Tribute to Mayum Pema Tsering Wangmo
Rigpa
On the occasion of the Dungshyu (cremation) ceremony of Mayum Pema Tsering Wangmo, we remember her life and dharma accomplishments.
Mayum-la will be cremated at the holy site of Tashiding, Sikkim on 14 October 2022 in a ceremony presided over by a number of lamas who have a close connection with Mayum-la and the Rigpa sangha.
A short account of Mayum-la’s life
Also known as Tselu, Mayum Tsering Wangmo was the daughter of Dechen Tso, the princess of Ling, and Sonam Tobgyal of the Lakar family. She was the mother of Sogyal Rinpoche and Dzogchen Rinpoche and the older sister of Khandro Tsering Chödrön.
Mayum-la was renowned as a great dakini and it was the great Dzogchen Master, Khenpo Ngakchung who considered her to be an emanation of Ushnishavijaya (Namgyalma).
Mayum-la was born in 1923, the year of the water pig, so at the time of her passing, according to the Tibetan system of counting age she had reached 100 years.
The Lakar family line
The dharma activities and contribution of the Lakar family dates back to the 14th Century. It was the great Buddhist master Je Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism who, in 1357, gave the Lakar family its name. The family went on to become patrons of all the major monasteries in Tibet sponsoring the annual great prayer festival, Mönlam Chenmo, in Lhasa every year from 1408 until the 1950s, and it is said that there was not a single monastery, great or small, in the Land of Snows that did not receive the family’s help.
Connection to the lineage of Dzogchen Rinpoches
For centuries, the Lakar family had a deep connection to Dzogchen monastery and the line of Dzogchen Rinpoches. This connection continued with Mayum-la, whose root guru was the 5th Dzogchen Rinpoche, Jikdral Changchub Dorje. His incarnation passed away in chinese prison at an early age, and was reborn as Mayum-la’s fourth child, 7th Dzogchen Rinpoche, Jigme Losel Wangpo.
In the late 1980's, at the request of H.H. 14th Dalai Lama, Mayum-la’s husband Tsewang Paljor, a great practitioner and expert in Tibetan geomancy, began construction of Dzogchen Monastery in the Dhondenling Tibetan settlement in south India, an endeavour Mayum-la was herself deeply involved in.
Leaving Tibet
Tsewang Paljor was the secretary to Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, so when he left Tibet, they accompanied him to Sikkim, leaving behind most of their belongings and a vast collection of dharma relics that had been gathered over generations by the Lakar family.
Mayum-la’s sons, Sonam Gyaltsen (Sogyal Rinpoche) and Thigyal were born in Tibet, her daughter Dechen was born in Siliguri and her fourth son, Jigme Losel Wangpo (7th Dzogchen Rinpoche) was born in Gangtok, Sikkim.
Tsewang Paljor and Mayum Tsering Wangmo
Mayum-la’s visits to the West
Mayum-la first visited the West in September 1987. She met with her eldest son, Sogyal Rinpoche, in Paris as well as with Kalu Rinpoche and Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche. Together with her husband, she visited the United states in 1990, and later Europe where they visited the land that would become Lerab Ling in January 1991.
After the passing of her husband in April 1999, Mayum-la spent more and more time with her son Sogyal Rinpoche in Lerab Ling and she eventually settled there. Her sister Khandro Tsering Chödron also came to live in Lerab Ling in 2006 where she lived until she passed into parinirvana in 2011.
The loving Dakini of Lerab Ling
Living in Lerab Ling, Mayum-la became one of the driving forces behind the Lerab Ling temple project. She insisted that the temple could not be too small and that it must provide enough space for at least a thousand people - a goal which was accomplished.
Mayum-la places a khatak on the first pillar of the Lerab Ling temple under construction
Mayum-la kept a strict daily routine of a practitioner, getting up at three o’clock in the morning, doing one hundred prostrations as part of her practice. She had great devotion for Buddha Shakyamuni, and one of her favourite practices was Mipham Rinpoche’s “The Treasury of Blessings - A Practice of Buddha Shakyamuni”. Throughout the day, she would frequently chant the mantra of Buddha Shakyamuni. Whenever anyone sought her advice, her reply was always ‘pray to Buddha Shakyamuni, pray to Buddha Shakyamuni’.
Right up until the time she passed away she could be seen reciting mantras and rolling a mala between her fingers.
Mayum-la was constantly practising for people who were sick, dying or going through difficulties and a steady stream of visitors would come to see her to request her blessing and prayers. And Mayum-la insisted that anyone visiting her left with a mountain of cookies and sweets. Her generosity was infinite!
As one of the team caring for her said :
“The cosy rich and warm atmosphere of abundance and blissful wakefulness in her presence cannot be expressed in words. She nourished us with her motherly love and her unperturbed grace.
She demonstrated again and again how to transcend ordinary thinking, just by how she was, just through her being.”
A free and vibrant spirit, Mayum-la would often be seen out walking around Lerab Ling and later her carers took her out for walks in a wheelchair. One of her greatest joys was to go for scenic drives, ‘cham cham’, where she would stop for tea or pastries in local patisseries. She became well known in the local area and her presence, her heartwarming smile or profound gaze touched everyone she interacted with.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche repeatedly commented that just to have Mayum-la present in Lerab Ling was an immeasurable blessing for Lerab Ling and the entire Rigpa sangha. Every lama who came to Lerab Ling would visit Mayum-la to receive her blessings. When Trulshik Rinpoche visited Lerab Ling, he requested a blessing of Namgyalma from Mayum-la and Pewar Rinpoche said “We can truly say that she comes from the family of true dakinis, true feminine embodiments of the teachings.”
Passing into parinirvana
In May 2022, Mayum-la began to show signs of ill health. She passed away at the end of June 2022. At the time of her passing, Minling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, Dzogchen Rinpoche, and Alak Zenkar Rinpoche were practising for her, and her daughter Dechen-la was present.
Garjé Khamtrul Rinpoche predicted, based on the shape of the hills around Lerab Ling, that Lerab Ling would be a place of many great female practitioners. With Mayum-la and her sister Khandro Tsering Chödron having spent the last years of their lives in Lerab Ling, Khamtrul Rinpoche’s prediction already seems to have started to become reality.
There is so much more to share about the life of this dakini. On this occasion we remember her, pray to her and pray for the accomplishment of all her enlightened activities.
Sources:
‘The Great Biography by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Other Stories’o-9781611803778.html Shambhala 2017
A Brief History of the Lakar Family by Mayum Tsering Wangmo, Rigpawiki
‘Tribute to Mayum Pema Tsering Wangmo’ by Dorothea Brieck, part of the team who cared for Mayum-la in Lerab Ling
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