Terton Sogyal Lerab Lingpa

The incarnation of Nanam Dorje Dudjom, Lerab Lingpa, also called Terton Sogyal (1856-1926), was born in Kham, in the valley of Nyak, in the family of a nomad chieftain.
He began his adult life as a brigand and hunter like his father. At the age of thirty, he was troubled by the vision of dakini writings which appeared in the forked sights of his rifle. Then, at the sight of one of his acolytes killing an animal, he renounced hunting and turned his mind towards the Dharma. Although not very well educated and almost illiterate, Terton Sogyal became a great mystic. He was a disciple of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and of Mipham Rinpoche. He became a close friend of Thubten Gyatso, the XIIIth Dalai Lama, and of Jigme Tenpe Nyima, the IIIrd Dodrupchen Rinpoche.
He discovered several terma cycles, of which the P’ourPa Yang Nying Pudri - a terma of Vajrakilaya - is practiced by the Dalai Lama’s monks of Namgyal monastery; and Tendrel Nyesel, the practice “which dissipates bad circumstances”. In the course of his life, his teachings remained within a close circle of lamas, but he prophesied that with his following incarnations they would be greatly propagated.
Extract from the work “Padmasambhava” by Philippe Cornu