Property:Bio
From Bodhicitta
This is a property of type Text.
G
The Third Gungtang Lama Konchok Tenpai Dronme was identified as reincarnation of the Second Guntang Ngawang Tenpai Gyeltsen. He studied in Drepung Gomang College near Lhasa and Labrang Tashikhyil in Amdo, and later he served as the twenty-first abbot of the monastery. He also served as the first abbot of Ngawa Gomang Monastery. Familiar with Chinese and Mongolian languages, he spent most of his life in teaching and composing texts on many subjects such as ethics and medicine as well as religion. ([https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Konchok-Tenpai-Dronme/4730 Source Accessed Feb 3, 2022]) +
Peace and Conflict Studies and Management, Sikkim University, Central University, Sikkim, India +
Paul Gustafson is an editor and scholar of Buddhism who co-edited the book ''The Power of Mind: A Tibetan Monk's Guide to Finding Freedom in Every Challenge'' by Khentrul Lodrö Thayé Rinpoche. He worked alongside other editors Paloma Lopez Landry and Ibby Caputo on this publication, which presents teachings on Tibetan Buddhist mind training practices. (Generated by Perplexity Mar 25, 2025) +
Indian scholiast and major translator of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese during the Liu Song period (420–479). Born in central India to a brāhmaṇa family, he is said to have studied in his youth the five traditional Indian sciences, as well as astronomy, calligraphy, mathematics, medicine, and magic. He was converted to Buddhism and began systematically to study Buddhist texts, starting with the Abhidharma and proceeding through the most influential Mahāyāna texts, such as the ''Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra'' and ''Avataṃsakasūtra''. Around 435, he departed from Sri Lanka for China, arriving in Guangzhou by sea. In China, he devoted himself to teaching and translating Buddhist scriptures, carrying out most of his translations of Mahāyāna and mainstream Buddhist texts while residing in Qiyuansi in Jiankang and Xinsi in Jingzhou. He translated a total of fifty-two scriptures in 134 rolls, including the ''Saṃyuktāgama'' and the ''Prakaranapāda'' [śāstra], both associated with the Sarvāstivāda school, such seminal Mahāyāna texts as the ''[[Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra]]'' and the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra''. In the ''Lengqie shizi ji'', a Chan genealogical history associated with the Northern school (Bei zong) of the early Chan tradition, Guṇabhadra is placed before Bodhidharma in the Chan patriarchal lineage, perhaps because of his role in translating the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'', an important scriptural influence in the early Chan school. (Source: "Guṇabhadra." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 336. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27) +
Gunaprabha (Skt. Guṇaprabha; Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་འོད་, Yönten Ö; Wyl. yon tan 'od) — an Indian master of the Vinaya tradition born in the seventh century and a disciple of Vasubandhu. According to one tradition, he is counted as one of the ‘Two Supreme Ones’—great commentators on the Buddha’s teachings. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Gunaprabha Source Accessed Aug 14, 2025]) +
Gunavarman. (C. Qiunabamo; J. Gunabatsuma; K. Kunabalma 求那跋摩) (367–431 CE). A Kashmiri monk who was an important early translator of Buddhist vinaya and bodhisattva preceptive materials into Chinese. He was a prince of Kubhā, who was ordained at the age of twenty and eventually became known as a specialist in the Buddhist canon (trepiṭaka). Upon his father's death, he was offered the throne, but refused, and instead embarked on travels throughout Asia to preach the dharma, including to Java, where he helped to establish the Buddhist tradition. Various miracles are associated with the places he visited, such as fragrance wafting in the air when he meditated and a dragon-like creature who was seen ascending to heaven in his presence. In 424 CE, Guṇavarman traveled to China and was invited by Emperor Wen of the Liu Song dynasty to come to the capital in Nanjing. Upon his arrival, a monastery was built in his honor and Guṇavarman lectured there on various sūtras. During his sojourn in China, he translated some eighteen rolls of seminal Buddhist texts into Chinese, including the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi'', and several other works associated with the bodhisattvaśīla, the Dharmaguptaka vinaya (Sifen lü), and monastic and lay precepts. Guṇavarman was a central figure in founding the order of nuns (bhikṣunī) in China and he helped arrange the ordination of several Chinese nuns whose hagiographies are recorded in the Biqiuni zhuan. (Source: "Guṇavarman." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 337–38. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Lamchen Gyalpo Rinpoche was born in 1939 in the Nangchen region of eastern Tibet as the reincarnation of Lama Phurga (1883-1938). Lama Phurga was famous for his ability to see into a person’s past, present, and future lives.
