Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje
wearing a maroon to-nga
This photograph dates from an earlier phase in the development of the apprentice programme by Ngak’chang Rinpoche. Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje is wearing a maroon to-nga (waistcoat), typical of the general Nyingma ngak’phang style; and a plain maroon shawl, such as a mantrin might also wear. At that time, recently ordained apprentices in the lineage also wore a maroon shamthab (six-panelled skirt), no different from monastic dress.
This style of robes created a visible distinction, between ordained disciples of a Lama, and Lamas who were teaching publicly and accepting their own apprentices. Teaching Lamas would wear the white skirt and uncut hair implicit in the descriptive name for the ngak’phang sangha, the gö-kar chang-lo’ide: ‘the series [i.e. uniform] of white skirt, braids of hair hanging down’. This prescription for the appearance of the ‘White Sangha’ originated with Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel.
The thangka painting behind Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje is of Ma-gÇig Labdrön, who as an incarnation of Yeshé Tsogyel is regarded as a lineage Lama. Practices associated with Ma-gÇig Labdrön were among the very first which Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje received in transmission from Ngak’chang Rinpoche, and later from Kyabjé Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche, who is the rebirth of Ma-gÇigma’s youngest son, Gyalwa Thöndrüp. Over the years, as Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje has frequently asserted, the significance and intimacy of these practices has only increased for him.
In this picture, Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje’s waistcoat, shawl, skirt and belt were all gifts from Ngak’chang Rinpoche, who had worn them through much of his training and pilgrimages in India, and they are treasured accordingly. In recent times, the more vital distinction which the sangha has sought to emphasise is between monastic and non-monastic religious dress. When apprentices apply to train for ordination, they cease to cut the hair from that time. And upon ordination, the sangha nowadays wears the full gö-kar chang-lo’i dé; including the lineage style of waistcoat, in red and white. An exception is made of the takdröl, the hair ornament, which is only worn by teachers who have been empowered to take students.
The regular red apprentice shawl from the vision of Aro Lingma bears blue and white stripes, so that it displays all three yogic colours. These details help to eliminate any liability on the part of the public to perceive the lineage as part of the monastic tradition. But consequently only the belt, which was made by Ngak’chang Rinpoche himself, is still in use unaltered. Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje gave it to his apprentice Naljorma Dzü’drül Pamo on the occasion of her ordination; so that now it is supporting a third generation of practitioners in the lineage.