4th Dodrupchen Jigmed Thubten Thrinle Palbar Rinpoche (1927-2022)

Jigmed Lingpa’s principle disciple was 1st Dodrupchen Jigmed Thrinle Odzer (1745-1821) who promised to preserve and protect the Longchen Nyingthig tradition in time to come. ‘Dodurpchen’ literally means ‘The Great Siddha from Do’ where ‘Do’ is a valley in Eastern Tibet. Now, during the 4th Dodrupchen Jigmed Thubten Thrinle Palbar, he took the task of preservation and promotion of the tradition.

He was born at Golog province of Kham in 1927 in eastern Tibet. The great 5th Dzogchen Rinpoche prophesized his birth and who later recognized him. He was enthroned at the age of four in Dodrupchen monastery and during ceremony, he recited the Seven-Line Prayer to Guru Rinpoche, which brought tears to his predecessor’s students. At one time, he recited a prayer to Ekajati during his visit to the temple of Dharma Protector even though he had not learned how to read. He showed many similar stories of his marvelous miracle signs of accomplishment, specially at the age of six or seven, including prescience and visions of Buddhas.

He started his learning of read and write when he reached five. He studied under the great Khenpos of Dodrupchen and Dzogchen monasteries, and began hearing and contemplating of Sutras and Tantras. At the age of eleven, he received the empowerment and transmission of the Nyingthig Yabshi and Longchen Nyingthig by Khenpo Kunpal (a disciple of the 3rd Dodrupchen Rinpoche). During his teenage times, Dodrupchen Rinpoche had completed three sets of preliminary practices of Longchen Nyingthig and other supplementary practices.

Among the many great masters from whom he received teachings were Jamyang Khentse Chokyi Lodro, the 6th Dzogchen Rinpoche, Shechen Kongtrul, Dzogchen Khenpo Gonpo and Gyarong Namtrul Rinpoche. From Yukhok Chatralwa Choying Rangdrol (a manifestation of Vimalamitra) and from Apang Terton, he received the final teachings on the meaning of Dzogpachenpo, which he practiced under their guidance.

He made a pilgrimage to Central Tibet when he was nineteen years old, and completed a retreat in the cave of Jigmed Lingpa at Tsering Jong. Between the age of twenty and twenty-five, he received secret teachings of the Great Perfection called Trekcho and Thogal as well as its complete pith instructions from his root guru, Yukhok Chatral. With excelling his excellent study and practice, he became a powerful upholder of the ocean-like teachings of Longchen Nyingthig in particular and Nyingma Lineage in general. He built a Scriptural College at Dodrupchen monastery and rendered the woodblocks for printing the Seven Treasures of Longchenpa. He gave many major teachings, especially in the eastern part of the Tibet.

Dodrupchen Rinpoche left Tibet and came to Sikkim in October 1957 due to changing political position in Tibet. Since then, Gangtok became his permanent residence. It is continuing with establishment of Chorten Gonpa Monastery in Sikkim, after Chinese overtook Tibet followed by destruction of hundred on Monasteries. Trulshik Rinpoche (the guru of the Sikkismese King) offered the current Chorten Monastery and Rinpoche accepted it. Once again he subsidized the printing of many books, including Longchenpa’s Seven Treasures and Trilogy of Finding Comfort and Ease. He has given many empowerments, transmissions and teachings in Sikkim. He dedicated his life to rebuild monastery, train monks and yogis, re-publish books and re-create sacred arts etc. His quiet, gentle and unassuming demeanor, complemented by a tremendous presence, remains an inspiration for all. Dodrupchen Rinpoche recognized the 7th Dzogchen Rinpoche, whose enthronement was held in the Royal Temple at Gangtok in 1972.

It is for promulgation of the Longchen Nyingthig in particular and Nyingma in general. Just as many monasteries in Ladakh, India, Nepal, Golog, Tibet and other places took Dodrupchen as their root guru. His teachings attract students all over the world. He made a number of visits to the west, his first being in 1973. He founded the Maha Siddha Nyingma Center in US. He also visited Britain, France and Switzerland. With request from Sogyal Rinpoche, he had given an empowerment of Rigzin Dupa at London in 1975.

