110 BUDDHADHARMA: THE PRACTITIONER’S QUARTERLY
They were both recognized as tertons in
Eastern Tibet, making them a power couple
of sorts. But more fascinating is how,
through their love and affection for one
another, they revealed treasure teachings
together, in tandem. Their role as treasure-
revealers who needed to join together was
prophesied by Tare Lhamo herself—in her
first letter to the man who would become
her beloved, she told him as much, declar-
ing that their partnership would play a role
in restoring Buddhist teachings throughout
the region. Her prophecy was realized.
Gayley translates, for the first time into
English, forty-two out of fifty-six love let-
ters. Readers seeking more analysis of the
religious and literary significance of the
couple’s work can also see Gayley’s longer
monograph, Love Letters from Golok: A
Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet, as well
as their respective namthar (spiritual biog-
raphy or hagiography)—Jewel Garland:
The Liberation of Namtrul Jigme Phuntsok
and Spiraling Vine of Faith: The Liberation
of Khandro Tare Lhamo. In Inseparable
Across Lifetimes, Gayley presents transla-
tions of the original letters and commentary
to contextualize the significance of their
writings, as well as biographical accounts
of their lives, teachings, and shared time
together.
The love letters are nothing short of re-
markable. Writing in a traditional Tibetan
style of ornate poetry and folk songs, Tare
Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche share recol-
lections of past lives together while falling
in love on the page. The letters contain
prophecies regarding locations of treasures
in the landscape they would eventually find
together to help the dharma flourish. In this
way, the couple comes to contextualize
their partnership as part of a samaya vow,
one sealed by Padmasambhava himself in
the eighth century during their previouslives as the close disciples Atsara Sale and
Shelkar Dorje Tso, or alternatively as Nam-
khai Nyingpo and Yeshe Tsogyal. Khenpo
Jigme Phuntsok, the great Buddhist master
and emanation of Mipham Rinpoche who
founded Larung Gar, drawing nearly ten
thousand students to join him in revitaliz-
ing the dharma after the Cultural Revolu-
tion, recognized each of them as tertons; he
seemed to confirm not just their qualities
as individuals but the importance of their
union as treasure-revealers in consort.
There have been a great many Nyingma
lamas with honored and revered sangyum,
often called khando (dakini); however,
Gayley argues that the partnership between
Namtrul Rinpoche and Tare Lhamo was
distinct. She points out that Indian tan-
tric literature “tends to portray the ideal
partner for tantric sexual practices as the
parakiya, or ‘one who belongs to another.’
Reinforcing this, the songs of the Indian
siddhas (‘accomplished ones’) tend to por-
tray illicit trysts with low-caste women in
the role of consort.” In part, this is because
the danger of romantic love—namely
attachment—was viewed as antithetical
to progressing on the spiritual path. Yet
Tare Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche do not
deny romantic love; they go straight into
it, using what is usually seen as a danger
to purify contaminated view. Their revela-
tions have been gathered together into a
twelve-volume corpus in which they take
turns revealing and decoding treasures as
partners, helping to decipher dakini script,
and completing one another’s visions.
The correspondence begins in 1978;
Namtrul Rinpoche traveled the next year
to Markhok to visit Tare Lhamo and meet
her relatives. She left her homeland in
1980, and the couple immediately began
work to rebuild Nyenlung, a monas-
tery in Serta. This period following the