The founder of the Drikung medical tradition was Rigdzin Chokyi Drakpa.
A brief account of his life is as follows: He was born in the Wood Sheep year of the 10th Rabjung cycle (1595 CE) as the youngest son of Vidyadhara Chögyal Phuntsok Tashi and Yangkhukma, who was renowned as an emanation of Vajravarahi and descended from the ancient Tibetan royal lineage of Ngaphö Depa. During childhood he displayed many extraordinary signs, such as not crawling like ordinary children and sleeping without closing his eyes completely. His father gave him the name Könchok Phuntsok. Later, his elder brother, the Sixth Shamarpa, Garwang Chokyi Wangchuk, bestowed upon him the name Rigdzin Chökyi Drakpa Trinlé Namgyal Dé.

From his father he received numerous teachings, oral instructions, empowerments, and transmissions. After his father passed away, he studied under many great masters including the Sixth Shamarpa, Zhabsdrung Naropa, Khenchen Namjom Phuntsok, Lama Sangye Rinchen, Dakpo Tulku Norbu Gyenpa, Rigdzin Ja-tsön Nyingpo, and Jakhyungpa Gyalwang Pema Tendzin. Through them he mastered the teachings of his own lineage completely.

He became highly learned in the Five Sciences, including grammar, logic, arts, and medicine, and earned the title of a great pandita. In particular, he studied the medical lineages descending from Karma Rangjung Dorje through the Sixth Shamarpa and also the Zur tradition transmitted through Drukpa Künkhyen Pema Karpo and Kongpo physician Könchok Gyaltsen. Through study, contemplation, and practical application, his medical wisdom greatly expanded.

Especially under Kongmen Könchok Gyaltsen, he thoroughly studied and practiced the general and specialized systems of Tibetan medicine, including the Four Tantras (Gyüshi), their commentaries, oral instructions, and the distinctive teachings of the Zur tradition. He did not rely merely on theoretical study but perfected them through direct clinical practice and experience.

As a result, many exceptional skills and realizations arose within him, leading to the establishment of the unique medical tradition known as the Drikung Medical System (Dri-luk Sorig), regarded as one of the four major streams descending from the ocean of Tibetan medical knowledge.

To preserve this lineage, he composed many authoritative treatises. Among them were works on:

·  “Turning the Iron Wheel of Activity of the Nine Fierce Minister Protectors of the Yuthok Nyingthig,”

·  “Annotations and Commentary on the Difficult Essential Points of the Glorious Four Tantras,”

·  “The Drikung Commentary without Omission,”

·  “Beautiful Ornament of Oral Instructions Determining the Number of One Thousand and Two Antidotal Remedies,”

·  “Notes on the Great Precious Black Pill: Extracting the Essence of Stability and Movement, Delight of the Learned,”

·  “Life-Sustaining and Life-Protecting Treatment of Epidemics,”

·  “Secret Drawing-Out Water Therapy,”

·  “Support of Life through the Precious Twenty-Fivefold Compound Formula,”

·  “Vajra Pathway of Womb Therapy,”

·  “Historical Account of the Precious Cold-Compound Black Pill,”

·  “Pearl Garland: Examination Determining the Quantities of the Cold-Compound Black Pill,”

·  “Oral Instructions on Supplementary Herbs for the Precious Cold-Compound Black Pill,”

·  “Summer Drum of Joy for the Faithful: Benefits of the Cold-Compound Black Pill,”

·  “Method for Healing Compound Poisoning Related to Components of Precious Pills,”

·  “Method for Healing Minor Compound Poisoning Related to Components of Precious Cold-Compound Pills,”

·  “Notes on the Small and Medium Black Pills: Dispelling Death,”

·  “Notes on Harmonizing Black Pills: Vase of Ambrosial Essence,”

·  “Sky Jewel Clarifying the Hidden Meaning of the Large, Medium, and Small Black Pills,”

·  “Notes on the Precious Hot Compound Called ‘Bestower of Relief for Chronic Disease,’ the Special Teaching of Zurkharwa,”

·  “The Oral Instructions of Kongbu: Purification Compounds and the Secret Instructions of Zurkharwa,”

·  “Oral Instructions on the Method of Grinding Precious Pills,”

·  “Treasury of Accomplishments: The Sadhana of the Medicine Buddha Sambhogakaya with

the Principal Deity and Retinue of Five.”

