Kathmandu (Nepal): Drukpa, an eight-hundred-year old Buddhist sect from Tibet, has come out of its theological cloister,
to showcase its legacy to millions of Buddhists across India and south Asia.
It held its first annual Drukpa Council April 6-15 at Kathmandu in Nepal for the first time in 800 years to familiarise
followers of Buddhism with the faith, Drukpa spokesperson in the capital Jigme Semzang Soo said.
Members of the congregation displayed a sacred symbol of the Drukpa, the heart relic of a
spiritual head of the order, the fourth Gyalwang Drukpa, for the first time in 400 years.
The order is now led by the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa.
“Drukpa, which is rooted in spirituality and principle of service to mankind, teaches that others should be enlightened before self, unlike many other Buddhist school of thoughts which preaches enlightenment of self. One of the primary objective of the conference is to bring the order to India,” Soo, who gave up her job as a software executive to join the order, said.
Drukpa, one of the four sects of Mahayana Buddhism, is the predominant religion of Bhutan and has a wide base of followers in Nepal, Tibet and Ladakh. However, it has a few followers in India despite the fact that Buddhism originated from the country.
Drukpa has an interesting lineage. In the 12th century, the great lord of human compassion, Avalokiteshvara (an incarnation of a Tibetan king), appeared in Tibet as Drogon Tsangpa Gyare, a Buddhist monk.
One evening in 1206, Tsangpa saw nine dragons fly into the sky from the ground (in Namdruk) and named his lineage Drukpa- or the lineage of the dragons. Tsangpa Gyare became the founder of the lineage and came to be known as the first Gyalwang Drukpa.
Buddhist scriptures say Lord Buddha had predicted the arrival of Drogon Tsangpa Gyare.
The first Tsangpa, Soo said, was a famous teacher whose teachings were sometimes attended by as many as 50,000 people at a given time.
It was recorded that he had 88,000 followers, of whom 28,000 were enlightened yogis. His order became famous for purity, simplicity and asceticism and the profundity of its spiritual teachings. He wrote a commentary on the “Tantra of Chakrasamvara” and preached the religion to people.
--Madhusree Chatterjee and Jay Akbar