Khyungtrul Pema Trinle Gyatso,[1] commonly known as Khyungtrul Rinpoche, was born nearby the shaded side of the [Kyangtang Khampa] Mountain[2] in the Evaṃ Valley of Drongpa Meshung,[3] Nangchen, Kham in 1886, the Fire, Dog year of the fifteenth sexagenary cycle. His father was named Mipam Tsöndru of the Jo [clan] and his mother Adroza Deden Tso.[4] His father was a direct disciple of Drubchen Ngawang Tsoknyi[5] the mantra holder, who attained accomplishment through the practice of Palden Lhamo Dusölma.[6]

Shortly after his birth, Khyungtrul met the Fifteenth Karmapa, Khakyab Dorje,[7] who performed the hair-cutting ceremony. Furthermore, he accepted the Three Jewels, received the vows of a lay disciple,[8] and was given the name Karma Gyatso. The Karmapa described how the child was a reincarnation of a great being and made a prediction that the boy was undoubtedly going to be a person who would benefit sentient beings and teachings in the times yet to come. 

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At the age of five, his parents took him on a pilgrimage to meet lamas in eastern Kham. In Degé he met and received teachings from Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo,[9] who was at that time performing his last religious activity at Dzongsar Monastery[10] before passing into peace. He also received many important teachings, such as empowerments, transmissions, and instructions, from Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche at Palpung Monastery[11] in Degé.

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After a successful pilgrimage to all the monasteries and sacred sites in the Degé, Kham, Khyungtrul returned home with his parents. His father took responsibility for his own father’s monastery, Druk Heru Monastery,[12] [which comes under the management of Trulshik Monastery,[13] the main Drukpa Kagyu seat in Nangchen]. Later, due to his realization in the practice of Palden Lhamo Dusölma, his father was appointed as the lama of the protector’s temple at Trulshik Monastery. Khyungtrul spent the next couple of years at Trulshik Monastery with his parents.

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During his time at Trulshik Monastery, even though he was very young, there were several marvelous signs that occurred, such as possessing a symbolically scripted inventory of treasures, indiscriminately extracting a variety of treasure-like substances, and receiving prophecies of the ḍākinīs. However, his father kept them secret and forbade revealing them [to the public], stating that they were insignificant. [Unfortunately], his father passed away when he was just seventeen years old, and he performed the funeral rites in a proper manner.

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Until he was nineteen, Khyungtrul spent most of his time at his personal Heru Monastery in addition to Trülshik Monastery where he received empowerments and instructions from Satrul Rigzin Chögyal[14] and other Drukpa Kagyu masters. He diligently trained in the rituals of his tradition, the Drukpa Kagyu.

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At the age of nineteen, Khyungtrul once again went back to Degé, Kham where he entered Dzogchen Monastery.[15] There he took full ordination from the Fifth Dzogtrul Tubten Chökyi Dorje[16] and received the name Tubten Chöpal Gyatso. From Gyalse Jampa Taye, Tubten Chökyi Nangwa,[17] and others, he received oral transmission of the Kangyur (Translated Words of the Buddha) and such teachings as the Bodhicaryāvatāra (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) and Kunsang Lame Shalung (The Words of My Perfect Teacher), achieving a great understanding of the Mahāyāna.

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He later went to Palpung Monastery, where under the care and tutelage of Khenchen Tashi Öser[18] the lord of the extraordinary family, he received bodhisattva vows in accordance with the tradition of Śāntideva the heir of the victors and was named Jamyang Lodrö Gyatso. With Lord Khenchen Tashi Öser, he studied all the sūtra and tantra teachings and received empowerments and instructions. Khenchen identified him outwardly as an embodiment of Gyalwang Dechen Dorje, inwardly as an embodiment of Taksham Nuden Dorje, and secretly as an embodiment of Longchen Rabjam.[19]

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Khyungrul also received and studied the sūtras and tantras along with the fields of knowledge from Katok Khen Tubten Gyaltsen, Jamgön Mipam Namgyal Gyatso, Khenpo Shenga, Nesar Karma Tashi Chöphel (one of the three chief disciples of Jamgön Kongtrul), Gyarong Tokden, Choktrul Pema Dechen Sangpo, Jamyang Tashi Rinchen, Katok Situ Chökyi Gyatso, Chokling Terse Tsewang Norbu,[20] and many other non-sectarian masters.

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Though this Lord was not said to be an emanation of any particular lama, he was called Khyungtrul because there was nobody who could rival his innate wisdom when he was studying and contemplating. Since everyone was discussing that he was an emanation of an excellent, superior being, he was considered an emanation. In those days the political relationship between Degé and Nangchen was not so friendly. So, for the safety of Khyungtrül, when anyone asked Khenchen about where the emanation was from, he would answer, “The emanation’s place of origin is Khyungpo.”[21] As a result, being called Khyungtrul in addition to his real name, Pema Trinlé Gyatso, he became widely known as Khyungtrul Pema Trinlé Gyatso.

