When Gyalwa Gotsanpga meditated in a Vultures' nest high in the Himalayas, he took a vow, ""You, the bird, the rock and I, the man, until I realise the oneness of the three, I will not leave this spot." He indeed achieved enlightenment after that.

Gotsangpa was born in Lhodrak, South Tibet, in 1189. My mother also came from this holy place. He was already a very special child since birth and a very quick learner with an extremely kind heart. His mother was not loyal to his father and he was in fact fathered by another man. But when his mother wanted to take him back to his biological father, whom she claimed was a rich man, he refused to go with her and stayed back to take care of his other father. The issue of "relationship" was already quite a problematic one for people those days, hundreds of years ago. That really shows how practical Buddha's teachings are, time doesn't really matter, samsara, the three poisons, etc. are everywhere even if you move samsara to another time, to another space, it's still samsara.

One day, Gotsangpa heard the name of his destined guru "Tsangpa Gyare", the one who founded our Dragon Lineage, from a singer who was a friend, and then he felt spontaneous devotion that took him to Ralung, one of our seats in Tibet. At his young age of 19, he received ordination from Tsangpa Gyare who gave him the name "Gonpo Dorje", so his full name became "Gotsangpa Gonpo Dorje". By the way, Gotsangpa was very fond of singing, that's why he became connected through a singer. This really shows how great the blessing of the Bodhisattvas and enlightened beings are. When your mind is ready and when your past good karma ripens, you will meet your guru, there is no doubt about this. Besides, Gotsangpa loved to sing. He sang his way happily to nirvana, in the middle of his crying disciples. This is such a brave and joyful attitude of a great yogi.

Gotsangpa was not only recognised as the authentic reincarnation of Jetsun Milarepa, he was respected as Milarepa because he was truly a wandering yogi who practised in different places, in different caves, leaving his footprints everywhere in the Himalayas, practising non-attachment and all the teachings that his beloved guru passed onto him.

When Tsangpa Gyare passed away, Gotsangpa took 12 vows for the rest of his life as support of his own spiritual practice and enlightened activities. All the vows were related to non-attachment, taking the sufferings of others, treating every being as his own guru, giving joy to others, having firm commitment to attain enlightenment, etc. It was without a single moment that Gotsangpa did not take all the 12 vows. This was how strong Gotsangpa was. For many of us, we are very flimsy. We take vows and we give them up. Our vows are like a boost to our own ego, instead of becoming less egotistic, our ego is inflated through telling people and ourselves how many vows we have been taking and the number of years we have been in the retreat, or how many retreats we have done. All these things become a fashion statement. It was not like that with our yogis. Gotsangpa was in retreat ever since he met his guru, he was aiming for enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. He was not aiming to be known as "Gyalwa" which means 'Victorious One" or aiming to be putting his name in history books, or anything of this sort. He was such a wandering yogi that I sometimes think people like us in this degenerate time would not even appreciate his way of living, his way of wandering or showing the nature of our mind. Gotsangpa would have no job in our world, he needs to have brocade, high thrones and lots of entourage and grand monasteries, otherwise no one would be attracted to his profound teachings. Sometimes, many people, especially Westerners, ask me questions like, "Why you people need to build grand monasteries, golden thrones, wear brocades and have so many people serving as your entourage? I thought people like you should renounce and live like a forest monk (or monkey)?" Well, I didn't say anything. I would love to do that, to renounce all these fancy things and live in a cave, everyone knows that the most enjoyable time and the highlights of my life are the time I used to spend in the different caves in Sikkim, Ladakh, Lahaul and Nepal. But what is the result. By not respecting this way of living by a master, great or small master doesn't matter, generally the teaching will not go very far and the lineage will falter. So all I have to say is I would even suggest Gotsangpa to change his style and skill of teachings, if I meet him today.

