Birth and Enthronement At Ralung
Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal was born at Ralung, Tibet as the son of the Drukpa lineage holder Mipham Tenpai Nyima (Tibetan: འབྲུག་པ་མི་ཕམ་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་, Wylie: 'Brug-pa Mi-pham Bstan-pa'i Nyi-ma) (1567–1619), and Sonam Pelkyi Butri (Tibetan: བསོད་ནམས་དཔལ་གྱི་བུ་ཁྲིད་, Wylie: Bsod-nams Dpal-gyi Bu-khrid), daughter of the ruler of Kyisho (Tibetan: སྡེ་པ་སྐྱིད་ཤོད་པ་, Wylie: Sde-pa Skyid-shod-pa) in Tibet. On his father's side Ngawang Namgyal descended from the family line of Drogon Tsangpa Gyare (1161–1211), the founder of the Drukpa Lineage. In his youth Ngawang Namgyal was enthroned as the Eighteenth Drukpa or throne-holder and "hereditary prince" of the traditional Drukpa seat and estate of Ralung (Tibetan: རྭ་ལུང་, Wylie: Rwa-lung) and recognized there as the immediate reincarnation of the Fourth Gyalwang Drukchen (Tibetan: འབྲུག་ཆེན་, Wylie: 'Brug-chen), the "Omniscient" Pema Karpo (Tibetan: ཀུན་མཁྱེན་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་, Wylie: Kun-mkhyen Pad-ma Dkar-po) (1527–1592).
His recognition and enthronement at Ralung as the Gyalwang Drukchen incarnation was however opposed by Lhatsewa Ngawang Zangpo, an influential follower of Drukchen Pema Karpo, who promoted the recognition of a rival candidate, Pagsam Wangpo - an illegitimate son of the Chongje Depa, Ngawang Sonam Dragpa, as the Drukchen incarnation. Lhatsewa and supporters of the Chongje Depa conducted an enthronement ceremony of Pagsam Wangpo as the incarnation of Kunkhyen Pema Karpo and Gyalwang Drukchen at Tashi Thongmen monastery. The Chongje Depa, then persuaded the Tsang Desi (or Depa Tsangpa), the most powerful ruler in Tibet and patron of the rival Karma Kagyu sect to support the recognition of Pagsam Wangpo as Gyalwang Drukchen and incarnation of Kunkhyen Pema Karpo. By 1612 the Tsang Desi, Karma Phuntsok Namgyal (Tibetan: ཀར་མ་ཕུན་ཚོགས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་, Wylie: Kar-ma Phun-tshogs Rnam-rgyal) had gained control over all Central Tibet (Ü & Tsang).
For a time Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal continued to live at the main Drukpa seat of Ralung, as irrespective of who was entitled to be considered as the true incarnation of Kunkhyen Pema Karpo, Ngawang Namgyal was the main Drukpa hereditary lineage–holder, and legitimate throne-holder at Ralung monastery, the traditional seat of the Drukpa Lineage.
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