There is a new biography of Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje that was recently released in Mid February this year, (2024). Translated by Joseph McClellan, published by The Treasury of Lives (online) and was made possible through support of the Jnanasukha Foundation. We share that biography here.

Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje was born in 1904 in Terkong Nang (gter kong nang), Pemako, southeastern Tibet. There is not yet clarity on the exact date; some the tenth day of the sixth lunar month. His father was Khengen Tulku (mkhan rgan sprul sku),^[1] a son of a king of Pemako named Kanam Depa (kaH gnam sde pa) who traced his ancestry back to ancient central Tibetan kings.^[2]Khengen Tulku was considered a reincarnation of Japur Lama (‘ja’ phur bla ma), the son of Katok Gyelse Sonam Deutsen (kaH thog rgyal sras bsod nams lde’u btsan, 1679–1723) of Katok Monastery (kah thog dgon) in Derge. Japur Lama had left Kham for Pemako in the early eighteenth century and established a teaching and practice center in the region. His reincarnation, Khengen Tulku, was trained as a lay lama and married a woman from Terkong Nang named Namgyel Dolma (rnam rgyal sgrol ma) of a Bhutanese family descended from Ratna Lingpa(ratna gling pa, 1403–1479). He established a monastery near her village, where Dudjom Rinpoche was later born.^[3]

Khengen Tulku was away at the time of Dudjom Rinpoche’s birth, so local lamas were consulted, and the newborn was named Nyima Gyeltsen (nyi ma rgyal mtshan), since he was born on a Sunday (nyi ma, means “sun”). When Khengen Tulku returned, he said that he already had a name for the boy based on a dream he had while Namgyel Dolma was pregnant. In that dream, ḍākinīs gave him a mirror and a vajra (rdo rje), telling him that these represented the unborn child’s name. His father interpreted the mirror as representing wisdom (ye shes), and so gave him the name Yeshe Dorje (ye shes rdo rje). Thus, when Dudjom Rinpoche was a child, most people referred to him as Tulku Yeshe.^[4]

Recognition and Enthronement

Two lamas, Ling Lama Chojor Gyatso (gling bla ma chos ‘byor rgya mtsho) and Puktrul Gyurme Ngedon Wangpo (phug sprul ‘gyur med nges don dbang po) identified him soon after his birth as a reincarnation of their teacher, the prominent eastern-Tibetan treasure revealer Dudjom Lingpa (bdud ‘joms gling pa, 1835–1904), whose revelations form the basis of the Dudjom Tersar (bdud ‘joms gter gsar) tradition. Dudjom Lingpa had, in the last decades of his life, expressed a strong desire to move to Pemako—an isolated and idyllic region on the border of eastern Tibet, Arunachal Pradesh, and Burma—and his hagiographies claim that he discussed his aspiration in a correspondence with a nun there—a daughter of King Kanam Depa named Ani Nangsel (a ni snang gsal). In his final years, Dudjom Lingpa is said to have exhorted his students to move to Pemako, saying that he too would go there.

Chojor Gyatso and Puktrul Gyurme Ngedon Wangpo had learned of Dudjom Lingpa’s death while making their way to Pemako, and they committed to identifying his rebirth in the region. In Pemako, they encountered the Seventh Riwoche Jedrung, Trinle Jampa Jungne (ri bo che rje drung ‘phrin las byams pa ‘byung gnas, 1856–1922), also known as Dudjom Namkhai Dorje (bdud ‘joms nam mkha’i rdo rje), who had fled to Pemako from Kham to escape invading Qing troops. They inquired about potential candidates and Jedrung Rinpoche told them of Khengen Tulku and Namgyel Dolma’s child, and the three agreed that he was Dudjom Lingpa’s rebirth. Jedrung Rinpoche, who would later be an important teacher to Dudjom Rinpoche, composed a long-life prayer naming the child Jigdral Dechen Dorje Drakpo Tsel (‘jigs bral bde chen rdo rje drag po rtsal). For the rest of Dudjom Rinpoche’s life, he kept the name Jigdral and added it to the name Yeshe Dorje, which his father had given him.^[5]

According to Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal‘s (mkhan po tshe dbang don rgyal) biography of Dudjom Rinpoche, before Lama Chojor Gyatso and the party from eastern Tibet came to find the young Dudjom, now a toddler, he told his parents to prepare to receive guests. When they arrived, he greeted them warmly by name in his odd accent that had always puzzled the Pemako natives, but which was later explained as a remnant of his previous incarnation’s Golok accent.

Fully satisfied with the tulku’s qualifications, the two disciples of Dudjom Lingpa presented Khengen Tulku with offerings and a recognition letter sent from Jedrung Trinle Jampa Jungne and formally declared him to be the tulku of Dudjom Lingpa.
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