·      གཡུ་ཐོག་སྙིང་ཐིག་གི་བཀའ་སྲུང་ཞང་བློན་དྲག་པོ་སྡེ་དགུའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་གནམ་ལྕགས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་བསྒྱུར་བ་ཞེས་པ་དང་།

·      དཔལ་ལྡན་རྒྱུད་བཞིའི་དཀའ་བའི་གནད་རྣམས་ལ་མཆན་འགྲེལ་ལ་བཀོད་པ།

·      འབྲི་གུང་བཀའ་མཆན་ཐེམ་སྤང་མ།

·      གསོ་བྱེད་གཉེན་པོ་སྟོང་དང་རྩ་གཉིས་གྲངས་ངེས་ཞལ་ལུང་མཛེས་རྒྱན།

·      རིན་ཆེན་རིལ་ནག་ཆེན་མོའི་ཟིན་བྲིས་བརྟན་གཡོའི་བཅུད་བསྡུས་མཁས་པ་དགའ་བྱེད།

·      འབམ་བཅོས་ཚེ་འཛིན་སྲོག་སྐྱོབ།

·      ཆུ་བཅོས་གསང་བ་སྦུབས་འདྲེན།

·      ཉེར་ལྔ་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་ལྔའི་སྦྱོར་བ་རིན་ཆེན་སྲོག་གི་རྒྱབ་རྟེན།

·      མངལ་བཅོས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕ་ལམ།

·      རིན་ཆེན་གྲང་སྦྱོར་རིལ་ནག་གི་སྔོན་བྱུང་གླེང་གཞི།

·      གྲང་སྦྱོར་རིལ་ནག་གི་གྲངས་ངེས་བརྟག་པ་མུ་ཏིག་འཕྲེང་བ།

·      རིན་ཆེན་གྲང་སྦྱོར་རིལ་ནག་གི་ཁ་སྐོང་ལྡུམ་བུའི་མན་ངག

·      གྲང་སྦྱོར་རིལ་ནག་གི་ཕན་ཡོན་མོས་ལྡན་དགའ་བའི་དབྱར་རྔ།

·      རིན་ཆེན་རིལ་བུའི་ཆ་ལག་སྦྱར་དུག་གསོ་ཐབས།

·      རིན་ཆེན་གྲང་སྦྱོར་རིལ་བུའི་ཆ་ལག་ཕྲན་བུའི་སྦྱར་དུག་གསོ་ཐབས།

·      རིལ་ནག་ཆུང་འབྲིང་གི་ཟིན་བྲིས་འཆི་བ་གཤོལ་འདེབས།

·      འཐུན་བྱེད་རིལ་ནག་གི་ཟིན་བྲིས་ཡང་བཅུད་བདུད་རྩིའི་བུམ་པ།

·      རིལ་ནག་ཆེ་འབྲིང་ཆུང་ངུའི་སྦས་དོན་གསལ་བྱེད་ནམ་མཁའི་ནོར་བུ།

·      རིན་ཆེན་ཚ་སྦྱོར་གྱི་ཟིན་བྲིས་གཅོང་ནད་བདེ་སྟེརཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཟུར་མཁར་བའི་ཁྱད་ཆོས།

·      ཀོང་བུའི་ཞལ་གདམས་འདག་སྦྱོར་ཟུར་མཁར་བའི་མན་ངག་བཞུགས།

·      རིན་ཆེན་རིལ་བུ་འཐག་ཐབས་ཀྱི་ཞལ་གདམས།

·      སྨན་བླ་ལོངས་སྐུ་གཙོ་འཁོར་ལྔའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་དངོས་གྲུབ་ཀྱི་བང་མཛོད།

He repeatedly performed authentic preparations of mercury compounds and precious pills, transmitting these pharmaceutical methods to later generations. Even today, famous medicines such as the “Great Drikung Black Precious Pill” continue to be used widely for the benefit of beings.

This master also founded a medical school in the Drikung Tsezhöl region and trained many students skilled in both medicine and astrology. Among his foremost disciples were:

• the 24th Drikung throne holder Könchok Trinlé Zangpo,
• Könchok Drophen Wangpo (also called Tsewang Tenpa),
• Panchen Könchok Lhündrup,
• and Lho Trinlé Namgyal.

