A Brief Bio of Khenpo Sönam Döndrup
Compiled by Rigdzin Karma, Direct Disciple, rendered into English by Claude
Namo Guru Ratnatrayaya,
In the muddy pool of impure aggregates and elements, Though illusory reflections — like the moon shimmering in water — arise and perform their dance to tame beings, Not once do they waver from the stainless, unborn expanse. I bow at the feet of the Guru, embodiment of the Three Kāyas in one.
Here, scattering the flower of devotion across the sky of longing, I speak briefly of the deeds of the glorious Lama.
Birth and Renunciation
He who came to be known to all as Khenpo Sönam Döndrup — whose fuller name, Jatral Namkhar Dönkün Drubpa, speaks of one who has abandoned all worldly activity, white as space itself — was born in the Iron Female Bird Year, 1921, in the village of Phodrong in the district of Bumthang, central Bhutan. His father was Trinley Dorje; his mother, Sönam Budar.
At twenty-four, gazing upon existence as an ocean of suffering — its waves of birth, sickness, aging, and death unceasing — and seeing his own life as a butter lamp flickering in the wind, endlessly caught in the snare of worldly entanglement, he recognized that a life blessed with dharmic opportunity yet squandered in mere farming held no essence whatsoever. He told his mother he wished to go and practice the Dharma.
His mother's reply was characteristic: “If you go, go secretly — the household will not let you leave openly.” She quietly prepared a container of tsampa and a few coins, which she hid at the edge of the field.
One day, mid-harvest, he slipped away — fleeing northward toward Monla Karchung. After a day’s journey, he encountered some merchants heading to Lhasa and traveled with them, cutting through hardship without measure. After a month’s journey, he arrived in Lhasa.
Meeting His Root Lama
After spending some months wandering Lhasa, visiting temples and sacred sites, the momentum of former lives stirred. He encountered his sovereign master, Rahor Thubten Chökyi Drakpa, who had just arrived in Lhasa. He requested to be accepted as a disciple — and this was granted. Together they traveled to Samye, that self-perfected citadel of unchanging wonder, the great temple of Migyur Lhundrub.
There, the glorious Rahor Chödrak remained for months, transmitting teachings and empowerments connected to the emanation-tulkus of Orgyen Padma’s lineage. The young Sönam Döndrup entered into service. He began there with reading and writing, and so commenced his life of study and reflection.
Each day he performed hundreds of circumambulations and prostrations at the temple without fail. He fetched heavy loads of firewood, recited prayers before the Lama, and performed tireless service of every kind. Each evening he would light incense, let the fragrant smoke curl upward, and from that twilight hour devote himself to reading and writing.
After some months, he traveled with his root lama by stages across the northern plains to the Lama’s seat at Nyima Changra. So perfectly did their minds merge that Sönam Döndrup offered every form of service — body, speech, and mind — and the Lama, for his part, was delighted beyond measure.
Transmission and Training
As Khenpo himself later recalled: Rahor Chödrak kept nothing in reserve, and accepted nothing in the way of provisions. Whenever the faithful offered even a modest personal gift at the Lama’s feet, and the Lama declined — or gave it away to the monastery stores — Khenpo would feel the hairs of his faith stand on end and tears well in his eyes.
For sixteen years, not the slightest trace of wrong view arose in him toward his Lama’s conduct. Everything the Lama did, he saw as pure and good. With that devotion, he offered whatever service he could, and in exchange received the complete hearing and reflection upon the empowerments, transmissions, and practice instructions of Guhyagarbha Tantra; the experiential transmission of the Yeshe Lama; the practice guidance of the Chöying Dzö; the sole-lineage liberation instructions of Lama Yangtig; and the entirety of the Mennag Dé’s most subtle and crucial points — filled to the brim like a vase.
Beyond this, the outer practice of Lama Yoga, the inner practice of Rigdzin Düpa, and the secret practice of Dugnyel Rangdröl — these were not left as mere transmission and word. He resolved every doubt and obscuration through direct practice, perfecting the two stages into one, until deity, mantra, and wisdom-awareness arose as a single, unified expression.
Return to Bhutan and the Khenpo’s Throne
In 1961, when the glorious Rahor passed into the expanse of Dharmata, Khenpo bore unbearable grief. For nine years he continued making offerings at his Lama’s memorial, receiving teachings on empowerment, transmission, and guidance from non-sectarian masters of all traditions, pressing practice to the very core. He traversed every major sacred site across all three regions of Tibet.
In 1970, at the behest of Dzogchen Polokhen Rinpoche, he returned to Bhutan. Her Royal Highness Phuntsho Chödron Wangmo Wangchuk appointed him as Khenpo — the abbot of the Shedra at Tharpa Ling in Bumthang — and in devotion to his Lama’s vision, he accepted.
