Wangdu Nyingpo

Wangdu Nyingpo (dbang sdud nying po) was born into the Ducho Labrang (dus mchod bla brang) of the Khon (khon) family at Sakya Monastery (sa skya dgon), Tsang, in 1763, the water-sheep year of the thirteenth sexagenary cycle. He was the first son of the Thirty-First Sakya Trizin, Ngawang Kunga Lodro (sa skya khri 'dzin 31 ngag dbang kun dga' blo gros, 1729–1784) and Kelzang Dekyong Butri (skal bzang bde skyong bu khrid) from the Chunglung (chung lung) region. He had a younger brother, Evaṃ Zangpo (e waM bzang po, 1767–1789).

Kunga Lodro's younger brother Ngawang Tutob Wangchuk (ngag dbang mthu stobs dbang phyug, 1734–1757) had died several years earlier, making him the sole heir of the Khon family. For two years the family had performed and sponsored extensive rituals to ensure the birth of a child. Kunga Lodro had dreams heralding the arrival of a son, such as he and his wife being welcomed into a temple by a yogi wearing bone ornaments and meeting the first Sakya patriarch Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (sa chen kun dga’ snying po, 1092–1158).

Twice Kunga Lodro saved his son from serious illness: when Wangdu Nyingpo was an infant, he contracted smallpox during a local outbreak of the disease which his father was said to have healed by performing the sādhana of Parṇaśavarī. When the child was eleven, he had another bout of illness that left him bedridden. He recovered after his father had a vision of Amitāyus and Uṣṇīṣavijayā.

In his childhood, Wangdu Nyingpo's main teacher was his father. From age one to fourteen, his father gave him empowerments, transmissions, and instructions, the most significant of which were the empowerment of nine-deity Amitāyus, the Red Guru Drakpo according to the treasure tradition of Nyangrel Nyima Wozer (myang ral nyi ma 'od zer, 1124–1192 ), twenty-seven-deity Sitātapatrā, and five-deity Rakta Yamari. At age seven he began his formal education with various additional tutors in Sakya Monastery.

From ages ten to sixteen, he practiced the sādhanas he had received, especially the Vajrakīlaya. During these years, at the summer and winter assembly of monks, he studied and explained the Four Treatises (bka’ bzhi) of Sakya Paṇḍita (sa skya pan di ta, 1182– 1251) and the Pramāṇavārttika (tshad ma rnam 'grel, Toh. 4210). In the eighth month of 1773, even though he was only ten years old, he performed the ritual dance of Vajrakīlaya at the head of the assembly.

By the fifth month of 1778, at the age of fifteen, Wangdu Nyingpo's education had progressed to the point that it was time for him to give his first formal teaching. According to tradition he recited Sakya Paṇḍita's Clarifying the Sage's Intent (dgongs gsal), which is traditionally the first teaching all Sakya throne holders give. His father presided over this ceremony, which began the annual summer assembly of monks in Sakya Monastery. Groups of student monks from throughout Tsang and as far as Kham attended, as well as representatives from Gongkar, Ngari, and the kingdoms of Derge and Mustang. One dignitary from the Khalkha Mongolian Tüsheet Khanate, named Jampel Dorje Nomonhan ('jam dpal rdo rje no min han), was especially noted for his generous offerings.

Over the course of three days, Wangdu Nyingpo had the responsibility of giving teachings to an assembly of students visiting from Sangpu Neutok (gsang phu ne'u thog) and Ngamring Chode (ngam ring chos sde) monasteries. He gave teachings based on two of Sakya Paṇḍita’s works: the Treasury of Valid Reasoning (tshad ma rigs gter), the Clear Differentiation of the Three Vows (sdom pa gsum rab dbye), and he expounded on the Abhisamayālaṃkāra (mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan, Toh. 3786) in the context of Sapaṇ's treatise on the Three Vows. During that year he also received teachings of the Bodhicaryāvatāra (spyod 'jug, Toh. 3871) and empowerments of Vajrakīlaya from his father. Together they also completed the Vajrakīlaya retreat and an Uṣṇīṣavijayā retreat.

Throughout the following year of 1779, Wangdu Nyingpo's father privately gave him the empowerments, oral transmissions, and teachings on the Hevajra Tantra (kye'i rdor rgyud, Toh. 417&418) and the Lamdre Tsokshe (lam 'bras tshogs bshad), the extensive explanation of the Path and Result. His father also gave him the responsibility for organizing offering ceremonies throughout this year. His father praised him for his expertise in sculpting tormas, creating sand mandalas, and arranging the ritual offering substances.

