Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoché
Khenchen Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche is the Abbot of the Triten Norbutse Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, with which Shenten Dargye Ling is affiliated. Khenpo Rinpoche is one of the most prominent living lamas in the Yungdrung Bon tradition and the co-founder, together with his master, Yongdzin Rinpoche, of Shenten Dargye Ling. He is well known to western students as a charismatic, highly knowledgeable teacher, loved by many for his clarity and wit. Since 2005, Khenpo Rinpoche has spent part of every year at Shenten Dargye Ling, where he currently leads the traditional summer retreat. From Shenten, he travels to give teachings in different countries.
Khenchen Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche was born in 1969. At the age of 11, he joined Tashi Gegye Thaten Ling monastery to study with the Abbot of the monastery, Lama Sonam Gyaltsen Rinpoche. After completing the preliminary courses on Bön ritual texts and Tibetan calligraphy, he moved to Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India, to continue his studies at the Dialectics School of the monastery under the guidance of His Holiness the 33rd Menri Trizin Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche and His Eminence Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. The great practitioner and master, Gen Gyaltsen Choglek was one of his principal teachers.
During the next thirteen years, Khenchen Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche completed the higher studies of the Bön philosophical systems of Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen; as well as the five Tibetan sciences including Tibetan grammar, poetics, astrology, arts, Tibetan medicine, and Sanskrit grammar. During these years he received important initiations and transmissions of Yungdrung Bön tradition from H.H. the 33rd Menri Trizin and H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche. In 1986, he began teaching philosophy and general Tibetan sciences to younger students. He also participated in several ritual ceremonies, and cultural activities during these years.
In 1994, after successfully passing his exams and being awarded the Geshe degree, Khenchen Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche went to Kathmandu, Nepal, to pursue further studies of Tantra and Dzogchen under the guidance of H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche at Triten Norbutse Monastery.
H.H. the 33rd Menri Trizin Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche and H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche appointed Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche as Ponlob (Head Teacher) at the Yungdrung Bön Academy of Higher Studies at Triten Norbutse Monastery in 1996.
In 2001, he was appointed as Khenpo (Abbot) of Triten Norbutse Monastery by H.H. the 33rd Menri Trizin Rinpoche and H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche. As the Abbot of Triten Norbutse, he has also been in charge of Shenten Dargye Ling, the Bönpo monastery in France, that was founded in 2005 by H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche.
Since 1998 Khenchen Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche has been teaching regularly around the world: in several European countries, the US, and South America. He teaches regularly also in Shenten Dargye Ling. His teachings focus particularly on the main Dzogchen cycles of Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyüd, Drakpa Korsum, Yetri Thasel, and Semmed Degu (Atri). In 2009 he established together with Yongdzin Rinpoche the first Gomdra (meditation school) at Shenten Dargye Ling for the western practitioners according to the monastic tradition. In 2015, he started the multi-year Dzogchen practice training (“Gomdra”) in Germany and in 2019, in the US.
Khenchen Tenpa Rinpoche works extensively for the preservation and research of the original Tibetan culture and Yungdrung Bön tradition for the benefit of future generations. To this end he has established several foundations and the Tise Himalayan International School in Siliguri, India. The school opened in April 2018 and it provides education covering the standard curriculum as well as traditional and spiritual education in literature, religion, culture and history for children from remote Himalayan areas.
He has also been involved in the production of important documentaries on the Bön tradition and produced together with Georgina Teran Gilmore the documentaries Lopon in 2020, and Ponse Lama – Divine Protector, forthcoming in 2020.