Drala Thang Helsinki

Drala Thang (sGar bLa thang / Sparking Plain of Awareness) is a Vajrayana community in the Aro gTér Lineage of the Nyingma Tradition of Himalayan Buddhism. This community was officially registered in Finland in 2020.

Drala Thang’s purpose in Finland and other countries —is to provide people with the advantage of understanding Vajrayana as a vehicle that encourages Natural Courage & Natural Dignity, Artistic Appreciation & Artistic Creativity for the happiness and harmony of all people. Cultivating the religious Arts and secular Arts is central to the lineage and is seen as being inseparable from the development of Kindness and Awareness.

The religion of the members of Drala Thang Finland is actualised through Kindness and Awareness through listening, reflecting, and meditating on the Vajrayana teachings of the Aro gTér, the Thang-tong Thug-thig — and the broader Nyingma Tradition.

Ngakpa Trømtsal Dorje

Ngakpa Trømtsal Dorje has been practicing in the Aro gTér tradition since 1998. He received ngakpa ordination in 2002 from his teachers Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen. He mainly teaches in Finnish at the Drala Thang center in Helsinki.

Ngakpa Trømtsal particularly enjoys tantric practice and the symbolism of tantra, the teachings of the five elements, and the essential sutra teachings presented according to the Dzogchen view. Ngakpa Trømtsal has studied philosophy and literature at the University of Helsinki, from which he has a master’s degree. He works as a cultural journalist. In working life, he has acted as a trustee. In this position, he has been helping his colleagues and the work community in various problem situations for twelve years. He considers this a good school for the role of a teacher, where he tries to be of help to his students in their various life situations. Ngakpa Trømtsal plays bass in a death metal band and has started playing blues guitar inspired by Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s blues music hobby. He finds the connection between art and Varjayana very inspiring.

The interface between Western culture and the essential view of vajrayana is particularly important to him. He is writing a book on Western philosophy and Buddhism from the perspective of Dzogchen. He lives in Helsinki with his family. Ngakpa Trømtsal has made two pilgrimages to Nepal, where he met the root teachers of Künzang Dorje Rinpoche and Jomo Samp’hel Déchen Rinpoche, Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen.

In addition to his own root teachers Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen, holders of the Aro gTér lineage, he has received teachings and authorizations from Chhimed Rig’dzin Rinpoche, Trulshik Rinpoche, Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche, Tulku Pema Wangyal Rinpoche, Patrul Rinpoche, Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche, Khamtrul Wangchuk Rig’dzin Rinpoche, Khenchen Lama Rinpoche ja Mingyur Rinpoche.

Ngakpa Ögyen Dorje

Ögyen Dorje has been part of the Aro gTér tradition since 2011 and received ngakpa ordination from his teachers, Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen, in 2019.
Ögyen Dorje’s passion as a practitioner particularly includes Vajrayana arts, and he has created numerous implements for the needs of the Aro gTér lineage and Vajrayana practitioners. These include, among other things, tengars, leather bags for practice implements, dorjes and drilbus, vajra weapons, serkyems, phurbas, and statues.

By profession, he is a physiotherapist specialized in psychophysical therapy. He enjoys interacting with people from diverse backgrounds and age groups, whom he encounters daily in his work.

He runs his own practice in Rovaniemi, Finland but lives in Keminmaa with his spouse and their two children. Ögyen Dorje primarily teaches in Finnish and English, mainly in Finland. He has made several pilgrimages to Nepal and Bhutan, where he has also met Jomo Sam’phel Déchen Rinpoche, a root lama of Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen. He considers himself to be extremely lucky to be part of the gö-kar chang-lo’i dé, and being part of the continuation of the traditio