The Third Lachen Gomchen, Ngawang Kunsang Rinchen (1867-1947), was Alexandra David-Neel’s teacher and spiritual master. She studied and practiced as his disciple for twenty continuous months in North Sikkim, from the end of October 1914 until the end of June 1916.
The Lachen Gomchen was a great Dzogchen practitioner who specialized in the yogic practices of channels and winds (tsa and lung), including inner heat yoga (tummo). He spent most of his life in retreat, first above his native village of Namok and later in the upper reaches of the Lachen Valley in North Sikkim.
From the Lepcha village of Mindu in East Sikkim, Aphur Yongden (1899-1955) had first been a novice of Rumtek monastery and then a student at Gangtok’s Bhutia Boarding School. Fluent in Tibetan and English, he entered Alexandra’s service in 1914, while still in his teens.
When Alexandra left Sikkim in 1916, Yongden followed her and remained devoted to her for the rest of his life.
Disguised as her son, he made possible the 1924 journey to Lhasa that brought her fame. Alexandra insisted on adopting him, and the adoption was officially recognized in France in 1929.
Yongden died suddenly in 1955 by kidney failure according to the doctor’s diagnosis. Just having turned 87, David-Neel found herself alone. Yongden’s ashes were kept safe in the Tibetan oratory of Samten Dzong, awaiting to be thrown into the Ganges together with those of David-Neel after her death.
In 1912 at Kalimpong, she met with the 13th Dalai Lama in exile. She met with the Panchen Lama in 1916.
She travelled to Japan, Korea, from Beijing crossed China from east to west, the Gobi, Mongolia.
She is most known for her 1924 visit to Lhasa, Tibet, when it was forbidden to foreigners. David-Neel wrote over 30 books about Eastern religion, philosophy, and her travels.
Info and photos: Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Sikkim, International Symposium 9-10 April 2026.
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