Ngakpa Lama from Labrang Tashi ‘khyil in Northern Amdo

This is a rare photograph from an out-of-print German book entitled ‘Arro ! Arro ! So sah ich Tibet’ by Edmund Fürholzer published in 1942.

Kham and Amdo were the main areas for the gö kar chang lo’ dé (gos dKar lCang lo’i sDe / གོས་དཀར་ལྕང་ལོའི་སྡེ་) in Tibet — and particularly Golok (mGo log / མགོ་ལོག་) a region which lay partly in Amdo and partly in Kham.

Both Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche and ‘Khordong gTérchen Tulku Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche came from this region of Tibet — as did Traktung Düd‘jom Lingpa, the previous incarnation of Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje.

‘a-Shül Pema Legden (‘a shul pa dMa legs lDan / འ་ཤུལ་པདྨ་ལེགས་ལྡན་) who was the previous incarnation of gTértön Aro Yeshé (gTer sTon A ro ye shes / གཏེར་སྟོན་ཨ་རོ་ཡེ་ཤེས་) came from Golok — as did Akyong Düd’dül Dorje and many of those who travelled to the Tibetan borderland with Bhutan as disciples of Khyungchen Aro Lingma (khyung chen A ro gLing ma / ཁྱུང་ཆེན་ཨ་རོ་གླིང་མ་ / 1886-1922).