Dzigar Kongtrul Lodrö Rabpel
Dzigar Kongtrul Lodrö Rabpel (Tib. འཛི་སྒར་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་བློ་གྲོས་, Wyl. 'dzi sgar kong sprul blo gros), the First Dzigar Kongtrul (1901?-c.1958), was one of the five immediate reincarnations of Jamgön Kongtrul. He was called Dzigar because he was the younger brother of the Seventh Dzigar Choktrul, Ngawang Tendzin Palzang (Tib. འཛི་སྒར་མཆོག་སྤྲུལ་ངག་དབང་བསྟན་འཛིན་དཔལ་བཟང་, Wyl. 'dzi sgar mchog sprul ngag dbang bstan 'dzin dpal bzang), a great lama from the Drukpa Kagyü school, and head of the Dzigar Monastery in the Dergé region of Kham. Dzigar Kongtrul Lodrö Rabpel was recognized by the Fifteenth Karmapa, Khakhyap Dorje and subsequently enthroned and brought up at Palpung Monastery. There, he studied the sutras with the great Khenpo Shenga, and did a three-year retreat above Palpung, at the historic Tsadra Rinchen Drak retreat centre founded by his predecessor.
At some point he left Palpung Monastery and went to Neten Monastery, which was headed at that time by the Third Neten Chokling Pema Gyurme. There, he received the Treasury of Precious Termas from, and studied with Kyungtrul Kargyam, one of the foremost disciples of Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé. He eventually established his own monastery near Neten Monastery in a place where there was a beautiful lake and so his monastery became known as Tsokar Monastery.
Dzigar Kongtrül was also very close to Neten Chokling Pema Gyurme. In the late 50s, Dzigar Kongtrül invited him to Tsokar for a visit and they had a big picnic for three days. Then Dzigar Kongtrül requested and received the empowerment of white Amitayus (Tib. Tsekar) from Chokling Rinpoche. At the end of the empowerment, they presented each other a long scarf and, head to head, recited extensive auspicious prayers. Dzigar Kongtrul then advised Chokling Rinpoche to leave Tibet for India right away, saying that he was also going to travel, but in a more unusual fashion. That following morning at dawn, when Chokling Rinpoche had left, Dzigar Kongtrül passed into nirvana. Chokling Rinpoche returned to perform the cremation rituals, and after a few days, he left again for Neten Monastery and arranged to leave immediately for India as Kongtrül Rinpoche had advised. The Second Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche was born as the son of Neten Chokling Rinpoche in Northern India, in 1964, shortly before the Tibetan community settlement at Bir was established by his father.
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Further Reading
- Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche, commentary on the Prayer for the Long Life of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Phüntsok Chöling, October 1996.
- Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Blazing Splendor: The Memoirs of the Dzogchen Yogi Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, pages 215 and 251-252.
