As all rituals failed, the 5th Dalai Lama soon realised that Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen was indeed not a spirit and had actually manifested as a Dharma Protector – Dorje Shugden. The Dalai Lama proceed to compose a praise in recognition of his awakened qualities. With this recognition by the Great Fifth, the calamities, dying of livestock, hail, earthquakes and all terrible things ceased. Everything flourished in the land once again and peace was restored.

No one can compete with him! He is the one called Dorje Shugden Tsel, The Mighty One Endowed With Vajra Strength!
~ Nechung, during an official proclamation

This was how he was given the name Dorje Shugden. The 5th Dalai Lama subsequently ordered a temple of Dorje Shugden to be built in Lhasa. It was named Trode Khangsar and still stands there to this day as a popular pilgrimage site.

The Dalai Lama even made a statue of Dorje Shugden with his own hands, which he offered to Phelgyeling Monastery along with the practice. This statue can still be seen in Phelgyeling Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, where the monks have relocated since the 1950s.

A high Chinese minister named Amban Che Trungtang was resident in Lhasa. He heard of the oracle of Dorje Shugden in Trode Khangsar and sought prophecies for some important questions he wrote in Chinese. He came to the temple and burned the questions in front of the image of Dorje Shugden and demanded clear answers.

Right the next day, Dorje Shugden took trance in the oracle and gave precise answers that delighted the Chinese official with conviction. He reported it to the reigning Chinese Emperor Daoguang.

Consequently, imperial representative of the Chinese emperor Daoguang, the 11th Dalai Lama Kedrub Gyatso, his regent, patrons and many High Lamas presented a Pandit hat to Dorje Shugden in an elaborate ceremony at Trode Khangsar. In that way, the esteemed guests all praised and enthroned Gyalchen Dorje Shugden as principal protector of the Yellow Hat Teachings.

Moreover, the practice of Dorje Shugden has grown all over the world and is now being followed by tens of thousands of practitioners in both the East and the West. Having arisen as a Dharma Protector specifically for this time, Dorje Shugden is bringing great protection, resources and help to practitioners everywhere and helping the Dharma to spread in all directions.

Some of the world’s largest Buddhist organizations, such as the NKT and FPMT centers, are or have been under the guidance of Lamas who were well-known Dorje Shugden practitioners.

The sacred relics that were left behind by the cremation fire were placed inside eight types of stupas, which were all made of silver. These were then brought to Drepung Upper Residence but strange voices and squeezing sounds were heard to arise from the relics.

Following Nechung’s instructions, the Desi took the relics out of the stupas and placed them inside a wooden box that was then cast into the Kyichu River. It eventually came to rest in lower Lhoka Dol, which is known today as the White Spring of Dol.

The “spirit” of Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen initially travelled to Tashi Lhumpo hoping to meet his Guru, Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyeltsen. However, the Horse Lords of Vaishravana, who stood encircling the monastery, barred access to the monastery.

The “spirit” then traveled to Sakya, led by imprints of his previous life as Sakya Pandita. The patriarch of Sakya at that time, Dagchen Dorje Chang Sonam Rinchen, recognised and enthroned him as a Dharma Protector and Kunkhyen Ngawang Kungo Lodroe then composed a praise to him. Dorje Shugden practice flourished henceforth in the Sakya School until recent times.

However, back in Lhasa, the calamities that had hit the capital continued to intensify. Even the Dalai Lama was affected – he beheld many inauspicious apparitions that seemed to plague and disturb him.

When the Dalai Lama gave an initiation, the initiation torma fell on its own accord without the slightest breeze. When he was served meals, the plates of food would overturn for no reason; he couldn’t even drink a cup of a tea without the teacup shaking from disturbances. One time, it even seemed that the entire Potala Palace was rocking back and forth.

The Dalai Lama sensed that all these occurrences were bad omens. “We have wronged Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen,” he said. “He has died and become a raging, evil spirit.” The Dalai Lama resolved to destroy this spirit using tantric rituals.

The first ritual, a wrathful fire puja, was performed by the 5th Dalai Lama himself. The ritual failed because the Dharma Protector Setrab manifested a miraculous monastery on top of the mountain, which rocked the Potala Palace; this distracted the Dalai Lama from his ritual and the “spirit” was freed.

