Khandro Yangtik Karchak

Garland of Utpala Flowers

A Brief Catalogue to the Published Volumes of the Profound Dharma, the Innermost Essence of the Ḍākinīs

by Ngawang Lodrö[1]

oṃ svasti siddhaṃ
The wisdom, power and love of all the countless victors and their heirs,
And the qualities of their secret body, speech and mind arose at once
As the splendour that matured in a blossoming lotus in the heart of a lake—
Lake-Born Vajra, guru of beings, to you I bow.

Compiler of the Second Buddha’s great secret teachings,
Which even ten million bodhisattvas could not amass,
Foremost of all the sky-faring ḍākinīs of great bliss—
Unique mother Yeshe Tsogyal, to you I pay homage.

The thousand-rayed sun of your intellect coursed unimpededly
Through the vast sky of scriptural tradition with its myriad texts
And helped the lotus garden of the Nyingtik teachings to bloom—
Omniscient Drimé Özer, I recall you with devotion.

This wish-fulfilling jewel of Yangtik, the innermost essence,
Obtained through crossing the ocean of the Victor’s teachings
In the boat of broad knowledge and discerning wisdom—
This profound, most precious teaching is beyond compare.

This catalogue, which outlines the sections of the teachings
In the volumes containing the refined excellent explanations
Of Longchenpa, that great guide to the Dharma,
I here set forth as an adornment to the throats of the discerning.

Having ushered in the work with this brief expression of homage, I shall provide some background to the publication of these volumes of profound teaching renowned as the Quintessence of the Ḍākinīs, which are treatises of mind treasure in which the gentle lord Longchenpa masterfully explains the profound key points of the Khandro Nyingtik, itself a profound teaching that distils the wisdom mind of the Oḍḍiyāna master, second victorious one and knower of the three times. This has three parts: (1) historical origins, (2) the process of publication, and (3) the list of teaching sections together with a dedication.

1. Historical Origins

The master of Oḍḍiyāna, knower of the three times, who carries out the enlightened activity of all the victorious ones, acts in infinite ways to bring benefit and happiness to the teachings and beings throughout the whole world of Jambudvīpa. Above all, in Tibet, this land of snow, he bound all malevolent gods and demons under oath, consecrated many temples, such as Samyé, and translated numerous sūtra and mantra teachings. In such ways, he caused the precious teachings of the victorious ones to ascend like the rising sun. This precious master is therefore the one true pioneer, who introduced the enlightened activity of the buddhas to Tibet. It is through his kindness alone that the Buddha’s teachings first appeared in this land. Moreover, by setting foot throughout Tibet, he made the entire land—everywhere, even areas the size of a horse’s hoof—auspicious. He blessed many mountains and cliffs so that they became powerful sites of accomplishment, and he concealed unimaginably vast caches of profound termas.

When the master of Oḍḍiyāna, knower of the three times, was residing at the cliffs of Zhotö Terdrom,[2] he released the seal of secrecy on the dharma cycle of the Heart-Essence of the Ḍākinīs, conferring empowerment on Yeshe Tsogyal and one hundred thousand ḍākinīs. As he was spreading the teachings widely in this way, he received an invitation to Chimphu from King Tri Songdetsen. There, while he was celebrating a hundred gaṇacakra feasts, Princess Pema Sal died. The master summoned her consciousness back into her body and instructed her, so that she came back to life. He then granted her empowerment and, placing a book of instructions on her head, entrusted her with the teachings. He then concealed her alloted teachings at Danglung Tramo Drak in Dakpo.

Later, at a time when the lifespan was fifty years, Pema Sal was reborn as Pagangpa Tulku Rinchen Tsultrim Dorje. This treasure revealer extracted the teachings of the Khandro Nyingtik from Tramo Drak, but then, overtaken by circumstances, he died. His immediate rebirth was the great omniscient one [Longchenpa], who was born in the twenty-fifth generation after Gyalwa Chokyang in the upper valley of Dra in Yoru. Everyone observed how Namdru Remati would accompany him like a shadow, offering her protection. From his fifth year, he mastered reading and writing. In his thirteenth year, he was ordained as a novice and took the name Tsultrim Lodrö. He studied all the branches of learning, including arts and crafts, medicine, grammar, epistemology, poetry and synonymy, composition, and astrology, and became especially learned in the Middle Way, Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom, Vinaya, and Abhidharma. He also studied Guhyasamāja, Cakrasaṃvara, Lamdré, the Six Yogas, Pacification, Chöd, the Mind Series of the Great Perfection and more. In short, he became a great scholar who crossed the ocean of sūtra and tantra, scripture and reasoning, and the pith instructions. Above all, Longchenpa received all the teachings of the secret Heart-Essence of the Great Perfection from his guru Kumārādza, who also predicted that he would become a custodian of this Dharma collection, enthroned him and entrusted him with the teachings.

