Ngala Nor’dzin & Khandro Déchen

Roath, Cardiff, May 1985

This picture was taken on the day Ngala Nor’dzin and Ngala ’ö-Dzin were married. It shows Ngala Nor’dzin leaving her home in Roath, Cardiff with Khandro Déchen on the way to the registry office.

A week after the registry office ceremony, Ngala Nor’dzin and Ngala ’ö-Dzin received a Vajrayana blessing on their marriage from Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen. This was a joyous occasion in the presence of family and friends.

Ngala Nor’dzin remembers:
On Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s instruction I had plaited a cord of ribbons of the five elemental colours. This was attached to Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s bell, wound around us and then linked back to Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s dorje as he performed the ceremony. After the ceremony he and Khandro Déchen told us that our relationship would thrive if we were always kind to each other. He said that he never gave people vows they could not keep – and that we should hold to the vow of staying together as long as we were happy. He also said that the best way to ensure that was to apply the teachings of the Khandro Pawo Nyida Mélong Gyüd which teaches the nature of vajra romance according to Dzogchen Long-dé.

Ngala ’ö-Dzin comments:
We continue to be happy together to this day – and delighted by each other’s company. In 1998 we renewed our marriage vows with Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen kindly performing another Vajrayana blessing ceremony for us. Khandro Déchen, although happy to perform the blessing, said that the only blessing we needed was the one we already had – the teachings of the Khandro Pawo Nyida Mélong Gyüd.