The 5th Dalai Lama then contracted other very powerful tantric masters of the Nyingma tradition, such as Dordrag Rigtzin, Minling Terchen and Gadong Ngarampa, to perform similarly deadly rituals to destroy the “spirit” of Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen.

However, all of them failed too as Setrab would manifest more distractions to pull the Lamas’ attention away; or when they were able to attract the spirit onto the ritual ladle, to be burned in the fire puja, they were unable to destroy him in the fire. Whenever the Nyingma Lamas dipped the ladle into the fire, an indestructible image of Yamantaka would arise instead, and stand atop the ladle.

Such magical incidents revealed the true nature of Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen, which is that he is one with Yamantaka, the wrathful emanation of Manjushri, Buddha of Wisdom. The nature of Yamantaka is beyond death and rebirth, as he is fully enlightened. This was why neither the Dalai Lama nor Nyingma Lamas were able to destroy this “spirit”.

According to the Great Fifth’s autobiography, he had heard of Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen’s illness and was very concerned, as they were both close students of the same Guru, Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyeltsen. The Dalai Lama was unable to meet Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen in person so his regent, Desi Sonam Chopel dispatched Depa Norbu instead, allowing him the window of opportunity to perform his evil deed.

However, the Dalai Lama had no prior knowledge of the evil plot to assassinate Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen. He wrote that he was initially told that Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen passed away due to illness but later found out that some young people had murdered him. With sadness, he told his attendants what he had learnt and was quick to notice Depa Norbu’s guilty expression. Consequently, the Dalai Lama demanded to know what happened and was thoroughly dismayed to find out the truth.

Before dealing with his attendants, he called for pen and paper. Seized by overwhelming grief and guilt on behalf of his students, he composed a heartfelt verse of apology to his friend, Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen. He ordered the verses to be brought to the funeral pyre and immediately read out.

Just before the verses arrive at the site of the funerary stupa at Ngakpa Drepung Monastery, the monks had been trying repeatedly in vain to light the pyre beneath the holy remains of Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen. However, whatever they did, the pyre just would not light.

The funeral rituals were stalled until the Dalai Lama’s verses arrived. When they did, the Dalai Lama’s attendant read the verses out loud towards the holy remains and just as he finished reading, the pyre immediately burst into flames.

The sight of the burning pyre made Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen’s attendant weep in deep sorrow. Out of frustration and sadness, he took hold of his zen (outer robe) and slapped it against the funerary stupa.

What kind of high Lama are you? How could you let them kill you and not do anything?
~ Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen’s attendant

Suddenly, a thick gust of wind and smoke swirled out from the funeral pyre into the sky and covered all of Lhasa, in the shape of a large hand. As the smoke swept through the sky, earthquakes shook the land, hail fell, cattle died, crops failed and there was famine throughout the land. These were all signs of the cumulative negative karma of the people who had destroyed a holy being, Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen.

At the time, the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Palace was referred to as the Lower Residence and Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s Palace, the Upper Residence. This referred to the positioning of the residences, with one being literally physically higher than the other, rather than the status or attainments of the respective Lamas. However, people began talk about both the Upper and Lower residences as if they were equal in stature which meant that many saw Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen as equal to the Dalai Lama.

On top of that, they even made Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen’s throne higher than the Dalai Lama’s during the Great Prayer Festival in Lhasa. These were among the many reasons for the Dalai Lama’s regent, Desi Sonam Chopel, and other attendants at the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Palace to begin talking and expressing their unbearable jealousy. They eventually began to talk about assassinating Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen.

One day, Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen feigned a sudden illness, which he said was due to interferences of inauspicious spirits, and began to make preparations for the inevitable. Desi Sonam Chopel’s brother, Depa Norbu, who was in collusion with the evil Desi, came to where Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen was residing under the pretext of visiting. He entered the large bedroom of the high Lama and tried to offer him food laced with poison.

However, as Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen was an enlightened being, he did not have the karma to be harmed and the poison had no effect on him. Next, Depa Norbu tried to stab him with a dagger but the blade wouldn’t penetrate his skin. Instead, mysterious eyes would appear wherever Depa Norbu had tried to pierce him with the dagger, and stared back menacingly.

Finally, understanding what his adversaries were trying to do, and knowing how it would help him to fulfil his promise, Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen advised them that he could only be killed if he was choked with a khata.

