Tapihritsa was an ordinary man born in a nomadic family in the country of Zhang Zhung and his main teacher was Dawa Gyaltsen. Tapihritsa practiced for nine years in a holy place outside Mount Kailash and achieved a high state of enlightenment known as “the rainbow body”.
Tapihritsa is the axial master of the tradition called Experiential Lineage Zhang-Zhung since his figure summarizes all teachings and teachers of this lineage. He is the twenty-fifth master of the transmission line, beginning with the Buddha Samantabhadra, Tönpa Shenrap passes and reaches the Tapihritsa master suite, called Tseung Dagpa Gyaltsen. All these teachers reached the completion of the rainbow body, which involves the dissolution of the physical body at death.
Dagpa Gyaltsen is responsible for structuring the teachings of the Zhang-Zhung Nyen-gyüd in outer, inner, secret and top secret cycles. It is said that when Tapihritsa received these teachings, retired for nine years to an area east of Mount Kailash, in a cave near Taruk, great salt lake, where he practiced up to the completion of the light body of the Great Transfer, dissolving his physical body in the vast expanse of sky without leaving any residue behind.
