A lineage is born

At the tender age of seven, Pabongka Rinpoche entered Gyalrong House of Sera Mey Monastery. He underwent the usual studies of a monk, earned his Geshe degree and spent two years studying at the Gyuto Tantric College.

In the monastery, Pabongka did not show much scholastic excellence, as though he was slightly on the dull side. The Geshes would often made fun of him and at times, they would even use him as an example to illustrate ‘lesser intelligence’. Nevertheless, he under-studied more than 38 Masters, among them the great Gondro Kendro Ngulchu.

Although Pabongka Rinpoche’s academic career at Sera Mey College was not outstanding, he did complete his Geshe degree. However, he only reached the “Lingse” rank of his Geshe degree – this mean that was just examined within his own monastery and did not go on for the exhausting series of public examinations and debates that is usually required to attain the coveted “Lharampa” degree. These would have been conducted at different monasteries, culminating in a session before the Dalai Lama and his teachers at the Norbulingka summer palace.

After having passed his Geshe exams, Pabongka began to receive teachings from a very important master, Dagpo Jampel Lundrup. Under this Master, Pabongka started to develop by leaps and bounds. He studied the Lamrim, and everything began to flourish from then on. He considered Dagpo Lama Rinpoche his root Guru as he gained valuable training and teachings from him.

Pabongka would visit Dagpo Lama Rinpoche in his cave and then enter Lamrim retreats in a nearby cave. According to Ribur Rinpoche, “Dagpo Lama Rinpoche would teach him a Lamrim topic and then Pabongka Rinpoche would go away and meditate on it. Later he would return to explain what he’d understood. If he had gained some realization, Dagpo Rinpoche would teach him some more and Pabongka Rinpoche would go back and meditate on that.”

Pabongka studied this way for 10 years before HE received any tantric teachings from his Guru. Gradually, with consistent dedication, Pabongka became a Master of everything, outstanding in every single aspect of the teachings. Even learned Geshes began going to Pabongka for consultations..

Even though Pabongka was not a big Lama at all in the early part of his life, he became an exceptional Master in 40 years. He truly became the Master of Tibet in the 1920s through to the 1930s, especially in the Gelugpa tradition. If we look at today’s Gelugpa Lineage, tracing back from masters like H.H. Trijang Rinpoche, H.H. Ling Rinpoche and H.H. Zong Rinpoche, there is not one Gelugpa Lama whose lineage does not trace back to Pabongka Rinpoche, directly or indirectly. In one way or another, every lineage came through Pabongka.

From poverty to greatness

As stated earlier, Pabongka Rinpoche was not high-ranking at all and was even considered to be among the lower ranks when he first started his monastic education. However, he became extremely popular through his own hard work. When he started,  he did not even have a ladrang.

Pabongka Rinpoche himself often shared how poor he was when he was young. He said, “When I was young, I had nothing, no wealth at all and on top of that, no food to eat. Everybody had at least a little bag with barley-flour. For several days, I couldn’t get any food. I ran from Sera Monastery down to the sand, filled my bag with sand, and put a little barley on top to smell and taste a bit. I lived on that for several days. This is what I did and look what I am today.”

It was only much later when he became very popular that the Ngakpa College of Sera Mey Monastery offered him a little retreat hermitage. They offered him a large retreat complex on the hillside above Pabongka. The name of this hermitage was Tashi Chuling, or “Auspicious Spiritual Isle”. Pabongka built a small meditation cell around the mouth of a cave located near his residence. When he was not busy travelling on his extensive teaching tours, he would retreat for long periods of time here to do his private practice and meditations.

As a keen meditator, Pabongka Rinpoche emphasized Lamrim, Lojong and Mahamudra in his teachings and practice. He had his own unique way of learning and teaching that yielded the most impactful of results. Pabongka had two main spiritual qualities: from the Tantric point of view, his realization and ability to present all tantric teachings; and from the Sutric point of view, his ability to teach the Lamrim, or the entire graduated path to Enlightenment.

