Ngawang Gyalten Jigme Choekyi Wangchuk
January 22, 1937 - September 10, 2001

Below is a biographical sketch of Domo Geshe Rinpoche, which was written by Ursula Bernis in 1995, initially for inclusion in a compendium of biographies of great Gelugpa masters. Ursula’s text is presented here in a slightly revised form.

Ursula embarked on the project of researching and writing about Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s life with two purposes in mind: to document and preserve the story of one of the last great masters and exponents of traditional Tibetan Buddhism, and to share the information with others in order to contribute to a wider knowledge and deeper appreciation of the Guru’s extraordinary life and deeds.

The task seemed all the more urgent because much of the biographical material on the former Domo Geshe Rinpoche was destroyed together with Dungkar Gonpa Monastery in Tibet during the Cultural Revolution and because most of those who had known the legendary master or heard tales about him had already passed away. In order to gather what information was still available, Ursula traveled once to Lhasa and twice, quite extensively, to northern India, especially to the Darjeeling/Kalimpong area and to Sikkim. The stories, dates and places mentioned here she corroborated in interviews with literally dozens of people, verifying them where possible against the remaining documentary evidence. The result is as close as we are likely to come to a reliable and careful depiction of the events of Rinpoche's life.

Ursula considered this to be merely a summary of a more extensive work to be completed in time. Her passing away on November 7, 2000 cut short those plans.

A few editorial comments: English translations have been added to the Tibetan names and words that occur throughout the text for the benefit of readers who are unfamiliar with the Tibetan language. In keeping with Ursula’s usage, the spelling “Domo” has been retained for Rinpoche’s name while “Tromo” is used for the place (also known as Chumbi Valley), although the two represent a single Tibetan name (Tib. gro mo).

Introduction
It is not possible to present a complete biography of Gelugpa’s present-day greatest Mahasiddha. Since his deeds pervade so many different realms and levels, only a fraction can be traced by ordinary beings. In addition, like the most perfect of all the Kadampas throughout history, he hides his enlightened deeds better than anyone else today does or can. Anything that could be taken as a praise of himself, he will not comment on directly. Consequently, most of what we know is from eyewitness accounts of those nearby whose vision is by no means perfect.

Material for the biography of the previous Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s great accomplishments was collected from the following sources: the lineage prayer composed by Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang; biographical material by a Western disciple, Lama Govinda, in the book The Way of the White Clouds; and many diverse oral sources. Commentaries to the secret biography, which is written in code, and other compilations of written information of his life and deeds all, have been lost in Tibet. None crossed the border.

However, this legendary figure, whose previous incarnations are said to include Shariputra, the Mahasiddha Gayadhara, Dharmashri, Munijnana, Thönmi Sambhota, King Trisong Detsen, Dromtönpa, Milarepa, Khedrup Rinpoche and Drakpa Gyaltsen, is strong and alive in the collective memory of the Himalayan Buddhist culture. Famous especially for his non-sectarian attitude and his great kindness extended equally to all, Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s name is known throughout Tibet and the Himalayan region from Kashmir to Assam. He traveled far and wide on pilgrimage through these areas and spread the pure teachings of the Buddha. In the process, he established the first Gelug monasteries in the earlier part of this century in regions where before there were none.

Domo Geshe Rinpoche was the first of the Tibetans to go on pilgrimage repeatedly to the Buddhist holy sites in India when this was not yet an established tradition. Together with a Sri Lankan monk, he revived Buddhist practices at the great stupa in Bodhgaya, an area controlled at the time by a Hindu Raja and his militant followers. Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s name is known throughout Tibet from the remotest regions of Changthang to the easternmost outposts of Amdo and Kham, where he was particularly loved not only by the courageous warriors for his protective amulets but by people from all walks of life. Active in Tsang and Central Tibet, he was openly praised by both His Holiness the 13th Dalai Lama and the Panchen Rinpoche. Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s fame extends to Mongolia, China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka and many Western countries.

In the Indian Himalayan region he is also known as “the precious doctor of Chumbi,” since he healed so many people with a variety of methods. The famous holy pills (rilbus) he made from hundreds of holy and medicinal ingredients were of unequaled power and healed many otherwise hopeless cases. The rilbus continue to multiply by themselves.

In today’s Tibet (1995), especially in Tromo, many people who have never even seen him have deep and unshakable faith in Domo Geshe Rinpoche – more than in any other Lama. Many people in the Western world instantly developed deep, lasting faith in Buddhism by reading about Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s deeds in The Way of the White Clouds. This book played a greater role in introducing Mahayana-Vajrayana Buddhism to the West than any other. Through it, Domo Geshe Rinpoche had a most far-reaching influence over the future of Buddhism in the West. Several international and particularly German Buddhist umbrella organizations today trace their charters to Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s future-oriented teachings, i.e. with Maitreya Buddha as the focal point, and to his emphasis on a non-sectarian approach that embraces the complete teachings of the Buddha.

