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Drubwang Drakpa Gyeltsen

From Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia
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Drubwang Drakpa Gyeltsen (grub dbang grags pa rgyal mtshan) was born in the late eighteenth century in a remote area of Trashigang (bkra shis sgang) of eastern Bhutan. He was the son of a poor family in the village of Kanpara (rkang pa ra) under Trashigang district. His birth name is not known.

As a young man he enrolled as a novice in the Trashigang Dzong. There he was given the name Drakpa Gyeltsen by Lama Neten (bla ma gnas bstan). At the time Trashigang Dzong was the only major religious center available to young students to receive education and training in Buddhism

After studying at Trashigang Dzong Drakpa Gyeltsen was appointed to a Pelden Lhamo chapel in Trashigang Dzong as a caretaker. His regular responsibility was to propitiate the deity each evening and offer to her purification prayers and fresh water in offering bowls every morning. He is said to have experienced a vision of the deity in which she commanded him to leave the chapel and travel around and as an aesthetic wanderer.

He thus set out, travelling to various locations in eastern Bhutan. He meditated in forests and in mountains locations such as Jomo Dangaling (jo mo dwangs nga gling), Tsong Tsongma (tshong tshong ma), Pandzam (pang zam), and Kangpar Tralphu (rkang par phral phu). It is said that mountain deities occasionally tried to disturb his meditation by appearing in aggressive forms, but that he was able to subdue them with his meditative abilities and his all-encompassing compassion. He transformed them, and also, according to legend, wild animals such as tigers and bears, into gentle creatures. The deities reportedly requested him to ask the valley people to become vegetarian in order to show more respect to them. Drakpa Gyeltsen composed propitiating prayers to the deities and their retinues, describing their places of residences.

Drakpa Gyeltsen was said to always carry a bag made of nettles containing a white conch-shell used to summon the spirits and celebrate his victory over them. He was also known for carrying a set of gang zar lungzar (gang gzar blug gzar), the ritual instruments required for pouring blessed oil upon a corpse during a cremation; a metal bowl filled with black ink for writing; and a strong bamboo walking stick with a sharp tip at one end. These items are kept today in his small temple in Kangpara.

He built many stupa in across Trashigang. One of the largest, in the center of Kanglung village, is Chonga Stupa ('chos nga mchod rten), and was built to resemble the Bodhanath stupa in Nepal. It is said that during the time of its building a group of nuns were having lunch nearby; Drakpa Gyeltsen asked them to share their food with him, but they refused, saying that there was not enough and that he should eat shit instead. So he looked around and found a dried heap of shit nearby, took out his copper spoon and said a few prayers over it. After a few seconds, the shit streamed up and transformed into ambrosia and Drubwang Drakpa Gyeltsen ate it with enjoyment. Thereafter he was known as Drubtob Khizhe (or Lopon Khizhe (slop dpon khi bzhes). The nuns regretted their ignorance negative action, and as a sign of confession they built the Weddum Stupa (dben zlum mchod rten) in Kanglung village.

At the end of his life Drakpa Gyeltsen visited a village called Martsala Richanglu (mar tsha la ri chang lu) where people were dying from an outbreak of chicken pox. He helped the villagers cremate the dead and performed the necessary rituals. Unfortunately he also fell ill, and the villagers carried him to his retreat center at Kangpara. It is said that when they reached Kangpara he asked them if they had arrived, and, as soon as they responded in the affirmative he passed away. He was cremated at the center, which preserves his relics in a stupa.


Khenpo Phuntshok Tashi October 2011

Source

www.treasuryoflives.org