Through them, the Drikung medical lineage within the broader Zur tradition flourished continuously.

He traveled widely throughout Tibet — including Kharak, Phenyul, Namtso, Hor, Barkham, Dartsedo, Lithang, Samye, and Powo — benefiting beings according to their capacities through teachings, medicine, and spiritual guidance. He possessed mastery of the four enlightened activities and deep meditative realization. His qualities were said to be beyond full description.

Finally, in the Earth Pig year (1659 CE), on the eighth day of the royal month, he passed into parinirvana at the age of sixty-five.

Könchok Drophen Wangpo (Drikung Tsewang Tenpa)

The disciple Könchok Drophen Wangpo, also known as Drikung Tsewang Tenpa, was born in Central Tibet in the Iron Sheep year of the 11th Rabjung cycle (1631 CE).

Under Rigdzin Chökyi Drakpa he thoroughly studied the sciences in general and Tibetan medicine in particular, including all oral instructions and essential teachings. He became the principal spiritual heir of his teacher’s medical lineage.

He later served as the head instructor of the medical college established by Drikung Chödrak. Many disciples studied under him, including Pon-tsang Yeshe. He composed numerous medical treatises concerning:

• “The Essential Heart of Benefit and Well-Being: A Precious Compendium of All Oral Instructions of the Healing Science,”
• “Notes Clarifying Doubts on the Difficult Essential Points of the Great Medical Tradition, the Glorious Four Tantras,”
• “Oral Instruction Nectar Stream: A Concise Method for Treating Contagious Diseases such as Epidemic Fever and Bile Disorders Running Through the Channels,”
• “Profound Treatment of Wind Disorder Called ‘Wolf’s Head,’”
• “Secret Drawing-Out Method for Mu-Chu Water Therapy,”
• “Notes on the Secret Head and Secret Eye Treatments from the Essential Extract of All Healing Instructions,”
• “Profound Circular Head-Wound Treatment, Ornamented Supplementary Oral Instructions that Eliminate Suffering,”
• “Profound Essential Teachings from Practical Experience Called ‘Threshold of Surgical Techniques for Chronic Conditions,’ an Ornamented Supplement to the Essential Compendium,”
• “Condensed Essential Instructions from Experience Called ‘Threefold Combined Methods of Epidemic Treatment that Sustain Life and Protect Vitality,’”
• “Life Vase: Essential Summary of Precious Points for Epidemic Treatment, a Branch of the Heart Essence of Benefit and Well-Being,”
• “Condensed Essence of Epidemic Treatment,”
• “Single-Lineage Oral Instructions Revealing the Hidden Profound Teachings of Epidemic Treatment,”
• “Completely Clarifying All Hidden Meanings: Practical Notes on the Great Mercury Purification Process.”

• གསོ་བ་རིག་པའི་མན་ངག་ཀུན་གྱི་གཅེས་བསྡུས་ཕན་བདེའི་སྙིང་པོ་དང་།
• གསོ་བ་རིག་པའི་གཞུང་ལུགས་ཆེན་པོ་དཔལ་ལྡན་རྒྱུད་བཞིའི་དཀའ་གནད་དོགས་སེལ་གྱི་ཟིན་བྲིས།
• གཉན་རིམས་མཁྲིས་པ་རྩར་རྒྱུག་ལ་སོགས་པའི་གཉན་ནད་བཅོས་ཚུལ་བསྡུས་པ་ཞལ་ལུང་བདུད་རྩི་ཆུ་རྒྱུན།
• རླུང་ནད་ཅེ་སྤྱང་མགོ་ཡི་བཅོས་ཟབ་མོ།
• མུ་ཆུ་བཅོས་ཐབས་གསང་བ་སྦུབས་འདྲེན།
• གསོ་བ་གདམས་པ་ཀུན་གྱི་ཡང་སྙིང་གཅེས་བསྡུས་ལས་མགོ་གསང་མིག་གསང་གི་ཟིན་བྲིས།
• གཅེས་བསྡུས་མན་ངག་ཟུར་རྒྱན་མགོ་རྨའི་ཟླུམ་བཅོས་ཟབ་མོ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སེལ་བྱེད།
• གཅེས་བསྡུས་ཟུར་རྒྱན་རྒྱུ་རྒན་གྱི་བཅོས་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ཐེམ་འཚང་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ལག་ལེན་ཉམས་མྱོང་གི་གནད་ཟབ་མོ་བསྟན་པ།
• འབམ་བཅོས་ཚེ་འཛིན་སྲོག་སྐྱོབས་ཀྱི་ལྷན་ཐབས་གསོ་ཚུལ་གསུམ་ལྡན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཉམས་མྱོང་གི་གནད་བསྡུས།
• ཕན་བདེའི་སྙིང་པོའི་ཡན་ལག་འབམ་བཅོས་གཅེས་པའི་གནད་བསྡུས་ཚེ་བུམ།
• འབམ་བཅོས་སྙིང་པོ་བསྡུས་པ།
• འབམ་བཅོས་ཟབ་པའི་གདམས་པ་གབ་པ་མངོན་ཕྱུང་མན་ངག་ཆིག་རྒྱུད་སྐོར།
• དངུལ་ཆུ་བཙོ་བཀྲུ་ཆེན་མོའི་ལག་ལེན་ཟིན་བྲིས་སྦས་དོན་ཀུན་གསལ།