Enthronement, Teaching, and Further Studies

On the eleventh day of the fifth month of that 1779, the sixteen-year-old Wangdu Nyingpo was enthroned as the Thirty-Second Sakya Trizin during a three-day ceremony. This elaborate enthronement culminated on the third day, when Wangdu Nyingpo recited sūtras, received offerings from different representatives, and finally ascended a throne originally made for the enthronement of the Twenty-Second Sakya Trizin, Jampai Dorje (sa skya khri 'dzin 22 'jam pa'i rdo rje, 1485–1533). The enthronement was a symbolic tradition as previous Sakya Trizins had also been enthroned as teenagers. He was to be enthroned a second time five years later. Only a few weeks after the ceremony, on the twenty-ninth day of the month, his mother Kelzang Dekyong suddenly passed away.

During that year's summer assembly, Wangdu Nyingpo gave an exposition on the Pramāṇavārttika and also gave teachings on the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (dbu ma rtsa ba'i tshig le'u byas pa, Toh. 3842). On the fourth day of the seventh month, He and his brother Evaṃ Zangpo received the empowerment of the fifteen forms of Vaiśravaṇa according to the Sakya tradition from their father during a public initiation.

In 1780, at the age of seventeen, Wangdu Nyingpo went into a seven-month retreat on Hevajra while continuing to be tutored by his father. He then joined his younger brother and several Sakya tulkus to receive additional empowerments and oral transmissions from his father, including the entire set of Vajravali maṇḍalas originating from Abhayākaragupta, and teachings from the Collected Works of the Sakya Patriarchs (sa skya bka' 'bum).

When he was eighteen, Wangdu Nyingpo accompanied his father, his cousin Jetsunma Chime Tenpai Nyima (rje btsun ma 'chi med bstan pa'i nyi ma), and their retinue of attendants during an important visit to the U region. Kunga Lodro had a formal audience with the Eighth Dalai Lama, Jampel Gyatso ('jam dpal rgya mtsho, 1758–1804), where Wangdu Nyingpo gave extensive offerings and made a speech in his capacity as the new Sakya throne holder.

Enforcing Discipline

In 1782, at the age of nineteen, he received additional teachings and empowerments from his father, primarily of the Lamdre and the Thirteen Golden Dharmas of Sakya (sa skya gser chos bcu gsum), a grouping of thirteen deities so named because Sachen Kunga Nyingpo paid for the teachings with gold. He also entered a Vajrakīlaya retreat that year, and in the seventh month, during a Vajrakīlaya great accomplishment ritual lasting several days, his father gave him the responsibility of being the disciplinarian for the assembled monks.

In his autobiography Wangdu Nyingpo records that at around that time he requested his father to act more sternly and less lovingly towards him in public in order to gain the respect of the monks, to which his father obliged. The following year he went into a year-long retreat of Cakrasaṃvara according to the Kṛṣṇācārya lineage.

Two years later, in 1784, when Wangdu Nyingpo was twenty-one, his father appointed him vajrācharya, or ritual master at the week-long Great Thread Cross of Time (dus mdos chen mo) ritual. This ritual invokes protector deities to specifically guard the Sakya school and its teachings. The eminent Sakya historian Jamgon Amnyezhab ('jam mgon a myes zhabs, 1597–1659) wrote that this ritual originates from the time of Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, when he used it to defeat two black magicians named Lachen Taktsa (bla chen stag tsha) and Rewa Zugur (re ba 'dzu gur) who plotted to assassinate him. It was expanded in the time of Chogyel Pakpa (chos rgyal 'phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1235–1280) as Sakya faced challenges to its power during their partnership with the Yuan dynasty, and instituted a major annual ritual at Sakya Monastery

Wangdu Nyingpo wrote in his autobiography that both he and Kunga Lodro were dissatisfied by lapses in discipline and procedure, such as monks truncating the ritual and one monk-dancer being entirely absent. To resolve this, Wangdu Nyingpo strongly criticized several subordinate monastic disciplinarians and chant masters in private prior to the final day of the ceremony. He told them that he would extend the length of the ritual on the final day and that they must follow his lead or else he would leave the gathered assembly, depriving it of its vajrācarya. After the ritual concluded his father remarked that by extending the length of the chanting, although Wangdu Nyingpo had exhausted many of the monks hehad successfully preserved tradition.

