ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with contested ideologies and practices played out between local laity and scholarly monks during the death of an idiosyncratic though widely recognized lama. Situated in the village of Rimbick in the Darjeeling Hills, the arena of contest incorporated a scholarly educational facility for monks with its resident rinpoche — the incarnation of the late Khenchen Sangay Tenzin — and the nearby hermitage of a reclusive and somewhat non-conventional yogi. Everyone in Rimbick and many in the wider Darjeeling region knew the old ascetic by the name of a geographic site that served as his dwelling; Gupha means ‘cave’ in Nepali. Having retreated into his rocky cavern for nearly 40 years, laypeople in the community considered him adept in mantra and often referred to him with the esteemed title of Rinpoche. My attempts to document his life-story initially seemed compromised not only by his sudden death or the seemingly inchoate tenor of his communication, but by the inconsistent narratives about him and his manner of dying that circulated through the village. On the one hand, he was admired as a rinpoche and renunciate by lay patrons who idolized him for having relinquished attachment to possessions and for his continuous efforts in religious practice. On the other, he was often condemned on account of his penchant for alcohol and frequent intoxication. He was also criticized as unqualified and self-indulgent by scholarly monks who questioned his knowledge about Buddhism and the authenticity of his ascetic lifestyle.
