Lopön Ögyen Tanzin Rinpoche
with Khandro Déchen and Ngak’chang Rinpoche
Lopön Ögyen Tanzin Rinpoche has great respect for women and has engaged in many pilgrimages to sites which are sacred to Yeshé Tsogyel. He was thrilled to meet Khandro Déchen and presented her with the yidam’s peaceful silver ankle ornaments, and insisted on attaching them himself as an expression of devotion.
During the apprentice retreat Ngak’chang Rinpoche requested Lopön Ögyen Tanzin Rinpoche to give the gö kar chang lo ‘hair vows’ and Lopön Ögyen Tanzin Rinpoche requested Ngak’chang Rinpoche to give transmission of the 21 Sem’dzin from Dzogchen men-ngag-dé.
Lopön Ögyen Tanzin Rinpoche is a Nyingma Lama and ngakpa who is equally as committed to the preservation and propagation of the gö kar chang lo’i dé as Khandro Déchen and Ngak’chang Rinpoche, and has established a Ngak’phang Dratsang in Pemakö – one of the hidden lands of Padmasambhava. This Ngak’phang Dratsang however is unusual inasmuch as it is an orphanage and a school for children which will provide an all round education as well as a training which leads the boys and girls of the Dratsang toward possible adult lives as ngakpas and ngakmas.
The Ngak’phang Dratsang was named ‘Ngagyür Lhundrüp Tobgyé Ling’ (sNga ’gyur yo ga’i sGrub sDe lhun grub sTobs rGyas gLing – Strengthening the Spontaneous Force) by HH Minling Trichen Rinpoche, the current Head of the Nyingma Tradition. Is it situated in Pemakö, Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern Himalayas. Arunachal Pradesh borders India in the Southwest, Bhutan in the West, Burma in the West, and Tibet in the North and Northeast. The terrain is highly diverse, containing mountains, open plains, jungle, and dense forest. Arunachal Pradesh is a protected mountainous area with distinctive characteristics due to its geographical isolation – e.g. the Dratsang is located in an area where people belong to Khamba tribes and speak Mönpa, a Tibetan dialect (Mön was the birth place of Mönmo Tashi Chhi’drèn).
