Venerable Nyichang Khentrül Rinpoche – Talks on Saints of Tibet

“On the Saints of Tibet – Longchen Rabjam, Jigme Lingpa, Trengpo Sherab Ozer “

Deer Park Institute is honored to host talks/teachings by 

The Venerable Nyichang Khentrül Rinpoche

Nyichang Khentul Rinpoche was born on the eighth day of the second month of the Wood Boar year (by the Western calendar, April 10, 1935) in the Kyidong valley of southwestern Tibet. He was born in a small village of fewer than 30 dwellings that lay amid the mountains near the border with Nepal. The villagers were mostly devotees of esoteric (Tantric) Buddhism, and his family maintained the post of head priest of the village temple. At the age of seven he was sent to Drepung, one of the three great Gelug colleges, but shortly thereafter his father removed him from Drepung and placed him under the tutelage of the great yogini Shugsep Jetsun Lochen Chonyi Zangmo Rinpoche of Shugsep Temple.

His recognition by this realized teacher-practitioner as a tulku (reincarnated lama) was later acknowledged by Drukpa Thukse Rinpoche, who pronounced him to be the reincarnation of Drukpa Sangye Dorje–a great poet and the main disciple of Padma Karpo, sixteenth-century head of the Drukpa Kagyu sect. He also studied at the Nyingma head temple of Mindrolling as well as the small but excellent Nyima Changra Monastic College (from which his name, Nyichang, derives), and was able to receive instruction under Chodrak Rinpoche, Poba Tulku Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsenden Sangpo Rinpoche, and, after fleeing occupied Tibet, Dudjom Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (who were both former heads-in-exile of the Nyingma School), His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV, and others.

For more than a quarter of a century, he has lived in Japan, to which he came at the request of the Dalai Lama, and where he transmits the Dharma to all who are sincerely interested, regardless of nationality, with absolute fidelity to tradition, while he remains one of the greatest living scholar-monks of the Nyingma tradition.

Transmitting the Dharma in Japan:

In 1974 (at age 39), at the request H.H. Dalai Lama XIV, Nyichang Rinpoche first traveled to Japan in the role of lecturer at Koyasan University. Thereafter, he has served as lecturer in Buddhism at the Institute of Studies in the Humanities of Kyoto University, at the Indian Philosophy Department of Tohoku University, and at Iwate University.

In 1979, Rinpoche participated in the Research Team Studying Himalayan Buddhism, which visited India, Sikkim, and Bhutan, investigating the practices of homa (fire offering) and mandala. Thereafter, Rinpoche has served as researcher at the UNESCO East Asian Research Center at the Toyo Bunko, and from 1981 has acted as advisor for the publisher of books on Buddhism, Hirakawa Shuppan.

As interest in the Buddhism of Tibet has been increasing, Rinpoche has transmitted the teachings of Dharma to all who are sincerely interested, regardless of nationality, with absolute fidelity to tradition, beginning with the true fundamentals. In addition, to those whose interest is in the actual practice, Rinpoche has been holding retreats at approximately every 3 months to impart teachings on the ngöndro (sngon-‘gro) preliminary practices of Dzogchen, the ultimate teachings of Buddhist tantricism, following the  Longchen Nyingtik terma tradition discovered by Jigme Lingpa.

Rinpoche continues to rely on his main Guru now, Kyabje Dodrupchen Rinpoche.