Lineage and Master
ཨོཾ་བདེ་ལེགས་འགྱུར་ཅིག May there be happiness and goodness.
When we asked Tulku Tsewang Kunchap Rinpoche, the main master of Thubten Getsal Ling, to tell us about himself he said that he thinks that the most important thing to know about a lama is their lineage, the teaching and the blessings of body, speech and mind that they received from their teachers. Thus, rather than writing a short introduction to who Tulku Tsewang Kunchap Rinpoche is, his own account in his own words is written down here:
“I was at Chungpo Nang (ཁྱུང་པོ་ནང་། - Khyungpo Nang), a small place in the region of Chamdo, at the northern-eastern part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. My father - Karma Dongag Lekshe Drayang (ཀརྨ་མདོ་སྔགས་ལེགས་བཤད་སྒྲ་དབྱངས།) was the 6th reincarnation of Garchen Tulku (སྒར་ཆེན་སྐྲུལ་སྐུ།). He was my first teacher, teaching me how to read and write using Buddhist classical texts such as the Sutra of Great Liberation – a sutra that was very close to his heart. This way of practicing reading was instrumental in placing unique imprints on my mind-stream. I hope to be able to elaborate on it in the future but for the time being I will suffice with saying due to the kindness of my father I was able to have, from a very young age, special imprints for heartfelt faith in the teaching of Sutra and Tantra, trust in the working of karma and especially – trust in the blessings of the lamas.
When I was 10 years old, I joined my father on a trip back to his monastery - Goche Gompa (གོ་ཆེ་དགོན་པ།). Sadly, he passed away a year later – when I was 11 years old. Subsequently I was sent back to Chungpo Nang and stayed with my uncle - my father’s elder brother and the uncle who showed me the greatest kindness. Back then it would take 7-8 days to make this journey, by horseback. It would take more time during the snowy winter and a day or two shorter if one had a fast horse. I continued my studies with my uncle. He oversaw my education and continued to train me in classical Tibetan, memorising texts and prayers and advised me of the proper ways I should be leading my life. In particular, he told me about Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche (བླ་རྒན་སངས་རྒྱས་བསྟན་འཛིན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།, who would become my root teacher later on), how I should properly rely upon him, how to correct my attitude in a positive way towards him, the way to avoid negative attitudes, and how to take his instructions on board. He taught me a lot about the way to wear robes and how to respect and honour my teachers.
I was thirteen when I started my spiritual training with my root teacher, Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche. I received the Terzö (གཏེར་མཛོད། - treasury of precious treasures) empowerments and transmission cycle from him for the first time, at the end of which I returned to my uncle’s place and continued my training with him for two more years. As my father passed away when I was eleven years old, I did not know much about his life, but my uncle told me a lot about him.
My father – Garchen Rinpoche
My father was recognised as a tulku at a young age and my uncle – his elder brother – had thus the opportunity to be educated and trained together with him. He told me that he excelled in all his trainings. He trained in ritual instruments in accordance with the Palpung tradition, mastering it to a degree where no one could rival him in playing the ritual instruments such as the trumpets (Gyaling). He became an expert in the art of torma making – becoming proficient not only in making Tormas and decorating them in the traditional way in general, but in particular he knew how to make them in the right size, shape and proportion and he was quicker than his fellow lamas in so doing. He had expertise in writing and calligraphy. In service to the people, he wrote down mantras for recitation, protection mantra-Dharanis and was also unparalleled in his quick and vast knowledge of liturgy and mantra recitations which were all done from memory. My uncle told me that my father had found it hard to do all of it at the beginning but having gone on a pilgrimage by means of prostrating all the way to Lhasa, all the above training and activities were made easier and quicker by the virtue of the merit he accumulated. He studied medicine and scripture and spent five years studying and practicing at Palpung monastery.
During the cultural revolution my father had gone into hiding. He was aided by people he knew and by those who were devoted to him. One time while in hiding, he was staying in retreat at a basement of a patron, doing a practice which was based on the reading the entire Kangyur – the collection of the teachings of the Buddha. He did a Zambala puja for the sake of the patron who was hiding him and aiding him through this time and the ritual Tormas he created for the puja have remained intact till the present day - many decades after he came out of his hiding place. While staying in retreat he did many sets of practice of the Sutra of Great Liberation, practicing continuously throughout days and nights. On one occasion he did 7 sets of practice over seven days and nights without resting! He had great ability to persevere in intense Dharma practice, and he was revered by the people for his great capacities. Over the years in Taiwan I have led over 80 sets of practice of the Sutra of Great Liberation, and my lineage comes from him.