For approximately twelve years he served in this role, bestowing the complete teachings of the Thirteen Great Treatises — twice over. These thirteen texts span the full breadth of the Buddhist scholarly tradition:
Abhisamayālamkāra (Ornament of Clear Realization, Asanga) • Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Root Verses on the Middle Way, Nāgārjuna) • Madhyamakāvatāra (Entering the Middle Way, Chandrakīrti) • Catunśataka (Four Hundred Verses, Āryadeva) • Pramānavārttika (Commentary on Valid Cognition, Dharmakīrti) • Pramānasamuccaya (Compendium of Valid Cognition, Dignāga) • Abhidharmakośa (Treasury of Abhidharma, Vasubandhu) • Vinyasūtra (Monastic Discipline, Gunaprabha) • Mahāyānasūtrālankāra (Ornament of the Great Vehicle Sutras, Asanga) • Madhyāntavibhāga (Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes, Asanga) • Dharmadharmatāvibhanga (Distinguishing Phenomena and Suchness, Asanga) • Abhidharmasamuccaya (Compendium of Abhidharma, Asanga) • Bodhisattvacāryāvatāra (Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Śāntideva)
These texts cover the full range of Buddhist learning: Prajñāpāramitā, Madhyamaka, Logic and Epistemology, Abhidharma, Vinaya, Yogācāra, and Bodhisattva conduct.
At the outset of his service, his monthly salary of approximately 300 rupees — he did not spend a single coin on himself. Dedicating it entirely to the benefit of beings and the Dharma, he founded a new retreat center beside the Shedra, providing all conditions for those who wished to practice. He himself served as Drubpön, presiding master of the retreatants, and spread the teaching of both scholarship and practice like a sun rising over the land.
Note: The Indian Rupee was the primary currency in Bhutan until 1974.
Life of Renunciation
Around 1983, he stepped down from the Khenpo’s chair and took up the discipline of complete non-activity. Wandering without fixed abode, he combined retreat practice with dharma teaching, dwelling at Do Rangthag Namgyal Chöling, Dechen Chöling in Thimphu, and Lhugtsho Monastery — gathering and nurturing many fortunate disciples.
Living like a shoot from the great tree of Jigme Gyalwé Nyugu, he taught the Bodhicāryāvatāra hundreds of times. Whatever offerings the faithful made — he declined, or distributed immediately to other practitioners. Plain, simple food was sufficient. He owned nothing beyond two complete sets of robes.
He was a genuine practitioner, untouched by the eight worldly winds — and such practitioners, in this age, are rare beyond rarity. Those few who once existed have either passed to other realms or become so hidden in their practice that to meet the first is very difficult, and to recognize the second even if you do meet them — this, one must confess, is a cause for sadness.
Final Years and Teachings
Until he was nearly ninety, Khenpo Sönam Döndrup looked neither up to exhaustion nor down to frailty. He continued — above, in service of the Lama; below, in service of all beings; and in between, to those fortunate disciples without discrimination — bestowing with vast compassion: the empowerments and instructions of Longchen Nyingthig; the transmissions of the Seven Treasuries of Longchenpa; the oral instructions of The Words of My Perfect Teacher; the practice teachings of the Bodhicāryāvatāra; and the secret instructions on the Great Rainbow Body transference of ‘Ja’ Lus Dorje.
He would say, again and again: “When you consider the kindness you have received — think of my Root Lama, Rahor Chödrak. Direct your gratitude there.” Each time the Lama’s name was uttered, he would place his palms together at his heart, once, in reverence.
When this holy one reached the age of ninety, signs of illness appeared. Faithful disciples and patrons offered whatever medicine and prayers they could. He simply said, again and again: “The time has come for me to go.”
On the sixth day of the eighth Tibetan month of the Iron Male Tiger Year — October 13, 2010 — at the first breaking of dawn, at Dechen Chöling Monastery in Bhutan, he gathered the display of his physical form back into the expanse of Dharmata.
Signs at the Time of PassingThat morning, as the day broke, the gathered community and faithful witnessed signs that arose as common appearance to believers and non-believers alike:
In the East, white clouds unfurled like banners of silk. In the South, a rain of flowers fell. In the West, a canopy of five-colored rainbow light was raised. In the North, the deep voice of a turquoise-blue dragon thundered. In the Center, from within the clouds above the body, a single ray of sunlight fell directly upon it. These signs of liberation, wondrous beyond expression, appeared to all assembled.
When disciples and patrons brought the sacred remains to Tharpa Ling in Bumthang and offered the cremation ceremony, as a sign of his liberation into the realm of Abhirati, five-colored ringsel relics appeared — placed as a field of merit for the faithful to accumulate virtue beyond measure.
Thus was this brief account written by Rigdzin Gyukarna Wangpo, one who stands at the far end of the Khenpo’s direct disciples, in a state of self-arising pure vision, at the mountain hermitage of Ardam Drarong, in the garden of luminous self-appearance — set down in rough draft.
From the vast and wondrous ocean of the Transcendent One’s deeds,
I — like a child fetching water with a speck of grass —
Have gathered but droplets of narrative.
By whatever merit gathered in this drop of telling,
May all beings carry forth your liberation’s story.