This assembly of Buddhist practitioners is known as the gö kar chang lo’i dé. Ngakpas or ngakmas (sNgags pa or sNgags ma /mantrin or mantrini) male and female respectively — are non-celibate and non-abstemious ordained practitioners. They wear white raiment - gö kar (gos dKar) - and keep long uncut hair - chang lo (Cang lo). Dé (sDe) means assembly.

Ngakpas and ngakmas are those who take Vajrayana vows in contradistinction to the monastics who take Sutrayana vows. Their lives are thus characterised by transformation rather than renunciation. They are less well known than the monastics — because their practice tends to be unsuited to institutional life — and thus they live in the remoter areas away from towns. They often live as married couples, with children. They are known for high skills in the Arts, for visionary discovery and for ingenuity.

In 1971, Kyabjé Dud’jom Rinpoche directed Ngak’chang Chögyam Rinpoche to work to preserve the gö-kar-chang-lo’i-dé, in the West. He has been working to carry out his promise to do so ever since.

The gö-kar-chang-lo’i-dé has been subject to huge political pressure since the end of the first spread of Buddhism in Tibet. In modernity the pressure is such that almost all Tibetan women who practice in this style hide from public gaze, rarely wearing the characteristic white skirt. Many male practitioners also wear the red skirt of the monastic tradition to avoid persecution.

Prior to his passing in 1988, Dud’jom Rinpoche was the head of the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and every Nyingma Lama of the mid-late 20th Century revered him as their teacher.

Stories of Lamas and practitioners

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gTértön Sônam Gyaltsen

gTértön Sônam Gyaltsen (ngag bLa gTér sTon bSod nams rGyal mTshan / སྔགས་བླ་གྟེར་སྟོ་བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱལ་ཙན་ / 1856-1926) also known as Ngala Lérab …
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Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche - gTérchen Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje

The greatest Vajrayana Master of the 20th century

Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche – Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje – is acknowledged as having been the greatest Vajrayana Master of the 20th …
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Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche

autobiography

My father’s ancestral lineage was Horsog Déma. My family clan is the Jya-rig Tse’phel Chawo – the Bird Tribe, which …
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Jomo Sam’phel Déchen Rinpoche

The last remaining Lama of Ngak’chang Rinpoche from his time in training

Jomo Sam’phel Déchen Rinpoche (jo mo sam ’phel bDe chen / ཇོ་མོ་སམ་འཕེལ་བདེ་ཆེན) was the Sangyum of Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche …
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Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoche - gTértön Pema Ga’wang Do-ngak Lingpa

One of the foremost meditation masters, poets, and scholars of the Nyingma Tradition

Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoche – Tashi Paljor (sKyabs rJe lDil mGo mKhyen brTse Rin po che – bKra shis dPal …
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Kyabjé Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche

One of the root teachers of Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Kyabjé Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche (’Khor gDong gTér chen sPrul sKu Chhi ’med Rig ’dzin Rin po che, 1922–2002) was the …
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Ngak’chang Khamtrül Yeshé Dorje Rinpoche

What follows is—in part—a brief autobiographical commentary from Ngak’chang Khamtrül Yeshé Dorje Rinpoche, as dictated to Ngak’chang Rinpoche in 1982. …
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Jétsunma Khandro Ten’dzin Drölkar

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Jétsunma Khandro Ten’dzin Drölkar (rJe bTsun ma mKha’ ’gro bsTan ’dzin rGol dKar / རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་བསྟ་འཛི་སྒྲོལ་དཀར་) ceased to breathe on the …
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Nubchen Sang-gyé Yeshé

One of the Jé-wang Nyér-nga, the 25 main disciples of Guru Rinpoche and Yeshé Tsogyel

Nubchen Sang-gyé Yeshé (gNubs chen sangs rGyas ye shes / གནུབས་ཆེན་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ / Anantamahavajra / 8th century). He was born into …
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Do Da-sèl Wangmo

