Monmo Tashi Kyidren was one of the five principal consorts of Guru Rinpoche and princess of Mön. She was the daughter of the local Bumthang ruler Sendha Gyalpo who invited Guru Rinpoche to Bhutan for the first time in the 8th century.
Tashi Kyidren came to meet Yeshé Tsogyal while the latter was practising at Sengé Dzong. It was at that time that Tashi Kyidren made offerings and became Yeshé Tsogyal’s disciple. Later, when Yeshé Tsogyal left Tibet, as recounted in this verse, below, the two women travelled together to Önphu Taktsang. This was, an important retreat place for Guru Rinpoche, located in the mountains above Samyé monastery. There Yeshé Tsogyal introduced Tashi Kyidren to Guru Rinpoche. Supplications reflect this history,
མོན་མོ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཁྱེའུ་འདྲེན་རྗེས་སུ་བཟུང་། །
mönmo tashi khyé’u dren jesu zung
Having accepted Tashi Kyidren of Mön as your disciple,འོད་ཕུ་སྟག་ཚང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕུར་པ་གྲུབ། །
ö pu tak tsang dorjé purpa drub
Together with the Guru you practiced Vajrakīla in Öpu Taktsangསྟོང་གསུམ་ལྷ་འདྲེ་ཀུན་གྱི་སྲོག་སྙིང་ལོན། །
tongsum lha dré kün gyi soknying lön
Seizing the life force of all the gods and demons of the three-thousand-fold universe.དབྱིངས་ཕྱུག་ཚོགས་རྗེ་མ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །
From The Tambura’s Yearning Song of Devotion: A Prayer Summarizing Khandro Yeshé Tsogyal’s Life and Liberation by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé.
yingchuk tsokjé ma la solwa deb
Dhātviśvarī, Mother of All-Encompassing Space: to you we pray!
On another occasion, in Bhutan, Padmasambhava took the form of Dorje Drollö to subdue demons that were troubling the people. At that time, Khandro Yeshe Tsogyel transformed into the wrathful mamo Ekadzati. Monmo Tashi Khyidren transformed into a tigress onto which they mounted to fly from Sengye Dzong in Lhuntse to the Tigers nest, Paro Taktshang, where they practiced Vajrakilaya in the cave of Sengyephu. For this reason, Monmo Tashi Khyidren is commonly associated with tigers
Monmo Tashi Khyidren traveled and meditated in many places including the Riphel Lhakhang in Samcholing Trongsa. The monastery was consecrated by Guru Rinpoche himself, as one of 108 monasteries such as Kenchog Sum Lhakhang & Tang Anu Lhakhang in Bumthang and Samyé Monastery in Tibet.
