Bellows of Damçan gNod sByin ‘barwa Mé-zér

Bellows of Damçan gNod sByin (‘barwa Mé-zér (dam can gNod sByin ‘bar ba me zer / དམ་ཅན་གདམ་ཅན་གྣོད་སྦྱིན་འབར་བ་མེ་ཟེར་) the Yaksha Protector of Drala Jong (sGra bLa lJongs / སྒྲ་བླ་ལྗོངས་)

Damçan gNod sByin ‘barwa Mé-zér is ‘the one who works the bellows for Damçan Garwa Nagpo’ (gDam can gar ba nag po / གདམ་ཅན་གར་བ་ནག་པོ་). Damçan Garwa Nagpo is the Indestructible Vajra Blacksmith Manifestation of Damçan Dorje Legpa (dam can rDo rJe legs pa / དམ་ཅན་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལེགས་པ་ / Vajrasadhu).

These blacksmithing bellows and forge chain were donated by Jennifer Shawe are several hundred years old and were almost beyond repair — but Naljorpa Druk-tsal Dorje worked on them for three years. They are now a set of perfectly working bellows which reside in the Gönkhang - Protector House - at Drala Jong.

As can be seen from the thangka — these bellows are almost identical to those carried by Damçan gNod sByin ‘barwa Mé-zér. Along with the bellows there is an 18th Century French anvil from Brittany donated by Zhal'med Yé-rig; a vajra hammer made in Finland whose head is an exact replica in iron of a Neolithic hammer head; a 19th Century chain from a forge, and a 17th Century Tibetan goat horn kangling (rKang gLing / རྐང་གླིང་).

The ancient Tibetan goat horn kangling was given to Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen by Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche.

The work which has gone into assembling all these elements is enormous and we thank everyone who has helped in the process. This accomplishment is unique in the West—and rare in the East—and thus attest to the omniscience of Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje in giving the name Sang-ngak-chö-dzong (gSang sNgags chos rDzong / གསང་སྔགས་ཆོས་རྫོང་) to the charitable foundation established br Ngak’chang Rinpoche in 1977. It is truly a Fortress of Vajrayana as Sang-ngak-chö-dzong means ‘secret mantra reality fortress’.