The Treasury of Lives

Nyene Rinchen Drak (nye gnas rin chen grags) was an attendant and disciple of Jikten Gonpo Rinchen Pel ('jig rten mgon po rin chen dpal, 1143-1217), the founder of Drigung Til Monastery ('bri gung mthil).

Nothing is known about his life other than two stories which suggest that this attendant of Jikten Gonpo was less than trustworthy. In the first, Jikten Gonpo had charged Nyene Rinchen Drak with helping to identify a spring near Daklha Gampo Monastery (dwags lha sgam po) which he was at that time supervising. He entrusted Nyene with 108 pieces of turquoise and told him to bury them in specific locations. Nyene did as he was told, except for one piece, which he kept for himself.

When Nyene went to meet Jikten Gonpo at the Golden Temple of Daklha Gampo he carried the last piece hidden up his sleeve. As he arrived at the door he put his hand up his sleeve to find a frog in its place. Shocked, he hurled the frog into the air, and in the exact spot where it landed, a spring appeared. It was initially called Zharma Spring (chu mig zhar ma), but later became known as the Spring of Jikten Gonpo ('jig rten mgon po'i chu mig). The places where Nyene Rinchen Drak buried the other turquoise stones also became springs, many of which are said to have later dried up during the troubles between Drigung and Sakya.

A second story relates Nyene Rinchen Drak's death. It seems that during a festival that Jikten Gonpo held for his disciples in Tachak (rta chag), the Drigung master asked many of his disciples to show the assembly their powers of realization. When it was Nyene Rinchen Drak's turn, he became so embarrassed that he died on the spot. Jikten Gonpo had his corpse carried to a charnel ground and performed the powa (pho ba) rites of transference of consciousness. Relics were said to have been found in Rinchen Drak’s ashes.

Of Nyene Rinchen Drak's compositions, only The Great Treatise on Dispelling Obstacles (gegs sel chen mo) is said to have survived, but it remains unidentified. A short song on the subject of impermanence and death addressed to him is preserved in Jikten Gonpo's collected writing.