Chung Tulku Rinpoche is a reincarnate lama who carries a lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. That lineage begins with the treasure revealer (terton) Kunzang Tondrol Dorje (Trulshik Dongak Lingpa), passes through the previous Chung Rinpoche, and has come down to the present Rinpoche.
This page introduces the present Rinpoche’s life and background, and the life of the previous Chung Rinpoche.
Lineage Chart
This chart gathers into a single picture who received the Yangti Nakpo lineage from whom. Click the chart to enlarge it.
Those Who Supported the Lineage
A transmission does not live only on a diagram. There were people who stood beside it, day after day, and supported it.
The parents of the woman in this photograph, whom we met in Bhutan, served as attendants to Trulshik Dongak Lingpa, taking care of everything from preparing meals to looking after his daily needs.
She herself later served as an attendant to the previous Chung Rinpoche. Thus, across two generations, parent and child remained at the side of this lineage.
The teachings are not carried by books and diagrams alone. They have been carried to us through the hands of people such as these.
The Present Chung Tulku Rinpoche
H.E. Chung Tulku Rinpoche is a Bhutanese master of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, recognized as a tulku. Born into a yak-herding family as one of seven brothers, five of whom are said to have been recognized as tulkus.
Childhood and Recognition
- Born in Bhamarpo, Bhutan, near the sacred three-peaked mountain Gangkar Puensum.
- Many auspicious signs are said to have accompanied his birth: rainbows appeared around the house, the nearby black river (the Dur River) turned milky white, and his umbilical cord was shaped like a vajra.
- At the age of six he was recognized by the eminent Nyingma master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and sent to Shechen Monastery in Nepal, where he studied for five years.
- At fourteen, at the Nyingma Monlam (Great Prayer Festival) in Bodh Gaya, India, he was formally enthroned by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche as the third mind emanation of Trulshik Dongak Lingpa.
Education
From 1996 to 2008 he studied at the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute at Namdroling Monastery in Mysore, South India, where he earned a master’s degree in Buddhist philosophy.
Current Activities
- Former abbot of Tharpaling Monastery in Bumthang, Bhutan — the seat of the great scholar Longchenpa and the place where the Seven Treasuries was composed.
- Founder of Dhyana, a non-profit organization in Bhutan that promotes meditation, spreading meditation practice among people of all backgrounds to ease depression, anxiety, and mental suffering in modern society.
- Responsible for the Tsogyal Lhundrup Tengyeling Nunnery, where nineteen nuns are currently in training.
- Teaches in many countries, including Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Germany, Australia, and the United States.
- Devoted to transmitting and teaching the Longchen Nyingthig (“Heart-Essence of the Great Expanse”), one of the most important systems of practice in the Nyingma school, which shows the path from the Ngöndro (preliminary practices) to Dzogchen (the Great Perfection).
- One of the holders who pass on the Dzogchen Yangti Nakpo teachings, he devotes himself to preserving and transmitting them.
Rinpoche is known for his warm and approachable way of teaching, and he seeks to convey the wisdom of ancient tradition in a form that people facing the challenges of today can readily receive.
Next, we introduce the life of the previous Chung Rinpoche, the incarnation immediately before him in the Trulshik Dongak Lingpa lineage that Rinpoche inherited at the age of fourteen.
The Previous Chung Rinpoche
The present Rinpoche carries the lineage that begins with Terton Kunzang Tondrol Dorje (Trulshik Dongak Lingpa). Here we introduce the life of the previous Chung Rinpoche, who immediately preceded him.
A tulku (reincarnate lama) is a monk of high realization who has deliberately taken rebirth in order to guide beings. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a tradition of identifying such a reincarnation among young children and giving them special training from an early age.
The Prophecy
The Heart-Essence of Samantabhadra teaches as follows.
I, Padmasambhava, and Vairochana will manifest beings and liberate them at the same time, for he is an emanation of myself. In the future, if you manifest as I do, your name will be Trulzhig Ösel Dorje.
Lineage of Incarnations and His Parents
Trulshik Kunzang Tondrol Dorje had a female disciple from Langthel in the Tongsa region of Bhutan. One night she dreamed that five-colored light radiated from the pure land of Zangdok Palri and entered her heart. In that moment she was filled with bliss. Early the next morning she told her teacher of the dream. He said that this was an auspicious sign that one of his emanations would be born from her, and told her to keep it secret.
She later married Kunzang Jigme Trinley Namgyal, a close disciple of Khelka Jigme Pawo and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, who traveled to Bhutan and established practice centers in Khempa Jong and Kurtoe. The first King of Bhutan, Ugyen Wangchuck, also became his disciple.
Her eldest brother was the vajra master of Lhalung Monastery, and her second brother was chief secretary to the first King, Ugyen Wangchuck. Inspired by her brothers’ return from pilgrimage in Tibet, she visited Lhalung Monastery in the Lhodrak region of Tibet and followed the path of practice under the Ninth Sungtrul Rinpoche.
Birth
The previous Chung Rinpoche is said to have been born, with many auspicious signs, on the fifteenth day of the month of Saga Dawa, the day of the full moon, in the Water-Pig year, at Kunzang Yangtse Monastery in Chokhor Toe, Bumthang, Bhutan.
Saga Dawa is the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar. The birth, enlightenment, and passing into nirvana of the Buddha are all said to have occurred on the full moon of this month, making it the most sacred month of the year.
From early childhood he naturally possessed the qualities of a noble being and learned everything with ease. His father taught him directly.