He was unique in his ability to bring the complex ancient teachings to the varying levels of learning, of both monks and laypeople. It was through him that a great number of laypeople were able to learn and benefit from the Dharma. For this reason, he was known as the teacher for the common man and the monks. Similar to Buddha Shakyamuni, who taught an enormous variety of people about 2,500 years ago, Pabongka Rinpoche did not teach from any predetermined syllabus. Instead, he taught according to the spiritual needs of the listeners. His influential teachings, coupled with his powerful way of conveying the Dharma,made him a respected spiritual figure of his day.

A great master rises

It is said that Pabongka’s teachings are so famous that thousands of people would come from far and wide to attend, especially when he gave initiations or conducted special prayers during festivals. Pabongka is well known for using his humour to elucidate the teachings. As some teachings could go on for ten hours, he would intersperse his teachings with jokes and amusing stories laced with moral values to keep his audience ‘awake’.

One of Pabongka’s great accomplishments was his ability to devise ways of attracting and leading his listeners to every level of the Buddha’s complex and highly technical teachings. On many occasions, he would address an audience of several thousands of people, and yet everyone would be able to hear him clearly. Back in those days, there were no such things as microphones or speakers. His voice was that powerful!

Pabongka’s talks and teachings were known to have always left a profound and immediate effect on the listeners. A story that is worth highlighting is that of Dapon Tsago. He was a member of the nobility and had held a powerful position in the government, equivalent to the Minister of Defence.

One day, this great general Dapon marched into the hall where Pabongka Rinpoche was giving a teaching, all decked out in his finest silks and with his long hair flowing in carefully tailored locks. This was considered to be the highest of fashion in Tibet at the time. He had hung a great ceremonial sword from his belt and whenever he walked, it would make a loud clanging noise of importance, as if to announce his arrival. However, at the end of the first section of Pabongka’s teachings, he was seen leaving the hall quietly, deep in thought. He had even wrapped up his weapon of war in a cloth to hide it, and was taking it home. Later, it was seen that he had actually trimmed off his warrior’s locks. Finally, one day, he threw himself before Pabongka Rinpoche and requested for the special lifetime religious vows for laymen. From then on, he was seen to follow Pabongka around to every public teaching he gave.

Pabongka was famed throughout the land as being a realized and complete practitioner of the Gelug tradition. Although he did not say anything bad about other traditions nor discourage them, he always showed the extraordinary qualities of Tsongkhapa’s teachings.

When Pabongka went to eastern Tibet, to an area called Kham, there were many Bonpos who attacked him. All the Bons in Kham gathered together and continuously, day and night, directed black magic against him. There were many incidences and they happened numerous times.

Once, as Pabongka was crossing over a high pass which all covered in snow, a huge storm suddenly appeared and caused a lot of damage.  Although there was no harm done to human life, there was much material damage. When they finally made it to the other side of the mountain, Pabongka told everyone not to enter his tent.

Pabongka sat inside the tent for a while and, when the thunder and lightning came, he collected the lightning in his pocket and kept it there for some time. Finally, he called out to someone and told him, “Take this here and throw it outside, that way.” When they threw it out, they saw a sort of red-colored light and liquid inside the lightning. This burnt the grass and everything around it. Yet Pabongka had been able to collect the lightning, just like that.

The Guru of all Men

It is a well-known fact that people from Lhasa came to see Pabongka Rinpoche every day. They even had to queue up. Pabongka’s popularity was such that even the 13th Dalai Lama took notice. The 13th Dalai Lama was very powerful at the time, holding all political, economic, military and spiritual power. However, Pabongka had thousands and thousands of disciples all over Tibet – from the three great monasteries of Sera, Drepung and Ganden, to the Government Officials, members of the Court and the several thousand lay people too. Almost everyone was Pabongka’s disciple. Due to his growing popularity and influence, Thirteenth Dalai Lama often observed Pabongka Rinpoche closely, but found no faults.

