Other Lamas: His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya

March-April 2000

His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya is a Sakya lineage holder who now lives in the United States. He was born in Tibet in 1929, the year of the Earth Snake. His father was Trichen Ngawang Thutop Wangchuk, the last great throne-holder in Sakya, Tibet, and his mother was Gyalyum Dechen Drolma. He was born into a family famed for its three excellent names: Divine (Hla), Strife (Khön), and Pale Earth (Sakya).

There were five generations of the Hla lineage and eleven of the Hla-Khön lineage (one Hla-Khön descendent was one of the first seven Tibetans to be ordained as a monk and was also a personal disciple of Padmasambhava).

In 1042, Atisha, the great Indian Buddhist master, predicted the manifestations of many emanations of the three bodhisattvas: Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri and Vajrapani, who would spread the Buddhist doctrine in Tibet. On that site where Atisha prophesized the emanations, Khön Gönchok Gyalpo (1034-1102), father of Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158), built the first Sakya monastery (1073). Subsequently, the Khön family, the Sakya school and the town of Sakya all took their names from that monastery. Khön Gönchok Gyalpop was the first member of the Khön lineage to be called “Sakya.” His son Sachen Kunga Nyingpo was the first of the five great founding lamas of the Sakya school; the others are Lopön Sönam Tsemo (1142-1182), Jetsün Dragpa Gyaltsen (1147-1216), Sakya Pandita (1182-1251), and Chögyal Phakpa (1235-1280). Up to Jigdal Dagchen Sakya, there have been 26 generations of the Sakya-Khön lineage.

Before he was born, Jigdal Dagchen Sakya’s mother was visited by Sakya Ngor Abbot Ewam Luding Khenchen Jamyang Chökyi Nyima (the previous incarnation of Jigdal Dagchen Rinpoche), and she requested the abbot to bless her family and pray she has a son.

When the abbot left her area, he asked Gyalyum Dechen Drolma to keep his mala and teacup until he returned. However, he passed away less than a year later. Within a year, Gyalyum Dechen Drolma gave birth to Jigdal Dagchen Rinpoche. Prior to his birth, his mother had an auspicious dream about climbing a mountain and finding a knife (which symbolizes Manjushri, Buddha of Wisdom).

After successfully completing studies ranging from the alphabet, philosophy and the four classes of tantra to Sakya tutelary deities and tantric religious rites, Jigdal Dagchen Sakya received from his father the unbroken Sakya Khön lineage transmission of Vajrakilaya and the complete Lamdre Tsogshey (The Path and its Fruit), which is the main teaching of the Sakya tradition. Thus, Jigdal Dagchen Sakya’s first root lama was his father, Trichen Ngawang Thutop Wangchuk, who is well-remembered for his kindly leadership, clairvoyance and miraculous deeds.

After mastering the Lamdre teachings, other instructions and explanations of the Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana systems of Buddhism, Jigdal Dagchen Sakya bestowed the Lamdre and gave teachings to hundreds of practitioners: lamas, monks, nuns and lay persons of Sakya.

When he was 23, Jigdal Dagchen Sakya continued the Sakya-Khön custom of the ngachang (mantra-holder: a white-robed, married lama) tradition, as opposed to the rapchung (red-robed, ordained monk) tradition, and married Sonam Tsezom, the niece of His Eminence Dezhung Rinpoche. When she married, her name became Jamyang and her title became Dagmo Kusho.

Two years later, his father Trichen Ngawang Thutop Wangchuk passed away. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya suddenly became interim throne-holder, but decided to take a leave of absence as Sakya’s ruler so he could travel to East Tibet and complete his Dharma education. During his stay in Kham, he received teachings from about 35 lamas, including his root lamas, Dzongsar Khyentse Jamyang Chökyi Lodrö Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Both renowned masters were Ri-me (non-sectarian) lamas of the Sakya and Nyingma traditions, respectively.

In 1954, Jigdal Dagchen Sakya accompanied His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama and other Tibetan religious leaders and nobility to China to meet with Chinese political leaders including Mao Zedong.

From China, Jigdal Dagchen Sakya returned to Kham where he taught the Lamdre Tsogshey to 1,200 practitioners and founded 17 Sakya colleges and 10 retreat centers. Upon return to Sakya in 1956, he directed the making of religious costumes, instruments and other accoutrements. Secondly, he had many new statues built for newly restored temples. After the Chinese Communist take-over of Tibet in 1959, Jigdal Dagchen Sakya and his family had no choice but to flee their homeland to India through Bhutan. In India, he became the Sakya representative to the Tibetan Religious Office. In 1960, he was invited to Seattle, Washington, USA by the Rockefeller Foundation to participate in a research project on Tibetan civilization at the University of Washington. In 1974, at the request of students, Jigdal Dagchen Sakya and Dezhung Rinpoche founded Sakya Tegchen Choling, Center for the Study of Tibetan Buddhism, in Seattle. Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism was established in 1984 when he purchased a First Presbyterian Church, which has been transformed into a sanctuary for Buddhadharma. Although the main practices at Sakya Monastery are based on Buddha’s teachings according to the Sakya school, it is also a center for Ri-me teachings. He is now the oldest living lineage holder of the Ri-me tradition. During its remodeling process, Sakya Monastery was featured in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1993 film The Little Buddha.

Many distinguished lamas have come to Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism to give initiations and teachings, including Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya regards Lama Zopa Rinpoche as a highly accomplished and knowledgeable Gelugpa lama. They met in 1989 at His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Dzogchen teachings in California and since then have had a “religious activity” connection.

His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya has dedicated much of his life in Seattle to the development of Sakya Monastery for the preservation of Tibetan culture, and for making Tibetan Buddhism available to all who are interested. He also established the Virupa Ecumenical Institute (the educational branch of the monastery) in 1997. Its ongoing activities include Tibetan language classes, classes and lectures on Buddhism, interfaith dialogues and gatherings, cultural programs and a children’s Dharma School. Future projects at Sakya Monastery include the search for and development of a retreat site, completion of the library annex (the Pacific Northwest Branch of Dharamsala’s Library of Tibetan Works and Archive) and publication of meditation texts.

His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya wrote this, a verse summary of a lecture, given at Olympia, Washington, in the year of the Water Pig, 1983:

The pure, cool water of Tibet’s previous history

Has the auspicious marks of an orderly flow of elegant sayings.

From within the precious vase of my mind,

Can not your thirst be quenched by study and reflection?

Therefore, I delight in drawing you a picture

To make universally known without obstruction in three worlds,

The beautiful form of circumstances and events.

Consider a place enclosed, an extensive lotus garden

With the thousand movements of dancing bees,

Who search and delight in the taste of lotus-knowledge;

I also see the hive where I and others live.

Accordingly, having defeated the army of dark ignorance

With the honey of great intelligence, with which one studies

The great and profound stories of former times,

I imagine this should have some benefit.

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