The Gyalwang Drukpa

Lama told me recently that it was one of the great achievements in his life to be able to serve his guru in this way. He was the one who gave us the privilege of having our guru remain with us. Moreover, due to all the compassionate efforts of these masters, not only did Thuksey Rinpoche and them make themselves available for us, but also managed to bring out from Tibet some of the precious relics and ritual adornments of the Drukpa Lineage such as the Six Ornaments of Naropa. Finally, they secured rest in a refugee camp call Buxa in West Bengal, where the 11th Gyalwang Drukpa passed away the following year at the age of twenty-nine. Thereafter, my guru was entrusted with the duty of resettling the Drukpa order as refugees in the middle of nowhere, and of looking for the reincarnation of the 11th Drukpa. The amount of effort that he put into rebuilding, not only the external constructions but the inner constructions of people's discipline, is really something beyond our imagination. If one does not have their base in profound compassion, one will never ever be able to carry out this kind of responsibility.

After the discovery and enthronement of the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa - that is me! - as the reincarnation of his father, guru, or whatever complicated way you would like to put it, my guru dedicated the remainder of his life to nurturing and taking care of me, not only in the spiritual sense, but also in the sense of a pleasing administration and precise beneficence of mundane achievement. In early 1970, he built our existing temple, along with the entire east wing of our monastery. Before that, he nurtured many poor people and monks by feeding, educating and accommodating them for many years. When the monastery was under construction, those monks at that time served my guru doing laborious work tirelessly throughout the period of construction, which lasted more than ten years. I am very proud of them that they could manage to serve their guru unconditionally, almost like the way Milarepa did. Other than those monks, we did not have much human support. Our real support came from non-human sources. When we needed building materials they miraculously appeared. Building stones just came to be near the monastery when lightning struck the mountain and caused an avalanche. We only had to pick it all up. We did a good turn for the local government at the same time! In the same way, sand was provided easily. Water was created by natural spring and rainfall whenever we need, and to this day we also have water flowing from a perpetual spring. I know that all of these things happened due to his divine power. So I would say we had more help from our protectors and divine beings then those mundane local human beings for the construction of the current Druk Sanga Choeling Monastery. Nowadays, people call it Dali Gonpa, whose name is derived from the name of the location where the monastery is situated. Apart from teachings and divine activities in India and the Himalayan region, my guru visited Europe and established three Drukpa chapters in France In 1981.