Jampa Khawoche

Jampa Khawoche (byams pa kha bo che) was from the eastern region of Minyag (mi nyag), and was also known as Minyag Lodro Drakpa (mi nyag blo gros grags pa). When he first visited Jonang Monastery in the Tsang region of Tibet and was circumambulating the great stupa there, he saw the Dharma lord Dolpopa seated in the midst of a mass of light rays. Jampa Khawoche was overcome with faith and immediately offered a bolt of silk, two ounces of gold, and a set of monk’s robes to Dolpopa. He stayed at Jonang and studied with the great master for the next six years, receiving many teachings of exoteric and esoteric Buddhism. Finally, Dolpopa said to him, “Return to Kham and benefit the doctrine.”

Jampa Khawoche prostrated and replied, “I cannot go. I cannot bear to be apart from you, sublime spiritual father.”

Dolpopa then gave him a conch shell and a copy of one of his literary masterpieces, the Fourth Council (bka' bsdu bzhi pa), and granted a prophecy of what would occur when he returned home to eastern Tibet. In the prophecy Dolpopa told Jampa Khawoche to teach the book he had given him. He predicted that he would meet a blue woman (an emanation of the guardian goddess Pelden Lhamo) who would offer him a donkey, and that he should load the book onto the donkey’s back and follow wherever it went. When the donkey lay down to sleep, Jampa Khawoche should blow the conch shell Dolpopa had given him, pray to Dolpopa, and establish a monastery at that spot.

Unable to refuse Dolpopa’s command, Jampa Khawoche returned to eastern Tibet and, when events occurred exactly according to his teacher’s prophecy, founded the monastery of Ngedongyi Choshi Gonde (nges don gyi chos gzhi dgon sde).

Source

Ngag dbang blo gros grags pa. 1992. Dpal ldan jo nang pa'i chos 'byung rgyal ba'i chos tshul gsal byed zla ba'i sgron me. Koko Nor: Krung go'i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, 1992, pp. 103–104.

Cyrus Stearns
August 2008