page_title: Jigdal Dagchen Sakya
section_title: Ancestors
hierarchical_section_title: Jigdal Dagchen Sakya / Ancestry / Ancestors
caption_attribution_description: English: Seal of the Phuntsok Phodrang branch of the Sakya Khon family.
context_page_description: Jigdal Dagchen Sakya Rinpoche was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher educated in the Sakya sect. He was educated to be the head of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism as well as the successor to the throne of Sakya, the third most important political position in Tibet in early times. Dagchen Rinpoche was in the twenty-sixth generation of the Sakya-Khön lineage descended from Khön Könchok Gyalpo and was regarded as an embodiment of Manjushri as well as the rebirth of a Sakya Lama from the Ngor sub-school, Ewam Luding Khenchen Gyase Chökyi Nyima.
  Dagchen is a title meaning “Lineage Holder.” Among his followers he was known as Dagchen Rinpoche, or simply as Rinpoche. His formal title of “His Holiness” indicates the high degree of esteem with which the Tibetan Buddhist community holds him.
  He immigrated in 1960 to the United States with his family, one of the first groups Tibetans-in-exile in North America. He is the first Head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism to live in the United States. From the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Seattle, Washington, and its precursor, he taught and preserved Tibetan culture and religion.
context_section_description: Lineage is important in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and Dagchen Rinpoche’s lineage is revered. It extends more than thousand years. His father was Trichen (“Great Throne-holder”) Ngawang Thutop Wangchuk, the last great throne-holder of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet, and his mother was Gyalyum (“Mother of the Khön Children”) Dechen Drolma.
  Dagchen Rinpoche’s family lineage is considered divine because family records and Tibetan histories state that his family is descended from celestial beings from the realm of heavenly clear light. Five generations of these celestial beings are said to have lived in Tibet. A famous ancestor of his from the late eighth century was Khön Lu’i Wangpo (Nagendrarakshita), one of the first seven Tibetans ordained as a Buddhist monk, a noted translator, and a personal disciple of Padmasambhava (who erected the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, called Samye). Since the eleventh century, the Sakya male progeny are also regarded as emanations of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom; Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva of Compassion; or Vajrapani, Bodhisattva of Power.
caption: Phuntsok Phodrang Family Seal
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