After five years of anticipation, His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya’s biography is completed! The biography covers Dagchen Rinpoche’s entire life from birth until the present, with more emphasis on his life and training in Tibet than on his life here in America.
Special thanks to the Venerable Tulku Yeshi Gyatso who put in all the time and effort to thoroughly research, edit, and write this precious gSung sNams (lama’s life story). Tulku Yeshi feels that it was his “very good fortune” to have the opportunity in this life to write H.H. Dagchen Rinpoche’s biography. The four volume biography is written in Tibetan and will be made available in January 2009. Grants are being pursued for the translation into English.
The biography was constructed from a series of interviews with Dagchen Rinpoche, Sakya family members, and students, and from a two volume autobiography, A Rainbow Creation, previously compiled by Dagchen Rinpoche in 1987.
The biography begins with a condensed version of the first thousand years of the Sakya lineage and then moves on to document Dagchen Rinpoche’s experiences with his lamas: his father, H.H. Trichen Ngawang Thutop Wangchuk, H.E. Dzongsar Khyentse Jamyang Chokyi Lodro Rinpoche, and H.E. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. There is extensive documentation of his bestowal of the Lamdre teachings which he has given five times in his life and his life in exile in India and America. Also included is Dagchen Rinpoche’s vision of re-building the Sakya Thubten Trulpe Lha Kang Chenmo, a Sutrayana monastery, in India. These are just a few of the highlights that we can look forward to!