Chogyal Minjur Tempa (born Damchho Lhendrub in 1613) was the third
Druk Desi
The Druk Desi (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་སྡེ་སྲིད་; Wylie:'' 'brug sde-srid''; also called " Deb Raja")The original title is Dzongkha: སྡེ་སྲིད་ཕྱག་མཛོད་; Wylie: ''sde-srid phyag-mdzod''. wa ...
, the secular head of
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
, and previously the first
penlop
Penlop (Dzongkha: དཔོན་སློབ་; Wylie: ''dpon-slob''; also spelled Ponlop, Pönlop) is a Dzongkha term roughly translated as governor. Bhutanese penlops, prior to unification, controlled certain districts of the country, but now ...
(governor) of
Trongsa
Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of Trongsa District in central Bhutan. The name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-gra ...
(''Trongsab'') His tenure as penlop was notable for the building of a watchtower and the unification of eight Eastern Districts into the Sharchog Khorlo Tsibgye
.
Background
''Chogyal'' Minjur Tempa was born in 1613 in Min-Chhud,
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
, as Damchho Lhendrub. He became a monk at an early age. He was appointed as Umzey (Chant Master) before he was appointed as the first
Penlop of Trongsa
Penlop of Trongsa ( Dzongkha: ཀྲོང་གསར་དཔོན་སློབ་; Wylie: ''Krong-gsar dpon-slob''), also called Chhoetse Penlop ( Dzongkha: ཆོས་རྩེ་དཔོན་སློབ་; Wylie: ''Chos-rtse dpon-sl ...
by
Ngawang Namgyal
Ngawang Namgyal (later granted the honorific Zhabdrung Rinpoche, approximately "at whose feet one submits") (; alternate spellings include ''Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel''; 1594–1651) and known colloquially as The Bearded Lama, was a Tibetan Budd ...
in 1647. As a Penlop of Trongsa, he was sent to Sharchog Khorlo Tsibgye to fight against the lords of Eastern Bhutan, which he was successful. He built many dzongs of
Lhuentse,
Trashigang,
Jakar
Jakar (Dzongkha: བྱ་ཀར་; Wylie: ''Bya-kar'') is a town in the central-eastern region of Bhutan. It is the district capital (dzongkhag thromde) of Bumthang District and the location of Jakar Dzong, the regional dzong fortress. The na ...
, and
Zhemgang
Zhemgang is a town in Zhemgang District, Bhutan. It is the capital ( dzongkhag thromde
A thromde (Dzongkha: ཁྲོམ་སྡེ་; Wylie: ''khrom-sde'') is a second-level administrative division in Bhutan. The legal administrative status o ...
, and built Ta Dzong in Trongsa. Later in the year 1667, he was appointed as the 2nd Druk Desi by
Ngawang Namgyal
Ngawang Namgyal (later granted the honorific Zhabdrung Rinpoche, approximately "at whose feet one submits") (; alternate spellings include ''Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel''; 1594–1651) and known colloquially as The Bearded Lama, was a Tibetan Budd ...
.
References
{{Bhutan-bio-stub
1613 births
1680 deaths
Bhutanese monks
Bhutanese monarchs