Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Lama Gyaltsen Rinpoche

Rang-jung Chörten, 1991

Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Lama Gyaltsen Rinpoche became friends in 1981 at McLeod Ganj. At that time Gyaltsen Rinpoche held the post of representative of the Nyingma Tradition within the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh Northern India. During his term of office, Gyaltsen Rinpoche lived at Zil-ngön Ka-gyèd Ling, the Gompa of Ngak’chang Yeshé Dorje Rinpoche. The pilgrimage they made together to the sacred lake of Tso Pema is recorded by Gyaltsen Rinpoche in the introduction to Wearing the Body of Visions and Ngak’chang Rinpoche refers to it in Spectrum of Ecstasy.

In this photograph, Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Gyaltsen Rinpoche are sitting in the garden of Gyaltsen Rinpoche’s previous residence, which was situated near the Great Self-arisen Chörten – Rang-jung Chörten (Swayambhu) in Kathmandu, Nepal. The hat Ngak’chang Rinpoche is wearing is called the Dorje Zahorma and it was made for him at that time. During 1991 the two Lama friends made a pilgrimage to Sikkim where they visited Dodrüpchen Sangyum and a famous ‘hidden land’ of Padmasambhava.