In 1950, at age 21, Dagchen Rinpoche married Sonam Tsezom, who descends from a family of lamas and doctors of East Tibet (Kham).
In 1959, due to the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet, Dagchen Rinpoche and his family (including his younger brother Narwang Trinly Tashi Pal Sakyapa and his wife's uncle Deshung Rinpoche III) fled to Bhutan and then to India.