Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche’s teaching on Drenpa Namkha, Wels, Austria, 1995

The First Drenpa Namkha, of Tagzig

There are three Drenpa Namkhas.[1] They all have the same name.

The first is very early. He was miraculously self-born on a lotus.[2]

It says that he was born in a place called Tagzig.[3] In ancient times, that was a very big country. Maybe it included Afghanistan, too. In our text, it says Tajik and then Kashmir. Kashmir is translated into Tibetan as Kache.[4] These countries are quite closely joined.

So this first Drenpa Namkha was there. Not much is known about this one. We only have a few short prayers, and they say that he was self-born, on a lotus, and that we should pray to him in the morning and evening. Those simple things are mentioned.

The Second Drenpa Namkha, of Zhang Zhung

The second Drenpa Namkha was around about 10^th century BC (b. 914 BC)[5] – we still don’t know much about him, but according to our texts he was living around the time of Shakyamuni,[6] around the time of the seventh King of Tibet. This second Drenpa Namkha was born in Chyunglung Ngulkhar[7] – the Silver Castle of Garuda Valley to the West of Mount Kailash.[8] The name is still there, but translated into Tibetan; Chyunglung is a Tibetan translation of Zhang Zhung.[9]

Zhang Zhung, Old Tibetan, Sanskrit and Classical Tibetan languages

Western scholars maintain that Zhang Zhung did not exist, but they do recognise that Chyunglung existed. Everybody understands Chyunglung! But that is translated from Zhang Zhung! At that time, the Tibetan Kings to the west were converted to Yungdrung Bön,[10] and the primitive people crossed the border to the south side, and into many parts, up to Ladakh, Lahor Kinnaur, and Nepal[11] – in many parts of Nepal the villagers still speak dialects that are mixed with many Zhang Zhung words. So we still have a Zhang Zhung lexicon. It’s not a big dictionary but a lexicon, and it was translated by Eric Haarh.[12] He was working on this and Per Kværne was, too. Many people did and still do. They have already made many discoveries.

Our texts are still very much mixed with this Zhang Zhung language – mantras, and readings. We don’t care which language they are in. When we look and think very deeply about this, we can see that many are not Tibetan. Many are integrated with ancient language – Old Tibetan language is very much closely related to Zhang Zhung. But from the 7^th century AD, the Buddhists came to Tibet, and they created special language and grammar rules. But before it was different. According to that new system, whatever texts we have are not grammatical. Nowadays, if people come across strange words or strangely composed letters, they say: Oh, this a Bönpo one! That is what modern Tibetans say. And it is quite true, you see. Because real Bönpo texts have never been under the control of the government.

The grammar of the classical Tibetan language is not the original Tibetan mother tongue. It has been adopted from the Sanskrit grammar which has three different genders – feminine, masculine and neuter – and eight cases,[13] so the nouns of all three genders may be declined in those cases and there are 24 forms altogether. Thonmi Sambhota[14] picked up this system from Sanskrit. He didn’t copy genders, but he picked up seven cases.[15] So nowadays Tibetans follow these seven cases when they write. But nobody can speak according to these rules; they are only for classical written texts. If you read or recite a text, you have text go according to these rules. But nobody speaks that way. Local people have their own languages which are nothing to do with this grammar. Nowadays, Central Tibet has very pure, high language, but it has nothing to do with this grammar. This grammatical system was imposed forcefully by Trisrong Deubtsen,[16] in Srongtsen Gampo’s[17]  grandson’s time – very strict rule! There are several rules when you are translating from Sanskrit into Tibetan. According to this system, if you are translating a Sutra, you have to first put: “I bow down to Manjushri!” And if you are translating a Tantra text, you have to start with: “Prostrations to Vajrapani.” Like this. If you translate Abhidharma,[18] you also have to praise Manjushri. They have so many rules, you see, and special terms.

But Bönpos don’t go under these rules. So nowadays Bönpo texts seem very ungrammatical. Later, Bönpo scholars tried to follow this rule and copy – like Shardza;[19] many modern scholars and authors follow the grammar rules, but people who understand the situation and grammar and Tibetan history disagree. One time, some of our monks were trying to publish a manuscript in Delhi, preparing it, and so they scratched some old words and corrected them to the new spelling, and one day Gene Smith[20] came and he was very angry! He said: You have gold and are trying to turn it into brass!!! If you do this, I will never take it to the Library of Congress! So then they were frightened and never did that again. Otherwise, many were always doing in this way, it was very popular. If you show them a Bönpo text, they’d say: “This is completely wrong! Grammar is wrong, this and that is wrong. You cannot even find many of these words in the dictionary!” So Western scholars get very annoyed when they read Bönpo texts. They don’t like them. There are many things that they don’t like very much. Firstly, it is very rare to find these words in the dictionary, and secondly, they are not as easy to translate as the others because other texts, Buddhist ones, follow rules, but the Bönpo texts don’t have many rules. According to the Zhang Zhung Lexicon, the Zhang Zhung language does have grammar, but it has nothing to do with Sanskrit grammar.

