Lama Tharchin Rinpoche was a highly realized master of the Dudjom Tersar and Repkong Ngakpa yogi lineages and founder of the Vajrayana Foundation and Pema Ösel Ling retreat center in the Santa Cruz mountains of Northern California. Lama Tharchin was an overflowing source of inspiration and bliss. He was able to touch every individual he encountered with the simple stroke of his expansive smile and the depth of instructions, always making each and every one feel unique and valued.

Inspiration on the path of healing:
As a young ngakpa in Tibet, Lama Tharchin grew up performing healing ceremonies with his father and the local shaman. His family home was also a clinic. While his father treated the locals using unorthodox methods of healing, his mother prepared suitable medicinal nourishment for their patients. Lama Tharchin was adept in Tibetan pulse reading. He once said that the only thing he knew with certainty about his own past life was that he was a doctor.

Inspiration on the path of devotion and the Repkong Ngakmang:
The Repkong Ngakmang was the largest gathering of tantric lay practitioners in Tibet.
Guru Rinpoche predicted that the Repkong community would become the inheritors and foremost proponents of tantric wrathful activities and they were known throughout Tibet for their highest realization and extraordinary capacity.
Lama Tharchin was the tenth lineage holder of the Repkong Ngakpas. During teachings, he loved sharing endless inspiring stories about his ancestors. Repkong. Lama Tharchin’s deep faith and devotion toward his lineage of enlightened beings were contagious just as was his endless compassion toward all sentient beings

Inspiration on the path of translation:
Lama Tharchin was passionate about translating the teachings of the Dudjom Tersar which he would then clarify in his unique way. He encouraged students to learn the words and their meanings directly from the Tibetan text. There was not a single moment in which he was not planning the next activity to preserve, translate, and transmit Guru Rinpoche’s doctrine to others. He never held back a wisp of the vast wisdom tradition he purely held according to the needs and capacity of students.

In his heart advice to Lama Tharchin’s students, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse highlighted the unique qualities of Trakthung Dudjom Rinpoche’s lineage holders and said that Lama Tharchin effortlessly embodied those qualities throughout his life: simplicity, outrageousness, and elegance. As a practitioner and a householder acting in the world for the benefit of others, Lama Tharchin was never separate from dharmakaya.