Teacher: Tagtsang Repa
Drugpa Kagyu PageSubjects, Topics & Types:
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Tagtsang Repa Ngawang Gyatso (stag tshang ras pa ngag dbang rgya mtsho) (1574 -1651) [BDRC P7857]. He was born in 1574 into a branch of the Khon family responsible for the administration of Pelkhor Chode in Gyantse. However, he was ordained by the Drugpa Kagyu teacher Lhatsewa Ngawang Zangpo and was educated at a Drukpa Kagyu monastery. He spent the last 20 years of his life in Ladakh serving the king named Sengge Namgyal.
In the 1630s he renovated Hemis Monastery in Ladakh, where murals and sculptures of him wearing his unique hat and wearing the white cotton robe of a Repa can be found. It is possible that the murals depicting him with white or gray hair were painted during his lifetime or shortly after he passed away, reflecting his real age and appearance during the final years of his life in Ladakh. Later scrollwork paintings such as #98421 depict him youthful with black hair.
Nick Dharmadi, 4-2026
