The Fourth Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Pema Trinle. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན ༠༤ པདྨ་འཕྲིན་ལས།

b.1641 – d.1717

Incarnations: Dorje Drak Rigdzin རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན།
Tradition: Nyingma རྙིང་མ།
Geography: Dranang གྲ་ནང།
Historical Period: 17^th Century ༡༧ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Dorje Drak རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག།; Monkhar Namseling མོན་མཁར་རྣམ་སྲས་གླིང།; Drak Yongdzong སྒྲགས་ཡང་རྫོང།
Clan: Janak བྱ་ནག།; Namseling རྣམ་སྲས་གླིང།
Name Variants: Dorje Drak 02 Rigdzin Pema Trinle རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན ༠༢ ་པདྨ་འཕྲིན་ལས།; Lobzang Pema Trinle བློ་བཟང་པདྨ་འཕྲིན་ལས།; Pema Trinle Tegchok Wanggyal པདྨ་འཕྲིན་ལས་ཐེག་མཆོག་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ།; Rigdzin Pema Trinle རིག་འཛིན་པདྨ་འཕྲིན་ལས།

Rigdzin Pema Trinle (rigs ‘dzin padma ‘phrin las) was born into the noble Janak (bya nag) family at the private palace of Monkhar Namseling (mon mkhar rnam sras gling) on the south bank of the Tsangpo opposite Samye Monastery (bsam yas), which is still standing. His father was Karma Puntsok Wangpo (karma phun tshogs dbang po) and his mother was named Rigdzin Buti Wangmo (rig ‘dzin bu khrid dbang mo).

At the age of six the boy was recognized by the Third Yolmo Tulku, Tendzin Norbu (yol mo sprul sku 03 bstan ‘dzin nor bu, 1589-1644), and Zurchen Choying Rangdrol (zur chen chos dbyings rang grol, 1604-1669), as the reincarnation of the Third Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Ngakgi Wangpo (rdo rje brag rig ‘dzin 03 ngag gi dbang po, 1580-1639) and was enthroned on the seat of Dorje Drak (rdo rje brag).

Both Tendzin Norbu and Choying Rangdrol had been close disciples of Ngakgi Wangpo, the man responsible for locating Dorje Drak at its present site. Because of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso’s (ta la’i bla ma 05 ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, 1617-1682) patronage of the Jangter (byang gter) tradition and of Dorje Drak (in contrast to other Nyingma lineages and institutions that had close ties to the defeated Tsang King), the Fifth Dalai Lama took a strong interest in the young Dorje Drak incarnation, protecting Dorje Drak and giving Pema Trinle refuge vows and, later, full ordination as well, bestowing on him the name Lobzang Pema Trinle (blo bzang pad+ma ‘phrin las).

Another depiction of the Fourth Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Pema Trinle. Image credit: Treasury of Lives. Click on image to enlarge.

Pema Trinle studied with the Dalai Lama’s own Nyingma teachers, including Zurchen, Menlungpa Lochok Dorje (sman lung pa blo mchog rdo rje, 1595-1671), Minling Terchen Gyurme Dorje (smin gling gter chen ‘gyur med rdo rje, 1646 –1714), and Kangyurwa Gonpo Sonam Chokden (bka’ ‘gyur ba mgon po bsod nams mchog ldan, 1603-1659).

The breadth of Pema Trinle’s learning in both sutra and tantra was legendary. He practiced many teachings from the Sakya tradition, as well as his Nyingma heritage, but he was known principally as a matchless master of the formidable Jangter rituals. In this capacity he served for decades as the chief ritual officiator of the new Tibetan state, presiding over elaborate ceremonies such as the final consecration of the Potala Palace (po ta la) and longevity rites for the young Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (tA la’i bla ma 06 tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho, 1683-1706).

Unlike most of his predecessors, Pema Trinle was a prolific and accomplished author, whose writings on a variety of subjects, chiefly the Nyingma tantras, filled some thirteen volumes. Among his more important works was one on the empowerment of the main Anuyoga tantra, the Gongpa Dupai Do (dgongs pa ‘dus pa’i mdo), which became a central text in the tantra’s transmission. (The work is titled ‘dus pa mdo’i dbang chog dkyil l’khor rgya mtsho’i ‘jug ngogs.) The composition was specifically commissioned by the Fifth Dalai Lama, and reflects the exclusion of Nyingma lineages out of favor with the Fifth Dalai Lama. He was also a treasure revealer, and his disciples included many of the eminent religious figures of the early eighteenth century. Like his predecessors, he also opened and developed several sacred places, including one at Drak Yangdzong (sgrags yang rdzong).

Through the 1660s and 1670s Pema Trinle greatly expanded Dorje Drak Monastery. He also gave extensive teachings on various topics from sutra, tantra, and common subjects regularly to over two thousand monks gathered at the monastery from near and far. It became a showpiece of aesthetic excellence and a center of the monastic arts, setting a precedent for its more ambitious twin, Mindroling.

In 1717, when he was seventy-seven, Pema Trinle was murdered by Mongol Dzungar invaders during their anti-Nyingma and anti-Bon rampage, and Dorje Drak was burned to the ground.

