Zab gcod – in memory of Meme Khemchok Dorje: an essay in honour of Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak’s 100th “Birthday”

Abstract

In this modest contribution, I should like to honour Yongdzin Rinpoche by remembering, by way of example, one of those many lives that were deeply impacted by his wisdom and support: that of the late Meme Khemchok Dorje, a devout lay person from the Dolanji settlement in India. Pushing ninety, he still attended the Triten Norbutse 2020 Fifth International Conference on Bon: true to his name, Khemchok was passionate about Bon Studies (mkhas mchog means an eminently learned person or a true scholar). I here make available selected interviews recorded late in 2008, which are part of larger, forthcoming publication on Khemchok Dorje’s performance of Zab gcod. I shall present Khemchok Dorje’s account of his personal connection to the practice of Zab gcod and part of an interview on its performance, all as much as possible in his own voice and words, to the extent that most of the text is a stylistically slightly adjusted ‘paraphrase’ of his recollections and answers in the 2008 interviews. His practical devotion and scholarly bent stand out very clearly.