Jigdal Dagchen Sakya Rinpoche (; alt. Jigchai Dagqên Sa'gya Rinboqê; November 2, 1929 – April 29, 2016) was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher educated in the Sakya sect. He was educated to be the head of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism as well as the successor to the throne of Sakya, the third most important political position in Tibet in early times. Dagchen Rinpoche was in the twenty-sixth generation of the Sakya-Khön lineage descended from Khön Könchok Gyalpo and was regarded as an embodiment of Manjushri as well as the rebirth of a Sakya Lama from the Ngor sub-school, Ewam Luding Khenchen (The Great Abbot from the Luding family) Gyase Chökyi Nyima.
Dagchen is a title meaning “Lineage Holder.” Among his followers he was known as Dagchen Rinpoche, or simply as Rinpoche (“Precious One”). His formal title of “His Holiness” indicates the high degree of esteem with which the Tibetan Buddhist community holds him.
He immigrated in 1960 to the United States with his family, one of the first groups Tibetans-in-exile in North America. He is the first Head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism to live in the United States. From the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Seattle, Washington, and its precursor (which he co-founded in 1974), he taught and preserved Tibetan culture and religion. Because he was also a non-sectarian master within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, he defined Sakya Monastery as a non-denominational and ecumenical center for teachings about Tibetan Buddhism. His work also included the foundation of Tibetan Buddhist communities overseas in India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Southeast Asia, and teaching at Buddhist centers around the world.
Life
Education and Early Adulthood
Dagchen Rinpoche was tutored by the abbot of the South Monastery of Sakya and by the Secretary of the Sakya Government. With these two teachers, Rinpoche studied the Tibetan alphabet, composition, classical literature, philosophy, and the Four Classes of Tantra (esoteric Buddhism). He also received teachings on the Sakya meditation deities. From Pönlop Sakya of the North Monastery, Dagchen Rinpoche learned the fundamental esoteric religious rites of the Sakya tradition: religious music, mandala offering, dancing, and ritual hand gestures.
After having successfully completed this training, Dagchen Rinpoche received from his father the Sakya-Khon lineage transmission of Vajrakilaya (a meditational deity whose name means the “Dagger of Indestructible Reality”), and the complete Lamdré Tsokshey (The Path and Its Fruit in its more esoteric form), which is the main teaching of the Sakya tradition. Thus, Rinpoche's primary spiritual teacher was his father, Trichen Ngawang Thutop Wangchuk.
In 1950, at age 21, Dagchen Rinpoche married Sönam Tsezom, who descends from a family of lamas and doctors of East Tibet (Kham). She is the niece of the Dezhung Rinpoche III. When she married her name became Jamyang and her title Dagmo Kusho or, more formally, Dagmo Kushola, which roughly translates as: "mother of a prince."
Later that year Dagchen Rinpoche's father died. Rinpoche became the interim Throne-holder. Concurrently, Communist Chinese invaders were threatening Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. After a short reign as the head of the Sakya sect, he took a leave of absence as ruler of Sakya in order to travel to East Tibet to complete his religious education.
In East Tibet, Dagchen Rinpoche received teachings from fourteen lamas. Among them were his root lamas, Jamyang Chökyi Lodrö and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. They were renowned non-sectarian lamas, of the Sakya and Nyingma traditions, respectively. From Jamyang Chökyi Lodrö Rinpoche, Dagchen Rinpoche received initiations and teachings of the Sakya School's most valued teaching, the seven-volume Lamdré Lopshey (The Path and Its Fruit in its more esoteric form) and the fourteen-volume Druptap Kundu (Collection of Methods of Realization). From Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Dagchen Rinpoche received teachings on the thirteen-volume Damngak Dzö (Treasury of Esoteric Instructions), a non-sectarian compilation by Jamgön Kongtrul, a great non-sectarian master of Tibetan Buddhism from the Kagyu School. Additionally, twelve other Sakya lamas gave him the teachings from the thirty-one volume Gyude Kundu.