Teachers

• mgon po bsod nams mchog ldan མགོན་པོ་བསོད་ནམས་མཆོག་ལྡན། b.1603 – d.1659
• The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༥ ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1617 – d.1682
• chos dbyings rang grol ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རང་གྲོལ། b.1604 – d.1669
• The Third Yolmo Tulku, Tendzin Norbu ཡོལ་མོ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ ༠༣ བསྟན་འཛིན་ནོར་བུ། b.1589 – d.1644
• blo mchog rdo rje བློ་མཆོག་རྡོ་རྗེ། b.1595 – d.1671
• ‘gyur med rdo rje འགྱུར་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ། b.1646 – d.1714

Students

• karma smon lam ཀརྨ་སྨོན་ལམ།
• pad+ma dbang rgyal པདྨ་དབང་རྒྱལ།
• rig ‘dzin dbang rgyal རིག་འཛིན་དབང་རྒྱལ།
• blo bzang bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1639
• Nyima Drakpa ཉི་མ་གྲགས་པ། b.1647 – d.1710
• o rgyan chos kyi grags pa ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ། b.1676
• ‘gyur med rdo rje འགྱུར་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ། b.1646 – d.1714
• Pelden Tashi དཔལ་ལྡན་བཀྲ་ཤིས། b.1688 – d.1743
• d+harma shrI དྷརྨ་ཤྲཱི། b.1654 – d.1718
• kun dga’ lhun grub ཀུན་དགའ་ལྷུན་གྲུབ། b.1654 – d.1726
• blo bzang lha mchog བློ་བཟང་ལྷ་མཆོག། d.1747
• ngag dbang nor bu rgyal mtshan ངག་དབང་ནོར་བུ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1669

Previous Incarnations

• The First Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Rigdzin Godemchen Ngodrub Gyeltsen རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན ༠༡ རིག་འཛིན་རྒོད་ལྡེམ་ཆེན་དངོས་གྲུབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1337 – d.1409
• The Second Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Lekden Dorje རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན ༠༢ ལེགས་ལྡན་རྡོ་རྗེ། b.1452 – d.1565
• The Third Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Ngakgi Wangpo རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན ༠༣ ངག་གི་དབང་པོ། b.1580 – d.1639

Subsequent Incarnations

• The Fifth Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Kelzang Pema Wangchuk རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན ༠༥ སྐལ་བཟང་པདྨ་དབང་ཕྱུག། b.1720 – d.1771
• The Sixth Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Kunzang Gyurme Lhundrub རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན ༠༦ ཀུན་བཟང་འགྱུར་མེད་ལྷུན་གྲུབ། b.1775? – d.1810?
• The Seventh Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Ngawang Jampel Mingyur Lhundrub Dorje རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན ༠༧ ངག་དབང་འཇམ་དཔལ་མི་འགྱུར་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་རྡོ་རྗེ། b.1810 – d.1844
• The Eighth Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Kelzang Pema Wanggyel རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན ༠༨ སྐལ་བཟང་པདྨ་དབང་རྒྱལ། b.1848 – d.1880
• The Ninth Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Tubten Chowang Nyamnyi Dorje རྡོ་རྗེ་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན ༠༩ ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཆོས་དབང་མཉམ་ཉིད་རྡོ་རྗེ། b.1886 – d.1933

Bibliography

• Bkra shis thobs rgyal. 1990. Bstan pa’i snying po gsang chen snga ‘gyur nges don zab mo’i chos kyi yung ba gsal bar byed pa’i legs bshad mkhas pa dga’ byed ngo mtshar gtam gyi rol mtsho. Delhi: Tibetan Cultural Printing Press.
• Dudjom Rinpoche. 2002. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Gyurme Dorje and Matthew Kapstein, trans. Boston: Wisdom.
• Dalton, Jacob. 2002. The Uses of the Dgongs pa ‘dus pa’i mdo in the Development of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, pp. 161-203.
• Kun bzang ‘gro ‘dul rdo rje. 2004. Thub bstan rdo rje brag dgon gyi byung bam do tsam drjod pa ngo mtshar bai+DUr+ya’i phreng ba, pp. 51-55. TBRC W00KG03797.
• Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho. 2007. Byang pa rig ‘dzin chen po ngag gi dbang po’i rnam par thar pa ngo mtshar bkod pa rgya mtsho (byang chen rnam thar). In Gsung ‘bum/ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, vol. 8, pp. 669-796. Dharamsala: Nam gsal sgron ma. TBRC W2CZ5990.

Source: Samten Chhosphel, “The Fourth Dorje Drak Rigdzin, Pema Trinle,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 10, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Pema-Trinle/9169.

Samten Chhosphel is an independent scholar with PhD from the Central University of Tibetan Studies (CUTS) at Sarnath, Varanasi, India. He has a Master’s degree in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College, Boston, MA. After serving as the In-charge of Publication Department of CUTS for 26 years, he immigrated to the United States in 2009 and is currently an adjunct Assistant Professor at the City University of New York, and Language Associate in Columbia University.

Published December 2009
Updated October 2012

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.

Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Fourth-Dorje-Drak-Rigdzin/TBRC_P657. Click to enlarge.

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