Rokam Nyima Sherab

Rokam Nyima Sherab (ro skam nyi ma shes rab) was born in 1139 in Lakyi Pulung Nyangkhang (glags kyi phu lung myang khang) of U. He was the  younger of two sons of a wealthy father of the Lomi (lo mi) clan named Tashi Sengge (bkra shis seng ge).

He took novice vows at age thirteen along with the name Nyima Sherab. He served in one of the battles fought by the followers of Zhang Yudrakpa Tsondru Drakpa (zhang g.yu brag pa brtson 'grus grags pa) and then became the lama's attendant at Ngarpuk (ngar phug). He took full ordination at Tsel (tshal) Monastery under both Lama Zhang and Shami Duldzin (sha mi 'dul 'dzin). Padmasambhava.

Until 1187, when he was in his forty-ninth year, Nyima Sherab remained a student of Lama Zhang and heard all of his teachings. Lama Zhang advised him to spend a year meditating in his own fatherland, so he built a grass hut at Rokam. Later he visited the Drigung Choje ('bri gung chos rje) who prophesied that he would found a monastery at Rokam where five hundred monks would gather. He went to Rokam in the Hare year of 1183 and guided its monks until his death at age sixty-nine.

Succeeding him in the abbacy were his nephews Sengdor (seng rdor) and, in 1226, Zhonnu Rinchen (gzhon nu rin chen).

Sources

Sørensen, Per, Guntram Hazod and Tsering Gyelpo. 2007. Vienna: Rulers on the Celestial Plain, Austrian Academy of Sciences, pp. 117-8.

'Tshal pa kun dga' rdo rje. 1981. Deb ther dmar po. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 135-6.

Dan Martin
August 2008