Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön / གཡུང་དྲུང་བོན་ཉར་ཚགས་རིག་མཛོད།

Tag: Tibetan History

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

24th July 2026

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…
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Conference Presentations in Print

8th April 2022

Two recent video presentations by Dmitry Ermakov, Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön, UK, at the 5th International Conference on the Phenomenon of the Holy Mt. Kailash, Universitӓt Hamburg, 25-27 March 2022, are now published in written form. The Importance of Mt. Kailash in the Bön Religion can be read here: The Magical Duel between Milarepa and Naro Bönchung: Who Really Won? can be read here:

The Importance of Mt. Kailash in the Bön Religion

31st March 2022

Abstract: Being the most important sacred geographical feature of Zhang Zhung and Tibet, Mt. Kailash was venerated by Bönpos of various creeds from times immemorial. In this talk I will firstly give a brief discourse on the four types of Bön religions to set the scene. I will then examine how the Dhami tradition of Humla, Nepal is connected to the Kailash region. The rest of the talk will focus on the role Mt. Kailash plays in Yungdrung Bön teachings and history: the meaning of its name in the Zhang Zhung language; Mt. Kailash and Lake Mapang as la-receptacles of…
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The Magical Duel between Milarepa and Naro Bönchung: Who Really Won?

29th March 2022

Abstract: Probably everyone who has even a little interest in Tibet knows or has at least heard of the magical contest between Buddhist yogi Milarepa and Bönpo sorcerer Naro Bönchung which is purported to have taken place at Mount Kailash.  The tale has been told and retold for centuries in Tibet and beyond to illustrate the superiority of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism over Yungdrung Bön. But does it have any grounding in real events? Did this magical duel really happen on Mount Kailash? And who was the real winner? I will attempt to answer these questions by examining both Bönpo and Buddhist…
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