The Shabdrung (also Zhabdrung) is the most important tulku lineage in Bhutan, equivalent in many ways to the Dalai Lama lineage of Tibet. The lineage traces through the founder of the country, Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (b. 1594 -d 1651), a high Drukpa Kagyu lama who was the first to unify the warring valley kingdoms under a single rule. In Bhutan the Shabdrung is revered as the third most important personality behind Guru Rimpoche and the Buddha.

Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal initiated many important Bhutanese customs including the system of dual government by which power was shared between an administrative leader, the Druk Desi, and a religious leader, the Je Khempo. These offices proved important upon the death of the Shabdrung in 1651 as power effectively passed to them instead of to his son. In order to forestall a dynastic struggle and a return to warlordism, the authorities conspired to keep the death of the Shabdrung secret for 54 years. During this time they issued orders in his name, explained he was on an extended silent retreat, and kept his son under wraps.

Eventually the fiction could no longer be maintained, and the ruling authorities were faced with the problem of succession. An important person such as the Shabdrung, already recognized as a tulku, would be expected to be reincarnated shortly to take control of the country. How could this be prevented? And how could their own power be maintained during a transition? The Druk Desi and Je Khenpo apparently devised a practical solution, as the Shabdrung was indeed reincarnated, but not as a single person but rather as three separate persons -- a body incarnation, a mind incarnation, and a speech incarnation. Despite their efforts at maintaining the power established by the original Shabdrung, the country sank into warring factionalism for the next 200 years.

The body incarnation lineage died out in the mid-18th century, while the mind and speech incarnations of the Shabdrung continued into the 20th century. In 1907 the Bhutanese monarchy was established, with Ugyen Wangchuck, the penlop of Trongsa installed as hereditary king with the support of Britain and against the wishes of Tibet. The royal family suffered from questions of legitimacy in its early years, with the reincarnations of the various Shabdrungs posing a threat. In 1931 when the 6th Shabdrung, Jigme Dorji, made an appeal to Mahatma Gandhi to oust the monarchy, the Shabdrung was assassinated by royalist forces.

In 1962, Jigme Nawang Namgyal (known as Shabdrung Rimpoche to his followers), the last of the Shabdrung incarnations , fled Bhutan for India where he spent the remainder of his life. Up until 2002, Bhutanese pilgrims were able to journey to Kalimpong, just south of Bhutan, to visit with the Master. In April 5, 2003, the Shabdrung died. Some of his followers claim he was poisoned, while Indian newspapers took pains to explain he died after an extended bout with cancer.

List of successive Shabdrungs

Source: Bhutan News Online
Source for birth of Jigme Nawang Namgyal (1955): The Bhutan Today

Note: traditions states that Ngawang Namgyal was the first Shabdrung, that the lineage traces back farther in Tibetan history through Pema Karpo,

Tulkus | Kagyu

Shabdrung | Shabdrung