Longchenpa also experienced visions in which he beheld the faces of several yidam deities. Sarasvatī, in particular, held him in the palm of her hand and spent seven days showing him the four continents and Mount Meru. Reverend Tārā placed a jewelled ornament on his head and conferred her blessings. The protector Maitreya prophesied that after two further lifetimes he would become the buddha Sumerudīpadhvaja. Longchenpa also discussed the Dharma with ḍākinīs as if talking with another person. The Protectress of Mantras (Ekajaṭī), Za Rāhula, and Damchen Dorje Lekpa accompanied him like ordinary people and carried out tasks as servants or attendants.

Moreover, he composed many treatises on aspects of sūtra, mantra and logical reasoning, and especially on the tradition of the Great Perfection, which he set out with precision in multiple texts. When scholars, including Sakyapa Lama Dampa and Drakzang of Sangphu, sought clarification—directly or by letter—on the view and practice of the Great Perfection, he gladly offered responses that eliminated all their doubts. Malicious opponents who considered themselves scholars, finding their elephant brains crushed by his meteoric iron claws of scripture and reasoning, prostrated themselves at his feet, so that he became the foremost exponent of scripture and reasoning, unrivalled by anyone, and was renowned as the all-knowing one from Samyé, the learned Ngakgi Wangpo (Master of Speech)—a name that perfectly accorded with reality.

When this great omniscient master, whose liberational story lies beyond the realm of thought and expression, was teaching the secret Heart-Essence in Chimphu, the ḍākinīs and protectors issued repeated requests, as a result of which he began to teach the Heart-Essence of the Ḍākinīs. Numerous ḍākinīs gathered, the spontaneous sound of blessings reverberated, and rainbows filled the sky. Male and female practitioners experienced bliss, clarity and non-conceptuality, and remained in a state of luminosity, day and night, for a whole month. The great Master of Oḍḍiyāna appeared to him in visions several times and conferred blessings. And the wisdom ḍākinīs directly explained the profound crucial points of the Heart-Essence. They made it clear that if he meditated in isolation he would attain a body of light, but that he must exert himself benefitting others. Then, at Gangri Tökar, when he was setting down in writing the teachings of the Khandro Yangtik, continuous indications of blessings arose, as they had previously.

It is this wish-fulfilling Innermost Essence of the Ḍākinīs, a profound mind treasure containing deep key points directly elucidated by wisdom ḍākinīs, which is praised extensively as being superior on account of its many profound qualities not to be found elsewhere, which has flourished and been maintained without decline to the present day. There have been many holders of the teachings, but the fact that the system is widespread here is mainly due to the kindness of the lord of siddhas, the great Dzogchenpa. Drubwang Rinpoche received the transmission for the Khandro Nyingtik together with the Khandro Yangtik and became a custodian of the tradition. He reached the highest of the four visions of luminosity and attained the rank of a siddhi based on this very teaching. He then brought his own followers and disciples to maturity and liberation through this same teaching, and spread it far and wide. The successive throne-holders and their disciples have continued to emphasise the teaching and study of the Khandro Nyingtik instructions and the writings of the great omniscient Longchenpa, making a huge contribution to these teachings through study, contemplation, and meditation practice.

2. Publication Process

Generally speaking, the ones who play a key role in sustaining the precious teachings of the victorious Buddha are great sovereigns who govern their territories according to the Dharma. In this land of greater Tibet in particular, rulers have maintained all the maṇḍalas of the land themselves through the force of their powerful actions; they have served the precious teachings of the Victorious One without sectarian bias; they have governed their vast dominions kindly through deeds that accord with the Dharma; and through their endless patronage of the teachings, they have established many temples as well as general and specific representations of enlightened body, speech and mind. In this great kingdom itself, where the succession of dharma monarchs have made even the deeds of the great ancestral dharma kings of old seem slight, the powerful wheel-turning rulers, both mother and son, have been of such great service to the Dharma that they rival the rulers of earlier generations.[3]