Anyhow, this Drenpa Namkha, the second, married an Indian yogi girl, and they had two sons, twins. The first born was Tsewang Rigdzin,[21] and a few minutes or so later, Guru Rinpoche[22]  was born. These two were twin brothers. Then later on, Drenpa Namkha and his wife divorced.

That is the second Drenpa Namkha. Originally, he was King of Zhang Zhung. His father was called Gyungyar Mukhö[23] and he was King of Chyunglung. This King had a son, Drenpa Namkha who had two twin sons, but then the lineage stopped. Tsewang Rigdzin didn’t have any children, nor did Guru Rinpoche – we call him Pema Thongdrol.[24] But whether or not the Guru Rinpoche who came to Tibet was this son of Drenpa Namkha, we cannot be sure. Because so much time passed – from the 7^th king[25] to the 7^th century. There were many centuries in between. That is one thing.

Secondly, Guru Rinpoche never mentioned his education. He never said. If he was really Drenpa Namkha’s son and educated under Bönpo, then he would have learned Dzogchen[26] and everything from there, and so then he would have been a real siddha and he should have said something, honestly. Some people say he didn’t say anything bad about Bön, nothing like that.  So I myself very much doubt. I don’t know. Otherwise, he should have been a pure Dzogchenpa and should not have been sectarian. So therefore, I can’t say whether this Guru Rinpoche who came to Tibet in the seventh century is the twin brother of Tsewang Rigdzin or not. Personally, I don’t know.

The Third Drenpa Namkha, of Tibet

Then the third Drenpa Namkha was born in South Tibet. His father was called Mushen Dagpa.[27] When Drenpa Namkha was forty-seven, Guru Rinpoche came to that region and Drenpa Namkha converted. He was under Guru Rinpoche for seven years, as his pupil. He was one of Guru Rinpoche’s twenty-five close disciples. The same as Vairochana.[28] Vairochana was fully educated according to the Bön tradition, but then Guru Rinpoche chose him as one of his disciples.

That is the Tibetan Drenpa Namkha, the third one. Before meeting Guru Rinpoche, he was already very learned and a very great siddha.[29] A very great person. We have so many of his teachings and writings and poetry. We use many of them a lot.

Q&A

Q: And today his energy is still strong?

A: Yes – all three of them! Some say that the first Drenpa Namkha took Rainbow Body in the cave at Kongpo Bönri.[30] They say that there is a hole in the cave and that the first Drenpa Namkha ‘exited’ through there. But the texts don’t say anything. I think they all changed bodies or something, reincarnated in different times, but there are no traces left, nothing is written.  In the future, Drenpa Namkha will always be alive and check and help practitioners. Always, every morning, he will ride on the sunrays and check practitioners. He promised.

Q: What is the function the Prayer to Drenpa Namkha?[31]

A: The early siddhas are full of blessings, but whether blessings come to you or not depends on your devotion. It’s not a question of them.

This prayer is for the second Drenpa Namkha, Drenpa Namkha of Zhang Zhung.

The third Drenpa Namkha was responsible for all Bönpo doctrines, all practitioners, everything. He had very much responsibility, it was very heavy. Very heavy times for both Tibet and Bön. His teachings are really very, very wonderful, very clear, very full of blessings.

Q: I heard that Drenpa Namkha’s blessings are especially powerful in our times…

A: Yes, he said. He promised. At the time of persecution,[32] he was responsible for all Tönpa Shenrab’s[33] teachings that were available in the country of Tibet. He was responsible for all of them. And he said that at that time. There were so many problems at that time, so much trouble in the country – there was persecution and forced conversion to Buddhism brought from India. Then some of his pupils asked him: “There are too many problems here. How can we preserve and practise Yungdrung Bön? How can we preserve the teachings?” And Drenpa Namkha[34] replied that the times are changing, and that in the future the time will come – he clearly prophesied everything. He said that at that time, in the future, the energy of the lineage will be very powerful, especially Dzogchen will be very powerful, and he said that people would follow very much. This period won’t last so long, but many people will be interested and many practitioners will come. That is what he said.

