Lingtsang Gyalpo Wangchen Tenzin

Lingtsang Gyalpo Wangchen Tenzin (གླིང་ཚང་རྒྱལ་པོ་དབང་ཆེན་བསྟན་འཛིན་) was the king of the region of Ling and a tertön famous for his revelation of the long life practice focusing on the consort of Amitayus, known as tséyum tsendali. He was a disciple of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and a teacher of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. He had three sons and one daughter, Dechen Tso, who was the mother of Khandro Tsering Chödrön. After his death in Dzongri Lingtsang in around 1942 the title of Lingtsang Gyalpo passed to his son Phuntsok Gelek Rabten, a former monk, who later died in Kalimpong. Two of Phuntsok Gelek Rabten's five children are still alive today, a son, Sey Jigme, who currently lives in Chengdu and a daughter who lives in Dehra Dun. [Source: Rigpawiki.



Ling-tsang Gyalpo was a also ngakpa and prodigious phurba master of the Nyingma Tradition. He was known both for his overwhelming kindness, and for his siddhis in connection with the practice of Dorje Phurba. The phurba which he wields in this photograph is one of the treasures of the Confederate Sanghas of Aro. Ling-tsang Gyalpo wears a special type of Dorje Zahorma hat which is used for the practice of Dorje Phurba. The phurba hat in the Aro gTér tradition is dark blue and edged with green and has a wrathful eye emblazoned on the front-most lotus flap of the hat and three wrathful eyes on the back. It is similar to the Za Rahula hat which is completely black. Ling-tsang Gyalpo’s hat is dark maroon edged with red. He wears the white shamthab of a ngakpa and has the uncut hair of the gö-kar-chang-lo. Ling-tsang Gyalpo wore his hair in the thor chog (thor cog) style – a braided bun at the back of the head. This was a style often adopted by phurba masters. He is performing the demon dispelling mudra and engaged in the practice of impaling the four demons of dualism. [Source: Aro Encyclopaedia]



More photos of Lingtsang Gyalpo Wangchen Tenzin are available here.