(1866–1936). A highly respected Tibetan Buddhist lama, renowned for his spiritual accomplishments, scholarship, contributions to preserving and spreading Buddhist teachings, and establishing the first Gelugpa monasteries in regions where there had been none.
He was also the head of Ghoom Monastery from 1910 to 1936. During his tenure, the lama commissioned and oversaw the construction of the main 5-metre statue of Maitreya Buddha inside the monastery, as he had done in other monasteries.
The name Ngawang Kalsang was offered to him by the Eighth Panchen Lama when he entered Tashi Lhunpo Monastery at the age of eight. After twenty years of study he received the Kachen degree, which was the Tashi Lhunpo’s equivalent of the Geshe degree of Central Tibet’s great monastic universities.
In different holy places along the Himalayan snow mountain range, in caves and other isolated places, Geshe Rinpoche maintained his practice and actually saw the different meditational deities, receiving their blessings, teachings, guidance, and predictions.
He was the first of the Tibetan lamas to go on pilgrimage repeatedly to the Buddhist holy sites in India before this became an established practice. Domo Geshe Rinpoche was openly praised by both the Ninth Panchen Lama and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, who referred to him as a “realized one who is completely tamed” and as someone who is “Lama to people inside and outside of Tibet and whose widespread fame resonates like the sound of a great bell.” Geshe Rinpoche enjoyed a close relationship with the Ninth Panchen Lama, from whom he received a special holy object: the mould for the famous image of Je Tsongkhapa called “Tsong-bon Geleg.”
Domo Geshe Rinpoche was also known as “the precious doctor of Chumbi,” since he healed numerous people using a variety of methods. The famous holy pills (rilbus) that he made from hundreds of sacred and medicinal ingredients were of unequalled power and cured many otherwise hopeless cases.
After his death in 1936, the Tibetan government allowed his body to be embalmed, although this practice is only customary in the case of the bodies of the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, noting: “In Southern Tibet, including Sikkim, etc., Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s activities were exactly like those of Je Tsongkhapa. In accordance, we will allow Rinpoche’s body to be preserved.”