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 Lingpa (ngag bLa las rab gLing pa / སྔགས་བཉལ་ལསརམ་གླིང་པ་) was a powerful holder of gö kar chang lo (gos dKar lCang lo / གོས་དཀར་ལྕང་ལོ་).

This wonderful old photograph shows him with his two yards of hair coiled up as the crowning ornament of his siddhis.

Lérab Lingpa was the incarnation of Dorje Düd’jom (rDo rJe bDud ‘joms / རྡོ་རྗེ་བདུད་འཇོམས) one of the 25 disciples of Guru Rinpoche.

Tsarung Na-nam Dorje Dud’jom (tsa rung sNa nam rDo rJe bDud ’joms / ཙ་རུང་སྣ་ནམ་རྡོ་རྗེ་བདུད་འཇོམས་) was born into the Clan of Tsarung — and was a member of Trisong Déu-tsen’s Court.

After practising for years in a light-less cave he gained the siddhi of passing through mountains unhindered by their physical mass.

He received the drübthabs of Jigten Chod-tö (’jig rTen mChod bsTod / འཇིག་རྟན་མཆོད་བསྟོད་) and Dorje Phurba (rDo rJe phur ba) from Guru Rinpoche and lived mostly on the mountain of Hé-po ri (has po ri / ཧེ་པོ་རི་) near Sam-yé – one of the sacred mountains of Tibet.

He gained the siddhi of flight in later life — and took residence in Tsarung at an almost inaccessible place called Ja-tsang (bya tsang / བྱ་ཅང་) Bird’s Nesting Place, where he continued to translate Vajrayana texts.

His incarnation was Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo. Lérab Lingpa was born in the Nyag valley of Kham. He was born to a ngak’phang nomads family.

When he was thirty years old he had a vision of dakini cypher in the sights of his rifle.

He was upset when others killed animals – because they had no capacity to liberate them as he did, through dispatching them with his rifle. In recognition of this he gave up hunting in order that people would not emulate him purely at the outer level.

He had little education and was barely literate – but he was recognised by many as one of the greatest Lamas of his time.

He was a disciple of Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo (’jam dByangs mKhyen brTse’i dBang po / འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བྲཙེ་དབང་པོ་/ 1820-1892) and ’Ju Mi’pham Namgyal (’ju mi ’pham rNam rGyal / འཇུ་མི་འཕམ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ / 1846-1912).

He was a teacher of Thubten Gyatso, the Thirteenth Dala’i Lama, and of Jig’mèd Tenpé Nyima the third DoDrüpchen (’jigs ’med bsTan pa’i nyi ma / འཇིགས་འམེད་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་ / 1865-1926).

Lérab Lingpa discovered several cycles of gTérma including a Dorje Phurba drüpthab which is practised by the 14th Dala’i Lama’s Namgyal Dratsang. He also discovered the Ten’drel Nyi-sel (rTen ’brel nyi gSal / རྟེན་འབྲེལཉི་གསལ་) practice which ‘dissipates unfavourable circumstances’.

Khenpo Jig’mèd Phuntsog Jung-né ('jigs med phun tshogs 'byung gNas / འཇིགས་མེད་ཕུན་ཚོགས་འབྱུང་གནས་ / 1933-2004) was an incarnation of Lé-rab Lingpa gTértön Sogyal

Gendün Rinchen, the 69th Jé Khenpo of Bhutan is also an incarnation of Lérab Lingpa — gTértön Sogyal.