Immediately Depa Norbu took a long white khata and stuffed it down his throat with such brute force that the high Lama suffocated and passed away. It was said this murder was so violent that, at the point of death, a slight amount of fierce energy resembling wrath arose in the mind of Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen. This energy created the circumstances for him to arise in the form of the wrathful Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden.

Duldzin Drakpa Gyeltsen incarnated as the great master Panchen Sonam Drakpa, who was the first and only Lama to have become the abbot of all three monasteries, Gaden, Sera and Drepung. He was known throughout his lifetime for being an exemplary debater and for his incomparable teachings. To this day, monks in Gaden Shartse and Drepung Loseling study the philosophical texts he composed for their Geshe examinations.

In a subsequent lifetime, he then incarnated as Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen, a contemporary of the 5th Dalai Lama with whom he studied under the Guru, Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyeltsen, the 4th Panchen Lama.

Even as a young boy, Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen displayed many extraordinary signs and behaved most unusually, with a strong tendency towards the Dharma. He was thus selected as one of the candidates to be recognised as the incarnation of the 4th Dalai Lama.

Eventually, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso was recognized and enthroned as the 5th Dalai Lama. The other young boy was recognised as an incarnation of Panchen Sonam Drakpa instead and given the name Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen.

Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen matured into a powerful and famous high Lama in his own right. He became known as a very great teacher and began to draw throngs of students from as far as China and Mongolia. Royalty travelled great distances to seek teachings from him and he received a lot of sponsorship from his many students.

Once, at the height of his teaching career, he happened to have an audience with Nechung through an oracle. At this audience, Nechung urged him to remember his previous promise. “What promise?” Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen asked. The Nechung oracle took some rice, blew into it and passed it to him, saying, “If you eat this rice and meditate, you will remember clearly.”

Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen took the rice and followed the instructions accordingly. Just as Nechung had said, upon eating the rice the Lama was reminded instantly of the promise he once made in a previous life.

I remember my previous promise now! However, I don’t have any trace of wrath or wrathful energy within my mindstream that will enable me to arise as a Dharma Protector. What should I do?

~ Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen to Nechung

Nechung promised, “I will perform the activities to take care of that!”

Soon after, emanations of Nechung, appearing as travelers from all over, including many from the eastern region of Kham, came to Lhasa to seek audience and make offerings to Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen. They came in numbers that seemed to eclipse even those seeking audience with the 5th Dalai Lama.

During the time of the incomparable Manjushri Je Tsongkhapa, a dove was once seen circling around the hall during a teaching session at Gaden Monastery. Gyaltsab Je and Kedrub Je, two of Je Tsongkhapa’s closest disciples, knew the bird was an emanation of the Dharma Protector Nechung but they didn’t say anything.

In the audience was also Duldzin Drakpa Gyeltsen, one of Je Tsongkhapa’s closest, most devoted students. He is often believed to be a direct emanation of Tsongkhapa himself, to show us the example of a perfect relationship between Guru and disciple. He too knew that the dove was Nechung but refrained from saying anything until after the teachings.

When everyone left the hall, Duldzin Drakpa Gyeltsen said to the bird, “It is not proper for you to keep coming here and disturbing my Lama’s teachings. Please state the reason you are here, Nechung. What do you want?”

When Duldzin Drakpa Gyeltsen said this, the bird transformed into a young boy dressed in white, who walked towards him and said, “You are my purpose. It is your help that I have been waiting for. Lama Tsongkhapa has taught Nagarjuna’s Middle View perfectly.”

“An uncommon protector needs to arise, to protect these perfect teachings. I cannot do this, as I have already promised Guru Rinpoche that I will protect Buddhism in general.”

Lord Duldzin, will you arise as a Protector, uncommon to the Gaden lineage, to protect Nagarjuna’s Middle View as taught so clearly by Tsongkhapa? Will you promise to do this?

~ Dharma Protector Nechung to Duldzin Drakpa Gyeltsen

Duldzin folded his hands and agreed, saying, “Yes, I will do it. I promise.” The small boy said to Lord Duldzin, “Do not forget your promise.” Then he disappeared. This was how the aspiration to arise as a Dharma Protector was first generated during the lifetime of Duldzin Drakpa Gyeltsen.