In 1961, Rinpoche went into exile in India. In 1985 he established Jangchub Ling in Dehradun, India to serve as the seat for His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche and proceeded to serve as his private secretary. During a global teaching trip in 1986, His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche bestowed the title Lamchen-pa (knower of the path).
As His Holiness's private and general secretary, he worked with His Holiness on the history of the Drikung Kagyu tradition. Lamchen Gyalpo Rinpoche received teachings from many profound masters and practiced them all from the preliminary stages to the arising and completion stages, punctuated with three major retreats and propitiation of deities. Later he established several Dharma centers in the United States and Taiwan. For the past years Rinpoche has been busy traveling around the world to share his extensive knowledge of the Dharma to his many students. ([https://drikungdharmasurya.org/lamchen-gyalpo-rinpoche/ Adapted from Source Oct 17, 2025]) +
Tsering Gyalpo (Tibetan: ཚེ་རིང་རྒྱལ་པོ, Wylie: tshe ring rgyal po, Tsering Gyalpo), born April 12, 1961 in Langchu district, Gar county, Ngari prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region and died on Saturday June 27, 2015 in Berlin, was a Tibetologist. He was director of the religion department of the Tibet Autonomous Region Academy of Social Sciences from 2000 to 2015.
Tsering Gyalpo was born into a nomadic family in western Tibet, the fourth of nine children. His parents sent him to Lhasa for his education. From there he was sent to Beijing, where he studied at the Minority University and the Department of Ethnology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. From 1994, he held a leading position at the Tibet Autonomous Region Academy of Social Sciences (TASS) in Lhasa, where for the last 15 years he was director of the religions section. He strongly influenced the research work of this institute. ([https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsering_Gyalpo Adapted from Source Nov 5, 2025]) +
Lobsang Gyaltsan was an oral translator affiliated with Thubten Dhargye Ling (TDL) Tibetan Buddhist Studies Center in Los Angeles, California. He served as interpreter for Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen (1923–2009), the Tibetan-born founder of TDL and one of the pioneering Tibetan Buddhist teachers in the West. In this capacity, Lobsang Gyaltsan rendered Geshe Gyeltsen's spoken Tibetan teachings into English in real time, making the Geshe's instructions accessible to Western audiences. His oral translations formed the basis of ''Keys to Great Enlightenment'' (Thubten Dhargye Ling Publications, Los Angeles), a commentary on Kadam Geshe Langri Tangpa's ''Eight Verses of Thought Training'' and Bodhisattva Togmey Zangpo's ''Thirty-Seven Bodhisattva Practices''. +
Geshe Jamphel Gyaltsen was born in 1968 in a small village in the Tsawa region of Kham, part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. At sixteen he became a monk in the local monastery but wishing to engage in more extensive Buddhist education, went to Zogong monastery in Chamdo for his studies of Buddhist philosophy.
In 1989 his second attempt to escape to India succeeded and he attended the Kalachakra Initiation in Varanasi; after an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama he went to Sera Monastery in South India, where after twenty-three years of study and debate he obtained the highest degree of Geshe Lharampa in 2008. Upon completing the traditional year at Gyurme Tantric College he returned to Sera, where he taught the youngest monks the basic philosophical subjects and acted as disciplinarian at his house, Tsawa Khamtsen.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche first invited Geshe Gyaltsen to become an FPMT resident teacher in 2009, but he had to decline the invitation at that time. In 2012 he accepted Rinpoche’s request to teach the FPMT Basic Program at Nalanda Monastery. While waiting for his visa for France, Geshe-la had his first experience of teaching Westerners at Root Institute in Bodhgaya, and finally took up his teaching post at Nalanda in early 2014, when he joined the abbot, Geshe Lobsang Jamphel, as resident teacher at Nalanda Monastery. Geshe-la currently teaches has completed the five year residential FPMT Basic Program at Nalanda for a second time, and will be the teacher of Nalanda’s second FPMT Masters Program, to start in 2023.
