Trülzhug Lingpa

Trülzhug Lingpa (brTul zhugs gLing pa / བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་གླིང་པ་ / 1916-1962) was a highly charismatic Lama and dynamic gTértön. He was a disciple of Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje. The name ‘Trülzhug’ means ‘Uninhibited’.

Künzang—the only son of Trülshug Lingpa,—said that his father was like the eighth emanation of Guru Rinpoche, Guru Nyima ’ö-Zér (gu ru nyi ma ’od zer / གུ་རུ་ཉི་མ་འོད་ཟེར་ / Suryarasmi / Rays of the Sun).

He said that Nyima ’ö-Zér was an itinerant saint, who never stayed in one place. He had a yeshé ’cholwa personality like his father — and had the siddhi of being unaffected by alcohol.

Trülshug Lingpa was born in Golok (mGo log / མགོ་ལོག) and named Seng-gé Dorje (seng ge rDo rJe / སང་གེ་རྡོ་རྗེ་).

His father was Kyé-chog Lingpa, a disciple of Düd’jom lama who lived at Do-mang in Eastern Tibet. His father escaped to India with his wife, Kilo. Kyé-chog Lingpa then established a gompa in Patanam, a few days’ walk from Trülshug Lingpa’s gompa of Srinmo Ling, in Lahaul.

In the early 1960s, Trülshug Lingpa came from Tibet to Sikkim in the Eastern Himalayas—between Nepal and Bhutan—in order to open the way to the hidden valley of Pé-yül Demoshong with over 300 followers.

Trülshug Lingpa was recognised as a gTértön by Dorje Déchen Lingpa at Domang (mDo mang dGon / མདོ་མང་དགོན་) in eastern Tibet. Dorje Déchen Lingpa made an attempt to open the Pé-yül of Demoshong in 1920's — but failed and died on his return journey. Dorje Dechen Lingpa (rDo rJe bDe chen gLing pa / རྡོ་རྗེ་བདེ་ཆེན་གླིང་པ་ /1857-1928) was the incarnation of Yong’dzin Jinpa Gyatso (mDo mang g.Yang thang / མདོ་མང་གཡང་ཐང་་ / 1930–2016) and Lhatsün Namkha Jig’mèd. He studied with Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo, Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Tha-yé, dPal-yul Do-ngak Chö-kyi Nyima. He began to reveal gTérma at the age of 21.

In 1927, at the age of 70, he travelled to Central Tibet and eventually Sikkim and India. It was on this journey that he spent five months giving the transmissions for the Rinchen gTér-dzöd at Drigung Ya-ri. Having returned to Tibet, he passed into parinirvana in Sakya in western Tibet in the Earth Dragon year of the 16th cycle (1928). While still young, Trülzhug Lingpa took a phurba directly from the sky — a nam gTer, sky-treasure. Trülzhug Lingpa moved to India in his early twenties, lived in Himachal Pradesh.

See the marvellous book A Step Away from Paradise by Thomas Schorr.