After Kunzang Tondrol Dorje passed into nirvana, his chief disciple Zalongpa Tulku Tenzin Norbu had a special dream in which two rays of light radiated from the pure land of Zangdok Palri, one falling toward the south and the other upon himself. This was a prophecy that two emanations of the master would appear.
Recognition as a Reincarnation
Chung Rinpoche entered the monastery of his eldest brother, Lari Jinpuk Tulku, and studied there. While studying as an ordinary boy, he was recognized as the mind emanation of the vidyadhara Kunzang Tondrol Dorje (also known as Dongak Lingpa).
What is a mind emanation? The rebirth of one eminent master is sometimes understood to appear divided into three aspects: body, speech, and mind. The “mind emanation” is the one regarded as inheriting the workings of the mind.
He was invited to the seat of his previous life and asked to identify the belongings of his predecessor, but he deliberately pretended to recognize nothing and remained silent.
The next day, while walking around the monastery, he saw his own horse, showed clear delight, called it by name, and is said to have declared, “This horse was once mine.” Because of this, those around him accepted that he was the reincarnation of Kunzang Tondrol Dorje, and he was asked to remain at the monastery.
Study and Realization
He declined, however, and went to Shukseb Jetsunma at Gangri Toekar, who was his paternal aunt.
Shukseb Jetsunma, also known as Lochen Chönyi Zangmo, was one of the foremost female practitioners of twentieth-century Tibet. She lived at Shukseb Monastery on the slopes of Gangri Thokar (“White Skeleton Snow Mountain”), where she guided many disciples. The mountain is also said to be where Longchenpa practiced.
From her he received the oral transmissions of maturation and liberation. He went on to study, under various masters, both the treatises common to the four schools and those unique to each. He received empowerments, oral transmissions, and instructions of the lineage of the Eight Great Sadhana Teachings, and above all received the Nyingma Dugyu Sem and the Kama and Terma teachings, together with the key instructions on maturation and liberation, training in both study and practice.
At twenty-one he received full ordination and was given the name Kunzang Ösel Rigdzin Dorje. While visiting Lhasa, Samye, and Tashilhunpo, he met many accomplished masters and received many teachings, including Dzogchen Atiyoga, the Chetsun Nyingthig, the Gonpa Zangthal, the Kusum Thuktik, and the Yangtik Nakpo Serkyi Durtsigma, a treasure teaching of his own previous life.
Yangti Nakpo is a lineage regarded as the innermost of the Dzogchen teachings, and it is the teaching at the heart of this Center’s study. That the previous Rinpoche discovered it as a treasure teaching in his previous life gives it particular significance within the lineage.
Activities for the Benefit of Beings
At his elder brother’s monastery he became the head, teaching many disciples, from general scriptures to the tantras. Alongside daily lessons he devoted himself to practice, performing the ganachakra (tsok offering) on the tenth day of both the waxing and waning moon. His life was revered as a model for Dharma practitioners.
Under his guidance and blessings the monastery produced many scholars and accomplished practitioners, and it is said to have contributed to the flourishing of the teachings.
To Bhutan
He had originally intended to spend his whole life in retreat. Even after his brother’s passing he declined to become his successor and went to Kurtoe, Bhutan. While practicing in secluded places such as Tashi Todkar in the Kurtoe region, he fell ill because the environment did not suit him.
He received an invitation from the Bhutanese Minister of the Interior, Damdin Gyagar, and packed his belongings to go to Bumthang, but the people of Kurtoe prevented his departure. Even so, he reached Durdruk Kunzang Yangtse Monastery in Chokhor Toe, Bumthang, by way of Pasamlung. He carried nothing but religious texts.
A Pure Vision
On an auspicious day he made a vast offering of sertkyem and sang (smoke offering). As a result, Guru Rinpoche, the Guru’s twenty-five disciples, the omniscient Longchenpa, and Jigme Lingpa appeared and gave prophecies.
Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) was the great master who brought Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century and is regarded as the founder of the Nyingma school. His name means “the Lotus-Born.” This website’s name, lotus-born, comes from his name.
That sacred place, which many great masters had visited, was filled with the natural fragrance of incense and flowers; the singing of birds and the murmur of clear streams made a beautiful melody, and tall green trees and thickets lent grandeur to the scenery, so that it seemed almost a pure land of the gods. There he continued his practice without interruption for more than eighteen years.
Life as a Practitioner
He lived as an extremely simple practitioner and showed respect even to the animals he met on the road. It is also said that when he walked barefoot on the snow in winter, the pattern of a conch shell appeared in his footprints.
His fame spread throughout the country, and he benefited many beings by conferring empowerments, oral transmissions, and instructions, and by performing rituals for the sick and the departed. Many great masters came to him to resolve their doubts about understanding the texts and accomplishing practice, among them the Tenth Sungtrul Pema Ösel Gyurme Dorje, the Sixth Namkhai Nyingpo Pema Tenzin Namgyal, the Tenth Thukse Tekchok Tenpei Gyaltsen, the Fourth Patsaling Tulku Kunzang Trinley Namgyal, Damdin Chöje Lama Phuntsok, Katok Rinpoche Ngawang Trinley, and Chedrak Lama Rinchen Dorje.
Passing Away
On the thirteenth of October, 1980, having fully accomplished all his activities for the benefit of beings, Chung Rinpoche passed into nirvana at his own residence in Chokhor Toe, Bumthang.
With palms joined.
Rinpoche’s Writings
We introduce Rinpoche’s book The Taste of the Blessing of Luminosity (Kōmyō no Kaji no Aji). See Rinpoche’s writings (in Japanese)