Geshe Gyaltsen is known both at Sera Je and at Nalanda Monastery as humble and very learned. At Nalanda Geshe-la has become highly appreciated for his clear and fluent teaching style, and the wonderful ability to explain the teachings in a way to which students can easily relate. ([https://fpmt.org/education/programs/basic-program/teachers/ Source Accessed Sep 16 2024])
[https://shop.fpmt.org/FPMT-Basic-Program-Online-Engaging-In-the-Bodhisattva-Deeds-Part-1_p_3533.html Click here for Geshe Jamphel Gyaltsen's teachings on the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'']
Venerable Khenpo Kalsang Gyaltsen is the spiritual director of Sakya Phuntsok Ling Centers for Tibetan Buddhist Study and Meditation. He is a widely recognized and accomplished teacher and translator of Buddhism. His Holiness Sakya Trizin and other high lamas of the Sakya Order have repeatedly praised his Dharma activities as exemplary.</br>
Training and Dharma Work:</br>
As a youth, Khenpo Kalsang met his first teacher, Venerable Tharig Tulku Rinpoche, and from him received novice ordination and monastic and religious training. He received full ordination and advanced religious training from His Eminence Luding Khenchen Rinpoche.
After assisting Venerable Tharig Tulku Rinpoche in building the first Sakya monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, Khenpo Kalsang served as assistant abbot, teacher of young monks, disciplinarian and also held other religious offices. He continued to pursue advanced Dharma study, requesting and receiving many special teachings in both sutra and tantra from His Holiness the Sakya Trizin, His Eminence Luding Khenchen Rinpoche, His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, Venerable Khenpo Appey Rinpoche and Venerable Khenpo Rinchen. From His Eminence Dezhung Rinpoche, he also received many special Sakya oral instructions.
In recognition of his accomplishment of study and meditation, His Holiness the Sakya Trizin requested Khenpo Kalsang to lead the meditation training sessions during His Holiness’ bestowal of the precious Lam Dre teaching cycle in Friday Harbor, Washington in 1995.
At the request of His Holiness the Sakya Trizin and his own students, Venerable Khenpo Kalsang Gyaltsen has translated numerous major Sakya texts into English. These include His Holiness’ autobiography, the Hevajra Cause and Path Initiations, the Anatomy of the Lam Dre Teaching and numerous other tantric texts, sadhanas and prayers. His Holiness the Sakya Trizin chose Khenpo Kalsang to provide simultaneous English interpretation when he bestowed the Collection of All the Sadhanas teaching cycle in Kathmandu in 1994. Khenpo Kalsang has also served as interpreter for the teaching tours of His Eminence Luding Khen Rinpoche, His Eminence Dezhung Rinpoche and Venerable Tharig Tulku Rinpoche.
Founding Sakya Phuntsok Ling
In 1986, at the request of students in the Washington, D.C. area, Venerable Khenpo Kalsang Gyaltsen established Sakya Phuntsok Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies and Meditation.
With the blessings of His Holiness the Sakya Trizin and His Eminence Dezhung Rinpoche and the expert teaching and wise guidance of Venerable Khenpo Kalsang Gyaltsen, Sakya Phuntsok Ling has flourished, and the Center’s activities have been praised by His Holiness and other high lamas of the Sakya Order.
Venerable Khenpo Kalsang Gyaltsen continues to teach and guide students at Sakya Phuntsok Ling, in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington D.C. He is active in translation of Sakya texts and travels regularly to give teachings at Sakya centers in the United States. (Source: [http://sakyaphuntsokling.org/khenpo-kalsang-gyaltsen/ Sakya Puntsok Ling Official Website])
Losang Gyaltsen served as a translator for books by the late Venerable Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen, who founded Gaden Shartse Thubten Dhargye Ling in Long Beach, California. +
The Ninth Gyalwa Dokhampa, popularly known as Khamtrul Rinpoche Jigme Pema Nyinjadh was born into the family of The Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa. He was born to father Karma Dorjee and mother Chimey Yudon. He was recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Gyalwang Drukpa and late First Thuksey Rinpoche.
A year after the Eighth Gyalwa Dokhampa passed away, his disciple who was one of his regents, requested The Gyalwang Drukpa to look for Khamtrul Rinpoche's reincarnation.
