by Bob Flaws

Before going on with my story, I feel the need to say something more about Mr. and Mrs. Kazi and their daughter, Jetsun Pema Rinpoche. Many of the things I recount took me years to learn. However, without knowing more about the Kazis, it is impossible to understand my training under them during the next not quite 20 years.

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First of all, Kazi is not a name; it’s a title. It refers to the ruling Tibetan families of Sikkim who colonized that country in the 17th century. During that time, the Gelugpa sect – the sect headed by H.H. the Dalai Lama – was in ascendancy in Tibet. The Gelugpa or Yellow Hat sect established a theocracy governed from Lhasa. This sect was borne out of a strict moral reform movement in reaction to what it’s adherents believed was a debased form of Buddhism. The Red Hat sects were the Nyingpmapa, Kargyudpa, and Shakyapa. The Nyingmapa are the oldest of the four major sects of Tibetan Buddhism. Nyingmapa may be either celibate monks, cloistered, anchorite, or peregrinating yogis, or married laypersons. Even lamas or gurus may be married. Dzog-chen, the highest teaching of the Nyingmapa, is believed to lead to sudden, instantaneous enlightenment. The Gelugpa, on the other hand, teach strict monastic discipline, celibacy for all religious and especially for all lamas, and a gradual path to enlightenment over many lifetimes. During the 17th century in Tibet, the Gelugpa hegemony made life so difficult for many Nyingmapa that they crossed the Himalaya out of Tibet to settle in Sikkim. According to Nyingmapa teaching, Guru Padmasambhava, the founder of the Nyingmapa sect, had meditated in the valleys of Sikkim and had prophesied that, during times of trouble, his followers would find refuge in these bay-pay yul or “hidden countries.” Sikkim at that time was populated by tribes of less culturally developed Lepchas. The Tibetans carved out feudal estates and set up their own theocracy headed by a Nyingmapa cho-gyal or Dharma-king. The kazis were the ethnically Tibetan landed gentry who also became the ministers in the Sikkimese government. Within Sikkim up until fairly recent times, the kazis weilded immense power and privilege. Thus the title, Kazi, is somewhat akin to Earl, Count, or Baron.

Sonam Topgyal was born around 1925 as the fifth son of Relon Sonam Dadul Renock Kazi. The family’s name was Rhennock and they belonged to the Nyingmapa sect. (The exact year of Mr. Kazi’s birth is debated among his American students.) Mr. Kazi’s father’s estate touched the boundaries of Tibet, Bhutan, and India, and his father was a minister in the Sikkimese government. As a youth, Mr. Kazi was sent to a English boarding school in Darjeeling and thence to an English language college. Not only was he born into a wealthy, privileged family, Mr. Kazi was also gifted with superior intelligence and good looks. At some point, probably during his school years, the kazi in Kazi Sonam Topgyal became his de facto last name. After graduating from college, Mr. Kazi got a posting to the Indian Mission in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. He was 24 years old, and his posting was based on his being fluent in both English and Tibetan. Mr. Kazi lived and worked in Lhasa for the next seven years. The officer in charge of the Indian Mission was Mr. Hugh Richardson, and, during these years, Mr. Kazi accompanied Mr. Richardson on various explorations of famous temples and monasteries in central Tibet.

Although Mr. Kazi was born in the lap of luxury, his life was not a bed of roses. Because of the constant pain of “chronic appendicitis,” Mr. Kazi learned early on something about the refuge of nonconceptual meditation. During his “off hours” in Lhasa, Mr. Kazi met and took teachings from a number of famous Nyingma lamas, especially H.H. Jigdral Yeshe Dorje Dudjom Rinpoche, the hierarch of the Nyingmapa sect, and the Ven. Chatral Sangay Dorje Rinpoche. Mr. Kazi also traveled to the retreat of a famous lady lama, the Ven. Jetsun Shuksep Chonyid Wangmo. This female anchorite was reputed to be 125 years old at the time of her death and was one of the most famous lady lamas of her time. (Actually, I have since found out she died in her 80s.) Mr. Kazi came to her mountain hermitage in order to receive teachings in the Longchen Nyingthig, one of the most popular of the subsects of the Nyingmapa sect. While visiting this hermitage, Mr. Kazi met another of the Ven. Jetsun Rinpoche’s students, a young woman named Nordzin-la. Nordzin-la was the natural daughter of a famous early 20th century Nyingma lama, Khyungtrul Pema Wangchen. Nordzin-la’s mother was a member of one of the oldest families in Lhasa, the Rakasha, and was descended from the first kings of Tibet. When Khyungtrul Rinpoche died, Nordzin-la’s mother married H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche and had seven children with Dudjom Rinpoche, a number of whom were recognized as tulkus or reincarnate lamas. (Dungse Trinlay Norbu Rinpoche is Nordzin-las half-brother.) At some point, Nordzin-la’s mother became a student of the Ven. Jetsun Shukshep Rinpoche. For reasons which have never been totally clear to me, H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche married again, this time to a much younger, very beautiful woman, and had another couple of children. Whether before or after His Holiness remarried, this first wife or consort, Mrs. Kazi’s mother, became a very eccentric yogini, eccentric in the sense of what Trungpa Rinpoche called “crazy wisdom.” In any case, Mrs. Kazi spent many of her formative years living and studying with the Ven. Jetsun Shuksep Rinpoche.

