Doctoral Degree awarded to Ngak’chang Rinpoche in 1989

This is the original non-computer typewriter produced certificate from ‘Khordong gTérchen Tulku Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche for Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s Doctoral Degree.
It represents Ngak’chang Rinpoche being awarded the degree from the Visva-Bharati University of Shantiniketan in West Bengal. The doctorate was supervised through ‘Khordong gTérchen Tulku Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche — who was the head of the Indo-Tibetan Studies Department.

Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche’s daughter Srémo Nor’dzin Lhamo had been concerned that Ngak’chang Rinpoche was obstructed in his plan to go to the Royal College of Art in London to take an MA and PhD in Art. She spoke with her father ‘Khordong gTérchen Tulku Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche about it and he decided that the books Ngak’chang Rinpoche had written (together with other non-published Vajrayana works) were worthy of a doctorate. To this were added five specific essays on the Vajrayana Arts.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche also underwent an oral examination——given over four days—performed in New Delhi by ‘Khordong gTérchen Tulku CHhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche. See ‘‘Goodbye Forever — the Miscellaneous Memoirs of an English Lama’ Volume V.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche said “Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche was extremely kind to me in so many ways. The oral examination was highly demanding and took three hours an evening for four evenings. At the end of this oral examination I felt ready to answer any question put to me by any Western audience — as far as Nyingma Vajrayana was concerned. That was in 1987.

I have never been called upon to use this doctorate for the purposes of gaining a career — because requests to teach intervened. It is however splendid to be able to avoid using Mr. or Mrs. in front of my name — and use the non-gender specific Dr. —— Doctor. It also allowed me to style myself as ‘Doc Togden’ when I wrote the series of memoir books on the Arts, entitled ‘an odd boy’. The name on my passport, driving licence, and all other official documents is Chögyam Ögyen Togden — and so Togden had become our family name. I used the author name Doc Togden for this four volume series because I wanted to address artists, poets and musicians. The books deal with my life as an artist and I wanted to show artists the link that exists with Vajrayana. Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje encouraged me not to abandon the Western arts with which I had engaged before meeting him. These books are therefore a fulfilment of part of the promise I made to him in 1971.”

Kharchen Trülku Wangchuk Rig’dzin Rinpoche and Ngak’chang Rinpoche wearing their doctoral gowns and bonnets. Kharchen Trülku Wangchuk Rig’dzin Rinpoche (མཁར་ཆེན་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་དབང་ཕྱུག་རིག་འཛིན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་) from Bhutan — was awarded his Doctorate in Linguistics from Essex University in Colchester England. Ngak’chang Rinpoche (སྔགས་འཆང་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་) an English Lama — was awarded his Doctorate in Tibetan Tantric Psychology from the Visva-Bharati University of West Bengal. The two Lamas found the East-West mirror inversion of their doctoral degrees delightful and amusing.