gTértön Aro Yeshé

The son and vajra-heir of the Nyingma female gTértön, Khyungchen Aro Lingma (khyung chen A ro gLing ma / ཁྱངངནཆེན་ཨ་རོ་གླིང་མ་ / 1886–1923).

The son’s name was gTértön Aro Yeshé (gTer sTon A ro ye shes / གྟེསྟོན་ཨ་རོ་ཡེ་ཤས་ / 1911–1951) — and he was the incarnation of ‘a-Shül Pema Legden (‘a shul pa dMa legs lDan / འ་ཤུལ་པདྨ་ལེགས་ལྡན་) one of the heart sons of gTértön Kaldèn Lingpa of the ‘Khordong and Chang gTér Lineages. ‘Khordong Gompa was situated in Golok in the Sér-ta Valley of Gor-gon Thang.

gTértön Aro Yeshé was previous incarnation of Ngak’chang Rinpoche (sNgags ‘chang rin po che / སྔགས་ཆང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ / 1952– ) and was recognised by Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje and Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche.

This hand-tinted monochrome photograph (circa 1940) was discovered in Bhutan in 1988. Another copy was seen in Eastern Bhutan——in or near Bartsham Chador Lhakhang (Sangdag Gyepailing Monastery)——by Sonam Gyeltshen at the time a representative of Mercury Bhutan Travel. It is therefore possible that there are Aro gTér practitioners in Eastern Bhutan — possibly the children or grandchildren of those who lived at the Aro Gar of gTértön Khyungchen Aro Lingma in Tibet.

Eastern Bhutan has a high percentage of gos dKar lCang lo practitioners and so it is possible that practitioners of the Aro gTér moved there after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Aro Yeshé made a pilgrimage to Bhutan in the early 1940s in the company of Jomo A-shé Khandro and Jomo A-yé Khandro in order to reconnoitre the country with a view to moving the Aro Gar to Bhutan. Tragically Aro Yeshé died in an avalanche in Tibet — and, soon after the Chinese invaded, the Aro Gar ceased to exist. It is not known where the practitioners of the Aro went after the Gar disbanded. It is most likely that many escaped to Bhutan or Nepal.

gTértön Aro Yeshé’s incarnation line goes back to Mahasiddha Manibhadra (the Perfect Housewife). Her incarnation was Aro ‘gZa Druk-tsal Shèldrakma (A ro gZa’ ‘brug rTsal shel brag ma /་ཨ་རོ་གཟའ་འབྲུག་རྩལ་ཤེལ་བྲག་མ་) one of the female disciples of Guru Rinpoche and one of the 25 disciples of Yeshé Tsogyel.