Enlightened Vagabond/The Palge Lineage

The name Patrul (the “incarnation of Pal”) name comes from the name of the Palge lineage. The rst Palge Lama was Samten Phuntsok. Manjushri was his tutelary deity (yidam), and he had recited Chanting the Names of Manjushri11 more than a hundred thousand times.

The story is told that once, when Palge Samten Phuntsok was on the way to visit Upper Dromza, he stopped in a place called Mamo Thang, the Plain of the Mamos,12 to rest his mule. There he had a vision in which he heard the spontaneous sound of the mani mantra pervading the whole area. In accor- dance with this auspicious omen, Samten Phuntsok chose Mamo Thang as the site for his residence, known as the Palge Labrang,13 also known as Palge Samten Ling.

A great geomancer named Detö Pönmo had come to Mamo Thang years before. She, too, had been struck by the auspicious geography of this wide oodplain, and wrote:

East: sun and moon, like o erings of light;

South: a sweet-smelling forest, like an o ering of incense;

West: snow mountains, like an o ering of tormas;

South: the cooling Dza River, like an o ering of water.

She predicted that building a sacred monument in Mamo Thang would bring great bene t to sentient beings. Accordingly, Palge Samten Phuntsok erected a mani wall.

The wall was made of more than one hundred thousand at stones, each engraved with the mantra Om mani padme hung14 and various mantras, sacred texts, and sacred images, carved by hand. This huge wall of mani stones towered higher than a man’s head and was twice as wide; eventually it extended for nearly a mile. The wall was dedicated to the bene t of all sentient beings—anyone who saw it, touched it, circumambulated it, kept it in mind, or even merely heard of its existence. After the death of Palge Samten Phuntsok, a stupa with white designs containing his relics was built along the Palge Mani Wall.15

The next Palge tulku was found in the Ralo family of the Gya tribe, and became known as Palge Umdze. Recognized by the 3rd Dzogchen Rinpoche, Ngedön Tendzin Zangpo, he manifested wondrous qualities from an early age, declaring as a child, “I’m the one who built the hundred-thousand-mani wall!” Palge Umdze enlarged the wall as an adult.

Once, while he was giving teachings to a crowd of people in Upper Dromza, his ceremonial hat fell o his head and into the lap of a local girl, Drolma—whereupon he said, “My next rebirth will be as her son.” When he was twenty- ve, Palge Umdze decided to go to Lhasa. The night before he was to leave, he visited the Gya Kathok family. After he left them, the family found some ritual objects that he had left behind. When the family tried to return them to him, the tulku refused, saying, “I won’t be needing those for the time being.” He set out for Lhasa and suddenly fell ill shortly after arriving. He died near the hermitage of Götsang. At the place where his body was cremated, even though it was the dead of winter, owers burst into bloom. The local people built a stupa to contain the relics of this unusual young lama from Kham. Advice was sought from Taklung Matrul Rinpoche,16 a lama renowned for his clairvoyance, as to where the Palge Tulku would take rebirth. The lama gave clear indications for nding the tulku. The epithet “Palge Tulku” can be abbreviated as Paltrul or Patrul (trulku is an alternative way of phoneticizing tulku). Thus, the Palge Tulku would become known as Dza Patrul Rinpoche, or Patrul from Dzachukha.

Several incarnations of Patrul Rinpoche became known in eastern Tibet. Tsö Patrul, in Amdo, was a well-respected lama who is said to have ful lled a pre- diction made by Patrul Rinpoche (see the story “The Land of the Insect-Eaters,” page 000, and the accompanying photo of Tsö Patrul). One of Tertön Dudjom Lingpa’s sons became known as an incarnation of Patrul Rinpoche; he was called Patrul Namkhai Jigme (his photo is shown alongside that of Tsö Patrul). Patrul Namkhai Jigme was the brother of Dodrup Tenpai Nyima and passed away in 1961. Khenpo Thubga (Bathur Khenpo Thubten Chöphel) was also considered by some to be an incarnation of Patrul Rinpoche. Since none of these masters was formally acknowledged as the 4th Palge (Patrul Rinpoche being the 3rd to bear the name), we have not included them in the Patrul Rinpoche Lineage Chart on pages 000–000.