Khandro Chenmo was very beautiful and she became a remarkable practitioner. She was loving and compassionate, full of devotion, and with an unfathomable spiritual depth. I knew her quite well in the last years of her life. We first met in Tsurphu when I was twenty-six, then again three years later and then later still in Rumtek, where she finally departed for the invisible realms two years after fleeing Tibet. She was a very special being, a true dakini. She spent almost all her time in retreat practicing sadhana and reciting mantra, and reached a profound level of experience and realization. This is not hearsay; I can bear witness to it myself.
16. The Great Dakini of Tsurphu
Samten Gyatso had immense respect for her and once told me, “When I went to visit the Karmapa, she was often there. It felt like meeting the female buddha Tara in person. She is Noble Tara among us in a human body, an authentic dakini.” She, in her turn, was very fond of my uncle and each year would send a present to him in Kham.
Khandro Chenmo was treated with immense respect, as though she were a great lama. Word would spread wherever she went and thousands of people would go to meet her. She traveled to Bhutan at the invitation of the royal family and when she came to visit Dzongsar Khyentse in Gangtok, he personally came out to greet her. At special ceremonies she was usually placed on a throne as high as Khyentse and Kongtrul. But she never made a big deal out of herself.
The great scholar Tashi Özer was Kongtrul’s attendant for a time, and he told me about the Karmapa’s last meeting with his teacher Kongtrul. The meeting took place at Kongtrul’s retreat place above Palpung.60
“I have come here to pay my respects upon my departure,” the Karmapa said.
“Well, well. If you are leaving, I may come and live for a while in your house,” replied Kongtrul. The Karmapa thought Kongtrul might be implying that he would come back as the Karmapa’s child, though he didn’t say anything.
As I mentioned, according to tradition, a senior monk is dispatched from the monastery of a deceased lama to inquire of the Karmapa (or another highly realized master) where the tulku might be found. After Kongtrul’s passing, this task fell by coincidence to Tashi Özer, who traveled all the way to Tsurphu to ask the Karmapa where Kongtrul’s reincarnation was.
“Please give us some indication of where the tulku has been reborn,” he requested.
Khakyab Dorje kept silent, so Tashi Özer tried again, “I’m one of his chief disciples—you must tell me! I am sure you know.”
The Karmapa still said nothing, but this didn’t dissuade the great scholar.
He kept insisting, until finally the Karmapa admitted, “Very well, the great Kongtrul has been reborn as my son. I cannot and do not dare send back the message that the rebirth of my root guru is my own child!”
Tashi Özer objected, “Don’t you remember? I was present when our great vajra holder explicitly said he would ‘come to stay at your house.’ Didn’t you hear that with your own ears? And isn’t it true that you call Kongtrul your root guru? So tell me, are you going to go directly against his word?”
This was typical of Tashi Özer’s persuasive, hard-to-refute manner. I don’t know how long the argument dragged on. But in the end he succeeded in bringing the Karmapa’s son back to Palpung in Kham where he was enthroned as the reincarnation of the old Kongtrul.
Samten Gyatso transmitted the New Treasures to the Karmapa or, in my uncle’s words, he “presented it as a mandala offering,”61 including the complete empowerments, readings, and instructions. At this point, there were several arrangements necessary—for liturgies as well as for empowerments—which, like this one, had been codified neither by Chokgyur Lingpa, his son Tsewang Drakpa, nor by Khyentse or Kongtrul.
As these arrangements were needed for extremely important and profound termas, Samten Gyatso requested the Karmapa to compose these texts. The Karmapa kindly agreed and dictated them to his close disciple, the outstanding lama Jampal Tsultrim.
While the Karmapa was giving the empowerments, everyone lodged at Lotus Garuda Fortress, the retreat center nestled on the cliff high above Tsurphu. Often they all stayed up talking until midnight, when Uncle Tersey and Samten Gyatso would go back to their own rooms.
At that time, the Karmapa had already written a letter predicting his own future reincarnation. But as his life had been extended for three years with the help of his third consort, he needed to write another.
One evening, they were engaged in conversation when Samten Gyatso suddenly asked, “In your prediction about your next incarnation, you stated that you would take rebirth in the area of Denkhog, in the Dilgo family. You were ill then, but you didn’t die and have in fact recovered. However, you will die one day, so when you do, will you still be born in that same place? If not, where will you take birth?”
Uncle Tersey was sitting next to him and was quite upset by the question. He later told me, “He actually asked that! Such an inauspicious question! I got really upset, thinking, ‘Why does he have to ask a question like that while the Karmapa is still alive? What is he thinking? What got into him? This is so inappropriate.’
“The Karmapa became totally quiet; the silence grew longer and longer. I thought he was angry, and why wouldn’t he be? At that point, I felt really scared. We were just sitting there and the Karmapa had stopped speaking to us. He just sat there for the longest time, not saying a word.
“Finally, the Karmapa broke the silence: ‘The previous coincidence of time and place has vanished. I will not be born into the Dilgo family.’”
Samten Gyatso’s response to this was to simply join his palms and say, “Lasoh! I see!” Then he remained quiet, too, for a time. But then he asked once again, “Well, if that’s the case, where will you be reborn?”
Uncle Tersey had tried to nudge Samten Gyatso’s thigh to stop him from asking such an impertinent question once again, but it was too late. “How inauspicious to ask the Karmapa about his own death!” he thought.
But the Karmapa seemed unfazed. He answered matter-of-factly, “I will take rebirth to the east not far from there. If you know the area of Denkhog, you must also know that to the east of the Dilgo estate lies that of the influential Ado family. I will be born into that family.”
Uncle Tersey just held his silence, but he kept the information in mind.
That was the kind of master the Karmapa was.
After Samten Gyatso left Tsurphu, the Karmapa summoned his close retinue: Jampal Tsultrim, Khenpo Lekshey and his main consort, Khandro Chenmo. He held up an envelope and told them, “One of you three should take care of this prediction letter. There will come a point when it will be indispensable. At that time, read it, but before then, just hold on to it.”
“I can’t take care of this. I’m too young for this responsibility,” Khandro replied as she was only nineteen at the time.
Khenpo Lekshey said, “I don’t dare to either.”
The two of them turned to Jampal Tsultrim and said, “You keep it!”
So Jampal Tsultrim put the letter inside the reliquary box he wore around his neck and kept it there.
A year or so later the great Karmapa finally left his body. There were many ceremonies during the first forty-nine days. Jampal Tsultrim was subsequently invited to Mindrolling to give the reading