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 offers the opportunity to understand 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.

Drala Thang offers the Vajrayana teachings of the Aro gTér, the Thang-tong Thug-thig and the broader Nyingma Tradition.

Lama Trømtsal Dorje

Lama 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.

Lama 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 non-fiction author, freelance journalist and speaker.

Lama Trømtsal plays bass in a death metal band and plays blues guitar in the sangha’s blues band, inspired by Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s blues music hobby. He finds the connection between art and Vajrayana very inspiring.

The interface between Western culture and the essential view of Vajrayana is particularly important to him. His book Kirje Buddhalta – länsimaisen filosofian buddhalainen historia (A Letter from the Buddha: A Buddhist History of Western Philosophy) was published by the Finnish Literature Society (SKS) in autumn 2025. It has been both a commercial and a critical success.

He lives in Helsinki with his family. He has made two pilgrimages to Nepal, where he met Künzang Dorje Rinpoche and Jomo Sam’phel Déchen Rinpoche, the root lamas of Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen. He has also made two pilgrimages to Bhutan, where he visited numerous sacred sites and met many eminent lamas. In summer 2025 he presented findings from his book at a Vajrayana conference held in Bhutan.

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 and Mingyur Rinpoche.

Lama Ögyen Dorje

Lama 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.

Lama 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 and musculoskeletal 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 and Kemi, Finland, and lives in Keminmaa with his spouse and their two children. Lama 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 to be part of the continuation of the tradition.