Ngawang Chhogyel (1465-1540) was the 15th hereditary prince-abbot (throne holder) of Ralung Monastery in Tibet and an ancestor of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the founder of the Bhutanese state. He built the important Druk Choeding temple in Paro in 1525 and established Dokar Druk Chokhorgang in 1531, significantly extending the Drukpa Kagyu tradition's presence in Bhutan five generations before the Zhabdrung's arrival.
Ngawang Chhogyel (1465–1540) was the 15th hereditary throne holder (khri pa) of Ralung Monastery in Tibet and a prince-abbot of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage. An ancestor of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal — the seventeenth-century unifier and founder of the Bhutanese state — Ngawang Chhogyel played a crucial role in extending the Drukpa Kagyu tradition's institutional presence into Bhutan, most notably through his construction of the Druk Choeding temple in Paro in 1525 and the founding of Dokar Druk Chokhorgang in 1531.[1]
Ngawang Chhogyel's activities in Bhutan were part of a broader pattern in which the Ralung throne holders actively cultivated religious centres in the southern Himalayan lands, laying the institutional and spiritual groundwork upon which the Zhabdrung would later build a unified state. His legacy is preserved in the temples he founded and in the continuous Drukpa Kagyu presence in western Bhutan that endures to the present day.
Early Life and Ordination
Ngawang Chhogyel was born in 1465 at Pokya Chokyi Phodrang near Druk Ralung in Tibet, the son of Gyalwai Wangpo and Jangsem Mamkha. The Ralung throne holders belonged to a branch of the noble Gya family descended from Lha Nyen and Lha Bum, elder brothers of Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje, the founder of the Drukpa Kagyu school and the first Gyalwang Drukpa. This lineage made the Ralung prince-abbots hereditary custodians of the Drukpa tradition's principal seat.[2]
At the age of twelve, Ngawang Chhogyel was ordained as a monk by Gyalwa Rinpoche at Lho Drowaling and received the ordination name Ngawang Chophel. He received extensive training in the Drukpa Kagyu teachings and was eventually installed as the 15th throne holder of Ralung, inheriting responsibility for the lineage's spiritual authority and its expanding network of affiliated monasteries across Tibet and the southern lands.[3]
Druk Choeding (1525)
Ngawang Chhogyel's most significant contribution to Bhutan was the construction of Druk Choeding in 1525, a temple in the Paro valley that became an important Drukpa Kagyu centre. The main statue housed in the temple is of the seated Jampa (Maitreya, the future Buddha), reflecting the Drukpa tradition's emphasis on the continuity of Buddhist teachings across successive ages. The temple's establishment demonstrated the Ralung lineage's commitment to building permanent religious institutions in Bhutan, rather than relying solely on itinerant teachers.[4]
Druk Choeding would later gain additional historical significance when Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, arriving in Bhutan in 1616 as a refugee from political disputes at Ralung, made the temple his temporary residence. It was while residing at Druk Choeding that the Zhabdrung consecrated the temple and engaged in extended meditation practice, connecting his own mission to the earlier work of his ancestor Ngawang Chhogyel.[5]
Dokar Druk Chokhorgang (1531)
In 1531, Ngawang Chhogyel founded Dokar Druk Chokhorgang, another significant Drukpa Kagyu religious centre in Bhutan. According to traditional accounts, he brought one hundred carpenters and masons from Druk Ralung in Tibet to assist in the construction, indicating both the scale of the project and the close material connections between the Ralung establishment and its Bhutanese outposts. The founding of Dokar Druk Chokhorgang further consolidated the Drukpa tradition's presence in western Bhutan and provided an additional institutional base for the dissemination of Drukpa Kagyu teachings.[6]
Place in the Ralung Lineage
Ngawang Chhogyel's position as the 15th Ralung throne holder places him approximately five generations before Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, who was the 18th throne holder. The Ralung lineage of hereditary prince-abbots continued unbroken until 1616, when a succession dispute over the reincarnation of the 4th Gyalwang Drukpa forced the young Zhabdrung to flee southward to Bhutan, where he would transform the scattered Drukpa Kagyu communities — including those established by Ngawang Chhogyel — into a unified state.[7]
The departure of the Zhabdrung divided the Drukpa lineage into two branches: the Northern Drukpa in Tibet, headed by the Gyalwang Drukpa, and the Southern Drukpa in Bhutan, headed by the Zhabdrung incarnations. Ngawang Chhogyel's earlier work in Bhutan can thus be understood as a critical precursor to this division, having established the physical and spiritual infrastructure that made Bhutan a viable refuge and power base for the Zhabdrung's state-building project.[8]
References
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