During this time, Kunga Lodro was in the middle of a three-month Vajrakīlaya retreat, and his health had begun to deteriorate. He passed away in 1784 at the age of fifty-five. Wangdu Nyingpo and his younger brother Evaṃ Zangpo presided over the cremation and funeral services, which required their father's remains to be made into votive offerings, or tsha-tsha, and the construction of a large silver and gold stūpa to house his relics.

In the seventh month of that year, drawing on his experience as a disciplinarian and ritual master, Wangdu Nyingpo wrote and instituted a monastic code called the Great Disciplinarian's Dharma Code (ban tsang chos khrims chen mo), which codified the ritual traditions of Sakya Monastery. This text was used during the annual Vajrakīlaya great accomplishment ritual that same year, where Wangdu Nyingpo again acted as vajrācharya. He also gave teachings explaining the practice of Vajrakīlaya based on texts by Jamgon Amnyezhab.

In the following year of 1785, Wangdu Nyingpo acted as vajrācharya once again during the annual Vajrakīlaya great accomplishment ritual, and he enforced strict requirements for ritual precision and monastic discipline. Because of this, as he recorded in his autobiography, people began to call him a siddha, a reference to his wrathful attitude. He also recorded hearing of people calling him the nickname "Short-Tempered Benchi Drolo" ('ben ci gro lod spro thung). This was partly in recognition of a growing reputation for expertise in wrathful practices that spread throughout Tibet after the visiting monks from various monasteries left the ritual and returned home.

That same year Wangdu Nyingpo was officially enthroned a second time as the Thirty-Second Sakya Trizin, in recognition that he was succeeding his deceased father. Previously, his enthronement as a teenager was done according to tradition and he had not yet assumed all the responsibilities of his father. Now, he was recognized by the central Tibetan government as the joint religious and political ruler of Sakya. During this ceremony he ascended to the original throne of Chogyel Pakpa.

Studies Outside of Sakya Monastery

Wangdu Nyingpo was now twenty-two years old and the official head of both an influential monastery and a major religious tradition. In addition to his administrative duties, he began to study with different teachers who could give him the important Sakya empowerments and detailed instructions that he had not received from his father.

In 1786 at the age of twenty-three, Wangdu Nyingpo and his younger brother Evaṃ Zangpo met Muchen Chonnyi Yeshe (mus chen chos nyid ye shes), who became their senior tutor for two years, granting them multiple empowerments. Wangdu Nyingpo developed confidence in him, seeing him in the form of meditational deities Vajrabhairava and Mahākāla Pañjarnātha during their respective empowerments. Over the course of two years Wangdu Nyingpo received from him the empowerments and teachings of Guhyasamāja Mañjuvajra, the Avalokiteśvara-Guhyasamāja of the Jonang tradition, the Cakrasaṃvara of the Luipa tradition, the Cakrasaṃvara body maṇḍala of the Ghaṇṭapa tradition, the Sakya tradition of Vajrabhairava with Eight Vetālas, the thirteen-deity Vajrabhairava of the Rwa tradition, and Panjaranātha Mahakala.

In the eleventh month of that year, Wangdu Nyingpo entered into a six-week retreat of Caturmukha Mahākāla at Khau Drakdzong (kha'u brag rdzong), a well-known retreat center south of Sakya Monastery. During this retreat, he and his monks and lay attendants experienced both obstacles and signs of accomplishment. For example, loud sounds and voices which seemingly came from nowhere were heard inside and outside the meditation house, frightening some of the monks. Wangdu Nyingpo repeatedly saw apparitions taking the form of laymen inside the meditation house during the regular offering rituals, unseen by the others. One day he suddenly developed debilitating pain in his left leg, which he cured over two days through meditation and wrathful mantras directed against obstructing spirits that were causing his illness.

He wrote that the most frightening obstacle was when a thunderous rumbling and loud cracking noise persisted for some time, which made him and his attendants think an earthquake was cracking the roof beams of their hermitage. They remained inside and resolved to continue the practice. Finally, near the end of the retreat, all the obstacles he had experienced led him to compose a short poem on remaining steadfast in meditation despite any obstacles and frightening circumstances. An excerpt from the latter half of the poem:

You, the obstacles of the black Māras, have arrived in countless numbers in the past.
No matter what else may come now, between the yogin and you obstacles,
a battle is indeed permitted!
Let us certainly compete to see who is swifter!
If you are suppressed, do not regret it.
If your power proves weak, do not regret it.
If your skill is inferior, do not regret it.
I, the yogin for whom suffering is exhausted in the unborn
am prepared to fight with anything at all.
Keep this in mind, you obstacles!

