Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

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Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö
Tibetan name

Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (Jamyang Chökyi Lodrö, c. 1893 – 1959) was a Tibetan lama, a master of many lineages, and a teacher of many of the major figures in 20th-century Tibetan Buddhism. Though he died in 1959 in Sikkim, and is not so well known in the West; he was a major proponent of the Rime movement within Tibetan Buddhism, and had a profound influence on many of the Tibetan lamas teaching today.


Early life and training[edit]

He was born in 1893 at Sa-ngen or Rekhe Ajam [1] near Kathok Monastery in eastern Tibet, south of Derge. His father was Gyurme Tsewang Gyatso of Amdo and was considered to be a tantric master. His mother was Tsultrim Tso.

In 1900 at age seven, he was brought to Kathok Monastery, and Kathok Situ Chokyi Gyatso recognized him ceremonially as the action emanation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, the great Rime master of 19th-century Tibet. In the following years of his youth he was tutored by Khenpo Thupten in Grammar, astrology, Sanskrit, and in Buddhist scripture. By the time he was thirteen he had received the transmission of the Longchen Nyingthig- the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse, the Nyingthig Yabzhi - Four Branches of Heart Essence, and the esoteric transmission to Dzogchen meditation.

When he was fifteen he moved to Dzongsar Monastery, the seat of the previous Khyenste Wangpo. He studied Abhidharma and Madhyamaka philosophy, and soon began teaching Buddhist canonical texts to several students there. From the time he was seventeen, he received Sakya school transmissions such as Lamdre Lopshe and the Hevajra tantra, and many Nyingma terma teachings.



In the 1940s he studied with the leading Vajrayana masters from all over Tibet, and continued receiving transmissions from the Gelugpa, Nyingma, Sakya and Kagyu schools. He developed a reputation during that era as being a Rime master par excellence, and many of the new generation of Lamas who would bring Tibetan Buddhism to the West began to see him as their master. Thus he became a teacher and guide for Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche and Sogyal Rinpoche. He was a major influence on a very young Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, who first met him in 1945, and he is also mentioned with awe by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in his biography.

Later Life and Death[edit]

He became seriously ill in 1949, when he was fifty-six years old. According to the prophecies of Khyentse Wangpo, of Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye and from his own prophecies, in order to remove obstacles to his longevity, and so he could continue to teach Dharma, it was necessary for him to drop his monastic vows and marry. For a Nyingma Lama, this was not an unusual circumstance. He married Khandro Tsering Chödrön (b. 1929 d.2011) [2] that same year, and rapidly recovered his health.

In 1955 as the situation for monasteries continued to worsen in Eastern Tibet, he traveled to Lhasa. While there, he was invited to Tsurphu Monastery to give teachings and empowerments to the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. In turn the Karmapa gave him an empowerment in the red form of Avalokiteshvara, a historic, personal yidam of the Karmapas.




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