Ngawang Kunga Tashi, the twenty-ninth Sakya throneholder, was born at Sakya Monastery in 1656. His father was the twenty-eighth Sakya throneholder, Ngawang Sonam Wangchuk. His mother was Pekar Butri.

According to legend, when he was still in his mother’s womb, his grandfather who served as the twenty-seventh Sakya throneholder, Jamgön Anye Shyap Kunga Sonam told his mother that a great bodhisattva was about to take birth. Ngawang Kunga Tashi received many major teachings from Jamgön Anye Shyap.

He is said to have had visions of Padmasambhava, and of the  Gongkar Chode (a Sakya monastery in Central Tibet) Monastery’s protectors, who told him that he was an emanation of Padmasaṃbhava. He was very skilled in handicraft and also was credited with restoring many temples.

Further Readings:

Dirk Schmidt, “The Twenty-Ninth Sakya Tridzin, Kunga Tashi,” Treasury of Lives.