Shabdrung ngawang namgyal biography of mahatma

Bhutanese Lama (1594–1651)

Not to be confused with Ngawang Namgyal (Rinpungpa).

Ngawang Namgyal (1594–1651), known colloquially as The Bearded Lama, was a Tibetan BuddhistDrukpa Kagyu school Rinpoche, and the unifier of Bhutan as a nation-state.

He was later granted the honorific title Zhabdrung Rinpoche, approximately "at whose feet one submits" (Tibetan: ཞབས་དྲུང་ངག་དབང་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་, Wylie: zhabs drung ngag dbang rnam rgyal; alternate spellings include Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel).

In addition to unifying the various warring fiefdoms for the first time in the 1630s, he also sought to create a distinct Bhutanese cultural identity separate from the Tibetan culture from which it was derived.

Birth and enthronement at Ralung

Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal was born at Ralung (Wylie: rwa lung) Monastery, Tibet as the son of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage-holder Mipham Tenpa'i Nyima (Wylie: 'brug pa mi pham bstan pa'i nyi ma, 1567–1619), and Sönam Pelgyi Butri (