After the retreat concluded, as Wangdu Nyingpo was leaving the retreat center, it was said that a sudden dust storm appeared impeding his party's progress. This was interpreted as a sign from the worldly protector deities so Wangdu Nyingpo scattered the leftovers of tormas to the east, and then he spoke aloud to the deity Dorje Shugden (rdo rje shugs ldan): "Old man, do not let a whirlwind strike your yogi on the path!" and the winds dissipated. These events increased Wangdu Nyingpo’s reputation as an expert ritual master, meditator and practitioner of wrathful deity sadhanas. This episode is the only instance of Wangdu Nyingpo interacting with Dorje Shugden, a deity that once had a fairly consistent presence in the Sakya tradition before the twentieth century.

Around 1788, when he was twenty-five, Wangdu Nyingpo invited the Nyingma treasure revealer Jigme Lingpa ('jigs med gling pa, 1729–1798), had previously taught and studied with his father, to Sakya to give teachings. The teachings given are not recorded. Jigme Lingpa had previously taught and studied with his father Kunga Lodro. Wangdu Nyingpo also studied with Jigme Lingpa’s student Rigdzin Jigme Gocha (rig 'dzin 'jigs med go cha, b. 1763).

Other teachers he invited throughout his life, who were not mentioned above, included: the Forty-Third Ngorchen, Kunga Sonam (ngor chen 43 kun dga' bsod nams), Ngorpa Sonam Tenzin (bsod nams bstan 'dzin) from Ngor Monastery's (ngor dgon) Khangsar Labrang (khang gsar bla brang); Jampa Rinchen Jinpa Chopel (byams pa rin chen sbyin pa chos 'phel) of Zhalu Monastery (zhwa lu dgon); and Ngawang Gelek Lhundrub (ngag dbang dge legs lhun grub), who was the nephew of Zhuchen Tsultrim Rinchen (zhu chen tshul khrims rin chenm 1697–1774).

He also received important Geluk teachings from the Second Jamyang Zhepa (jam dbyangs bzhad pa 02, 1728–1791) and his disciple Lodro Wozer (blo gros 'od zer), as well as Nyingma teachings of the Northern Treasure tradition from Pema Shenyen (pad+ma bshes gnyen) from Dorje Drak (rdo rje brag).

Marriage and War

In 1789, Wangdu Nyingpo's brother Evaṃ Zangpo passed away. He performed the funeral rites and managed the construction of his reliquary and the molding of tsa-tsa sculptures from his remains, in the same manner as had been done after his father's death.

He was now in the same position as his father had been, the sole male heir of the Khon family. At the request of Sakya Monastery's leading monks, he accepted the request to marry for the continuation of the Khon lineage.

He married Chime Tsewang ('chi med tshe dbang) from the Tanak (rta nag) region. Their first child was born in the same year but passed away in infancy and was not given a name. Wangdu Nyingpo records that his wife's grief made her wish to renounce her role as a householder and become a nun, but his teacher Muchen Chonnyi Yeshe convinced her to remain in the marriage.

More tumultuous times were ahead, as the First Nepal–Tibetan war had broken out the previous year, in 1788, because of a trade dispute over the debasement of silver coins. The Nepalese Gorkha army first invaded the three border districts of Kyirong (skyid grong), Rongshar (rong shar) and Nyalam (gnya' lam). By 1789, the Tibetan government began an army recruitment campaign in Tsang and attempted to resist the Gorkhas while reinforcements of Qing troops traveled to Shigatse.

For his safety Wangdu Nyingpo accepted his advisors' request to leave Sakya and temporarily move to Tsedong Monastery (rtse gdong). During this time, he also went on pilgrimage to sites associated with Padmasambhava, and it was said that he opened a treasure site called Zapuk Sogpo (gza' phug sog po), although he did not reveal any earth treasures. However, there is an account of a member of the Drolma Podrang (sgrol ma pho brang) who went to the site in the mid-nineteenth century and saw a golden tray protruding out of a stone cliff face, which was said to be an earth treasure that Wangdu Nyingpo had partially extracted.

