Sogan Rinpoche Natsok Rangdrol

Sogan Rinpoche Natsok Rangdrol (The Fourth Sogan Rinpoche) was born in 1869, the Earth Serpent year of the 15th Tibetan calendar cycle, as the son of Prince Sonam Dorje, the ruler of Wel-schul.

Training

He was guided in his studies by the great teachers of his time such as Dudjom Lingpa and Tulku Trimé Özer Sogan Rinpoche Natsok Rangdrol proceeded to distinguish himself in the attainment of high status both as a scholar and a practitioner.

Activities

In Awo Sera Monastery (who was the monastery founded by the First Sogan Rinpoche), he established a retreat center whose main focus was the practice of Dudjom Lingpa’s Nang Jang. Awo Sera Monastery, known officially as Sera Tegchen Chokor Ling – The Abode of the Mahayana Dharmacakra at Sera – was founded by the First Sogan Rinpoche, Boom Schul Lama Sonam. He established the monastery in the Sera district of Serta in the year 1736. After this, the Second and Third Sogan Rinpoches continued to develop the monastery in that place. He built an entirely new structure and invited a new compliment of divine images to reside there. Although no longer in the Sera district, the monastery retained that name and is still popularly referred to as Awo Sera. Awo is the name of the nomadic grouping that is centered in the area that includes Sera. In his own realm of Wel-schul/Serta, and in many adjacent kingdoms, Sogan Rinpoche Natsok Rangdrol established the ten virtues as the custom, and in many ways, as the law of the land. He became the personal lama of the powerful King of Derge in Kham.

Activities with Sera Khandro

Sogan Rinpoche Natsok Rangdrol took as his consort Sera Khandro. Together, they joined forces and were thereby able to extend to all directions the teachings and virtuous work of their two great lamas,Dudjom Lingpa and Tulku Trimé Özer.

The actual name of Sera Khandro came after her becoming the secret friend of Sogan Rinpoche Natsok Rangdrol, and staying with him at Awo Sera for many years, teaching and revealing terma to an ever-growing circle of disciples.

In some biographies of Sogan Rinpoche Natsok Rangdrol, some of his great accomplishments and deeds are told, such as the time when the powerful Moslem warlord Ma Pu-feng (1903-1975) massed his hordes of well-armed soldiers on the borders of Serta in preparation for a long-planned invasion. Sogan Rinpoche Natsok Rangdrol proceeded to the sacred mountain of Drongri Mukpo (‘brong ri smug po) in the valley of Serta. There he accomplished the esoteric Vajrakila rite of expulsion which caused Ma Pu-feng to flee for his life, and never to approach Serta again.