Colophon

This teaching was given by Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche[35] in 1995 in Wells, Austria, towards the end of an intimate retreat on Quintessential Secret Instructions in Eight Chapters[36] from the Zhang Zhung Nyengyu[37] cycle when he was asked to give transmissions and explanations for some practices including Red Garuda,[38] The Essential Point of the Profound Contemplation on the Wrathful Mantra of Sipai Gyalmo[39] and Accomplishment Practice of Khöpung.[40] While searching through materials from this retreat recently, Dmitry uncovered the tape of these unique teachings which we had recorded on a Sony Walkman back in 1995. So we resuscitated our old Decca cassette player and Carol set about transcribing the teachings on Drenpa Namkha, which we have now edited, added Wylie, footnotes etc. Today, on this auspicious date, the anniversary of Drenpa Namkha and Sons[41] (24.07.2026), we are happy to share them publicly. May they bring benefit to all!

Transcribed & edited by Carol Emakova & Dmitry Ermakov.

All rights reserved.

© Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön, 2026.

Cover photo of Yongdzin Rinpoche by Rosa-Maria Mendez.

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[1] Tib. Dran pa nam mkha’ / དྲན་པ་ནམ་མཁའ།

[2] For more details on this Drenpa Namkha see Dmitry Ermakov, “Three Drenpa Namkhas in Yungdrung Bön,” Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön, March 6, 2021, https://yungdrungbon.co.uk/2021/03/06/three-drenpa-namkhas-in-yungdrung-bon/.

[3] Tib. Stag gzig / སྟག་གཟིག

[4] Tib. kha che / ཁ་ཆེ།

[5] According to traditional Bönpo Chronology: Nyi ma bsTan ‘dzin. Sangs rgyas kyi bsTan rtsis ngo mtshar nor bu’i phreng ba zhes bya ba bzhugs so. In Tibetan–Zhang Zhung Dictionary, 23–40. New Delhi: The Bonpo Foundation, 1965; Per Kværne, trans., “A Chronological Table of the Bonpo: The bsTan rtsis of Nyi ma bsTan ‘dzin,” Acta Orientalia 33 (1971): 297–334.For more details Ibid.

[6] Tib. Sangs rgyas shAkya thub pa / སངས་རྒྱས་ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ། There are many different dates for Shakyamuni Buddha in different Buddhist traditions eg. Theravāda: 623–543 BCE or Kalachakra: 915–833(4) BC. The Kalachakra dates fit perfectly with the birth date of the second Drenpa Namkha.

[7] Tib. Khyung lung dngul mkhar / ཁྱུང་ལུང་དངུལ་མཁར།

[8] Tib. Ti se / ཏི་སེ།

[9] Tib. Zhang zhung / ཞང་ཞུང་།

[10] Tib. g.yung drung bon / གཡུང་དྲུང་བོན།

[11] Tib. La dwags, La hor, Khu nu, Bal yul / ལ་དྭགས། ལ་ཧོར། ཁུ་ནུ། བལ་ཡུལ།

[12] Zhu Yogi Nyima Drakpa. Zhu’i Zhang Zhung Tshig mdzod (ཞུའི་ཞང་ཞུང་ཚིག་མཛོད།). Traditional Zhang Zhung–Tibetan glossary. Various manuscript and printed editions – the primary source. Here, however Yongdzin Rinpoche refers to: Haarh, Erik. The Zhang-zhung Language: A Grammar and Dictionary of the Unexplored Language of the Tibetan Bonpos. Aarhus: Universitetsforlaget i Aarhus; Copenhagen: Einar Munksgaard, 1968. Since then, several other Zhang Zhung-Tibetan-English dictionaries have been compiled: Namgyal Nyima, Dagkar. Zhang-Zhung–Tibetan–English Contextual Dictionary. Bonn: 2003. ISBN 3-00-012012-2; Tsultrim Tenzin, Pasar, Changru Tritsuk Namdak Nyima, and Gatsa Lodrö Rabsel. A Lexicon of Zhangzhung and Bonpo Terms. Edited by Yasuhiko Nagano and Samten G. Karmay. Translated by Heather Stoddard. Bon Studies 11; Senri Ethnological Reports 76. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, 2008; Martin, Dan. Zhangzhung Dictionary. Revue d’Études Tibétaines 18 (April 2010): 5–253. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); also, Siegbert Hummel, On Zhang-zhung, ed. and trans. Guido Vogliotti. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2000.

[13] Nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative, vocative. Also, each noun has three numbers: singular, dual and plural. So a full declensional paradigm normally has: 8 cases × 3 numbers = 24 forms.

