Songs of Vibrant Mahasiddha Abhishekavajra

Tsangyang Gyamtso (sNgags ‘chang tshang dByangs rGya mTsho / སྔགས་འཆང་ཚང་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་) was born into the family clan of gTértön Pema Lingpa — and, unlike the previous Dalai Lamas, never took Gélong or Getsül celibacy vows.

These selected ‘Songs of the 6th Dalai Lama’ were translated by Ngak’chang Rinpoche with Jétsunma Khandro Ten’dzin Drölkar and her daughter Tséring Lhamo in Forsyth Bazaar, Himachal Pradesh, in 1975.

According to the Secret Biography of the 6th Dalai Lama, he attained parinirvana in Alashan in Southern Mongolia. His incarnation was Lobsang Thubten Gyamtso (bLo bZang thub sTan rGya mTsho / བློ་བཟང་ཐུབ་སྟན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་)་and from him stemmed a line of Lamas who were known the Kündröl Trülkus (Kun sGrol sPrul sKu / ཀུན་སྒྲོལ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་) alternatively known as the Dwagtrül Lamas (དྭག་སྤྲུལ་བཉལ་མ་).

The Russian explorer Pyotr Kozlov met the Kündröl Tulku in 1906 in Barun Hyt, in Alashan. He was reported to be forty years of age at the time and notable for his clarity, perspicacity, and superlative religious integrity. The last recorded Kündrül Trülku was Gégin, who died in the 1950/1951.

One

Rising over eastern hills
Smiling uuface of the moon.
Arising in mind
Smiling face of my lover.

Two

If I could take you as the secret gesture
I would realise the joy
Of recognising the rarest jewel:
The dakini in the ocean-depths of being.

Three

The wandering yogini queen is my lover
Her manifestation-body smells delicious,
And like a white turquoise
She is found and lost in a moment.