Not only has the fame of Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s name and deeds spread in this unparalleled way, his monasteries, too, have their unique place in Tibetan history. Dungkar Gonpa, located on top of a mountain spur in Upper Tromo, became the first Gelugpa monastery in that area after it was entrusted to Geshe Ngawang Kalsang in 1901/02.

Later, many other smaller monasteries came under Dungkar Gonpa’s administrative umbrella in Tibet and across the border in India. Dungkar Gonpa also became the seat of the famous oracle that was consulted by people from all over Tibet. The monastery hosted His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and his government twice in the 1950s for extended periods of time. At the crossroads between India and Tibet, Dungkar Gonpa became a stopping place for most Tibetan and foreign dignitaries on their way to and from Lhasa. Thus, Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s places were open to a kind of international movement unusual for Tibet at the time.

The incarnation of the great Domo Geshe Rinpoche across the border in Sikkim could be taken as a sign for the direction Buddhism would take in the future. The only high Tibetan Lama ever to have taken rebirth in Sikkim, Domo Geshe Rinpoche, famous for his long-ranging vision, led the way. He was born into an aristocratic family that had facilitated the journeys of most of the early Western explorers of Tibet whom history proved to be instrumental in carrying the seeds of Tibetan Buddhism across yet many other borders and into the West. Today, the monasteries established by the previous Domo Geshe Rinpoche outside the limits of Tibet prove to be repositories of a tradition intact and unbroken. Skilled in moving across borders of very different worlds with great ease for a very long time, Domo Geshe Rinpoche, in upholding the Buddha’s tradition, knows to avoid the extreme of absolute modernism which destroys the heritage of the past by blurring traditional distinctions in a syncretic hodge-podge and the extreme of a traditionalism that clings to the images of the past such that most possibilities for growth and real change become eclipsed.

In the following biographical summary, only a few examples of Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s great accomplishments will be mentioned. Although his private and public visions, miracles, and power of healing and taming human and non-human beings are extraordinary in number, scope, and intensity, the focus here will be more on those events which are his own unique contribution to safeguarding and perpetuating the pure and complete teachings of the Buddha.

Kyabje Domo Geshe Rinpoche Ngawang Kalsang
Geshe Ngawang Kalsang, who later became known as Kyabje Domo Geshe Rinpoche, was born in 1866 in Emagang in the Shang district of Tsang. His birth was accompanied by various good signs observed by his mother, Bungchok Kyipa, and his father, Tsüldzin Tseten, a tantric practitioner, as well as others. It is said that the purpose of his birth was to tame different kinds of beings.

When he was four years old, Exalted Vajra Yogini herself manifested and offered him nourishment brought from the realms of the Dakinis. At the age of eight he entered the great Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. He listened, reflected, and
studied with great intensity and desire to impress the holy teachings on his mind.

The name Ngawang Kalsang was offered to him by the Protector of the Western Heavenly Field, Amitabha Buddha, the all-knowing Panchen Rinpoche Tenpa’i Wangchuk, and at the hair-cutting ceremony many wondrous and glorious phenomena occurred. Later, he took full ordination from the incarnation of the great translator Lochen Rinchen Zangpo Rinpoche. Geshe Ngawang Kalsang studied at Tashi Lhunpo’s Shartse College for some 20 years, where he completed the “Kachen” degree, Tashi Lhunpo’s equivalent of the “Geshe” degree of Central Tibet’s great monastic universities.

It is said that in the circumambulation route of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery an emanation of Tara advised him that it was time to go and meet his root Guru. This was the highly realized master and ascetic Lobsang Zöpa, who was staying at the time in an isolated place called Trakar Taso, far to the west of Tashi Lhunpo. It took some time to find this master, also known as Rangjung Lama Lobsang Zöpa. Geshe Ngawang Kalsang offered him, among other offerings, a seal marked by the letter “Ah”. Although the Guru was pleased, since “the letter Ah is the best of all letters,” he did not make it easy for Geshe Rinpoche to receive teachings. In fact, he tried to send him away several times and often scolded and reproached him. But Geshe Rinpoche was persistent and eventually received teachings, especially on the root texts and commentaries of the Ngülchu tradition.

At one point, the greatly accomplished Guru Rangjung Lama refused to provide Geshe Rinpoche with books. He ordered him to find his own texts if he wanted to receive further teachings. Far away from the great library of Tashi Lhunpo, he set out to find the required texts to continue his training. In the area of Nyalam, Exalted Vajra Yogini herself manifested and offered Geshe Rinpoche a text about the lineage. When the Guru conferred upon him the great empowerment of the five-deity Heruka Chakrasamvara mandala of the Ghantapada tradition (Demchog Trilbu Lha-nga) in Milarepa’s temple at Lapchi, the mandala and deity actually manifested and entrusted him with the future of the Demchog Tantra. In different holy places along the Himalayan snow mountain range, in caves and isolated places, Geshe Rinpoche received teachings from the Guru, practiced, and actually saw the different meditational deities (yidam) on more than one occasion, receiving their blessings, teachings, guidance, and predictions.

