Lorepa Wangchuk Tsondru

Lorepa Wangchuk Tsondru (lo ras pa dbang phyug brtson 'grus) was born in 1187. The story of his birth is told as follows. In Chungpa Dora Gang (gcung pa rdo ra sgang) in the region of Ngamsho (ngam shod) lived a prosperous farmer named Naljor Sherab (rnal 'byor shes rab), a member of the Lonang (lo nang) branch of the Chungpa (gcung pa) clan, and his wife Meza Kyi (me bza' skyid). They were getting old and longed for a child very much, like a thirsty person wants water. One day Meza said to her husband, “It would be a good idea if you took another wife who would bear you a child.” His answer was this, “It is fine if we have no children. Nothing will separate the two of us short of death.” She said, “Well, I'm going to another man. I must go to see the Jowo Chenrezig in Lhasa.” Meza loaded two donkeys with butterlamps and supplies and made her way to the holy city. She stayed there for seven months, praying, prostrating and circumambulating. Finally she had a string of auspicious dreams indicating clearly that they would achieve what her heart dearly desired.

When the child was four, thinking to teach him the family business, his father took him along with several sheep to the slaughtering yard. This gave him a sharp stabbing pain. Seeing how much this disturbed him, his parents decided he had an aptitude for dharma and took him to be named by the First Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa (karma pa 01 dus gsum mkhyen pa). The Karmapa gave him a blessing to protect his health, but declined to give him a name. He told them the only one capable of naming him was Zhigpo Dutsi (zhig po bdud rtsi) of Tangkya Lhakang (thang skya lha khang). Zhigpo gave him the name Lo Dewa Kyong (lo bde ba skyong). When he was only seven his parents engaged him to marry a young girl, but unable to bear the thought he said, “I won't keep a household in samsara even if the sun rises in the west.”

After running away from home several times, the boy now known as Lo Dewa Kyong found himself in the presence of Tsangpa Gyarepa Yeshe Dorje (gtsang pa rgya ras ye shes rdo rje, 1161-1211) at Druk Monastery. The master declined to involve himself in the young man's problems with his fiance's family, so he sent him to U-Tsang to be ordained by Balti (sbal ti). Seventeen years old at the time, he was named Wangchuk Tsondru (dbang phyug brtson 'grus). He spent some time there studying Vinaya and Sutra texts, but all the while was possessed by the thought that he needed to study the orally transmitted teachings of the lama, which is why he eventually returned to Druk. Tsangpa granted him the complete precepts of the lineages he had himself received, including The Six Yogas of Naropa, The Six Yogas of Niguma, Mixed Transference, Six Cycles of the Equal Taste, Five Nails Clearing Obstacles, and most importantly, The Five Capabilities (thub pa lnga ldan).

Spending much of the remainder of his life meditating in caves or sealed retreats, he came to be known as Lorepa, the cotton-clad yogi of the Lo clan. Besides the usual monastic rules, Lorepa accepted seven additional vows: 1. Not to return to his home area. 2. Not to descend the mountain before his retreat is completed. 3. To remain always seated even when sleeping. 4. Not to enter the houses of laypeople. 5. To wear nothing but a single cotton cloth. 6. To keep silence. 7. To perform the water offerings daily.

Lorepa resolved to undertake meditation retreats in three very holy places — Tsari in the east, Mount Kailash in the west, and Kharag (kha rag) in Tsang Province. Kharag, somewhat less famous than the two others, had been blessed by the meditations of Padmasambhava, Ga Lotsawa (rgwa lo tsA ba), and Kharag Gomchung (kha rag sgom chung). While traveling to Kharag, a young man named Joden Kungyal (jo ldan kun rgyal) joined him. When they reached the meditation cave, high up on a mountainside, Joden decided that the tsampa supply wouldn't be enough for an extended retreat, so he volunteered to descend to a village to beg for food, leaving behind just nine handfuls of tsampa and a little butter. As soon as he had left there was a snowstorm and the opening of the cave was covered with snow. Lorepa had an attack of shooting pains that prevented him from doing anything about it. He rubbed some of the butter on his body, which helped with the cold and the pain, but then he came down with the ‘lice disease', (shig nad) or typhus.

Meanwhile, down in the village, Joden was attacked by a dog and, seriously bitten in his left ankle, was unable to walk for eighteen days. The villagers, taking pity on him, loaded him up with supplies which he then had to carry up the mountain. In places, the mountain trail was extremely steep, and footholds had to be carved into the ice. Of course there was no way to locate the cave opening under the heavy blanket of snow, so finally Joden just threw himself down on the snow and wept aloud in utter frustration.

A yogi wearing a ceremonial cape and a long-snouted hat, scented with incense, came and reassured him. He followed the yogi, placing his feet in his footsteps in the snow. At last the yogi stopped and said, “It must be just about here. Make a prayer.” Only when he vanished into thin air did Joden understand what was happening, but his guide had been none other than Kharag Gomchung himself. He shouted out the name of Lorepa and a muffled reply echoed back, “Are you Joden Kungyal? You dig from the outside and I'll dig from the inside.” In the dying rays of the sun they met at last. Lorepa's flesh had dissolved into his joints, and his skin had turned blue. He looked like a stiff corpse in a charnel ground. After eating a little and sitting in the sun the next day, he started to recover. Stories like this are instructive to us still today. At the very least, we see to what lengths the early Kagyupas were prepared to go in their pursuit of meditation in solitude.

Meanwhile Tsangpa had died, and Lorepa continued his retreats, including a perilous visit to Semodo (se mo do), the island in Lake Namtso (gnam mtsho), where he stayed alone. Later he would refer to his time there as the happiest year in his life. He went on to found a number of small hermitages including Chumig Karpo (chu mig dkar po), Shingkam (shing skam), and Chagchil (lcags spyil). He hardly ever stayed in any one place for long, except at Uri (dbu ri), a monastery he founded in 1234, where he stayed for seven years altogether, and for which he is sometimes called Uripa (dbu ri pa). Eventually about a thousand students assembled at Uri to hear his teachings. Later on, at Karpo Cholung (dkar po chos lung), there would be more than ten thousand. Later still, he went to the area that would later be known as Bhutan, to the place called Mon Bumtang (mon bum thang), and founded the monastery of Tarpa Ling (thar pa gling). In 1248 he presided over a Chakrasamvara initiation, limited to monks only, at Sengge Ri (seng ge ri). This resulted in about a thousand and five hundred initiates. Initiation events of such magnitude were extremely unusual in those days.

When Lorepa died two years later he left behind a large number of students, but the best among them, and the one who carried on the lineage of the Lower Drukpa (smad 'brug) that Lorepa initiated was Jamyang Gonpo ('jam dbyangs mgon po).

Sources

Miller, W. Blythe. 2006. “'Brug pa'i lo rgyus zur tsam: An Analysis of a Thirteenth Century Tibetan Buddhist Lineage History.” Tibet Journal, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 17-42.

Roerich, George, trans. 1996. The Blue Annals. 2nd ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, pp. 672-6.

Rgod tshang ras pa. 1993. Chos rje lo ras pa'i rnam thar. Xining: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang.

Tshe dbang rgyal. 1994. Lho rong chos 'byung. Lhasa: Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, pp. 665-90.

Nalanda Translation Committee. 1997. “The Yogin Lorepa's Retreat at Lake Namtso.” In Religions of Tibet in Practice, Donald Lopez, ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 200-211.

Dan Martin
August 2008