While in retreat in the Hemis Monastery, The Gyalwang Drukpa had an experience. In that vision-like and dream-like experience, someone dressed like an Indian sadhu approached The Gyalwang Drukpa and said, "I am Khamtrul Rinpoche and I will take rebirth in your family." This particular vision appeared two or three times. Finally, in one of his visions, The Gyalwang Drukpa saw Khamtrul Rinpoche, who appeared very poor, old and sick, saying "I have been looking for you but you kept neglecting me."The same morning The Gyalwang Drukpa received a letter from a lady requesting for a prayer for her sick baby. Then again The Gyalwang Drukpa dreamt of the baby boy who was like a piece of a flesh, fragile and was near the edge of a cliff. The Gyalwang felt like looking after him but did not, and the baby looked as though he was dying.
One day later, The Gyalwang Drukpa received a letter with the picture of a baby and in a letter baby's mother said that her son was going to die and requested The Gyalwang Drukpa to pray for him. The Gyalwang Drukpa thought all these were indications. He told his mother about it and she said that the baby's mother was one of their relatives; these indications came repeatedly three or four times.
The Gyalwang Drukpa then told about it to his guru, the First Thuksey Rinpoche who confirmed the identity of the baby boy as the reincarnation of Gyalwa Dokhampa. Thuksey Rinpoche then wrote to His Holiness Dalai Lama who replied saying that he did three divinations and all of them confirmed that the baby boy was Gyalwa Dokhampa's reincarnation. The Gyalwang Drukpa named him Jigme Pema Nyinjadh.
His basic studies were done at Druk Sangag Choeling Monastery in Darjeeling. There he spent his childhood and teenaged years under the guidance of his root teacher, The Gyalwang Drukpa. His other main teacher was Venerable Omze Sherab, a disciple of Trulshik Pema Chogyel, the enlightened Drukpa yogi who was also the teacher of the Eleventh Gyalwang Drukpa.
Later, Gyalwa Dokhampa completed his Masters degree from the prestigious Tango Monastic University in Thimphu, Bhutan which is a nine year course in the Drukpa Order. Gyalwa Dokhampa has studied Buddhism since the age of five when he was officially enthroned. Gyalwa Dokhampa is the author of the book Restful mind – A new way of Thinking. A new way of Life and has launched the book internationally in Bhutan, France, Great Britain, Singapore, Vietnam, Brazil, Hong Kong amongst others. He also has a podcast called “The Restful Mind,” where he discusses contemporary issues through the lens of mindfulness, compassion, and fundamental concepts of Buddhism.
Gyalwa Dokhampa also teaches worldwide where he brings a young and vibrant viewpoint to traditional Buddhist teachings. Since 2000, he has shared his knowledge and warmth of personality with students in Australia, Mexico, Bhutan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore, Peru and Europe. Like The Gyalwang Drukpa, Gyalwa Dokhampa emphasizes that Buddhism is not a religion, but rather a way of life to finding happiness. He also works to make Buddhist ideals relevant to a modern lifestyle and emphasizes that Buddhist principles can and should be integrated into everyday life, through service to others.
Gyalwa Dokhampa also emphasizes on a balance between individual right and individual responsibility to the society and to the environment. Like The Gyalwang Drukpa, Gyalwa Dokhampa too encourages preservation of the natural environment by leading pad yatras (walking pilgrimages) to create awareness to the interdependent relationship between the individual and the environment, mindfulness and emotional well being.
As one of the spiritual heirs of The Gyalwang Drukpa, Gylawa Dokhampa teaches Buddhist philosophy and practices of the Drukpa lineage internationally and spearheads the Drukpa Centers in Australia, Nepal, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Peru, Mexico, USA and Brazil amongst others. ([https://www.gyalwadokhampa.org/about/the-ninth-gyalwa-dokhampa-jigme-pema-nyinjadh Source Accessed Jan 5, 2026])
The Gyalwang Drukpa or Drukchen ("Druk" means "Dragon", and "Chen" means "Chenpo" or "Great" in Tibetan, an unofficial address of His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa) are a line of re-incarnate lamas or tulku who are the head of the Drukpa school, one of the independent Sarma (new) schools of Tibetan Buddhism. They are considered to be re-incarnations of Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje the first Gyawang Drukpa and founder of the school. The present Gyalwang Drukpa, Jigme Pema Wangchen is the twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa.
