Thubten Lhundup Legsang (1918–1990) was the twelfth in a line of tulkus from Dhartsendo in Eastern Tibet. The previous tulku, also hailing from Dhartsendo, had been a Nyingmapa tulku but had taken education in the Gelugpa’s Drepung Monastery and had become its main abbot. Bhante Sangharakshita’s respect and admiration for Dhardo Rinpoche was not on account of it being said that Rinpoche was a 'high tulku' of the Gelugpa tradition, but because over a number of years he saw directly that Rinpoche embodied the qualities of the six Buddhist pāramitās or ‘Perfections’.
After Sangharakshita had known Rinpoche for nearly ten years and had come to revere him as a living Bodhisattva, he requested the bestowal of the Bodhisattva Ordination which Rinpoche gave on 12 October 1962. Rinpoche also initiated Sangharakshita into the White Tārā and Medicine Buddha sādhanas.
“In 1954 Dhardo Rimpoche moved to the Old Bhutan Palace, and it was there that we had our second meeting. He was then thirty-six, which meant that he was my senior by seven years. Of medium height, and rather slightly built, he wore an informal ‘indoor’ version of monastic dress consisting of a fawn underskirt and a sleeveless shirt of orange silk. His black hair was cropped instead of his being shaven-headed like a Theravādin monk, and a few long hairs on his upper lip gave promise of a wispy moustache.
“The Rimpoche spoke very little English, but he had command of a fluent if ungrammatical Hindi, and it was in that language that we conversed. During the years in which we were in personal contact there developed between us a sort of patois in which our common Hindi was freely mixed with English words and phrases as well as Tibetan, and even Sanskrit, religious and philosophical terms. Thus we were able to discuss almost any subject, from politics to the doctrine of voidness, and from sādhana practice to the production of books and pamphlets. Such discussion was facilitated by the fact that there was in our communication an intuitive element, almost telepathic in its nature, that supplemented, or even bypassed, the words we spoke.
“[It was a] friendship that lasted for the rest of my time in India, and which did not cease with my departure for England. It was a friendship in the course of which Dhardo Rimpoche and I worked closely together for the good of Buddhism, especially in Kalimpong. It was a friendship which culminated, moreover, in my receiving from him the bodhisattva ordination in 1962 and the White Tārā ‘long-life’ initiation the following year, so that from being my friend he became also my teacher.”
Precious Teachers, The Complete Works of Sangharakshita, vol. 22, pp.420–2
White Tārā tormas (ritual offerings)
These tormas or ritual offerings made of clay are from the White Tārā initiation that Dhardo Rinpoche gave Sangharakshita in late 1963 before his visit to the West.
“Dhardo Rimpoche, too, was concerned that I was free to move forward. He was concerned, in particular, that I should not be held back by any threat to my life-force. Thus he had given me, not long before, the abhiṣeka of White Tārā, the female Bodhisattva of Longevity, and with his help I had started making an English version of the text of the relevant sādhana. I wanted to complete a first draft of this version before leaving for England, and the Rimpoche and I spent many hours working on the project together. We worked in the evening, in the Rimpoche’s quarters in the Old Bhutan Palace, and sometimes it seemed that there were three of us in the room, and that White Tārā was looking down on our labours with a smile.”
Precious Teachers in The Complete Works of Sangharakshita, vol.22, p.562
Dhardo Rinpoche’s monastic brocade jacket
Rinpoches in Tibet often gave gifts of their robes to their senior disciples as a way of making a connection to meet them in their future lives. This brocade monastic jacket is one that Dhardo Rinpoche had personally worn and had brought with him to India as a young monk. He gave it as a gift when, in 1966, Sangharakshita finally decided to leave India and work permanently in the West.