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 Golok Sér-ta (mKhams mGo log gSer thar / མཁམས་མགོ་ལོག་གསེར་ཐར་) on the borders of Kham.

(rNal 'byor pa bSod nams 'brug thob rin po che lam bLa ma rNal 'byor rin po che ras pa bSod nams rNal 'byor bSod nams sGrub thob zhes / རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་བསོད་ནམས་འབྲུག་ཐོབ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལམ་བླ་མ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་རས་པ་བསོད་ནམསའམ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་བསོད་ནམས་སྒྲུབ་ཐོབ་་ཞེས) Tashi Yangtsé’s Roaring Thunder - Dzogchen Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob settled and grew in renown in Tashi Yang-tsé in Eastern Bhutan. As a ngakpa of the gö kar chang lo’ dé (gos dKar lCang lo’i sDe / གོས་དཀར་ལྕང་ལོའི་སྡེ་) wing of the Nyingma Tradition.

His name was inspired by the roaring thunder which coincided his birth.

There is a namthar of him written Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje (sKyab rJe bDud 'joms rin po che 'jigs bral ye shes rDo rJe / 1904-1987. There is also Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob’s own namthar ‘The Carefree Crease of the Mushroom’ (lugs po sha mong gi sul can / ལུགས་པོ་ཤ་མོང་གི་ཅན་) published by Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob’s daughter Drukdra Lha’dzom.

Naljorpa Sônam Drugthob’s lineage can be traced to the Mukpo clan, one of the six major ancestral lineages of Tibet. His great-grandfather came from the paternal lineage of Aku Trotung, an aristocratic uncle of Ling Gésar. This Royal Vajrayana Nyingma lineage continued through his grandfather, dPalden, and his father, Tséring Samdrüp, down to Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob.

His mother, Khandro Tséring Tsogyel, came from a prominent family in Kham who were of Mongolian royal lineage. At the age of 45 (in the year of the Wood Dog, 1933) she gave birth to her only child — Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob. His birth was accompanied by auspicious signs, including a vision of a yellow bee encircling his mother before dissolving into her body. One of his birth names, Nyima Tashi (Auspicious Sun), was given due to his birth at sunrise.

Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob’s early years were spent as a yak herding nomad. From childhood, he had visions, such as the sky being filled with multi-coloured birds.
His mother died when he was nine which proved a turning point, at which he devoting his life to Vajrayana. On the 8th day of the 8th month in the Iron Dog Year, during the Chinese invasion, he escaped from Tibet, alone and with minimal supplies. The journey was challenging — and he suffered snow blindness, extreme cold, and near starvation.
On reaching India, he undertook retreats at Tso Pema, Yang-lé-shöd, and other auspicious places. After some time, people heard about him and offered supplies of food.

Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob journey included many locations, including Jo-ling Tsé-phuk, Sang-phuk, and the charnel grounds of Simla and Dalhousie in India.
Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob had deep devotion to his Tsa’wa’i Lamas — which is maybe the most important sign of authentic practice and concomitant realisation.
Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob’s dreams often guided him. Once he had a vision of a white dragon and a white vulture leading him northeast which inspired him to go to live in Bhutan.

At the age of thirty-six, on the 29th day of the eleventh month in the Earth Bird Year, Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob traveled from Tso Pema and then to Kalimpong. There, he sought guidance from Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje regarding his dreams and signs relating to Bhutan. Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche affirmed that his journey was auspicious and provided detailed instructions, encouraging him to go — despite wanting to keep him close.

Guided by prophecies and advice from his main teacher — Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche, Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob set out on a journey to Bhutan. On his journey he met Bhutanese pilgrims and traveled with them to Tashi Yangtsé in Eastern Bhutan. There, he stayed in a cowshed belonging to one of the Bhutanese people with whom he had traveled. One of the first Lamas he met there was Lama Chöying Rinpoche, who gave him teachings and transmissions. He then had visions of the Tséring Khandros, who foretold that the location of Dar-gyé Tsal would give rise to attainments. Later, Dar-gyé Tsal was identified as the charnel ground of Tashi Yang-tsé, known as Dür-rong Dür-trö. Dar-gye (dar rGyas / དར་རྒྱས་) means ‘burgeoning and developing’ tsal (tshal / ཚལ་) means ‘wooded grove’. It it was here that Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob began to attract students, including Drupön Lama Karma, Drupön Lama Ngawang Dorje, Chatral Ögyen Tséring, Togden Tséring Samdrüp, and Naljorma Tséring et al.

Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob practised in numerous caves and auspicious places such as Rigsum Lhakhang, Déchen Phodrang, and Phurba Ling. He spent years in retreat, particularly in Pema Ling, a sacred site described in the treasure teachings of Ratna Lingpa and Pégyal Lingpa. After 3 years of retreat at Pema Ling, Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob understood its significance, linking it to the intended meaning of the Sangwa Nyingpo (gSang ba sNying po / གསང་བ་སྙིང་པོ་ / Guhyagarbha). Secret Essence Tantra. Up to that point no one knew the significance of this place. Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob explains this in a guide book to this site.

In the Iron Year, Naljorpa Sônam Drukthob practised at Phurba Ling, a remote site near Rinchen Ling. He taught and practiced there, assembling a sangha of sixty ngakpas and ngakmas who practised under his guidance.

He became one of the main custodians of gTérchen Pé-gyal Lingpa’s gTérma. He had requested permission of gTérchen Pé-gyal Lingpa to codify and disseminate his gTérma — and this received the entire gTérma cycle, He organized Drüpchens at Seng-gé Dzong annually and encouraged his students to practice the gTérma revealed by Pé-gyal Lingpa.

Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje gave him the complete Oral Lineage of the Nyingma tradition, the entire short lineage of the Rinchen gTér’dzöd, the thirteen volumes of the Pema Lingpa gTérma, and the Nyingma Gyüd-bum.