After the Treaty of Kyirong was negotiated by representatives from Nepal and Tibet, the Gorkha army left and Wangdu Nyingpo returned to Sakya.

In 1790, Wangdu Nyingpo and his wife Chime Tsewang performed dharma activities to ensure the successful birth of a child. She completed the retreats of Red Guru Drakpo and White Tārā Cintāmaṇicakra. Soon after, Wangdu Nyingpo's first daughter was born, Kunga Tenpai Dronme (kun dga' bstan pa'i sgron me). There appears to be no information recorded about her or her sisters' lives.

Starting several years earlier, in 1787, Wangdu Nyingpo had begun the renovation of the Ducho Labrang's residence. He continued with three additional construction projects. He relocated and renovated the protector chapel called Samling (bsam gling mgon khang) and also renovated the two-floors of the Drolma Lhakhang temple (sgrol ma lha khang) in Sakya town, decorating the top floor with murals the forms of Mañjuśrī as described in the tantras. On the ground floor he built a shrine dedicated to the three long-life deities Amitāyus, White Tārā and Uṣṇiṣavijāya. The Mañjuśrī murals of the top floor can still be viewed, although the sculptures he commissioned for it are missing.


Section of mural in Mañjuśrī Chapel of the Drolma Lhakang in Sakya town


In 1791, Nepalese forces invaded Tibet a second time after the Tibetan government refused to pay a yearly tribute of silver to Nepal. Wangdu Nyingpo received official correspondence from the Ganden Podrang government in Lhasa requesting him to perform wrathful rituals to repel the Gorkha army. Rather than arranging elaborate public army-repelling rituals at Sakya, he went to an isolated retreat center in the Shab valley, roughly fifty kilometers from Sakya. This was ostensibly because the Nepalese army was advancing rapidly towards Tsang, and if they had been victorious, such rituals would have made Sakya a target.

In his autobiography, he described wearing a disguise "in the manner of a beggar" and performing multiple different wrathful rituals "at midnight, atop a pale cliff" such as the "three activities of suppressing (mnan), burning (bsreg), and throwing ('phangs)." The colophon to a torma-throwing ritual for army-repelling (gtor bzlog) that he composed, which propitiates the deity Makzor Gyelmo (dmag zor rgyal mo), attributes the defeat of the Nepalese army to this practice, among others.

Wangdu Nyingpo performed these wrathful rituals for the entire period in which the Nepalese army marched through Tsang to Shigatse. As a detachment of these soldiers passed through Sakya town, they left Sakya Monastery unmolested, even though the main temple, the Lhakang Chenmo (lha khang chen mo), was only lightly guarded. After their notorious sacking of Shigatse's Tashilhunpo Monastery (bkra shis lhun po), the Nepalese army occupying Shigatse were held back from advancing on Lhasa. A plague is said to have swept their camp, and Tibetan resistance forces harassed them. In 1792 the Qing army led by Fu'kanggan (1748–1796) defeated the Nepalese and forced them to retreat back to Kathmandu.

Wangdu Nyingpo and the Sakya administration claimed the appearance of the disease and the Tibetan army’s success were the result of his rites. He also connected his activity with a prophecy attributed to Padmasambhava from a revealed treasure text, which stated that he was an emanation of Nanam Dorje Dudjom (sna nam rdo rje bdud 'joms), one of Padmasambhava's twenty-five disciples. The prophecy stated that "One bearing the name of 'Wang' (dbang) will appear on the border of Nepal and Tibet; he possesses the auspicious connection to repel border armies." The source for this prophecy is not given.

Children and Further Building Activity

In 1792, Wangdu Nyingpo's first son, Pema Dudul Wangchuk (pad+ma bdud 'dul dbang phyug, 1792–1853) was born. His second son, Kunga Rinchen (kun dga' rin chen, 1794–1856) followed two years later. A second daughter, Kelzang Tsultrim (bskal bzang tshul khrims) born in 1796, and his third son Ngodrub Pelbar (dngos grub dpal 'bar, 1800–1872) four years later. After her last pregnancy, Chime Tsewang came down with a severe illness that became chronic, and they agreed to not to have any more children. In accordance with prophetic advice he received from Jigme Lingpa, he married his wife's younger sister Damtsik Dolma (dam tshig sgrol ma) as a junior wife.

