A couple of days ago I read on a Facebook friend, Niraj Kumar's post that Captain Sonam Yongda. who had been Captain of the ADC of the 12th King of Sikkim, Palden Thondup Namgyal had passed away on 4th April 2026. He was also a witness to Sikkim’s transition in 1975, passed away on April… Continue reading Captain from the Golden Sikkim Era: the passing of Captain Sonam Yongda (age 90) and a personal meeting in Bhutan 2022
Tag: Bhutan
NEW WEBSITE SECTION: BHUTAN
Inspired by the Kālacakra empowerment 2025 in Bhutan, and other activities of HH 70th Je Khenpo on the full ordination of the nuns, I have created a new section of the Dakini Translations website dedicated to articles about or connected to the sacred Buddhist country of Bhutan, see here. A downloadable pdf file of Je… Continue reading NEW WEBSITE SECTION: BHUTAN
SEEING VAJRAVĀRĀHI IN KĀLACAKRA (BHUTAN KĀLACAKRA 2025: PART I): The first mass Kālacakra empowerment in Bhutan by HH Je Khenpo, the Vajravārāhi/Abhayākaragupta tradition of the Vajrāvalī (Dorje Threngwa, Vajra Garland) Kālacakra, and spontaneous meeting, blessings and “priceless” auspicious gifts from Dorje Phagmo Khandro tulku in Bhutan 2025
"Mother of all the Victors, endowed with all supreme aspects,The 'face' of Vajravārāhi, symbolising the signs and meaningWith the certain knowing from seeing self-awareness itselfMay the primordial wisdom vajra descend here now!" (Tr. Adele Tomlin (2020)) རྒྱལ་ཀུན་སྐྱེད་ཡུམ་རྣམ་ཀུན་མཆོག་ལྡན་པའི། བརྡ་དོན་རྟགས་ཀྱི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོའི་ཞལ།རང་རིག་ཉིད་དུ་མཐོང་བའི་ངེས་ཤེས་ཀྱིས། རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྟེན་འདིར་དབབ་དུ་གསོལ། "Because he had recited the mantra of Vajrayogini in his former life, in this life Vajrayogini… Continue reading SEEING VAJRAVĀRĀHI IN KĀLACAKRA (BHUTAN KĀLACAKRA 2025: PART I): The first mass Kālacakra empowerment in Bhutan by HH Je Khenpo, the Vajravārāhi/Abhayākaragupta tradition of the Vajrāvalī (Dorje Threngwa, Vajra Garland) Kālacakra, and spontaneous meeting, blessings and “priceless” auspicious gifts from Dorje Phagmo Khandro tulku in Bhutan 2025
“Pictures speak a thousand words”: All-male guest line-up photos for Bhutanese Global Peace Prayer Festival
A couple of weeks ago some photos appeared online advertising the line-up of confirmed guests for the upcoming Global Peace prayer festival in Thimphu, Bhutan (November 4th-11th) . It is fortunate to have realised Buddhist masters with pure lineages, such as HE 12th Tai Situpa and Gyaltsab Rinpoche, to join together and have Buddhist event… Continue reading “Pictures speak a thousand words”: All-male guest line-up photos for Bhutanese Global Peace Prayer Festival
Vegetarianism in Buddhist Bhutan: Karma Dendup interviewed by Adele Tomlin (Dakini Conversations video/podcast Ep.1)
"3. To those who eat [meat] there are detrimental effects, to those who do not, merits; Mahāmati, you should know that meat-eaters bring detrimental effects upon themselves.4. Let the practitioner/yogi refrain from eating flesh as it is born of himself, as [the eating] involves transgression, as [flesh] is produced of semen and blood, and as… Continue reading Vegetarianism in Buddhist Bhutan: Karma Dendup interviewed by Adele Tomlin (Dakini Conversations video/podcast Ep.1)
ENTERING THE 16TH KARMAPA’S MANDALA: AS TOLD BY HIS TRANSLATOR, ACHI TSEPEL: The 16th Karmapa’s magnetic qualities, Hugh Richardson’s weeping, meeting foreign leaders, gifts of Bumthang valley land and diplomatic passport by the Bhutanese and severe sickness before Rumtek monastery founding ceremony. (41st Parinirvana Anniversary of 16th Karmapa)
“When I first met him, HH reached out to me when I went to get the blessings, he touched me and when he made eye contact, I felt like I just melted and there was like a very sublime experience of light. Just something very wonderful where I felt an intense kind of a sense… Continue reading ENTERING THE 16TH KARMAPA’S MANDALA: AS TOLD BY HIS TRANSLATOR, ACHI TSEPEL: The 16th Karmapa’s magnetic qualities, Hugh Richardson’s weeping, meeting foreign leaders, gifts of Bumthang valley land and diplomatic passport by the Bhutanese and severe sickness before Rumtek monastery founding ceremony. (41st Parinirvana Anniversary of 16th Karmapa)
NEW: Guru Padmasambhava page and sacred places in Bhutan
Today for Guru Rinpoche Day, the tenth day of the sacred lunar month of Saga Dawa, here is a brief catalogue of the works and research so far published on Guru Padmasambhava and his two main students/consorts, Yeshe Tsogyel and Mandarava. These are now listed on a new website page dedicated to Padmasambhava. Work on… Continue reading NEW: Guru Padmasambhava page and sacred places in Bhutan
DAKINI SCRIPT (Khandro Da-yig): Mysterious Symbolic Key to Hidden Treasures
“Even just one symbol of Dākinī script can unlock in the treasure-revealer's mind the entire teaching that is contained within it. They are the 'passwords' that allow the Terton to download the entire treasure of wisdom.” Introduction For today, the first day of the sacred Buddhist month of Saga Dawa, I offer a short research… Continue reading DAKINI SCRIPT (Khandro Da-yig): Mysterious Symbolic Key to Hidden Treasures