Do Da-sèl Wangmo (mDo zLa gSal dBang mo / མྡོ་ཟླ་གསལ་དབང་མོ་ / 1928–2018) was born in 1928 in Tratsang (khra tshang …
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Khandro Pema Yüdrön

The youngest daughter of Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje

Khandro Pema Yudrön (Sky-dancing Lotus of Turquoise Light), was the youngest daughter of Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje and …
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Kyabjé Nyingkula Künzang Wangdü

Kyabjé Nyingkula Künzang Wangdü (sKyabs rJe sNying ku la kun bZang dBang dus / སྐྱབས་རྗེ་སྙིང་ཀུ་ལ་བཟང་དབང་དུས་ / 1942-2018). The photograph shows …
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Lama Tharchin Tsédrüp Rinpoche

The 10th lineage holder of the Repkong Ngakpas

Lama Tharchin Tsédrüp Rinpoche (sNgags ’chang bLa ma mThar phyin tshe grub / སྔགས་འཆང་བླ་མ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་ཚི་གྲུབ་/ 1936-2013) the tenth lineage holder of …
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Kyabjé Dung-sré Garab Dorje Rinpoche

Kyabjé Dung-sré Garab Dorje Rinpoche with Mé-tsal Wangmo and Ja'gyür Dorje. The Aro gTér sangha have the immense privilege of …
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Naljorpa Sönam Drukthob

Naljorpa Sönam Drukthob (rNal ‘byor pa bSod nams ‘brug thob / རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་བསོད་ནམས་འབྲུག་ཐོབ་) was a powerful exponent of Dzogchen born in …
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Khandro Khachö Wangmo

Khandro Khachö Wangmo (mkha' 'gro mKha’ sPyod dBang mo / མཁའ་འགྲོ་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་དབང་མོ་ / 1921-1987) was the daughter of the 6th Kündröl …
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Khandro Künzang Wangmo

Khandro Künzang Wangmo (mKha’ ‘gro kun bZang dBang mo / མཁའ་འགྲོ་ཀུན་བཟང་དབའང་མོ་) was the sangyum of Kyabjé Chöying Rinpoche. She was …
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Trülzhug Lingpa

Trülzhug Lingpa (brTul zhugs gLing pa / བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་གླིང་པ་ / 1916-1962) was a highly charismatic Lama and dynamic gTértön. He was …
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Drüpchen Çagthag Rinpoche

Drüpchen Çagthag Rinpoche was a Mahasiddha from Pé-yul Dréma Jong, a Hidden Land of Guru Rinpoche in Sikkim. He arrived in Sikkim from Golok in Tibet in the 1870s and traveled throughout the region, subduing malevolent beings and revealing several gTérmas. Çagthag Rinpoche was a skilled practitioner of the Six Yogas of Naropa, with the ability to effortlessly rise into the air. He was known for wearing over 500 lbs of interlinked iron chains and human bone ornaments, and was considered by many to be an emanation of Mahasiddha Tilopa.
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Khartrül Wangchuk Rin’dzin Rinpoche

Khartrul Wangchuk Rin’dzin Rinpoche is a Bhutanese Lama who was recognised and trained by Kyabjé Chatral Sang-gyé Dorje Rinpoche (one …
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Shakya Shri

Ngak’chang Rinpoche was introduced to the history of Shakya Shri by his great grandson – Sé Rinpoche. In a teaching …
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gTérchen Karma Rinpoche

gTérchen Karma Rinpoche (gTer chen kar ma rin po che / གྟེར་ཆེནཀར་མ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་) an incarnation of Taksham Nuden Dorje - was …
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Lingtsang Gyalpo

Lingtsang Gyalpo (gLing tshang rGyal po / གླིང་ཚང་རྒྱལ་པོ་) The Lord of Lingtsang, was a gTértön and an unsurpassed Phurba Master …