Mr. Kazi saw and fell in love with this young female disciple who was widely regarded as one of the most beautiful women in Lhasa. There had been a number of previous suitors, including high governmental ministers. However, Nordzin-la had wanted to spend her entire life in the practice of Dharma. According to Mrs. Kazi, she was one of Jetsun Rinpoche’s closest heart-disciples. During the years before the elderly yogini’s death, Norzin-la/Mrs. Kazi would massage her Teacher’s legs and help her get around her cave. Because, as she told me on several occasions, she had no interest in men, Nordzin-la wanted to reject Mr. Kazi’s proposal of marriage. Nevertheless, her Teacher told her that she should marry Mr. Kazi. Being a dutiful student, she did. Because Mr. Kazi was a Sikkimese national. This meant that Mrs. Kazi would mostly be living in Sikkim. Jestrun Rinpoche said that, if she married Mr. Kazi, Rinpoche would come visit her in Sikkim.

Some time later, the Ven. Jetsun Rinpoche died. Mrs. Kazi was in Lhasa at the time and was not with her Teacher when she died. Mrs. Kazi was distraught with grief to the point where Mr. Kazi feared for her sanity. However, a year or so later, Mrs. Kazi gave birth to a baby girl who both H.H. the Dalai Lama and H.H. the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, the hierarch of the Karma Kargyud sect, recognized as the reincarnation of the Ven. Shuksep Rinpoche. Mrs. Kazi became as devoted to her daughter as she had been to her root Guru. Because she had been brought up, first in the household of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche and later in the retreat center of Jetsun Shuksep Rinpoche, Mrs. Kazi had received a very excellent and extensive Nyingma education and training. H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche had recognized her as a dakini in her own right and had even composed a sadhana for/to her.

In 1955, Mr. Kazi, Mrs. Kazi, and their daughter, Jetsun Pema Rinpoche, left Lhasa for Sikkim. In 1957, Mr. Kazi visited Lhasa again as part of an Indian delegation headed by Mr. Pant. This was the last time he was to set foot in Tibet. In 1959, Mr. Kazi was among the Indian governmental officials to meet the young Dalai Lama at Bomdila on the Indo-Tibetan border as the young ruler fled the Chinese communist takeover of his kingdom. From Bomdila, Mr. Kazi accompanied the Dalai Lama to Dharamsala where he worked as His Holiness’s English-Tibetan interpreter for the next 13 years. During this time, Jetsun Rinpoche was sent to boarding school in either Dehra Dun or Mussorie where she received an English primary and secondary education. In addition, Jetsun Rinpoche received a Tibetan Buddhist education from H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, H.H. the Gyalwa Karmapa, and the Ven. Chatral Rinpoche.

In the late 1960s, Mr. Kazi met and translated for the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, during his stay in Dharamsala. Also in the late 60s or early 70s, Mr. Kazi acted as the guide and interpreter for the French documentary film-maker, Arnaud Dejardins. Monsieur Dejardins made a series of films titled, The Message of the Tibetans. These films showed various Tibetan Buddhist practices in a number of locations on the south side of the Himalaya and introduced a number of Tibetan lamas to European audiences. Because of the growing interest of Westerners in Tibetan Buddhism and also the many problems inherent in trying to study Tibetan Buddhism in India and Nepal at that time, H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche directed the Kazi family to come to the West and establish a Nyingmapa center. 1970 or ‘71, Mr. Kazi came to the U.S. at the invitation of one or more Californian seekers. He also visited New York City where he met another group of potential students who he thought would make better, more sincere students. When Mrs. Kazi came to the U.S., she used the name Tse-de-la, a short form of Tse-dzin De-chen Lha-mo (Life-holding Goddess of Great Bliss). This was not her “birth name” but was rather a name she received during one or another initiation. Every Tibetan I have ever met only knew Mrs. Kazi as Nordzin-la, not Tse-de-la.

One of the important things I would like to point out to readers is that I was not studying with a single Lama. I was studying with a family of three Lamas: Mr. Sonam Kazi, Mrs. Tsede Kazi, and their daughter, the Ven. Jetsun Pema Rinpoche. This situation strongly shaped my experiences and training under the Kazis for 20 years.

Any and all mistakes in this recounting of Mr. & Mrs. Kazi’s life are entirely due to my my own misunderstanding. While the above is what I remember hearing from either Mr. or Mrs. Kazi themselves, I heard these stories many years ago. Therefore, I take full responsibility for any misinformation contained in the above and ask my Teachers and all the Deities to forgive me. However, these are the stories I have believed for four decades and which have played such a large part in my life.

(This summer [2009], Mr. Kazi relinquished his body after spending the last 15 years of his life essentially in retreat. He ended his time on this earth by meditating in thug-dam for seven days. Thug-dam refers to a state of meditation after breathing and the heart beat have stopped. However, the body remains warm, at least around the heart, and does not decay. This is taken as a sure sign of his high level of realization and accomplishment.)