Chapter: Pema Lingpa — A Spiritual and Cultural Luminary of the Soil.

 

Birth and family

Pema Lingpa was one of the five King tertoens () prophesied by Guru Rinpoche. He was born in the year 1450 CE at Chel (Baibrang) village above Tang in Bumthang to father Dhondup Zangpo (belonging to Somthrang Choeje family) and mother Pema Drolma.

He grew up under the care of his grandfather, Yonten Jangchub who taught him smithing, masonry, carpentry and sewing. He received no formal religious.

 

Previous birth of Pema Lingpa:

•       Lhachik Pema Sel (Daughter of Tibetan King Thrisong Detseun, 742-796)
•      Ani Rikma Sanggye Kyi in Tibet
•     Pema Drol (consort of Guru Chokyi Wangchuk, 1212-1270)
•     Ngakchang Rinchen Drakpa
•       Terteon Pema Ledrel Tsel (1291-1215)
•     Terteon Longchen Rabjampa (1308-1364)
• ,   Tokar, at Tharpaling in Bumthang (died at the age of seven).

 

Legacies of Pema Lingpa

1). Treasure Discoveries: 

The treasures discovered by Pema Lingpa can be categorized into:

1.      Sater (ས་གཏེར།) or earth treasures, treasured buried and rediscovered from the physical world such as cliff, temple or lake.

2.      Choeter (ཆོས་གཏེར།)  or religious treasures, religious rituals and meditation instructions.

3.      Zoeter (རྫས་གཏེར།) or revealed objects and artefacts (statue of Buddha and skull)

4.      Gongter (དགོངས་གཏེར།) or mind treasures, visionary revelations consisting mostly of experiences occurring in the state of dreams and trances.

5.      Dagnang (དག་སྣང།) or pure visions.

Discoveries in Bhutan:-

Pema Lingpa discovered his first treasure (a religious text) from the riverine pool (below the cliff of Naringdra) in 1476 at the age of 26. He gave initiations and teachings to the people from the texts he discovered.

His second treasure discovery took place at the same spot in the presence of the large crowd. It is said that he plunged into the pool with the butter lamp in his hand saying, ‘If I am an emanation of a devil, may I die in this river. If I am the heart-son of Guru [Padmasambhava], may I return with the required treasure and not even this lamp be extinguished’. He came out of the pool with the statue of the Buddha and a sealed skull and the lamp still lit. Because of this event, the pool, later came to be known as Mebartsho or Burning Lake.

Discoveries were also made in places such as Rimochen, Sengeydra and Sengye Namdzongdrak in Bumthang.

 

Discoveries in Tibet:-

He also discovered treasures in Lhodrak Mendo, Dramardo, Monkharteng and Samye in Tibet. He delivered religious sermons on the treasure discoveries he made.

 

Important seats (Dhensa):-

•          Tamzhing in Bhutan
•       Lhalung in Tibet.

 

The Descendants and lineages of Pema Lingpa.
Source: Class VII Bhutan History Textbook.

2). Lineages and the descendants of Pema Lingpa.

The most important legacies of Pema Lingpa are of the numerous establishments and institutions founded by his reincarnations and descendants which influnced the religious and social structure of the Bhutanese society.

• .      The Family Line (དུང་བརྒྱུད།)
• .      The reincarnation Line (སྤྲུལ་སྐུ།)
• .      The Transmission/disciple Line (ཆོས་བརྒྱུད།)

 

1). The Family Line (དུང་བརྒྱུད།)

 

1.      i). Tamzhing Choeje in Bumthang.

Founded by Drakpa Gyalpo but continued this lineage by his youngest brother, Sangdag after his death.

2.  ii). Choeje of Tsakaling, Drophu, Drametse and Yagang in Monggar were started by Sangdag, the youngest son of Pema Lingpa.

3.      iii) Prakar Zhelngo (Chumey Dung) was started by Dawa Gyaltshen in Chumey, Bumthang.

4.      iv). Khochung Choeje (Kurtoe)and Bidung Choeje (Trashigang) were established by Kuenga Wangpo.

5.  (v) Dungkhar Choeje in Kurtoe and Kheri Choeje (Pema Gatshel) were founded by the descendants of Kuenga Wangpo.

2) The reincarnation Line (སྤྲུལ་སྐུ།)

 

>The Pema Lingpa’s reincarnations, his son Dawa Gyaltshen’s reincarnations and Pema Thinley’s (Dawa Gyaltshen’s son and Grandson to Pema Lingpa) reincarnations together known as Peling Yabsey Sum (པད་གླིང་ཡབ་སྲས་གསུམ།)

Left to Right: Gangtey Truelku Kuenzang Pema Namgyal, Sungtruel Rinpoche and, Thuksey Rinpoche.

1.      i). Lhalung Sungtruel (eleventh reincarnation)

>The Sungtruel Rinpoche (Peling Sungtruel) is the direct reincarnation of Pema Lingpa. The current Sungtruel is 11^th reincarnation. He heads the Drametsi Monastery (founded of Ani Choten Zangmo, granddaughter of Pema Lingpa) in Monggar, Kenchogsum Monastery (Bumthang) and Lhalung Monastery in Tibet.

2.     ii) Thuksey Dawa Gyaltshen (11^th reincarnation)

>The reincarnation of Dawa Gyaltshen is referred as Peling Thugsey. The current Thugsey is the 11^th reincarnation, the Peling Thuksey Yangsi Rinpochhe

3.     iii). Gyalse Pema Thinley (9^th reincarnation)

>The reincarnation of Pema Thinley (grandson of Pema Lingpa) is referred as Peling Gyalsey or also known as Gangtey Truelku. The Gangtey Truelku lineage was founded by Pema Thinley. The present Gangtey Truelku is the 9^th reincarnation of Pema Thinley.

 

3. The transmission/disciple Line (ཆོས་བརྒྱུད།)

1.      >Terteon Tshering Dorji from Paro under the guidance of Thugsey Dawa Gyaltshen. He built temple at Dongkarla in Paro. He also discovered treasures in Tibet.

2.      >Terteon Ngawang Drakpa. He was the follower of Thugse Dawa Gyaltshen and had discovered several treasures in Paro.

3.      >Zhanda Gyaltshen (from the family of Hungrel Drungdrung, Paro) and Yongdrak Gyatsho discovered the treasures from Mebartsho following the footsteps of Pema Lingpa.

3. Religious dances

Several religious dances have been composed by Pema Lingpa which are still performed across the country in the temples. Some of the dances are:

-Peling Terchham (Dance of Treasure Discovery)

-Peling Ging Sum

-Ging Tsholing.