There were many people who were hunting for my father while he stayed in hiding during the cultural revolution. Amongst them were high officials, party people and soldiers. There were occasions in which he was almost caught, when those looking for him arrived at his hiding place. But he was an accomplished master with special powers and in a mysterious way they could not see him, and so he was not apprehended.
My root teacher – Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche
My root teacher was Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche. His life story can be told at great length by myself and others, but I will tell you some of it briefly here. As a very young boy he displayed qualities of a great practitioner: he committed to memory the Guru Rinpoche prayer in seven lines and the liturgy of the three refuges and the three roots and he encouraged his playmates to join him in prayers and recitations. He even asked his parents to join his prayers and recitations! He encouraged his friends to be compassionate and loving toward one another. His root Lama was Palden Kyentse Ozer - the 2nd Jamgon Khongtrul Rinpoche and the son of the 15th Karmapa – Khakhyab Dorje.
During Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche’s life, he received a great number of empowerments and transmissions. He held the transmission for the complete collection of texts that were used in the Karma Khamtsang tradition. Some of these texts could not be found when the cultural revolution ended. However, he had the transmissions for all the texts that were not lost. In addition, he held the transmission of the entirety of the Nyingma tradition as well as many lineages of the Sakya tradition – including empowerments and transmissions.
Before the cultural revolution Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche spent 25 years in a traditional retreat facility in his monastery. While staying in retreat he received many empowerments and transmissions from lamas and teachers who have travelled to the retreat house to impart sacred instructions on him and on other retreatants.
When China took over Tibet he was arrested and spent many years in labour camps and prisons. He said that these years of terrible conditions such as starvation and torture proved to be very useful for spiritual practice.
Before being arrested Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche met His Holiness 16th Karmapa – Rigpa Dorje who was preparing to escape to India. Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche was thinking of doing the same, but His Holiness the Karmapa asked him to stay back, despite foreseeing the difficult years ahead. He predicted that later on, when a certain degree of freedom would be afforded again, Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche would be instrumental in restoring the monasteries and the reviving the Buddha’s teachings. Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche had always been very devoted to his monastery and thus he took on the Karmapa’s advice and stayed in Tibet. He emphatically said that he was committed to his monastery and its monks and to the teachings, more than to his own life and welfare. He felt that the unique and powerful blessings of His Holiness the Karmapa and thus he decided to stay for the sake of the teachings and for the benefit the people of Yushu.
After the Cultural Revolution ended, when Dharma was allowed to be practiced again, Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche became instrumental in restoring the teachings in the areas of Yushu and Nangchen. He travelled to many monasteries, conferred empowerments, and gave transmissions and sacred instructions. As most monasteries were completely destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, he devised plans and designs for the new monasteries and temples, gave advice regarding holy objects such as statues and Thangkhas and contributed immensely through navigating the difficulties and challenges of restoring what was lost during those dark years. At Nangchen he forged the way for the great prayer festival of the Kagyu Tradition (Monlam Chenpo སྨོན་ལམ་ཆེན་པོ།) as well as the prayer festival that brought together different Tibetan Buddhist traditions (Rime Monlam རི་མེད་སྨོན་ལམ།).
Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche bestowed a Chenrezig empowerment on the 17th Karmapa soon after he was identified and offered him ablution offering and the Jangwa ritual. He also offered many transmissions and empowerments to His Eminence Tai Situ Rinpoche. He thus became an eminent lama. In his monastery he upheld the Five Great Treasuries of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great (a huge body of five collections of teachings). Over many years he conferred empowerments, transmissions and instructions from the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma traditions, thus restoring much that was lost during the Cultural Revolution.
His Eminence Tai Situ Rinpoche travelled back to Palpung monastery during the 1990’s where he met with Lagen Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche. He said that there was no one like him – a single master who held many lineages of empowerments and transmissions in their entirety as well as upholding the Five Great Treasuries.”
