[2] She was listed among the highest-ranking reincarnations at the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, recognized by the Tibetan government and acknowledged by the emperors of Qing China.

[9] She became known as Samding Dorje Pagmo (Wylie: bsam lding rdo rje phag mo) and began a line of female tulkus, reincarnate lamas.

[10] However, her effects were more practical: as abbess of Samding, she stopped the invasion of the Dzungars, who were reportedly terrified of her great siddhi powers.

When faced with her anger—reputedly by turning the 80 novice nuns under her care into furious wild sows—they left the goods and valuables they had plundered as offerings at the monastery and fled the region.

[11] Charles Alfred Bell met the tulku in 1920 and took photographs of her, calling her by the Tibetan name for Vajravarahi, Dorje Pamo (which he translated as "Thunderbolt Sow"), in his book.

A mild answer was returned to him; but, incensed at her refusing to obey his summons, he tore down the walls of the monastery of Samding, and broke into the sanctuary.

When the Jungars had given up all idea of sacking Samding, suddenly the pigs disappeared to become venerable-looking lamas and nuns, with the saintly Dorje Phagmo at their head.

Filled with astonishment and veneration for the sacred character of the lady abbess, the chief made immense presents to her lamasery.

Chökyi Drönma died at the age of thirty-three, leaving a tangible mark on history not only through her own deeds but even more through what happened after her death: her disciples searched for the girl in whom she had reincarnated and thus initiated a line of female incarnations that became the first and most famous in Tibet.

[29]In an introductory letter written by Thang Tong Gyalpo before Chökyi Drönma departed from Northern Lato in 1454, he presented her with the following letter describing her names: Now there is a lady who stems from the royal lineage of the Gods of Clear Light ('Od gsal lha) who is devoted to spiritual liberation and to the benefit of all living beings.

The ninth Dorje Phagmo -Choying Dechen Tshomo-, for example, became a renowned spiritual master not only for Samding but also for the Nyingma tradition, discovered some terma and died at Samye.

[34][35][36] According to Diemberger there also is a Dorje Phagmo line in Bhutan: [She] was recognized by the Sakya Lama Rikey Jatrel, considered an incarnation of Thangtong Gyalpo (1385–1464 or 1361–1485).

The Dorje Phagmo is currently a member of the monastic community of the Thangthong Dewachen Nunnery at Zilingkha in Thimphu, which follows the Nyingma and the Shangpa Kagyu tradition.