Navel of the Demoness : Tibetan Buddhism and Civil Religion in ...

it is nowhere clear just how they fit into the family, they have been omitted
from the picture.
A Rift in the Family
Chönyi Rangdrol (m)
(?)
Yeshe Zangmo (f) = Tshewang Angyal (m ) Ngawang Dorje (m)
Rigden (m) Unnamed noblewoman = Rangdrol (m) Phurba Angmo (f) = Nomad Pema Tshewang (m )
Butri (f) = Tshewang Bumpa (m) Döyön (m) Ösal Dorje (m) = ? Ul Temba (m)
Chökyi (f) = Tshewang Angyal (alias Kachuwa) (m) Orgyan Rangdrol (m) Unnamed Tepa (f) = Namkha (alias Tempa Gyaltsen) (m)
Lhacig (f) Buchung (m) = Pema Dechen (f) Mönlam
Tamdrin
the encounter with buddhism 151
figure 5.1. The priestly line of the ‘‘Clan of the Kings of Sikkim.’’
Tshewang Angyal had a younger brother called Ngawang Dorje, who, as is
usual in the case of priestly families, did not undergo the religious training
received by his senior. The brothers contracted a polyandrous marriage to
Yeshe Angmo, who left her native village of Tshug to live with her husbands in
Tshognam. Yeshe Angmo bore two sons, Rigden and Rangdrol, and a daughter,
Phurba Angmo. Both Rigden and Rangdrol received a religious education,
probably from their senior father (HMA/LTshognam/Tib/15; HMA/
UTshognam/Tib/26). Tshewang Angyal, Ngawang Dorje, and Yeshe Angmo
died while the children were still quite young, but before their death they willed
that if the three got on well they should remain together, but if they did not
they should divide the property up as follows: the [older] father’s books and
other property should go to the sons, while the mother’s jewellery should go to
Phurba Angmo. The estate—apparently two houses and some land—should
be divided up among the three (HMA/UTshognam/Tib/27). Precisely how it
was to be divided up became the subject of a dispute that was sorted out, amid
much acrimony, only three generations later.