The great queen mother Tsewang Lhamo in particular,[4] with the altruistic intention, as white as the autumn moon, of bringing even greater benefit and happiness to the teachings and beings, expanding the influence of the state, increasing the lifespan and progeny of the royal family, and, above all, ensuring that this dharma tradition does not fade, graciously commissioned this publication in service of the teachings of the great secret essence. In the knowledge that texts are indispensable for any form of study, contemplation or meditation and that these activities also depend upon the texts being accurate, when she set in motion this vast gift of Dharma, she commanded me to undertake proofreading and revision—an instruction that I honoured respectfully at my crown. I thus consulted several older, uncorrupted versions of the texts in order to make corrections. In addition, I used my own judgement to correct errors and omissions in composition. I encountered some old orthographic forms appeared, and since the mantras were not always in pure Sanskrit, some were difficult to align with grammatical conventions. Still, I amended those that accorded with Sanskrit according to the language’s conventions, while leaving unorthodox mantras in their original form, not daring to overstep my bounds, as they were not suitable for analysis. Otherwise, with due consideration, I completed the task through a process of repeated checks without ignoring anything that was suitable for review.

Then, following the unbroken tradition of dharma publication from the great dharma kings of the past, the scribes and carvers carried out their work with generous compensation, beginning auspiciously in the female Fire Hare year (1807) at the commencement of the fourteenth calendrical cycle, at the time of youthful beauty when the splendid lady of summer was adorned with garlands of vibrantly coloured flowers and cloaked in fresh foliage, and completed in the male Earth Dragon year (1808) at the excellent time of abundance when the queen of the seasons sways under the weight of fruit and flowers that have ripened into their most nourishing forms.

3. List of Sections

Thirdly, there is a list of the contents of the collection followed by the dedication of virtue toward awakening.

1) The Tree of Jewels: An Inventory
2) History of the Revelation of the Precious Treasures
3) The Garland of Precious Empowerments
4) Lotus Vast Expanse: The Self-Initiation
5) The Oceanic Clouds Feast Offering
6) Immaculate Full Moon Homage
7) The Constant Flow of Nectar Prayer
8) The Jewel Tradition Instruction Manual
9) The Sun, Moon, Planet and Stars Instruction
10) Analysis of the Profound
11) Precious Golden Garland Instructions
12) Infinite Space
13) Vast Expansive Space
14) Immaculate Space
15) Precious Golden Casket Pith Instruction
16) The Store of Precious Topics
17) Infinite Cloud Banks of Profound Meaning and Its Synoptic Outline
18) Revelation of the Vajra Path of Secret Conduct
19) The Essence of Definitive Meaning
20) The Blessings Heart Practice
21) The Supreme Vidyādhara Practice
22) The Ocean of Great Bliss Ḍākinī
23) The Wisdom Net Practice of Wind Energy (Prāṇa)
24) The Oceanic Great Bliss of the Profound Path
25) Wheel of Luminosity
26) Introduction to Ground Manifestations
27) Entry into the Sphere of Luminosity
28) On the Four Lamps
29) Liberating Delusive Perception Into the Ground
30) Entry into the Dream Sphere
31) Introduction to the Visions of Basic Space
32) Key to the Crucial Points of Profound Meaning
33) Detailed Instructions on Clear Light
34) Introduction to the Precious Secret Path
35) The Essence of Profound Meaning
36) Introduction to the Precious Inclusion of All
37) Entry into the Bardo Sphere
38) Lamp of the Crucial Points of the Bardo
39) Lamp of the Three Crucial Points
40) The Luminous Net of Precious Visionary Appearances
41) Immaculate Radiance: A Testament
42) The One Ultimate Testament and The Mirror of Crucial Points Testament
43) The Thousand-Petalled Lotus Sādhana of the Five Family Sugatas
44) The Drop of Amṛta: Extracting the Vital Essence of the Five Families
45) Cloud Banks of Amṛta
46) Without the Sun, Moon and Planets: An Instruction on Examining Signs of and Ransoming Death
47) The Precious Essence: Instructions on the Tantra of Liberation Through Wearing
48) The Cluster of Light: A Practice of Cremation
49) The Wheel of Light that Benefits Others
50) Treatise on the Key Points of the Wheel of Light: Offering the Four Mudrās
51) The Precious Net Stūpa Consecration Rite
52) The Immaculate Wisdom Consecration Rite
53) The Golden Net of Precious Visionary Appearances
54) The Wishing Moon: A Practice of Dorje Yudrönma
55) Secret Practice of Zadü Rāhula
56) Swirling Wind of Fire: A Practice of the Dark Red Yakṣa
57) Secret Practice of Black Shenpa Sokdrupma
58) The Wish-Fulfilling Tree Inventory

This is a complete list of the printed sections of the teaching as found in the labels of the works themselves.

