Pema Dongag Tenzin, the mahapandita, was born to a family of a minister of the Emperor of China with many marvellous signs in 1830, the Iron Male Tiger year of the 14th rabjung cycle. From a very young age, the signs of awakening his potential were evident. As a child’s game, he would keep the soles of his feet on the point of a sharp Chinese knife raised upwards and stand on it by holding his breath. He easily mastered the art of reading and writing without any difficulty. At the age of ten, he received the teachings of the Namchö preliminary practices from the sublime teacher, his uncle Sangye Yeshe, in the land of Pema Ӧd which caused him to cultivate genuine renunciation from the core of his heart. An uncontrived mind for practicing true Dharma arose within him. He then went to Palyul Monastery with the help of some monks. In accordance with the thoughts shared in common among many great lamas, it was settled that he was the emanation of Rigzin Kunzang Sherab and was enthroned at the holy mountain Wödsal Gang.
Pema Dongag Tenzin received the experiential teachings of the Namchö Dzogchen, instructions on the channels and winds, the complete transmission of the terma teachings of Ratna Lingpa, and many other profound instructions from the master Karma Gyurmed. When he was 22, he took full ordination vows from Situ Pema Nyinjed and was named Karma Kunzang Tenzin. He studied and was trained in the sutras and tantras by many learned and accomplished masters. Coming to possess supreme knowledge of the sutras and tantras, along with conventional sciences, the fame of his intellect widely spread.
Through meditation, he practiced the instructions of the paths of ‘primordial breakthrough’ and ‘spontaneous leap-over’, the heart essence of Dzogchen, as well as the accomplishment of the three kayas and many others. As a sign of this, he brought under control the actual qualities, which are the signs of generation, completion and the great perfection stages. He had visions of infinite numbers of supreme yidam deities, and bound Dharma protectors into servitude. Without obscuration, he could see hidden phenomena like the minds of others and so forth.
Having studied and trained intensively, Pema Dongag Tenzin was then enthroned as the seventh throneholder of Palyul Namgyal Jangchub Choling. Shouldering the responsibilities of the monastery, he repeatedly bestowed empowerments, oral transmissions, pith instructions and many other profound teachings of the Palyul tradition, as well as those of other lineages. Thus his students increased and the doctrine flourished impartially. The tradition of Vinaya widely increased after he gave the full vows of a monk to more than a thousand and gave counsel on ordination all along. He travelled to many places giving various transmissions and profound instructions in order to spread the precious teachings of the Buddha in every way through exposition, debate and composition. He also built many temples and stupas, and had a number of new sacred objects created that are the symbols of enlightened body, speech and mind. Thus serving beings, he was like a second Buddha and had numerous great beings as disciples. In the later stage of his life, he accumulated immense merit while dwelling in strict retreat in Palyul Monastery. In 1892 at the age of 63, having accomplished the great purpose of the doctrine and sentient beings, he dissolved into the sphere of reality with many wondrous signs of having attained the higher stages and paths.
By Karma Tseten
Final Year, NNNI
