Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo

Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo (Wyl. 'gyur med nges don dbang po) was a major disciple of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and of Dudjom Lingpa, and later became a root teacher of Kyabjé Dudjom Rinpoche.

Birth & Family

Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo was born in eastern Tibet, in the region of Derge. He was recognised as the senior of the two tulkus associated with the Khung monastery, in Dzapuk.

Training

Studying with Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo

As the age of 6 or 7, he went to Sechen Monastery and studied with Ontrul Tutop Namgyal and other teachers. When he was 15, Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo met Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and studied with him for 7 years, receiving the entire range of methods of the sutras and tantras, and in particular the Longchen Nyinktik. Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo also received teachings from the following masters:

• Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé
• Khenchen Tashi Özer
• Mipham Rinpoche

Becoming a Chödak of Dudjom Lingpa

According to Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, after this seven-year period, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo told Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo:

”Now return to your home country and in time go to see Dudjom Lingpa. You have a karmic connection with him from past lifetimes, so meeting him will be enormously useful to the teachings and to beings”.

He then gave to the junior Pikhung tulku all his responsibilities and property of the administrative estate, and went back to the lower Ser Valley, in eastern Tibet to seek an audience with Dudjom Lingpa. When he met him “Due to their karmic connection in previous lifetimes, their meeting was like a reunion of father and son”. Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo received from Dudjom Lingpa the full transmission of his major cycles of termas:

• The Chönyi Namkhai Longdzö cycle ('The Vast Space Treasure from the Wisdom Sky of the Ultimate Nature')
• The Zabsang Khandro Nyingtik cycle
• The Daknang Yeshe Drawa cycle ('The Wisdom Nets of Pure Visions')

Dudjom Lingpa empowered him as the Chödak of these cycles and invested him as one of his heart sons.

Activity

Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo wrote numerous commentaries on the Dudjom Tersar tantras and practices and especially “The Sharp Vajra of Awareness”. Many times, Dudjom Lingpa had said to his students how he would have wanted to go to the hidden land of Pemakö. So when he passed away in 1904, Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo oversaw the practices made with other senior students, and then left Golok and made the long journey to Pemakö with other senior students, such as Ling Lama Chöjor Gyatso and Lama Khedrup.

Arriving in Pemakö, they identified the reincarnation of their master: Dudjom Rinpoche, who was three years old. Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo stayed 16 years in Pemakö and gave to Dudjom Rinpoche all the empowerments of the Dudjom Tersar lineage.

Final Years

According to Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche:

”At a certain point, Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo directed his enlightened intent toward his final act to benefit others. Amid a great, boundless display of amazing signs […], his emanated form resolved back into the supreme inner illumination of primordial beings. His students had his body cremated on a pyre, and the subtle essence of his remains — his heart, tongue and eyes— blended together to form an image of the aspect of Padmakara know as Guru Dewachenpo. This image resides as the inner support of Mahakoti Monastery in Pemakö”.