Through these works, he maintained and expanded the Drikung medical tradition successfully.

Disciple: Pon-tsang Yeshe

Pon-tsang Yeshe was born in the Drikung Tsalka region. He was also known by names such as Drom Rik Naljor Yeshe and Jñāna Samten.

From childhood he possessed exceptional natural intelligence in medicine. By around the age of twenty he had mastered the Four Tantras and gained profound practical expertise in diagnosis and treatment. Because of his skill, even the great treasure revealer Chökyi Gyalpo honored him with the title “Physician Healer.”

Under the guidance of Tsewang Tenpa he completely mastered the entire Drikung medical tradition and became one of its foremost lineage holders. He preserved and expanded the practical instructions for mercury purification and the preparation of precious medicinal pills without interruption.

Among his famous disciples were:

• Karma Tenphel,
• Situ Chokyi Jungne,
• and Jyarpo Salwa.

He also composed many medical treatises, including works on:

• “Rain Stream of Benefit and Well-Being: The Essential Extract of All Instructions of the Healing Science,”
• “Oral Instructions that Destroy Pain: Supplementary Hidden Presentation of the Extremely Profound Points of the Essential Compendium, the Heart Essence of Benefit and Well-Being,”
• “Drops of Nectar, the Heart Essence of Oral Knowledge; or The Key Revealing the Hidden Meaning of the Essential Compendium, the Heart Essence of Benefit and Well-Being,”
• “The Hidden Key to the Secret Treasury of Practical Application of the Great Mercury Purification Process, a Branch of the Heart Essence of Benefit and Well-Being.”
  

• གསོ་བ་རིག་པའི་གདམས་པ་ཀུན་གྱི་ཡང་སྙིང་གཅེས་བསྡུས་ཕན་བདེའི་ཆར་རྒྱུན།
• གཅེས་བསྡུས་ཕན་བདེའི་སྙིང་པོའི་ཡང་ཟབ་རྣམས་སྦས་ཚུལ་གྱིས་ཟུར་དུ་བཀོད་པ་ཟུག་རྔུ་གཞོམ་པའི་མན་ངག།
• ཞལ་ཤེས་སྙིང་གི་ཁུ་བ་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཐིགས་པའམ་གཅེས་བསྡུས་ཕན་བདེའི་སྙིང་པོའི་གབ་པ་མངོན་དུ་ཕྱུང་བའི་ལྡེ་མིག།
• ཕན་བདེའི་སྙིང་པོའི་ཡན་ལག་དངུལ་ཆུ་བཙོ་བཀྲུ་ཆེན་མོའི་ལག་ལེན་གསང་མཛོད་སྦས་པའི་ལྡེ་མིག

Through these masters and their disciples, the Drikung medical lineage of the Zur tradition spread widely throughout Tibet and continued to flourish. Initially, the practical oral instructions were transmitted only through a single lineage succession from Rigdzin Chökyi Drakpa to Tsewang Tenpa and then to Pon-tsang Yeshe. Later, Pon-tsang Yeshe openly transmitted the complete Drikung medical teachings to qualified students across all regions of Tibet, ensuring the widespread continuation of the tradition.