A Brief Account from the Palyul Tradition
The first Palyul Nunnery in Garze, Tibet was named Jogon Dong or Dongmar Teng (Upper Red Village) and was established by the first Palyul lineage throneholder Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab’s youngest sister Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo was human emanation of Arya Tārā, the holy mother of all the Buddhas. She was born in the province of Do Kham, in the Achok Drolhe village in the Bubor Range of the Palyul region of Tibet. This place has all ten auspicious signs. Her father Dorje came from the highly revered family heritage of Mutsaga, and her mother was a wisdom dakini named Gurutso. She was born around the later part of the eleventh Rabjung of the Tibetan calendar which corresponds to the later half of the seventeenth century. She was the youngest sister of Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab.
She started her education with reading and writing at an early age, and she learned without much effort. Together with Rigzin Kunzang Sherab, she received many teachings from Tertön Mingyur Dorje and Khedrup Karma Chakmé (who was the emanation of Chokro Lüi Gyaltsen) as well as teachings from many other scholars and accomplished masters.
With the guidance of these masters, she perfected her study and practice of both Sūtra and Tantra beyond any doubt. She entered with perseverance into single-pointed practice at various undisclosed places, and many meditational deities appeared to her and gave her instructions. Through her practice she purified all illusory phenomena into primordial non-conceptual pure awareness, and became a ruler of the realm of Kuntuzangpo.
She lived on the mountain ridge towards the east of Palyul Namgyal Jangchub Choling Monastery in Garze, Tibet and unceasingly turned the wheel of Dharma to a large community of nun disciples, gradually turning that place into an expansive nunnery. Thus the location was called Jogondong (nunnery on the ridge) and because of the huge numbers of nuns with red robes, that whole area has been called Drongmar Teng (red knoll village) ever since that time.
In short, through turning both wheels of Dharma—teaching and practicing—Jetsunma trained numerous students, not only as Buddhist scholars but as highly realized practitioners.
When she saw that her activities to benefit the doctrine and her students had reached the limits of this lifetime, she passed into the peaceful dharmata.
While her holy body was being cremated, her skull flew up into the sky and landed on top of the throne of Rigzin Kunzang Sherab in the place where he used to give Dharma teachings.
Since then, that place has been used as a sacred cemetery and to this day, all the revered Lamas of Palyul Monastery have been cremated there.
Additionally, her skull was used as a thöyab, or skull cup, for dutsi during all major accomplishment ceremonies in Palyul Monastery in Tibet to invoke the blessings, and even up to the recent times it is an object of reverence.
An awakened reincarnation of Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo has been born in New York City.
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Source: The Pure Land of Dharma, “General History of the Namdroling Monastery’s Tsogyal Shedrub Dargyeling Nunnery: A Brief Account on Nunnery in Palyul Tradition,” pp. 120–122.
