Reincarnation and personal identity in the lives of Tibetan masters: linking the revelations of three lamas of the Dudjom tradition

This paper explores Tibetan understandings of character, personal identity, and questions of authorship, when the life story and spiritual writings involve persons linked by a line of incarnation. The focus is the 20th-century Dudjom Rinpoche (bDud ʼjoms ʼjigs bral ye shes rdo rje, 1904–1987), his immediate predecessor, Dudjom Lingpa (bDud ʼjoms gling pa, 1835–1904), along with a 17th-century lama, Düdül Dorje (bDud ʼdul rdo rje, 1615–1672). While Tibetan accounts of reincarnating lamas sometimes emphasise continuities, stories of the two Dudjoms make no secret of the contrast between them in terms of their characters and behaviour. Dudjom Rinpocheʼs main textual work is his important contributions to the Nying ma literature of previous generations. It is clear that the identification between these three lamas gave Dudjom Rinpoche a specific responsibility in this case