The Treasury of Lives

Lama Ngawang Lodro Nyingpo (bla ma ngag dbang blo gros rin chen), known as Lama Ngaklo (bla ma ngag blo), was born in 1892 in Nangchen, Kham. His family's name was Kela (ke la). He entered monastic life at Dzompa Monastery (dzom pa) in Nangchen and was sent to study at Nalendra (na len+dra), presumably Dzompa's mother monastery. There he resided in the Amdo residential house. 

At Nalendra he trained under Nyendrak Gyurme (snyan grags 'gyur med), who taught him grammar and poetry; the Seventeenth Chogye Trichen, Jampa Rinchen Khyentse Wangpo (bco brgyad khri chen 17 byams pa rin chen mkhyen brtse dbang po, c. 1869–1927); and the Fifth Zimwok, Jampa Ngawang Kunga Tenzin Trinle (gzim 'og rin po che 05 byams pa ngag dbang kun dga' bstan 'dzin phrin las, 1884–1963). Jackson also names Jamyang Loter Wangpo ('jam dbyang blo gter dbang po, 1847–1914) and Ga Lama Gendun Zangpo (sga bla ma dge ldun bzang po, 1880–1939) as teachers.^[1]

The Fifth Zimwok had traveled several times to Kham and had met Khenpo Zhenga (mkhan po gzhan dga', 1871–1927), who was famous for establishing monastic colleges in Kham. Khenpo Zhenga sent one of his close disciples, Tsangsar Lama Drayab Tubten (brag g.yab thub bstan, d. 1931) to central Tibet to build monastic colleges in the region, and in the late 1920s Zimwok Rinpoche dispatched Lama Ngaklo to Dar Drongmoche (dar grong mo che dgon), where Drayab Tubten was then staying, to invite him to Nalendra. Drayab Tubten became one of Lama Ngaklo's closest teachers at Nalendra. From his deathbed he instructed Lama Ngaklo to remain at the monastery to teach.

Beginning in 1930 Lama Ngaklo served as one of the main teachers of the Eighteenth Chogye Trichen, Tubten Lekshe Gyatso (bco brgyad chen rin po che thub bstan legs bshad rgya mtsho, 1920–2007). He first taught him grammar, and then began instruction on the Bodhicaryāvatāra, the classic Indian scripture on the bodhisattva path. Chogye Trichen remembered his teacher as being very kind; Lama Ngaklo would give his pupil small presents to encourage him to memorize as much as he could each day.

After a few years, at the recommendation of his tutor Kunga Chopel (kun dga' chos 'phel, 1884–1951/52), Chogye Trichen invited Lama Ngaklo to live in the room next to his. For about a decade the two lived side by side. When Chogye Trichen was in his late teens Lama Ngaklo taught him the subtle body practices and yogic postures.^[2]

After Drayab Tubten passed away in 1931, Lama Ngaklo served as the abbot of Nalendra’s monastic college for three years. In 1938, after accompanying Chogye Trichen to Sakya Monastery (sa skya dgon), Lama Ngaklo and Chogye Trichen went to Tanak Tubten Monastery (rta nag thub bstan dgon) to receive from Lama Dampa Ngawang Lodro Zhenpen Nyingpo (dam pa ngag dbang blo gros gzhan phan snying po, 1876–1953) the Compendium of Tantras (rgyud sde kun btus), Jamyang Loter Wangpo's great collection of Sakya tantric liturgies. Lama Dampa had received it from Loter Wangpo himself.^[3] Lama Dampa gave ordination to Chogye Trichen during the transmission, for which Lama Ngaklo served as timekeeper.

In 1943 Lama Ngaklo taught Chogye Trichen Abhidharma, using Khenpo Zhenga's annotations to Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa. He also taught him Ngor Ponlop Ngawang Lekdrub's (dpon slob ngag dbang legs grub, b 1811) treatise on the three vows, Ornament to the Intention of the Mañjuśrī Guru (sdom gsum 'jam dbyangs bla ma'i dgongs rgyan rtsa 'grel).^[4] The following year, 1944, Lama Ngaklo taught Chogye Trichen the Madhyamakāvatara and Abhisamayālaṃkāra, as well as the Nyegye Yangtik (nye brgyad yang tig), a treasure cycle of Trulzhik Dongak Lingpa ('khrul zhig mdo sngags gling pa, 1862–1922).

In 1944 Lama Ngaklo was called into service at Sakya Monastery. One of the patriarchs of the monastery, Dakchen Rinpoche Kunga Rinchen (bdag chen rin po che kun dga' rin chen, 1902–1950) and his wife, Ponsho Sonam Dolkar (bsod nams sgrol dkar, d. 1948), were having difficulty conceiving a son. They assigned Lama Ngaklo to perform rituals to help them succeed. When a son was born to them the following year—Ngawang Kunga Tekchen Pelbar, who would become the Forty-First Sakya Trizin (sa skya khri 'dzin 41 ngag dbang kun dga' theg chen dpal 'bar, b. 1945)—Lama Ngaklo was among those given credit.^[5] He remained at Sakya to give teachings and transmissions to the Sakya Khon family ('khon). The high esteem in which members of the Sakya tradition held him is expressed by the existence of a relic presented to Sakya Trizen in 1992 by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyeltsen (mkhan po tshul khrims rgyal mtshan, 1933–2002), the lama who restored Nalendra in the 1980s: a tsakli, or initiation card, of Mahākāla Pañjaranātha painted with Lama Ngaklo's blood that had been gathered from a nosebleed.^[6]

Other than Chogye Trichen and members of the Khon family, his disciples included Chogye Trichen's sister, Kunzang Tendron (kun bzang bstan sgron), Khenpo Dorje Gyeltsen (mkhan po rdo rje rgyal mtshan) from Namrab Dakpo Dratsang Monastery (nam rab dwags po grwa tshang), and a female practitioner known as the Nun of the Cemeteries (dur khrod a ne).

Lama Ngaklo passed away in 1959. He apparently performed powa ('pho ba), or transference of consciousness, shortly before being sent to a Chinese prison. Jackson speculates that it was Lama Ngaklo whom Thomas Merton referenced in his journal entry on his 1968 visit to Chogye Trichen, although if so the teacher and student roles were reversed:

[Chogye Trichen] even knows how to impart the technique of severing one's soul from the body. He taught this to another lama who was later captured by the Communists. The lama, when he was being led off to prison camp, simply severed soul from body—pfft!—and that was the end of it. Liberation!^[7]

Around 1982 the Nun of the Cemeteries visited Chogye Trichen in Boudhanath. The elderly practitioner complained to Chogye Trichen that Lama Ngaklo's reincarnation had not been identified—surely, she argued, such a master would not have been reborn in a hell realm just because he performed powa on himself in a state of crisis. Chogye Trichen assured her that he had been reborn in a pure land. The response satisfied her, but then raised concern anew when, in 1984, Lama Ngaklo's reincarnation was identified in India.^[8]

Lama Ngaklo's reincarnation was born in 1978 in Orissa. He received monastic training from the age of six, and at eighteen he was formally enthroned at Sakya Centre in Rajpur and again at Chogye Trichen's Maitreya Temple. He enrolled at Sakya College in 2002.^[9]

 

 

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