One of my late gurus, who is truly the greatest Mahamudra master that I could find, Lobpon Gangri, he was indeed the authentic incarnation of Gotsangpa. He never slept, he never stayed in one place for too long and he wandered in the jungle, in the forest. Poor him only had a few students like me. I had wished that his teachings would spread very far and wide. But his way of approaching the nature of mind might not be suitable for the general crowd. This is how unlucky we all are. Great masters need to have great students and disciples to sustain their livelihood and their lineage. I hope I am not failing him, while I am doing everything to spread the Drukpa Lineage which is my top priority so that some others will not think that our precious lineage of great yogis is dying and going to be disappearing, I am keeping inner renunciation all the time as a way to keep my gurus' teachings fresh and to keep whatever blessings and teachings I have received from my precious gurus as pure and uncontaminated as possible so that whatever I am giving to you all would be the same as what I have received. This is one of my main aims.

Gyalwa Gotsangpa never stayed in the same place twice, this was the way that he practised non-attachment. He was very connected to the practice of Chakrasamvara, since Tsangpa Gyare himself was truly an emanation of Chakrasamvara. So Gotsangpa wandered to many holy places and also discovered many holy places related to Chakrasamvara. All of us, the forthcoming pilgrims to Mount Kailash, should thank Gotsangpa a lot, because he was the key person who charted the kora path for the pilgrims, before that everyone did kora his or her own way. But after Gotsangpa visited there, he put a very nice route so that every point there is a holy mark for us to pay homage and each mark or cave that Gotsangpa discovered had a small gompa built to it. All these gompas in Kailash are under one of my colleagues, H.E. Chogdra Rinpoche, who now lives in Dingpoche, Tibet. I hope and pray that he is able to keep these gompas in our lineage so that everyone will be able to remember the great deeds of Gotsangpa and receive blessings of his enlightened mind whenever we visit these holy places, that will give us tremendous encouragement on the spiritual path.

Gotsangpa spent 4 years in Mount Kailash and left many of his hand prints, foot prints and all kinds of different prints there, especially in Drira Phug, the cave where Gotsanpga left his hat print. He said that whatever beings that would come to this cave would be reborn in higher realms. He named this cave after a female yak, which is called "Dri" in Tibetan, whom he believed was an emanation of Lion-Faced Dakini sent by his guru to lead him on the kora. The Dri disappeared below the present day cave after leaving her footprints on a rock near the cave and prints of her horn in the cave, so the full name of Drira Phug which is Dri Thim Drira Phug means "the cave where the Drong disappeared and left the print of her horn".

Gotsangpa also travelled to as far as Keylang in Lahaul, Gotsang Cave in Ladakh (which is above Hemis Monastery), Tsari in Tibet (a holy place of Chakrasamvara discovered by Tsangpa Gyare) and many other places in the Himalayas. He passed away in 1258 at the age of 70.

The followers of Gotsangpa became known as Tod-Druk or the Upper Drukpas. As requested by many followers, monks and nuns of the Tod-Druk who are displaced in many places in the Himalayas, I have taken the personal responsibility to develop a centre of monastic training for male and female practitioners, educational institute and a community centre to restore the Tod-Druk Lineage, a part of our Dragon Order, in Sikkim. My godfather Felix and his wife Shirly have so kindly offered to share this heavy responsibility with me. I want to thank them for this. As myself being who I am, I have to work very hard to restore many historical pieces and heritages, both spiritual and physical, of our 800 over years of legacy and responsibility. I am very moved to know that many people, my friends and students, so often offer to share this responsibility with me, with one-pointed direction. My wish is that our lineage will continue to live for as long as space pervades, for as long as we are able to benefit countless beings with the pure, uncontaminated blessing, love, wisdom and compassion of our lineage and its forefathers.

Well, I don't know if our good karma will ripen for our visit to Mount Kailash next year, but I am praying and I hope you are joining me in this aspiration prayer too.

There are many things to tell you about Gotsangpa, I just want to give you a very short introduction and after 3 years, I think, Venerable Jinba, one of the disciples of the late Khamtrul Rinpoche who was the greatest hero of our lineage, will be able to show us all the full English translation of Gotsangpa's biography. I think we all, followers of the Dragon Lineage, should be helping her achieve this.

It's getting a little late. I am going to give some teachings. When I come back, I want to share some wonderful news with you.