed away in 1864. The year 1791 appears as his birthdate on TBRC and elsewhere, but rests upon an incorrect calculation, supposing that he lived until his seventy-third year, and then calculating back his birth date. In fact there is no doubt about his birth date, as it is confirmed clearly in his "secret autobiography". And the date of his death is also very clear on the basis of Tulku Tsullo's Life of Gonpo Wangyal.

[2] English-speaking Buddhology has been using the word "ordination" for the rab 'byung (pravrajya) for quite a long time, so changing the terminology might bring up confusion. Still, as “ordination" is clearly a term borrowed from the Catholic lexicon, we have to recognize that it is utterly improper. In the Catholic Religion, the « ordination » is what makes a layman become a priest, not a monk. The meaning of the term is that it ordinates you to a ministry, a sacred function — centered upon the Holy Sacrifice. In order to become a monk or a friar (which is, by the way, closer to the so-called buddhist “monks"), one does not get through an ordination, but — such is the proper term — a consecration. That is why I think that this term should be substituted everywhere to that of "ordination”.

[3] This text is distinct from a revelation of the same name by Taksham Nuden Dorje (stag sham nus ldan rdo rje, b. 1655).

 

Stéphane Arguillère is professor of Tibetan language and civilisation at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations (INALCO) in Paris, France.

Published July 2018

参考书目

Arguillère, Stéphane. 2018. "Histoire des manuels de pratique du dGongs pa zang thal." Revue d’Études Tibétaines, no 43, CNRS (CRCAO), Paris, p. 196-255.

Boord, Martin J. 2013. Gathering the Elements: Vajrakīla Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition. Berlin: Wandel Verlag.

Chimed Rigdzin Lama. 2013. Collected Works of C. R. Lama. James Low, editor. Simply Being.

Nus ldan rdo rje. 2014 (1848?). Gsang sngags bstan pa la dga' ba'i nus ldan rdo rje 'gro phan gling pa gro lod rtsal gyi gsang ba'i rnam thar dag snang rab gsal. In Snga 'gyur rnying ma'i gter gsar chos mzod chen mo, vol. 6, pp. 364-652. Khordong Monastery.

Turpeinen, Katarina. 2015. Vision of Samantabhadra: The Dzokchen anthology of Rindzin Godem. Doctoral dissertation, University of Virginia.

Valentine, Jay Holt. 2013. The Lords of the Northern Treasures: The Development of the Tibetan Institution of Rule by Successive Incarnations. Doctoral dissertation, University of Virginia.

Ye shes don rtogs. 2014 (2011). Gter chen nus ldan rdo rje 'gro phan gling pa gro lod rtal gyi rnam thar. In Snga 'gyur rnying ma'i gter gsar chos mzod chen mo, vol. 1, pp. 1-38. Khordong Monastery.

See also Snga' 'gyur byang gter chos skor phyogs sgrigs, vol. 62, pp. 725-756. TBRC W2PD17457.

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