༈ མྱུར་བྱོན་གསོལ་འདེབས་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་འོད་ཞགས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།། ན་མོ་གུ་རུ་བྷྱེ། ཆོས་དབྱིངས་གཉུག་མ་ཟང་ཐལ་གདོད་མའི་ཀློང་། །མངོན་པར་བྱང་ཆུབ་འཕོ་བྲལ་བདེ་བ་ཆེ། །མཆོག་ཏུ་མི་འགྱུར་རྟག་བརྟན་རྡོ༵་རྗེའི་སེམས། །ཡོངས་གྲུབ༵་དག་ཆེ༵ན་དོན་གྱི་བླ་མར་འདུད། །འཁོར་འདས་འུབ་ཆུབ་འོད་གསལ་ཐིག་ལེའི་ཀློང་། །སྤྲོ་བསྡུའི་མཚན་མ་ཡེ་ནས་དམིགས་མེད་ཀྱང་། །ནང་དབྱིངས་གཏིང་གསལ་གཞོན་ནུ་བུམ་སྐུའི་སྦུབས། །ཀ་དག་གཞི་ཀློང་ཡངས་པར་འབྱམས་མིན་པར། །ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་རོལ་རྩལ་འགག་མེད་སྤྲིན། །ཆུ་ཟླའི་གར་བཞིན་མོས་ངོར་གཅིག་དུ་མར། །བསམ་ཡས་ཞིང་དང་ཁྱད་པར་མི་མཇེད་ཀྱི། །འཛམ་བུའི་སྒྲས་བསྔགས་གླིང་འདིའི་ཡིད་ཅན་གྱི། །མགོན་སྐྱབས་འདྲེན་སྟོན་རྒྱལ་བསྟན་སྲོག་ཤིང་དུ། །རིང་མིན་འདྲེན་བྱེད་དགའ་སྟོན་དཔལ་ཤར་ཏེ། །བསྟན་འགྲོའི་ཕན་བདེའི་རྫོགས་ལྡན་གསར་པའི་ཉི། །ལེགས་བྱས་ཤར་རིའི་ཕྲག་ནས་འཛུམ་གྲོལ་ཤོག     ། ཅེས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་མཆེད་པོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་ནུས་པའི་མངའ་བདག་མཆོག་སྤྲུལ་ཨ་གྲགས་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་བཀས་བསྐུལ་ལྟར་༸གྲུབ་རྗེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གི་སློབ་འབངས་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་གྲལ་མཐར་འཁོད་པ་པད་བཀོད་རྒྱལ་སྲས་སྤྲུལ་མིང་པ་འགྱུར་མེད་ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཤེས་རབ་གྲགས་པར་འབོད་པས་ལྕགས་གླང་ཟླ་བ་ ༡༡ ཚེས་ ༢༥ བཟང་པོར་གསོལ་སྨོན་དུ་བཀོད་པ་དེ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ་འགྲུབ་པར་གྱུར་ཅིག།།།

Dodrupchen Incarnation

1st Dodrupchen Jigmed Thrinle Odzer (1745-1821)

He was the principle disciple of Jigmed Lingpa. Jigmed Lingpa recognized him as an incarnation of Prince Murup Tsenpo (Brother of King Trisong Deutsen). He manifested remarkable qualities and guided numerous disciples to accomplishment as prophesized by Guru Rinpoche. Jigmed Lingpa appointed him as the future lineage holder of the Longchen Nyingthig; the seat which has been passed down to future emanations today. He had also discovered his own mind terma and preach Longchen Nyingthig cycle.

2nd Dodrupchen Jigmed Phuntsok Jungne (1824-1863)

He was predicted directly by his predecessor and later recognized by Sakya Gongma in 1834. He received Ngondro Teaching, Rigzin Duepa and Dzogpachenpo from Jigme Gyalwe Nguku. In 1844, he got teachings, transmissions and empowerments of Longchen Nyingthig from Do Kyentse. He also received teachings from Patrul Rinpoche and 4th Dzogchen Rinpoche. In 1863, many people died from smallpox epidemic and he was very saddened by this. Hence, he took this epidemic on himself and stopped this disease in that town. Therefore, he passed away from that smallpox. He was adept in advance Vajrayana practice and his clairvoyance and accomplishment was equivalence to the great Indian Mahasiddha Saraha.

3rd Dodrupchen Jigmed Tenpei Nyima (1865-1926)

He was born to Yap Dudjom Lingpa and Yum Sonamtso. He had seven younger brother and all are great tulkus. 4th Dzogchen Rinpoche Mingyur Namkhe Dorje recognized him as 3rd Dodrupchen and enthroned at Yarlung Pemako in 1810. Later, he went to Dzogchen monastery for studies under Khenpo Padma Dorje, but he has difficulty in understanding the teachings. So he use to cry a lot and went to sleep with tears. Once, he saw Do Kyentse Yeshe Dorje in his dream with a volume of text and when he asked about it, Do Khentse replied that it is for those who have hard to understand the text. So he asked for that text and Do Khentse gave it to him. Therefore, since then, his level of understanding has been boost up and he could learn easily. Then he moved to Dzachukha and received many teachings from Patrul Rinpoche. He also received numerous teachings from many masters including Jamyang Kyentse Wangpo, 4th Dzogchen Rinpoche, Ju Mephem, Terton Sogyal and so on. He received complete Longchen Nyingthig and Nyingthig Yabzhi from Jamyang Khentse Wangpo, Khenpo Padma Dorje and 4th Dzogchen Rinpoche. He was a steady and accomplished scholar-practitioner. He gave teachings on The Way of The Bodhisattva when he was eight years old and inspired the audience including the master Patrul Rinpoche. He wrote an important commentary on Guhyagarbha Tantra.