Dedication

To dedicate the virtue of this towards awakening:

All the virtue of such a vast wave of positive activity,
Not constrained by foolishness or rigidity of attitude,
We dedicate fully in the manner of Samantabhadra,
Foremost bodhisattva, toward great supreme awakening.

O protector, though you repose in the self-manifest sambhogakāya,
Still, in common perception you appear as a gentle voiced paṇḍita,
Who sees all knowable things, all infinite phenomena.
Great omniscient one, I recall you deep within my heart.

A single corner of a vast discerning intellect could accommodate
The textual system that encompasses infinite objects of knowledge.
How then could the farthest reaches of vast, all-illuminating,
Infinite wisdom, limitless in comprehension, be constrained?

Upon the thousand-petalled lotus of the chakra of enjoyment,
The daughter of Brahmā is merrily engaged,
And, lingering, takes up the song of excellent explanation,
Playfully conveying the meaning of all there is.

Thus, this rare jewel outlining the precious and excellent activity
Of fortunate individuals, drawn from tradition’s granter of wishes
Into a vessel that matches the extent of our own devotion,
Has come into our hands solely though your kindness, O protector.

So that this dharma tradition, an undying and eternal song,
May continue to sound without fading until the end of time,
In this pool of dharma publication have appeared at once
Magical impressions of letters, a thousand reflected moons.

This tradition, an ornament that beautifies the land of Tibet,
Has been furthered by the kind prince and the queen mother,
The force of their excellent deeds bringing a feast of merit
From the churning of the ocean of twofold accumulation.

The great protector of the land, beautified by ornamental chains
Of generosity and the youthfulness of faith,
To enable the creation of devout impressions of essential teachings,
Set forth this gift of dharma as an aid to the chariots of the fortunate.

It is said that it is of far greater benefit to recite a single verse
Than it is to make a gift of the Ganges entirely filled with gold.
How then could one even measure of the merit of such a gift
As this, an inexhaustible offering of the Dharma?

May the jambu fruits of many aeons’ worth of good deeds,
As represented by this, fall into the ocean of great awakening,
Free from the poison of conceptual reference, to bring a wealth
Of twofold benefit as the kāñcana of three-kāya accomplishment.

May the thick darkness of misfortune and untimely death,
Brought about by the coarse conduct of this degenerate age,
Be banished by the rising sun of the Three Jewels’ compassion
And the bright way of benefit and happiness always afford protection.

May the queen and her princely son, rulers over gods and human beings,
Live long without obstacle, and may their influence and lineage increase.
May their subjects always remain under a kindly, loving gaze,
And all embodied beings be rich with the splendour of felicity.

May the immaculate white light of the Victor’s teachings
Dawn over existence never to set again thereafter;
May the honey of virtue and goodness dispel the fever of saṃsāra’s unwholesome ways,
And the community of those who uphold these teachings endure for a hundred aeons.

In short, let the sprinkling of the nectar of blessings
From the unfailing Three Jewels, who accomplish
All that we might wish for, both now and in the long term,
Cause the auspicious blossoming of the lotus of our aims.

This brief catalogue was composed in the great domain of Lhundrup Teng by the devoted fool and dāritrapa[5] Ngawang Lodrö, who respectfully took the command of the great queen mother upon the crown of his head when these teachings were published by the sovereign mother and son. Jayantu!

| Translated by Adam Pearcey with the generous support of the Tsadra Foundation, 2025.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

ngag dbang blo gros. "zab chos mkha’ 'gro yang tig gi pusta ka par du bsgrub tshul dkar chag nyung ngu utapala’i phreng ba" In kun mkhyen klong chen rab 'byams kyi gsung 'bum. 13 vols. Pe cin : Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2009. Vol. 6: 298–309

Secondary Sources

Martin, Dan. "A Brief Political History of Tibet by Gu-ru Bkra-shis" in E. Steinkellner, ed. Tibetan History and Language: Studies Dedicated to Uray Geza on His Seventieth Birthday, Wien, 1991, pp. 329–151

Ronis, Jann. "Derge Queen Tsewang Lhamo," Treasury of Lives, accessed August 13, 2025, https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Tsewang-Lhamo/13187

Version: 1.1-20250814