A rare lineage photograph

LEFT: Lama Tharchin Tsédrüp Rinpoche (bLa ma tshe sGrub thar phyin / བླ་མ་ཚེ་སྒྲུབ་ཐར་ཕྱིན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་)

MIDDLE: Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoche (rDzong gsar mKhyen brTse / རྫོང་གསར་འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་/ 18th of June 1961).

RIGHT: Ngak’chang Rinpoche (sNgags ‘chang rin po che / སྔགས་འཆང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ / 6th of June 1952)

This photograph was taken after the three Lamas celebrated by dining together at the home of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche in the Autumn of 1990. Pema ’ö-Sèl Ling is in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California.

This is sadly a poor quality photograph — but it is the only one which is available of that occasion.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche said:

“I was staying at Pema ’ö-Sèl Ling at the time for a three month period with my friend Lama Tharchin Rinpoche. It was when the Pema ’ö-Sèl Ling was first established — and there was a delightfully ebullient atmosphere. It was an exciting new venture.”

“At that time, I often accompanied Lama Tharchin Rinpoche on his evening talks in Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and around the Bay Area.”

“On the occasion this photograph was taken Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoche was visiting and we had a lovely meal together with some highly interesting conversations. Both Lama Tharchin Rinpoche and Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoche were most humorous — and there was a great deal of laughter.

Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoche asked me whether my takdröl was heavy to wear on my head. I told him I was used to it — and that I’d met ngakpas with far larger heavier takdröls.

“My main problem” I said “is that I’m running out of hair to wrap round it.”

Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoche laughed and said “I have none at all.”

“Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoche had taken a question and answer session with Lama Tharchin Rinpoche’s students and we sat in on it — one on either side of Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoche. He began the session by saying: ‘I will only answer raw questions — not cooked questions.’ Cooked questions were:

Could you say something about? Could you say more about? What is the difference between chö-ku, chö-ying, and chö-nyid? What differentiates the three inner tantras

These were cooked questions. What Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoche wanted was questions based on real experience and practice. At one point Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoche asked if my wristwatch had a stopwatch function. It did. I passed it to him and he timed the gaps between questions. He said:

“If there is a gap longer than ten seconds between questions I shall leave.”

It was a lively afternoon which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

Khandro Déchen said:
“It is so sad that Lama Tharchin Rinpoche is no longer with us. He was a marvellous Lama in every respect — and a very dear friend.”