Samding Dorje Phagmo

Dorje Phagmo
Mural depiction of Chökyi Drönma, the first incarnation of Samding Dorje Phagmo, at Nyêmo Chekar monastery

The Samding Dorje Phagmo (Wylie: བསམ་སྡིང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོ) is the highest female incarnation in Tibet and the third highest-ranking person in the hierarchy after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. She was listed among the highest-ranking reincarnations at the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, recognized by the Tibetan government and acknowledged by the emperors of Qing China. In her first incarnation, as Chökyi Drönma (1422 CE–1455 CE), she was the student and consort of the famous polymath Thang Tong Gyalpo, who first identified her as a tulku of Vajravārāhī, and the consort of Bodong Panchen. The seat of the Samding Dorje Phagmo is at Samding Monastery, in Tibet.

The seat of the Samding Dorje Phagmo is at the Samding Monastery "Temple of Soaring Meditation." The Samding Monastery is associated with the Bodong school of Tibetan Buddhism. It was unique because half of the inhabitants were monks and the other half were nuns and its head was a woman.

The female tulku who was the abbess of Samding was traditionally a nirmanakaya emanation of Vajravārāhī. The lineage started in the 15th century with the princess of Gungthang, Chökyi Drönma (Wylie: chos kyi sgron me, 1422–1455). She became known as Samding Dorje Pagmo (Wylie: bsam lding rdo rje phag mo) and began a line of female tulkus, reincarnate lamas. She was a contemporary of the 1st Dalai Lama (1391–1474) and her teacher Bodong Panchen Chogley Namgyal also was one of his teachers. She manifested at Samding Monastery in order to tame Yamdrok Lake, a sacred lake as well as a dangerous flashpoint for massive flooding events in Tibet. However, her effects were more practical: as abbess of Samding, she stopped the invasion of the Dzungars, who were reportedly terrified of her great siddhi powers. When faced with her anger—reputedly by turning the 80 novice nuns under her care into furious wild sows—they left the goods and valuables they had plundered as offerings at the monastery and fled the region.