He continued his expansion of Sakya monastery in either 1797 or 1798 with a new Vajrabhairava Temple ('jigs byed lha khang) containing a larger-than-life-size Vajrabhairava as the main statue, surrounded by life-size statues of the deity's retinue and the other main meditational deities and protectors of the Sakya tradition. The murals were painted with wrathful imagery similar to a protector chapel. On the second floor, Wangdu Nyingpo installed the funerary stūpa of his father, flanked with images of thirteen lineage masters of the Ra tradition of Vajrabhairava.

In 1799, Wangdu Nyingpo completely renovated the Cakrasaṃvara Temple (bde mchog lha khang) in the North Sakya monastery complex, which is no longer extant, commissioning new statues and murals. Interestingly, a section of the new murals depicted four local protector deities of the Sakya region whom Wangdu Nyingpo personally subjugated through wrathful means, two of whom remain significant.

The first of these was Shangmo Dorje Butri (shangs mo rdo rje bu khrid), who had been a woman born in a place called Shang Zapu (shangs za phu). She reportedly behaved like a "living ghost" (gson 'dre), and inflicted harm upon others, such as causing them to act possessed. Wangdu Nyingpo personally traveled to her region and subjugated her, making her vow to stop harming others. Eventually, since she had no living relatives, she gave all her belongings to Sakya Monastery, and when she died her spirit was commanded to remain as a local protector of Sakya. She became known as one of the three most important flesh-eating demonesses ('bag mo) of Sakya, whose statues and masks can be seen in the Lhakang Chenmo.

The second of the four spirits was the male nāga Dolpa Nakpo (gdol pa nag po). Wangdu Nyingpo had a dream in which the Khau valley was flooded and Sakya Monastery destroyed, which he perceived as the result of the local tsen (btsan) protector spirit having broken his samaya commitments. Wangdu Nyingpo performed a wrathful fire puja to kill this tsen and demolished the small shrine dedicated to him. He then constructed a new shrine and installed the wisdom protector deity Bektse Chenpo to protect the region, along with a nāga, Dolpa Nakpo, as the new subordinate local protector. Finally, he issued a decree (bka' shog) commanding these protector deities and the other classes of gods and demons (lha dre) to stop harming beings.

Autobiography and Visit to Lhasa

In 1801, at the age of thirty-eight, Wangdu Nyingpo was stricken by an unspecified severe illness. During his recovery he composed his autobiography. It is unknown if this work survives, and it is currently only known through excerpts quoted by the biography of Wangdu Nyingpo written by the Thirty-Eighth Sakya Trizin, Drakshul Trinle Rinchen (drag shul phrin las rin chen, 1871–1935).

The autobiography included verses listing his past lives, based on his cumulative meditative experiences and those of his father. The list is as follows: a siddha named Guhya; the mahāsiddha Kṛṣnacarin; King Vessantara; Nyatri Tsenpo (gnya' khri btsan po); Padmasambhava; Jetsun Drakpa Gyeltsen (rje btsun grags pa rgyal mtshan, 1147–1216); Marpa Lotsāwa (mar pa lo tsA ba, c.1012–1097); the Twenty-Third Sakya Trizin, Ngawang Kunga Rinchen (sa skya khri 'dzin 23 sngags dbang kun dga' rin chen, 1517–1584); Jamyang Tutob Wangchuk ( 'jam dbyangs mthu stobs dbang phyug, 1588–1637); and his own grandfather, the Thirtieth Sakya Trizin, Sonam Rinchen (bsod nams rin chen, 1705–1741).

Continuing his expansion of Sakya, in 1802, he built two new structures attached to the Lhakang Chenmo. The first was a temple called Jangpel (byang spel lha khang) dedicated to subduing astrological and general obstacles, and the second was a new assembly hall to be used for recitation of Sakya Paṇḍita's compositions.

At the age of forty, in the water-pig year of 1803, Wangdu Nyingpo, his two wives, his children, the treasurer of Sakya Monastery, and a retinue of attendants, made an official visit to the important sites of the U region. Along the way he gave the initiation of the Sixteen Arhats longevity practice at Ngor Monastery, including the initiation of the Red Guru Drakpo at the Tartse Labrang (thar rtse bla brang). When the party reached Shigatse, they had an audience with the Seventh Paṇchen Lama, Lobzang Tenpai Nyima (paN chen bla ma 07 blo bzang bstan pa'i nyi ma, 1782–853). In Lhasa they had an audience with the Eighth Dalai Lama, whom Wangdu Nyingpo had met twenty-two years earlier when he had accompanied his father to Lhasa. Wangdu Nyingpo gave the Dalai Lama the empowerments of Red Guru Drakpo and Vajrakīlaya according to the Khon tradition.

