Short
Biography of
Ninth Khenchen Thrangu
Tulku,
Karma Lodrö Lungrik
Maway Senge
The Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche
was born in Kham, Tibet, in 1933. At the age of five, he was
formally recognized by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and
Tai Situpa as the ninth incarnation of the great Thrangu tulku.
He entered Thrangu monastery, where, from the ages of seven
to sixteen, he studied reading, writing, grammar, poetry, and
astrology, memorized ritual texts, and completed two preliminary
retreats. At sixteen, under the direction of Khenpo Lodro Rabsel,
he began the study of the three vehicles of Buddhism while in
retreat. At twenty-three he received full ordination from the
Karmapa.
Because of the Chinese military takeover
of Tibet, Thrangu Rinpoche, then twenty-seven, was forced
to flee to India in 1959. He was called to Rumtek monastery
in Sikkim, where the Karmapa has his seat in exile. Because
of his great scholarship and unending diligence, he was given
the task of preserving the teachings of the Kagyu lineage;
the lineage of Marpa, Milarepa, and Gampopa, so that one thousand
years of profound Buddhist teachings would not be lost.
He continued his studies in exile,
and at the age of thirty-five he took the geshe examination
before 1500 monks at Buxador monastic refugee camp in Bengal
and was awarded the degree of Geshe Lharampa. Upon his return
to Rumtek, he was awarded the highest Khenchen degree. Because
many of the Buddhist texts in Tibet were destroyed, Thrangu
Rinpoche helped in beginning the recovery of these texts from
Tibetan monasteries outside of Tibet. He was named Abbot of
Rumtek monastery and the Nalanda
Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies at Rumtek. Thrangu
Rinpoche, along with Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, was
one of the principal teachers at the Institute, training all
the younger tulkus of the lineage, including The
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, who was in the first class.
He was also the personal tutor of the four principal Karma
Kagyu tulkus: Shamar Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul
Rinpoche, and Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Thrangu Rinpoche established
the fundamental curriculum of the Karma Kagyu lineage taught
at Rumtek. In addition, he taught with Khenpo Karthar, who
had been a teacher at Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery in Tibet
before 1959, and who is now head of Karma
Triyana Dharmachakra in Woodstock, New York, the seat
of His Holiness Karmapa in North America.
After twenty years at Rumtek, in 1976
Thrangu Rinpoche founded the small monastery of Thrangu Tashi
Choling in Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal. Since then, he has
founded a retreat center and college at Namo
Buddha, east of the Kathmandu Valley, and has established
a school in Boudhanath for the general education of Tibetan
lay children and young monks in Western subjects as well as
in Buddhist studies. In Kathmandu, he built Tara
Abbey, which offers a full dharma education for Tibetan
nuns, training them to become khenpos or teachers. He has
also established a free medical clinic in an impoverished
area of Nepal.
Thrangu Rinpoche recently completed
a large, beautiful monastery in Sarnath, India, overlooking
the Deer Park where the Buddha gave his first teaching on
the Four Noble Truths. This monastery is named Vajra
Vidya after the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, and it is now
the seat for the annual Kagyu conference led by His Holiness
the Seventeenth Karmapa. In January of this year, His Holiness
the Dalai Lama came to Sarnath to perform a ceremony in the
Deer Park with the Karmapa, Thrangu Rinpoche, and other high
lamas.
Around 1976, Thrangu Rinpoche began
giving authentic Buddhist teachings in the West. He has traveled
extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States.
In 1984 he spent several months in Tibet where he ordained
over one hundred monks and nuns and visited several monasteries.
In the United States, Thrangu Rinpoche has centers in Maine
and California, and is currently building the Vajra Vidya
Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. Highly qualified monks
and nuns from Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery will give retreatants
instruction in various intensive practices. He often visits
and gives teachings in centers in New York, Connecticut, and
Seattle, Washington. In Canada, he gives teachings in Vancouver
and has a center in Edmonton. He is the Abbot of Gampo Abbey,
a Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia. He conducts yearly Namo
Buddha seminars in the United States, Canada, and Europe,
which are also part of a meditation retreat.
Rinpoche has now taught in over twenty-five
countries and has seventeen centers in twelve countries. He
is especially known for making complex teachings accessible
to Western students. Thrangu Rinpoche is a recognized master
of Mahamudra meditation.
Because of his vast knowledge of the
Dharma and his skill as a teacher, he was appointed by His
Holiness the Dalai Lama to be the personal tutor for His Holiness
the Seventeenth Karmapa.
The Namo Buddha Seminar was established
in 1988, to support the vast activities of Thrangu Rinpoche
across the world. It especially concentrates on publishing
the authentic Buddhist teachings from a realized teacher.
Namo Buddha Publications has collected
an audio library of over eight hundred tapes of Thrangu Rinpoche
and has published many of these in twenty-two books that are
available from the Seminar. Thrangu Rinpoche's works soon
will be digitized and available for download on the Internet,
and soon a cyber-sangha that will present Rinpoche's teachings
in a long-distance learning format on the Internet will be
available.
The best way to obtain information
on the Namo Buddha Seminar is to visit Thrangu Rinpoche's
website (www.rinpoche.com), which
lists Rinpoche's schedule, and
all of his centers, programs and
publications, including the latest newsletters.
Or you can email Clark Johnson, President of Namo Buddha Seminar
at: cjohnson@ix.netcom.com.
Our postal address is
Namo Buddha Seminar
P. 0. Box 19605
Boulder, CO 80308.0
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