The Gyalwang Drukpa

My father, Zhichen Bairo Rinpoche, is actually a very important and well-known master of the Nyingma Kathog tradition. He is the head of Zhichen Kharmar Sangag Tangye Ling in Gulok, one of the major branches of Kathog Dorje Dhan in eastern Tibet, which has its own group of over 20 branch monasteries throughout the region. Many people told me that my father had performed many miracles when he was in eastern Tibet. He left his footprints, palm prints and several sticks in different rocks, when he was there. Like a mischievous child, he did all this externally with a lot of fun, but I believe that secretly he left many of his blessings behind before moving to India.

My father had never wanted to give me away to any monastery, because he knew that the life of a tulku must be very difficult. Too bad that my birth was announced publicly on the holy 10th day where so many people gathered around these great masters such as the king of Tertons, His Holiness the late Dudjom Rinpoche and many others. Everyone felt that a son from my father must definitely be someone special, those who have known me for a long time must be thinking that people had made a wrong mistake by assuming that. A great father does not necessarily have a great son.

So at the end, many monasteries tried to recognise me as their Tulku, and my parents had to run away from these different monasteries. My parents had tried their best to hide me from many people, but obviously did not succeed and my talkativeness and too much of showing off at infancy put me now in this stressful position. I should not be complaining of course, because I have great parents who have been supporting me morally and materially. So far, I have been very lucky.

I am happy to be able to spend some time with my parents these days. The thing I feel not very happy about is to see my father getting old. I know this is the nature of life for everybody including myself. But somehow, I find it quite difficult to accept. My father, until recently, was so active and happy, but he has not been well and this is bringing him down morally as he often feels that he can no longer contribute his life for benefiting beings and the people around him, especially me, his beloved son. Compared to my father, I am really so lazy and dumb. Even now, he is so active, full of live and full of humour. I am the exact opposite. He is optimistic, I am pessimistic. He is so tall, I am so short. But we love each other dearly.

You simply cannot imagine how difficult it was for the Drukpa Lineage when I was taken back to my monastery in Darjeeling. My late guru, Thuksey Rinpoche, had bought a piece of small land from a tea plantation to resettle our small community who had come out from Tibet. As you know, the lineage is truly a lineage of yogis, so I could say that many of the masters and their entourage who came out to India then were materially unprepared. It was very difficult, but I had great memory of my beloved guru and the community who were financially quite poor but spiritually extremely well-to-do.