Ngawang Namgyel

Ngawang Namgyal (later granted the honorific Zhabdrung Rinpoche, approximately at whose feet one submits) (Tibetan: ཞབས་དྲུང་ངག་དབང་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་, Wylie: zhabs drung ngag dbang rnam rgyal; alternate spellings include Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel; 1594–1651) was a Tibetan Buddhist lama and the unifier of Bhutan as a nation-state. In addition to unifying the various warring fiefdoms for the first time in the 1630s, he also sought to create a distinct Bhutanese cultural identity separate from the Tibetan culture from which it was derived.

Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal was born at Ralung Monastery, Tibet as the son of the Drukpa lineage-holder Mipham Tenpa'i Nyima (Wylie: 'brug pa mi pham bstan pa'i nyi ma) (1567–1619), and Sönam Pelgyi Butri (Wylie: bsod nams dpal gyi bu khrid), daughter of the ruler of Kyishö (Wylie: sde pa skyid shod pa) in Tibet. On his father's side Ngawang Namgyal descended from the family line of Tsangpa Gyare (1161–1211), the founder of the Drukpa Lineage.

In his youth Ngawang Namgyal was enthroned as the 18th Drukpa or throne-holder and "hereditary prince" of the traditional Drukpa seat and estate of Ralung (Wylie: rwa lung) and recognized there as the immediate reincarnation of the 4th Drukchen, the "Omniscient" Kunkhyen Pema Karpo (Wylie: kun mkhyen pad ma dkar po, 1527–1592).

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