Chime Tsugphü’s Birth Anniversary

Today, 8^th day of the 2^nd month in the Shen system[1] (8^th day of the 1^st month of Horda system)[2] is the Anniversary of Chime Tusgphü’s[3] birth. His name means Deathless One with a Precious Topknot, and he is also known as Salwa,[4] which means Clarity. A previous incarnation of the Buddha of Yungdrung Bön, Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche,[5] Chime Tsugphü is the eighth Buddha in the Mind-to-Mind Transmission Lineage of the Buddhas.[6]

He was born in the pure dimension[7] of Sipa Yesang,[8] the Primordially Pure Realm, and his parents are both Buddhas. His father is Buddha Thrulshen Nangden,[9] Shen of Magic Power Endowed with Light and his mother is the female Buddha Zangza Ringtsün,[10] Virtuous Noble Lady of Far-reaching Goodness. His birth was very unique because his father Thrulshen Nangden emanated a special Buddha form – a turquoise cuckoo called Barnang Khujug,[11] Cuckoo of Intermediate Space – which landed on his mother’s right shoulder while she was resting on the shore of a lake.

After some time, Zangza Ringtsün gave birth to a son. Because she was a little ashamed of giving birth to a son seemingly without a father, she built a shelter from golden sand and left the boy there. But when she came back nine days later, she saw her son unharmed and happy. Seeing his mother, the boy leapt into the sky where remained in the mediation posture. His body was turquoise colour, and he had a magical knot of crystal hair on the top of his head, so she called him Chime Tsugphü – Deathless One with a Precious Topknot.

Later, Chime Tsugphü studied with Shenhla Wökar.[12] Having achieved complete Buddhahood, he passed the Dzogchen[13] and tantric[14] cycles which he had received to various disciples, including Buddha Sangwa Düpa[15] – ‘Compendium of the Innermost.’  Sangwa Düpa is the ninth and last Buddha in the Mind-to-Mind Transmission Lineage of the Buddhas. Chime Tsugphü also taught several human disciples, including the early mahasiddha Tagla Mebar,[16] Flaming Tiger, to whom he transmitted the Nine Tantras of Walphur.[17]

In 16017 BC, Chime Tsugphü incarnated on this Earth in Wolmo Lungring,[18] a land somewhere in present-day Central Asia. He became known as Supreme Shen Teacher Mura Tahen,[19] or Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche in Tibetan, and established the Yungdrung Bön tradition.  

Compiled by Dmitry Ermakov from: Rdzogs pa chen po zhang zhung snyan rgyud kyi brgyud pa’i bla ma’i rnam thar bzhugs so / རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞང་ཞུང་སྙན་རྒྱུདཀྱི་བརྒྱུད་པའི་བླ་མའི་རྣམ་ཐར་བཞུགས་སོ། (༧ བཀྲི་རྟན་ནོར་བུ་རྩེའི་བླ་བྲང་གི་གློག་ཀླད་ནང་དཔར་རྩ་བསྒྲིགས།༢༠༠༢ fols. 25-25) & Karmay, Samten G. The Treasury of Good Sayings (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, 1972), pp. xxi-xxvi.

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[1]  shen lugs / གཤེན་ལུགས།

[2]  hor zla / ཧོར་ཟླ།

[3] ‘Chi med gtsug phud / འཆི་མེད་གཙུག་ཕུད།

[4] Gsal ba / གསལ་བ།

[5] Ston pa Gshen rab mi bo che / སྟོན་པ་གཤེན་རབ་མི་བོ་ཆེ།

[6] bder gshegs dgongs brgyud / བདེར་གཤེགས་དགོངས་བརྒྱུད།

[7] ‘Og min / འའོག་མིན།

[8] Srid pa ye sangs / སྲིད་པ་ཡེ་སངས།

[9] ‘Phrul gshen snang ldan  / འཕྲུལ་གཤེན་སྣང་ལྡན།

[10] Bzang za ring btsun / བཟང་ཟ་རིང་བཙུན།

[11] Bar snang khu byug / བར་སྣང་ཁུ་བྱུག

[12] Gshen lha ‘od dkar / གཤེན་ལྷ་འོད་དཀར།

[13] Such as Zhang zhung snyan rgyud / ཞང་ཞུང་སྙན་རྒྱུད། and Byang sems gab pa dgu skor / བྱང་སེམས་གཔ་དགུ་སྐོར།

[14] Such as Gsas mkhar mchog lnga / གསས་མཁར་མཆོག་ལྔ།

[15]  Gsans ba ‘dus pa / གསང་བ་འདུས་པ།

[16] Stag la me ‘bar / སྟག་ལ་མེ་འབར།

[17]  Dbal pur rgyud dgu / དབལ་ཕུར་རྒྱུད་དགུ

[18] ‘Ol mo lung ring / འོལ་མོ་ལུང་རིང་།

[19] Dmu ra ta han / དམུ་ར་ཏ་ཧན།

Cover image courtesy of Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, first published in Namdak, Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin, trnscr. & ed. Ermakova, C. & Ermakov, D. Masters of the Zhang Zhung Nyengyud: Pith Instructions from the Experiential Transmission of Bönpo Dzogchen, (New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 2010). Copyright © Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön, 2026.