[14] Tib. Thon mi sam+b+ho Ta / ཐོན་མི་སམྦྷོ་ཊ།

[15] Classical Tibetan grammar has 7 cases (Tib. rnam dbye bdun / རྣམ་དབྱེ་བདུན།), modelled on Sanskrit excluding vocative with case functions expressed primarily by particles rather than noun inflection.

[16] Tib. Khri srong lde’u btsan / ཁྲི་སྲོང་ལྡེའུ་བཙན།

[17] Tib. Srong btsan sgam po / ཁྲི་སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོ།

[18] The Tibetan Buddhist term for Abhidharma is Tib. chos mngon pa / ཆོས་མངོན་པ། but the Bönpo term is Tib. mdzod phug / མཛོད་ཕུག

[19] I.e. Shardza Trashi Gyaltsen / Shar rdza Bkra shis rgyal mtshan (1859–1934(5).

[20] E. Gene (Ellis Gene) Smith (1936–2010).

[21] Tib. Tshe dbang rig ‘dzin / ཚེ་དབང་རིག་འཛིན།

[22] Tib. Gu+ru rin po che / གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།, i.e. Padmasambhava, Tib. Pad+ma ‘byung gnas / པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས།

[23] Tib. Rgyung yar mu khod / རྒྱུང་ཡར་མུ་ཁོད།

[24] Tib. Pad ma mthong grol / པད་མ་མཐོང་གྲོལ།

[25] I.e. the seventh king of Tibet Drigum Tsenpo (Tib. Gri gum btsan po / གྲི་གུམ་བཙན་པོ།, 710-680 BC) during whose rule the first persecution of Yungdrung Bön took place in 683 BC according to traditional Bönpo chronology. This Drenpa Namkha of Zhang Zhung was instrumental in saving Bönpo teachings from destruction during this persecution.

[26] Tib. rdzogs chen / རྫོགས་ཆེན།

[27] Tib. Dmu gshen dag pa / དམུ་གཤེན་དག་པ།

[28] Tib. Bai ro tsa na / བཻ་རོ་ཙ་ན།

[29] Tib. grub thob chen po / གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ཆེན་པོ།

[30] Holy mountain of Bön, Tib. Kong po bon ri / ཀོང་པོ་བོན་རི།

[31] The practice in question is Accomplishment Practice of Khöpung ༼ །ཁོད་སྤུངས་སྒོས་སྒྲུབ་བཞུགས། ༽ which forms a part of three restricted Tibetan-English practice booklets published by FPYB: Short Drenpa Namkha Tsogchö །ཁོད་སྤུངས་སྒོས་སྒྲུབ་བཞུགས། །དྲན་པ་ནམ་མཁའི་ཚོགས་མཆོད་ཆུང་བ།, The Secret Practice of Khöpung Drenpa’s Innermost Essence ཁོད་སྤུངས་དྲན་པའི་སྙིང་ཐིག་གསང་སྒྲུབ་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་པ་ལེགས་སོ།། and Drenpa Namkha Tsogchö དྲན་པ་ནམ་མཁའི་ཚོགས་མཆོད།. See https://yungdrungbon.co.uk/publications/#restricted-books

[32] I.e. the second persecution of Bön in 7-8 century AD.

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

[34] This was Drenpa Namkha of Tibet (702-780 AD). See Ermakov, “Three Drenpa Namkhas in Yungdrung Bön,” https://yungdrungbon.co.uk/2021/03/06/three-drenpa-namkhas-in-yungdrung-bon/.

[35] Tib. Yongds ‘dzin Slob dpon Bstan’dzin rnam dag Rin po che / ཡོངས་འཛིན་སློབ་དཔོན་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྣམ་དག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།

[36] Tib. Man ngag le’u brgyad pa / མན་ངག་ལེའུ་བརྒྱད་པ།

[37] Tib. Zhang zhung snyan rgyud / ཞང་ཞུང་སྙན་རྒྱུད།

[38] Tib. Khyung dmar / ཁྱུང་དམར།

[39] Tib. Srid rgyal drag sngags gnad kyi dgongs thim bzhugs / སྲིད་རྒྱལ་དྲག་སྔགས་གནད་ཀྱི་དགོངས་ཐིམ་བཞུགས།

[40] Tib. Kho spungs sgos sgrub bzhugs / ཁོད་སྤུངས་སྒོས་སྒྲུབ་བཞུགས།

[41] Tib. Dran pa yab sras gsum / དྲན་པ་ཡབ་སྲས་གསུམ།