Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (1161–1211) stands at the very heart of Drukpa history as the founding master of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage. Trained within the broader Kagyu tradition, especially through Ling Repa, a principal disciple of Phagmo Drupa, he embodied and transmitted the core contemplative streams of that heritage. He was known as a highly accomplished meditator in Mahāmudrā and the Six Yogas of Naropa, and his spiritual realization gave his teachings an authority that drew many disciples. Through this, he became a principal lineage-holder whose life and practice crystallized into a distinct spiritual current within the Kagyu world.

His pivotal role is most clearly seen in the way he established the Drukpa Kagyu as a distinct branch of the Kagyu tradition. The very name “Drukpa” (the “Dragon” lineage) is traced to an auspicious event associated with the founding of Ralung Monastery in the Tsang region of Tibet. As the main temple was being established, it is said that nine dragons rose into the sky with a thunderous sound, a vision that was understood as a sign of the power and destiny of this emerging lineage. From that moment, his followers came to be known as “Drukpa,” and this symbolic connection with the dragon became a hallmark of the lineage’s identity.

Tsangpa Gyare’s founding of Ralung Monastery provided not only a physical seat but also an institutional and spiritual center for the Drukpa tradition. From Ralung, his disciples spread the teachings widely across Tibet and into the Himalayan regions, ensuring that the Drukpa Kagyu would not remain a small circle around a single master but would become a living, expanding tradition. Under his guidance, the lineage began to move beyond its original geographic heartland, laying the groundwork for its later flourishing in Bhutan and neighboring areas.

Because he both articulated the distinctive practice lineage of the Drukpa Kagyu and created the institutional framework that sustained it, Tsangpa Gyare is remembered as the seminal figure from whom Drukpa identity, practice, and institutions flow. His life illustrates how a single realized master, rooted in a deep contemplative inheritance, can give rise to an enduring spiritual community with its own symbols, seats of learning, and patterns of transmission.