There was an incidence once in which Pabongka was summoned by His Holiness to prove that the southern Lamrim Tradition he taught, called Shargyu, was genuine. Somehow this tradition was not popular in Tibet at the time, and very little was known about it. It wasn’t easy to find much proof of its source as tt was not written anywhere in the regular texts studied in the monasteries. There was even talk among learned scholars that Pabongka was introducing a strange system of a Southern tradition that he had learnt from an old monk in some village in a corner of Tibet. People thus tried to refute the authenticity of this Southern style Lamrim and eventually, His Holiness intervened. He asked Pabongka to provide solid evidence to prove the authenticity of this tradition.

The Southern Lamrim tradition was what Pabongka has studied under Dagpo Rinpoche. Being fiercely devoted to his root Guru, Pabongka would not tolerate anyone disparaging his Guru’s name or even remotely implying that his Guru was wrong in any way. Pabongka prepared to send send a letter in reply to the 13th Dalai Lama’s questions. At first, Pabongka did not think it was so serious. However, he soon heard that without concrete proof, he would have to declare that his newly introduced Southern Lamrim tradition to be a fraud and no one would be allowed to practice it. He was unwilling to risk any injury to his Guru’s name so Pabongka said to the manager of his Ladrang, “Under these circumstances, I shall reply. I shall dictate and you go ahead and take notes”.

Then Pabongka quoted, “The Buddha said in this Sutra and that Sutra and in the collected works of the Buddha in volume such and such that this is written. Right at this moment, Your Holiness is sitting in your room and if you look towards your back in the third shelf, open this book and read page 146, the 6th line, it says this, this. Then, if you look at your left side, on the second shelf, the second volume number, this and this, pull that book out and there it says this, this, this….”

Pabongka continued, “This is the proof from the Kangyur. If you read this book by Asanga which is available in Your Holiness’s room on such and such a shelf in the outer volume, which is of this color, and the inner book is this; and, if you look at this line on this page number, you will find it. And from the Tibetan tradition, look in the works of your late Master, Purchog Jampa Rinpoche, in volume number four of his collected works, which is in Your Holiness’s bedroom on such and such a shelf; the color of the cloth is this and the page number is that.”

Pabongka Rinpoche was so precise and confident in pointing out the details for His Holiness to find every piece of evidence to support his Southern Lamrim tradition. This letter was then given to His Holiness’s Chamberlain to be delivered to the hands of His Holiness. When the 13thDalai Lama read the letter, he asked his Chamberlain to take out the exact books and volumes as described by Pabongka in the letter. Everything was proved right. Then His Holiness asked his Chamberlain, “Did you know and tell him I would be in this room?” The Chamberlain answered, “No.” His Holiness did not comment any further.

In another incident, while Pabongka Rinpoche was giving a big teaching, he received an order from the 13th Dalai Lama to make rain immediately. Rinpoche advised his disciples gathered there that they should recite the Lama Chopa. During the recitation of Migstema in the Lama Chopa, Pabongka directed his students to create a cloud in their visualizations; this cloud would in turn shower rain wherever it was needed. True enough, rain started to fall where it was needed.  Then, after a while as the rain continued to fall, Pabongka made the rain stop as magically as he made it appear. It was said that on that very day, they got quite a good amount of rain.

Pabongka’s unusual ability to teach was not an integral part of Tibetan culture. It is rather at the heart of the living transmission of the teachings of the historical Buddha, from one great master to the next. It is, first and foremost, an oral transmission: the master teaches his gifted disciple continuously until the transmitted knowledge becomes the student’s second nature.

Due to Pabongka’s skill as a Gelugpa master, the 13th Dalai Lama requested Kyabje Pabongka to give the yearly Lamrim teachings in 1925, instead of asking the Gaden throneholder (Ganden Tripa) as was customary. Usually, the teachings lasted only seven days, but these lasted for eleven days. These were just some of Pabongka Rinpoche’s many amazing qualities.