The Ganden Podrang government asked Wangdu Nyingpo to help construct a stūpa as a means to repel future border armies. He selected an auspicious location and performed torma throwing rituals of Vajrakīlaya in order to prepare the site.

The family stayed at an estate in Lhasa owned by the Khon family called Lhalu Gatsel (lha klu dga' tshal). During their stay Damtsik Drolma gave birth to Wangdu Nyingpo's fourth son, Ngawang Kunga Gyeltsen (ngag dbang kun dga' rgyal mtshan, 1803–1843). The Dalai Lama performed the hair-cutting ritual on the newborn.

Before returning to Sakya, Wangdu Nyingpo traveled alone to Reting (rwa sgreng) and Taklung (stag lung) monasteries, then reunited with his family and retinue as they went to Samye Monastery (bsam yas). While visiting the nearby sacred site of Yarlung Sheldrak (yar klungs shel brag) he meditated in a cave said to have been used by Padmasambhava. He had two visions in this cave, where it was said that Padmasambhava appeared and gave him prophecies.

Final Years

In his final half decade Wangdu Nyingpo rebuilt or fully renovated the following structures at or near Sakya: the former residence of Sonam Tsemo (bsod nams rtse mo, 1142–1182) and the temple called Drashar (grwa shar gtsug lag khang) built around his meditation cave; the Mukchung protector chapel (smug chung mgon khang), to which he added life-sized statues of the Guardians of the Four Directions; the Deling protector chapel (bde gling mgon khang); the stūpa of Śākya Zangpo (shaAkya bzang po) and many other stūpas; the hermitage known as Karpo Drakpa (gzim khang dkar po grags pa), which had previously been used by Sabzang Mati Paṇchen (sa bzang ma ti paN chen, 1294–1376); a temple where Sabzang Pakpa Zhonnu Lodro (sa bzang 'phags pa gzhon nu blo gros, 1346–1412) and later Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo (ngor chen kun dga' bzang po, 1382–1456) had visions of Uṣṇīṣavijayā; the Khokhang Labrang (kho khang bla brang) of North Sakya Monastery; the Vasudhara palace of the Shar Labrang (shar bla brang); the Ngonga Dechen Labrang (mngon dga bla brang), which had been built during the time of Jamgon Ameshab; the adjacent Zurkhang Labrang (zur khang bla brang); and the assembly hall of Khau Drakdzong. He filled all of these buildings with sculptures, murals, and paintings that were meticulously recorded.

In 1806, at the age of forty-three, he officially retired as the Sakya Trizin and enthroned his eleven-year-old son, Pema Dudul Wangchuk as the Thirty-Third Sakya Trizin, with representatives of the central Tibetan government in attendance.

Three years later, in 1809, on the sixteenth day of the fourth month of the earth-snake year, Wangdu Nyingpo passed away at the age of forty-six. He had gone to an estate called Pukar for retreat and fallen ill. Upon hearing the news, Pema Dudul Wangchuk made haste to see his father. As he was about to cross the Tsangpo River he wrote that he could see his father standing on the roof of the main house, "with a radiant appearance." But when he entered the bedroom, Wangdu Nyingpo had already been dead for some time, and upon later reflection Pema Dudul Wangchuk understood that what he had seen on the roof was a magical illusion created by his father. Wangdu Nyingpo's relics were placed into a silver stūpa.

Pema Dudul Wangchuk and Kunga Rinchen would go on to establish the Drolma and Puntsok Podrangs, respectively, the two houses of the Khon family from which the Sakya Trizin continue to be drawn.

The most common depiction of Wangdu Nyingpo that is still being produced by painters and sculptors is based on a guru yoga practice he composed for his students, which later became popularized by Drakshul Trinley Rinchen.

Nicholas Dharmadi is an MA student of Tibetan Buddhism at Columbia University, New York. His research focuses on wrathful rituals in Tibetan history and individual art styles of Tibetan painters. Published on Treasury of Lives, October 2026.

Teacher (Lama)
Wangdu Nyingpo, Sakya Tridzin 32