rgyal dbang 'brug pa
རྒྱལ་དབང་འབྲུག་པ
12th 'jigs med pad ma dbang chen, b. 1963 [tsd]
*11th bstan 'dzin mkhyen rab dge legs dpal bzang po, 1931-1960 [tsd]
*10th mi pham chos kyi dbang po, 1884-1930 [tsd]
*9th mi pham chos kyi rgya mtsho, 1823-1883 [tsd]
*8th kun gzigs mi pham chos kyi nang ba, 1768-1822 [tsd]
*7th phrin las shing rta, 1718-1766 [tsd]
*6th mi pham dbang po, 1654-1717 [tsd]
*5th dpag bsam dbang po, 1593-1653, padma dkarpo prohesied that he would have two incarnations. The other incarnation was zhabs drung ngag dbang rnam rgyal, 1594-1651 [tsd]
*4th kun mkhyen pad ma dkar po, 1527-1592 [tsd]
*3rd 'jam dbyangs chos grags, 1478-1523 [tsd]
*2nd rgyal ba kun dga' dpal 'byor, 1428-1476 [tsd]
*1st gtsang pa rgya ras ye shes rdo rje, 1161-1211 [tsd] (Source: [https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/rgyal_dbang_%27brug_pa rywiki]) +
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso was a noted scholar and teacher who was born in Eastern Tibet in 1935 and passed away at Tek Chok Ling Nunnery, Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal on June 22, 2024.
After completing this early training, he spent five years wandering throughout Eastern and Central Tibet undertaking extensive solitary retreats in caves. When he reached Tsurphu Monastery, he received instruction from the head of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, the 16th Karmapa, who later named him a khenpo, which is a title of scholastic mastery. In 1977 he came to the West to teach Tibetan language and Buddhism. Known for his highly engaging teaching style, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso traveled and taught in the West into the 2010s, placing an emphasis on the careful training of Westerners. Some of his students include [[Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche]], [[Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen]], [[Shenpen Hookham|Lama Shenpen Hookham]], [[Karl Brunnhölzl]], and [[Elizabeth Callahan]]. ([http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0661/2002152104-b.html Source Accessed July, 21 2020])
Visit his official site at [http://www.ktgrinpoche.org/ ktgrinpoche.org] +
Janet Gyatso (BA, MA, PhD, University of California at Berkeley) holds the Hershey Professorship in Buddhist Studies in the Divinity School at Harvard University, 2001–present. She is a specialist in Buddhist studies with concentration on Tibetan and South Asian cultural and intellectual history. Her books include ''Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary''; ''In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism''; and ''Women of Tibet''. She has recently completed a new book, ''Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet'', which focuses upon alternative early modernities and the conjunctions and disjunctions between religious and scientific epistemologies in Tibetan medicine in the sixteenth–eighteenth centuries. ([https://conference.tsadra.org/past-event/the-2017-tt-conference/ Source Accessed May 5, 2020]) +
Geshe Jampa Gyatso (1932–2007) was the resident teacher at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy from 1980 until his death. He was holder of the Lharam Geshe degree from Sera Je Monastery, the Ngagram Geshe degree from Gyu Me Tantric College, and the Acharya degree from the Sanskrit University of Varanasi. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/geshe-jampa-gyatso/ Wisdom Publications]) +
Ven. Lobsang Gyatso was born in 1928 in a small village in eastern Tibet. He became a monk at the age of eleven, and later traveled to central Tibet to study at Drepung Monastery. After fleeing Tibet during the 1959 Tibetan Uprising, Gen Lobsang Gyatso, or “Gen la” as he was known at the Institute, eventually moved to Mussoorie to serve as a religious teacher at the Central School for Tibetans.
In 1973, after being appointed by His Holiness to establish the Institute, he re-located to Dharamsala, India. After some difficult early years the Institute became one of the success stories of the Tibetan exile community. In 1991, Gen la expanded upon the already-successful work of the Institute with the founding of a new branch at Sarah, the College for Higher Tibetan Studies. Under his guidance, the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics and the College for Higher Tibetan Studies developed into uniquely valuable Tibetan educational institutions, offering integrated studies in both traditional Tibetan disciplines and modern subjects.
While the establishment of the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics and the College for Higher Tibetan Studies at Sarah is the work for which Gen la will be best remembered, he was also an accomplished writer.
A selection of Gen Lobsang Gyatso’s publications:
* ''Harmony of Emptiness and Dependent-Arising'', Paljor Publications, 1992.
* ''The Four Noble Truths'', Snow Lion Publications, 1994.
* ''Bodhicitta: Cultivating the Compassionate Mind of Enlightenment'', Snow Lion Publications, 1997.