Going on a pilgrimage to many holy places, the Guru and several of his disciples, including Geshe Ngawang Kalsang, expended great effort to journey to Kathmandu in Nepal in the 1890s to renovate the great stupa at Svayambhu. The Guru Rangjung Lama received assistance from divine beings to complete this difficult task and several wondrous occurrences took place. It had been predicted that this magnificent deed would greatly benefit the disciples in the future. In further predictions, the Guru pointed Geshe Rinpoche to his future areas of practice and influence: the regions where the Monpäs live, Tromo, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, Dagpo, Kongpo, and India. He also foretold that Geshe Rinpoche would build three very special Maitreya Buddha statues.

Accordingly, Geshe Rinpoche went to Tawang, where the Mönpas live, and to other holy places in southern Tibet. There he practiced “Cutting” (chö) in fearful cemeteries. When he meditated in a cave at Taktsang in Pharo, Bhutan, one morning at daybreak, Exalted Vajra Yogini herself in the form of a 15-year-old girl aroused him from sleep and urged him to turn the wheel of Dharma. This was necessary, she admonished, because the beings in the Himalayan area from Ladakh to Assam were in danger of falling down the slope of wrong views about the holy Dharma and their minds were wrapped in darkness.

When Domo Geshe Rinpoche received Vajra Bhairava (Dorje Jigje) empowerment, he directly beheld the yidam and the 13 deities. While meditating near Gangring in Lower Tromo, Geshe Rinpoche lived on fruits, berries and herbs found in the deep, dense forest surrounding the cave. In southern Tibet, he had survived by the practice of “taking the essence” (chü len), taking the essence of flowers, and in Sikkim, by taking the essence of stones. In Gangring, Geshe Ngawang Kalsang had many extraordinary visions. The 35 Buddhas manifested directly to him, for example, and when some evil beings there tried to interfere with his practice, he arose in the form of Demchog and subdued the obstacles.

He went to Upper Tromo and meditated in a remote cave among crystalline mountains and dense forests in an area called Chagling. Here the wild animals and yeti came to serve him. They helped bring firewood and water. It is said that Domo Geshe Rinpoche controlled the frightful yeti with a finger snap. Jowo Chin-karwa and Kang-dzenpa offered their vow to protect Rinpoche’s life. A nomad who had lost some of his animals found Geshe Rinpoche and, in disbelief that anyone could survive on his own in this remote wilderness, was the first to offer yogurt, milk, butter, etc. It is said that Domo Geshe Rinpoche spent many years in the cave at Chagling, but nobody really knows for just how long, or how many times his yidams and other celestial beings came to visit him.

After Geshe Rinpoche left his retreat at Chagling, he fulfilled two prophecies at once when he erected a Maitreya Buddha statue at Galingkang in Tromo. Not only had his Guru Rangjung Lama Lobsang Zöpa predicted this event, but the exalted master Dromtönpa, the main disciple of glorious Atisha Dipamkara, had foretold it hundreds of years earlier. Upon request, the best artist, Ü Döndrup Wangyal, had been sent by the government in Lhasa. The statue was fashioned of clay mixed with many ground-up precious stones and holy things. Like the other Maitreya Buddha images Geshe Rinpoche would commission in the future, it was about two stories high. When it was consecrated, gods and goddesses showered down flowers. Some of those who witnessed this amazing event later told the next generation that the lotus-like fragrant celestial flowers could actually be handled but that they disappeared after about half an hour.

Geshe Rinpoche attracted the best artists and craftsmen to Tromo. The painter Trinley from Tsang and the statue maker Wangyal from Lhasa both stayed on and settled there. Domo Geshe Rinpoche, then and now, has an incomparable sense for the greatest excellence in quality and refinement of style. He only uses the very best possible materials – and most often the rarest and most unusual ones – for offerings, for building monasteries, creating statues, works of art, or presenting and preserving holy objects.

Tromo had been described by Tibetan and Western travelers alike as one of the most beautiful places in the world. With fragrant juniper, cedar, and many other trees, countless varieties of wildflowers and wildlife, it has been portrayed as a paradise by more than one writer. Tromo, the gateway between Tibet and India, is also an old place. Padmasambhava traveled through the valley, which is still marked with several of his spontaneous manifestations. The First Panchen Lama Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen had spent time in retreat in Upper Tromo and, with Chomo Lhari guarding the upper entrance to the valley, it has no lack of holy places.