Drala Jong ༄Kyabjé Dung-sré Thrin-lé Norbu Rinpoche (sKabs rJe gDung sras phrin las nor bu / སྐྱབས་རྗེ་གདུང་སྲས་ཕྲིན་ལས་ནོར་བུ་ / 1931-2011). There is an extraordinary account which relates to this remarkable photograph. One Rinpoche morning dressed like a Mahasiddha ( གྲུབ ་ཐོབ་ཆེན་པོ ) — with dorje gong (rDo rJe gong / རྡོ་རྗེ་གོང་) vajra tabard around his neck. Carrying a bow and arrow in his hands — he went towards the top of a hill near his gar (sGar / སྒར་) which overlooked several villages. He absolutely instructed his disciples not to follow him.་As Kyabjé Dung-sré Thrin-lé Norbu Rinpoche was on his own there was no one to take the photograph. How there came to be these photographs is therefore completely perplexing. Ngakpa Lama Kèlsang Wangdü—one of many close disciple who served Rinpoche in Eastern Bhutan—provided the following narrative of this event ‘After we made profferments to our small village Lhakhang at Bi-dung Gelong Gongpa, we invited Kyabjé Dung-sré Thrin-lé Norbu Rinpoche to our village. Rinpoche kindly agreed and visited our village and neighboring villages. He agreed to do so because the inhabitants were humble and religious. During one of the visits, Rinpoche asked me —and his other disciples—to prepare the attire of Mahasiddha for him — along with a bow and arrow. Next morning Rinpoche dressed like a Mahasiddha and disappeared into nearby forest. He strictly instructed us not to follow him. Shortly after this incident Rinpoche decided to build one of the first hermitages in the Eastern region of Bhutan and thereafter Rinpoche tirelessly propagated Vajrayana in general and Düd‘jom gTérser in particular to the remotest and poorest regions of the country.’ Lama Kèlsang strongly believed in Rinpoche’s unique Lungten (ལུང་བསྟན་) gestures in relation to his Vajrayana activities. Since then due to Kyabjé Dung-sré Thrin-lé Norbu Rinpoche’s tireless activities and conferal of lineage, Vajrayana has spread to every part of Eastern Bhutan and beyond — gathering thousands of disciples. Today, the Hermitage is named ‘Thekchog Garab Yangtsé’ and is under the care of Kyabjé Garab Dorje Rinpoche. Lama Kèlsang, following his Lama’s inspiration, has established meditation centres for practitioners and guides them personally. A few years before Lama Kèlsang has also renovated the hermitage build by Kyabjé Dung-sré Thrin-lé Norbu Rinpoche. - @gaadhen.wangchhuk