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At the age of twenty-five, he began the traditional three-year retreat at the Samten Chöling retreat center of Palpung Tubten Chökhorling Monastery,[22] during which Karma Tashi Öser the extraordinary lord of the family[23] and Karma Tonglam[24] [shared the role of retreat master]. Khyungtrul completely mastered Mahāmudrā, the six yogas of Nāropa, and all other essential Kagyu practices during the retreat. His spiritual practices were so impressive that he was, for a short while, appointed master of the retreat center in accordance with the lama’s command.[25]

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[When he turned thirty-three],[26] he led the life of a renunciant, abandoning everything and practicing meditation at various secluded places, such as Tashi Palri,[27] Pema Shelphuk,[28] and Karmo Taktsang[29] and eventually left for his homeland. On the way back home, he visited Netan Chokling Monastery Gyurme Ling, met the Second Cholking, Pema Gyurme Tekchok Tenpel,[30] and received many teachings, such as the Chokling treasure teachings, empowerments, transmissions, and instructions from him. He subsequently visited Kham Riwo Monastery, Dilyak Monastery, and Jang Tana Monastery[31] where he received a grand welcome and gave instructional teachings and maturing empowerments.

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After returning to his homeland, Khyungtrul stayed at Druk Vaṃlung Monastery[32] for a while and turned the wheel of the teachings for his karmically fortunate followers. Since he was a treasure revealer and particularly an accomplished practitioner of the profound secret mantra, there were requisites for him, such as relying on the mudrā of another’s body, so he took Tanaza Rigzin Drölma[33] as a consort. However, some ordinary people [from his homeland] objected and disapproved of his taking a consort and criticized him explicitly and implicitly. As a result, Khyungtrul Rinpoché decided to leave his homeland for a period to embark on a pilgrimage to U-Tsang with his secret consort Tanaza Rigzin Drölma.

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He remained in U-Tsang for many years, visiting various sacred sites, practicing meditation at sacred places of Guru [Rinpoche], such as Samye Chimpu,[34] and composing many treatises and songs of realization. He conducted many religious activities while in Lhasa, including giving the empowerment and transmission of the Rinchen Terdzö (The Treasury of Precious Revealed Scriptures).[35]

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Then he returned to his homeland, and at his Druk Heru Monastery, he expanded the assembly hall and other areas and rebuilt temples and shrines. Thereafter, it received the name Heru Ngedön Sangngak Chökhorling. He also built his residence named Changlochen[36] and the Secret Mantra Palace meditation hall and stayed there regularly. 

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There the teachings of scholars and adepts pervaded in all directions, and he constantly turned the wheel of the teachings to unfathomable assemblies of disciples and emanations—chiefly the lamas and emanations of the non-sectarian movement. Sometimes he traveled to other regions to give empowerments and teachings. He conferred the empowerment and transmission of the Rinchen Terdzö at Netan Monastery in Chimé and Shakchö Monastery in Khyungpo,[37] the empowerment and transmission of the Damngak Dzö (The Treasury of Precious Instructions) at Tsangsar Monastery,[38] and the empowerment of the Kagyu Ngakdzö (The Treasury of Kagyu Mantras) at Rago Tsokha Monastery.[39] There were many other empowerments, transmissions, instructions that he gave at Sertsa Tashi Ling Monastery [of the Bön tradition] and Tsangsar Lakhyab Monastery.[40] He also stayed at Jang Tana Monastery, the monastic seat of Drogön Yelpa for a long time, properly supporting the Yelpa teachings.

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In short, he was a lama of the non-sectarian movement of the philosophies of the Sakya, Geluk, Kagyu, Nyingma, and Yungdrung Bön; all revered him as a boundless superior being. Accordingly, having accomplished the benefit of self and others, Khyungtrül Pema Trinlé Gyatso passed away at the age of sixty-three on the eighteenth day of the Month of Miracles (the first month) of Earth, Bird year, 1948, at Tana Monastery. It was exactly on that day when Drogön Sangyé Yelpa passed away.[41] When Khyungtrul passed away, there were many astonishing signs, which once again established the disciples into a place of faith.   

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His main disciples were his son Pema Gyurme, Kongtrul Lodrö Rabpel, Tsangsar Lodrö Rinchen [of the Barom Kagyu], Tana Penpa Tulku, Tana Drubgyu Tulku, Suru Jokhyab, etc.[42] There were many other disciples with whom he had a spiritual connection, such as [the Eighth] Adeu Rinpoche Drubrik Khyuchok, the [Ninth] Benchen Sangye Nyenpa, Dilyak Dabsang, Japa Sangye Tenzin, the [Eleventh] Situ Pema Wangchuk Gyalpo,[43] the Second Chokling, and many others. He had such a great assembly of students that there were almost none of the great lamas of his time who did not have a lama-disciple relationship with him.

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Among the chief disciples: his son Pema Gyurme was the main lineage holder of both his family lineage and teachings. He was a sovereign of loving-kindness and compassion, a vegetarian, a realized yogin intent upon the profound meaning, a holder of the fields of knowledge, a holder of his father’s lineage of Karma Garsar calligraphy, a disseminator of his father’s empowerments, transmissions, and instructions, and a preserver of his father’s collected works. For this, I wish to express much gratitude to him.

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Khyungtrul Pema Trinle Gyatso’s teachings, which are contained in about four volumes, are:

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Secret Embodiment of the Three Kāyas: Accomplishing the Enlightened Mind of the Guru, The Ocean of the Dohās of the Early Translation Nyingma School, The Ocean of Drukpa Dohā, The Excellent Vase of Nectar from The Grand Ritual of Severance,[44] instructional manuals on the creation and completion stages, songs of spiritual experience, a large volume of mind treasure teachings, and many other texts.