The Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa, Jigme Pema Wangchen (b. 1963), is the head of the Drukpa Lineage school, which is one of the independent Sarma (new) schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Some consider it the Northern (Tib. Chang, Wylie: Byang-'Brug) Drukpa.[1]
The Drukpa lineage was founded in 1206 after Drogon Tsangpa Gyare, (Drogon - 'Protector of Beings'; Tsang - 'born in the land of Tsang'; Gya - 'from the noble clan of Chinese (Gya) origin'; Re - 'a cotton-clad yogi') after he saw nine dragons fly into the sky from the ground at Namdruk. He is known as the First Gyalwang Drukpa and is recognized as the indisputable emanation of Naropa (1016–1100).[2]
Jigme Pema Wangchen is the twelfth and present incarnation of the Gyalwang Drukpa. He was born while his parents were on pilgrimage in Tso Pema, (Rewalsar) Himachal Pradesh, a sacred place of Padmasambhava, during the festival and a major ceremony of lama dances and a holy feast celebrating Guru Padmasambhava's birthday, in 1963. His father, Zhichen Bairochana, is a Dzogchen Master, these days commonly called Bairo Rinpoche. His mother, Kelsang Yudron, commonly known as Mayumla, came from Lhodrak, in southern Tibet.[3]
He was taken as a reincarnation of the 11th Gyalwang Drukpa at the age of four, to Druk Thupten Sangag Choeling Monastery, in Darjeeling, which is his main monastery.
The monastic centres of the Drukpa lineage are:
He became a vegetarian at a young age.[5]
In 2010 he was awarded the Bharat Jyoti Award of the India International Friendship Society.[6]
His Holiness is the founder of The Druk White Lotus School in Ladakh, India, and is the Abbot of Hemis Monastery, the most important monastery in Ladakh, where he was installed in 1981 at age 17.