Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
Samding Dorje Phagmo Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche was born Padma Gargyi Wangchuk[2] in the Tromtar region of Kham eastern Tibet in 1930.
His mother was Dawa Drolma, who was widely considered to be an emanation of Tara and was from a Sakya family, and had a profound influence on her son's spiritual life.
By the time he was three years old, he was recognized as the incarnation of the previous Chagdud Tulku, and soon thereafter traveled to Temp'hel Gonpa, a monastery about two or three days by horseback from Tromtar.
He then did an extended retreat at Samye, the monastery built by Padmasambhava, and afterwards attended empowerments given by Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, who became a main teacher as well as a source of spiritual inspiration for him.
Following the Tibetan Uprising in 1959, Chagdud Tulku escaped along with Khenpo Dorje to India, after enduring hunger, and many dangers, where it looked like they would be captured.
[dubious – discuss] In India Rinpoche lived in a number of Tibetan refugee resettlement camps ─ Kalimpong, Odisha, Dalhousie, Bir, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi.
He practiced traditional Tibetan medicine, and was much in demand as his fellow refugees had trouble coping with the heat, and subtropical diseases found in India.
A year or two after his arrival in India, Rinpoche entered a retreat in Tso Pema, a lake sacred to Padmasambhava, located near the city of Mandi, Himachal Pradesh.
At this location he met Jangchub Dorje, a primary disciple of Apong Terton and a lineage holder of this great tertön's Red Tara cycle.
During this time period he met his first Western students, but he also caught malaria and nearly died, and was saved by an Indian doctor who finally made the correct diagnosis of what was ailing him.
In the fall of 1977 empowerment cycles were given in Kathmandu, Nepal by Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje in order to propagate the sacred lineages to a new generation.
With the assistance of Richard Barron, Padma Publications also began the monumental task of translating Longchenpa's Seven Treasuries from Tibetan into English, three volumes of which have been published to date.
His son, Jigme Tromge Rinpoche, traveled with him to Tibet and the next year immigrated to the United States, entering a three-year retreat a few months after his arrival.
Then in 1988, after land was acquired in the Trinity Alps of Northern California, the main seat of Chagdud Gonpa Foundation was created there as Rigdzin Ling.
It was here that Chagdud Tulku offered the empowerments and oral transmissions of the Dudjom Treasures in 1991, and several years later, of the supreme Dzogchen cycle, Nyingt'hig Yabzhi.
Throughout the 1990s he maintained an extensive teaching schedule, put some of his senior students into three year retreats, and helped to establish many Chagdud Gonpa centers throughout the Western Hemisphere.
During this same time period, in addition to leading Drubchens and month-long Dzogchen retreats, he also trained his students in the sacred arts of sculpture and painting, as well as ritual dance, chanting, and music.
This temple was followed by an enormous prayer wheel project, perhaps the largest in the Western Hemisphere, then eight magnificent stupas, and a monumental statue of Akshobhya Buddha.
In the same period, in Pharping, Nepal, Rinpoche built a new retreat center where eight people began training according to the Kat'hog tradition under Kyabje Getse Tulku.
While Chagdud Rinpoche kept up a tremendous amount of Dharmic activity, in the last few years of his life he was somewhat slowed down by diabetes, and in 1997, he entered a clinic and was diagnosed with a serious heart condition.
Jigme Tromge Rinpoche described this in a release to the Brazilian press: After his last breath, my father remained in a state of meditation for almost six full days that prevented the usual deterioration of his body.
The ability to remain in a state of meditation after the breath stops is well known among great Tibetan masters, but circumstances have rarely allowed it to occur in the West.