* ''Memoirs of a Tibetan Lama'' by Gyatso, Lobsang (1990) Paperback, Snow Lion Publications, 1998.
* ''Tsongkhapa’s Praise for Dependent Relativity'', Wisdom Publications, 2012.
A Tibetan patriot, meditation master, and unswerving follower of the Dalai Lama, Gen la emerged as a fearless social critic, and a deeply spiritual man. On 5 February 1997, Gen Lobsang Gyatso and two of his assistants were brutally murdered in Dharamsala. ([https://tibetanwhoswho.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/ven-lobsang-gyatso/ Source Accessed Apr 19, 2021])
Jonathan Samuels (Sherab Gyatso) received his Geluk education as a monk at monasteries in India, beginning at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, and gained the title of geshe at Drepung Loseling Monastery. He also holds a DPhil in Oriental studies from Oxford University. He was the principal teacher for the Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program in Dharamsala, served as interpreter for his teacher Gen Lobsang Gyatso, translated several of his books, including Bodhicitta: Cultivating the Compassionate Mind of Enlightenment, and wrote the Tibetan language guide Colloquial Tibetan: The Complete Course for Beginners. He currently works as an academic and has held posts at Oxford University and Heidelberg University. He presently works for the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. (Source: Wisdom Publications) +
Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche was born in 1954 in a village near Lhakhang Dzong in the southern region of Tibet bordering Bhutan called Lhodrak. From his birth, his parents had a strong feeling that they should place him in the nearby monastery of Nub Namkha’i Nyingpo. The head lama, Namkha’i Nyingpo Rinpoche, was the tulku of one of the twenty-five disciples of Guru Padmasambhava. Along the deep Himalayan valley were many caves and holy places associated with Guru Padmasambhava and several of the great tertons who, in later generations, rediscovered his teachings. Among them were Guru Chowang, Terton Ratna Lingpa and Terton Padma Lingpa.
The village was on the main trade route from Lhasa to Bhutan and the people were relatively prosperous. In 1962 Khenpo and his family fled through the mountains and made their way through Bhutan to India.
After arriving in India, he and his sisters were sent to a government boarding school for Tibetans in Darjeeling, West Bengal. There he began his formal education. The curriculum included the usual primary school subjects as well as English, Hindi and basic dharma teachings. At the age of ten he took the robes of a monk and received the vows of a novice (ge-tsul). He continued his education up to the eighth grade. Year after year, he was always at the head of his class.
In 1969 he entered the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan studies at Sarnath, near Varanasi. There he followed a nine-year curriculum in Buddhist studies and general education under his principal teacher, Khenpo Palden Sherab, and other masters. His class work included Sanskrit, English and intensive studies in the textual traditions of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. He graduated with the degree of Acharya in 1978, ranking first overall among the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism represented at Sarnath. His Holiness the Dalai Lama honored his achievement with the award of a silver medal. After graduation he was invited to teach at Palyul Namdroling Monastery at the Tibetan settlement in Bylakuppe, near Mysore in South India. For several years he was engaged in training the young monks and teaching in the monastic college, theNgagyur Nyingma Institute (Shedra). In 1983 he was enthroned as a khenpo by His Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche. In the Nyingmapa tradition, a khenpo is a professor of Buddhist studies.
Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso has received all of the major lineage empowerments and transmissions of the Nyingmapa school, including the Dudjom Tersar from Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche; the Longchen Nyingthig Yabshi, and Nyingma Kama from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche; and the Rinchen Terdzod and Nam Chos from Pema Norbu Rinpoche. He has done intensive dzogchen practice under the guidance of Penor Rinpoche and other eminent masters including Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche and Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. Pema Norbu Rinpoche has authorized him to represent the monastery and to teach, to confer empowerments and to give personal instruction in Buddhist practice.
Khen Rinpoche has traveled and taught extensively in America, in Taiwan, and among the overseas Chinese communities in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. His open, direct and thorough style of teaching has been very well received. He recently gave the empowerment of the Gyud Sangwai Nyingpo (Guhyagarbha Tantra) followed by extensive teachings on Mipham Rinpoche’s commentary, Odsal Nyingpo. This was the first time that this fundamental Nyingma tantra was explained in such great detail in the USA. ([https://palyul.org/wp/a-short-biography-of-khenchen-tsewang-gyatso-rinpoche/ Source Accessed May 19, 2026])
