The Life Story of the 1st Shangpa Rinpoche: Part VII

The 1st Shangpa Rinpoche later on returned to Nepal and after that, he went to Mustang and gave teachings to the Mustang King who became a good disciple of his. The Mustang King followed him to many places; receiving teachings and also practicing. He mastered the practice of Chod under Shangpa Rinpoche’s guidance.

Shangpa RInpoche then rebuilt the Kutsab Ternga Monastery at Jomsom. This was a very old temple that has five treasures which represent Guru Rinpoche. It was said that one great Lama who wished to build a temple to enshrine the five treasures did a prayer to the protectors. A crow came and took one plate of his Torma offering. He then followed the crow where it flew. The crow finally dropped the plate at that place near Jomsom. The lama then decided to build the temple there. When Shangpa Rinpoche visited the temple, it was already in a very bad shape. Certain parts had already collapsed. He then decide to build an entirely new temple there. He had to stay almost two years there in order to complete the whole temple. When everything was completed, he performed many grand pujas and made Mendrup pills as well. He handed over the whole temple to the village and some monks were ordained by him. ( The Photo above is Kutsab Ternga rebuilt by 1st Shangpa Rinpoche )

He then moved to Mukinath. The people at Muktinath said that the bronze pipes from which 100 spring waters flowed, with an animal head design at the mouths, were fixed by Shangpa Rinpoche. At Muktinath some people offered a small piece of land to him. He built a small temple where he stayed for a while. Later on, he asked a monk, who was also a Tibetan physician, to stay there and he himself left for Manang.

At Manang he visited Milarepa's cave. At the same time, he went to a few villages in Manang to give the people there initiations and teachings. Lama Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche was born in Manang. He still remembers that he was a small boy when Shangpa Rinpoche visited Manang. One day, he found a Buddhist text flying in the sky and he managed to retrieve it. When his parents saw this incident happening, they quickly brought their son to see Shangpa Rinpoche for a blessing. They also asked him what is the significance of their son finding this text. Shangpa Rinpoche did not mention anything about the text but he kept it. He told the parents that their son must be ordained as monk, otherwise, he will face a big obstacle. So his parents took him to Rumtek and he became a monk there under His Holiness the 16th Karmapa. Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche mentioned this story to me and he also said that due to the guidance from Shangpa Rinpoche, he became a monk and a practitioner without facing any obstacles.

The author of a book on a pilgrimage through the Himalayas, Professor David Snellgrove, met Shangpa Rinpoche for the first time at Kagbeni in Mustang. This was when he was on the way to upper Mustang. Shangpa Rinpoche told him that he will meet him again next time. After Shangpa Rinpoche's return to Manang, the professor met him for the second time. Professor Snellgrove is the only person who managed to take a photo of the 1st Shangpa Rinpoche so that we are able to see how he looks like today. In his book, he mentioned that when he went to see Lama of Shang Pi Gompa, Shangpa Rinpoche gave him a few coins and asked him to have a drink of chang. He was very surprised that this Lama did not expect anything from him but gave money to him. I thanked him for having taken a wonderful photo of 1st Shangpa Rinpoche, which he passed to me himself, during his visit to Nepal 8 years ago. At that time, he still looked very fit and active. He told me that he had retired and was staying in an island in Indonesia. Since then, I did not meet him again.