Penjik

Tulku Urgyen's elder brother Penjik with his wife

and their sons Gyurmed Dorje and his little brother

(photo courtesy of Gyurmed Dorje's son Tsangsar Tulku, Karma Tekchok Nyima)

Tulku Urgyen said about his brother:

My half-brother Penjik was supposed to be a tulku, but he didn’t want to be recognized as such. He was incredibly bright. Personally, I haven’t met anyone as sharp as he was. For example, in a single day he memorized the entire text of Chanting the Names of Manjushri.[i] Think about that! Isn’t it astounding? That’s the kind of person he was. I certainly was in awe of him.

If he had gone to Derge to pursue Buddhist studies, there is no doubt that he would have become a great scholar. Everything he heard, he understood. It’s a shame he didn’t stick to a spiritual path.

Penjik was very brave and intelligent; no one could outdo him or dominate him in anyway. If you heard his full story, you would be in awe. Let’s begin with his mundane qualities: He was extremely eloquent—so much so that he could be mistaken for a demon.[ii]

Penjik was known throughout Nangchen for his bravery; he was completely fearless and not intimidated by anyone. He was also tall and broad-shouldered. You should have seen him race his horse or shoot his rifle while riding! He was an excellent marksman. I felt that he had all the important qualities of a hero.

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[i] Chanting the Names of Manjushri—Manjushri Nama Sangirti consists of six hundred verse lines. [epk]

[ii] Free-flowing, perfect eloquence is often considered to be a special power bestowed upon a person by either a deity or a demonic force. [epk]

the struggle for recognition

Chokgyur Lingpa

Chokgyur Lingpa's early treasure revelations are recorded in multiple ambiguous and confused narratives. He himself wrote that before his thirteenth birthday he was visited by a vision of Padmasambhava, and that this was followed by “many unwanted and confusing apparitions,” some of them reportedly unintelligible, others apparently clear signs that he would reveal treasure. After he announced publicly that he would extract treasure from Namkadzod, one of his early teachers, Ngedzin Pusiri (gnas 'dzin pu si ri) at Pelme monastery, specifically forbade him from doing so. Nevertheless, the first four of his treasure revelations date to this period, including one of his most successful, the Barche Kunsel(bar chad kun sel), said to have been revealed in October 1848 from Danyin Kala Rongo (zla nyin kha la rong sgo), when Chokgyur Lingpa was only nineteen years old.

Biographies of Chokgyur Lingpa report that his colleagues in Nangchen scorned him, rejecting his claims to be a treasure revealer, and in his autobiography he expresses considerable frustration at this inability to gain acceptance. The nickname by which he was known during this period, Kyasu Terton (skya su gter ston), might be rendered in English as “the so-called treasure revealer of the Kyasu clan.” Ultimately, when he was twenty-five Chokgyur Lingpa left Nangchen for Derge, in search of patrons who might legitimize his treasure-revealing status. The biographies have it that Chokgyur Lingpa was expelled from his monastery, ostensibly for making mistakes during a ritual dance. But if he was in fact expelled, it is likely that it was due to his assertions that he was a treasure revealer, which possibly included his having taken a consort. Although this is nowhere explicit in the biographies, there is sufficient reason to believe that Chokgyur Lingpa began his relationship with his main consort, Dekyi Chodron (bde skyid chos sgron), before he left Nangchen in 1853.

read full biography at The Treasure of Lives

more info on image at Himalayan Art