History

Holiness the XIth Mindrolling Trichen

The 11th Mindrolling throne holder, Trichen Jurme Kunzang Wangyal was born to the 10th Mindrolling Trichen Jurme Dondrub Wangyal and Yum Dawa Drolma [his mother] on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month of the iron sheep year. His Holiness received extensive teachings and empowerments from many exceptional Tibetan masters. For instance, Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodro, Sechen Kongtrul the great, Minling Chung Rinpoche, Minling Khen Rinpoche, Sechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Dordzin Namdrol Gyatso, Dordzin Dechen Choedzin and Gelong Kunzangla are some of the renowned masters with whom he studied.

His Holiness’ root guru was Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro from whom he received the precious instructions on the Guhyagarbhatantra and its various commentaries. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche proclaimed His Holiness as having greatly excelled in the understanding and practice of these precious teachings and instructed him to teach it eleven times to fortunate and worthy students in future.

After studying many years with great Tibetan Buddhist masters, Rinpoche spent more than 14 years in retreats, accomplishing many practices. Among wondrous signs he composed many teachings and discovered the terma of Jigten Wangchuk Pema Garwang, the Great Compassionate One.

After the parinirvana of his father, the 10th Mindrolling Trichen, Rinpoche began fulfilling his responsibilities as the next throne holder, although the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959 and its consequent circumstances obstructed his official enthronement. At the request of his sangha and family members, His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen escaped Tibet at the age of 29. Rinpoche spent some time in Bhutan and then traveled on to India. He met and lived with the great master His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, who had been a friend to the 10th Mindrolling Trichen.

H.E. Minling Chung Rinpoche (1908-1980)

Chung Rinpoche became the regent in Tibet during the minority of Minling Trichen Rinpoche. After the tragedies of the cultural revolution, he worked hard to revive the Mindrolling tradition by repairing the monastery and giving teachings and transmissions. His brother was Khenchen Ngawang Khyentse Norbu who bestowed full ordination to him and he was one of the teachers of the late Mindrolling Trichen.

The 11th Mindrolling throne holder, Trichen Jurme Kunzang Wangyal was born to the 10th Mindrolling Trichen Jurme Dondrub Wangyal and Yum Dawa Drolma [his mother] on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month of the iron sheep year. His Holiness received extensive teachings and empowerments from many exceptional Tibetan masters. For instance, Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodro, Sechen Kongtrul the great, Minling Chung Rinpoche, Minling Khen Rinpoche, Sechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Dordzin Namdrol Gyatso, Dordzin Dechen Choedzin and Gelong Kunzangla are some of the renowned masters with whom he studied.

His Holiness’ root guru was Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö from whom he received the precious instructions on the Guhyagarbhatantra and its various commentaries. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche proclaimed His Holiness as having greatly excelled in the understanding and practice of these precious teachings and instructed him to teach it eleven times to fortunate and worthy students in future.

After studying many years with great Tibetan Buddhist masters, Rinpoche spent more than 14 years in retreats, accomplishing many practices. Among wondrous signs he composed many teachings and discovered the terma of Jigten Wangchuk Pema Garwang, the Great Compassionate One.

After the parinirvana of his father, the 10th Mindrolling Trichen, Rinpoche began fulfilling his responsibilities as the next throne holder, although the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959 and its consequent circumstances obstructed his official enthronement. At the request of his sangha and family members, His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen escaped Tibet at the age of 29. Rinpoche spent some time in Bhutan and then traveled on to India. He met and lived with the great master His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, who had been a friend to the 10th Mindrolling Trichen.

In 1962, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche and His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche performed the formal enthronement ceremony of His Holiness as the XIth Mindrolling Trichen in the presence of many renowned teachers and dignitaries at the Zangdok Palri Monastery in Kalimpong. In Kalimpong, while working closely with H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, H.H. the 16th Karmapa, H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and others, Rinpoche actively participated in establishing the Dharma in India. He organized many great assemblies, initiations and teachings.

In 1976 Rinpoche moved to Dehra Dun and took his seat as the head of the Mindrolling Monastery in exile where he continued to benefit sentient beings by turning the wheel of Dharma. His presence in the world inspired others to maintain the selfless and compassionate pure path. His efforts had mostly concentrated on propagating the vision and advice of the great Dharma King Chögyal Terdag Lingpa: to ensure the purity of the teachings and to maintain the samaya. Renowned within the Tibetan community as an emanation of Padmasambhava, His Holiness the XIth Mindrolling Trichen was revered and respected throughout the Buddhist world as a great Mahasiddha and one of the great accomplished masters of this century. Trichen Dorje Chang, as he was known to many, lived with his family and the Mindrolling Sangha in Dehra Dun until his parinirvana on February 9, 2008.

His Eminence the IXth Minling Khenchen Rinpoche

Being born in 1968 into the Mindrolling lineage of Tibet, the Venerable Jigmey Namgyal, now known as Khenchen Rinpoche, is the current lineage holder of the Khenrab branch of the Mindrolling tradition. He has received instruction from His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, His Eminence Trulshig Rinpoche, Tulku Ugyen Rinpoche, and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Khenchen Rinpoche presides over the administration, education, and disciplines at Mindrolling’s Ngagyur Nyingma College. Khenchen Rinpoche is the Vice President of the Great Nyingma Monlam Organization and founder of the Eastern Sun Group.

Under the direction of His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen and the guidance of the Most Venerable Trulshig Rinpoche, Khenchen Rinpoche with unceasing compassion and tireless activity is engaged in nurturing the Dharma and preserving the lineage of Mindrolling. More information is available in Khenchen Rinpoche’s biography.

The IInd Mindrolling Khenchen Lochen Dharmashri

(1654-1717) Lochen Dharmashri was born into a family (the Nyod lineage) in which there was a long tradition of great Buddhist teachers. His father, Sangdag Trinley Lhundrup had studied with more than thirty gurus, and his elder brother, first Mindrolling Trichen Terdak Lingpa, was a great master and tertön (treasure master). Lochen Dharmashri received the Refuge and Bodhicitta Vows from Terdak Lingpa, who was his principle guru. At the age of twelve, Dharmashri received the empowerment of Rigdzin Thugthig (The Heart Essence of the Vidyadharas) from Terdak Lingpa, due to which his mind matured, and the pratimoksha and bodhicitta vows which he later received arose as the essence of the discipline of secret mantra.

When Dharmashri was fifteen, he received novice monastic vows from the Fifth Dalai Lama, from whom he also received full ordination when he reached the age of twenty. Fulfilling the instruction of the Dalai Lama, he later received the pure lineage of the Lower Tibetan Vinaya of the Nyingma. This was the Vinaya lineage from Kham which had survived the persecution of the buddhadharma by King Langdharma; Dharmashri became a great preserver of this tradition, widely propagating its explanation and practice.

He and his elder brother, Terdak Lingpa, both sought out the great doctrine holders of the time, and received an enormous number of transmissions on an equally vast number of topics. Lochen Dharmashri became particularly renowned as a great scholar of his time.

The depth and breadth of his learning was truly impressive: among the subjects he mastered were ceremony and ritual, Indian and Chinese astrology and divination, the chants and dances of the Nyingma lineage, Vinaya, Abhidharma, Prajnaparamita, as well as the the complete collection of the Nyingma tantras. In addition, he completely mastered all branches of linguistic skill, including grammar, prose, and poetry. Lochen Dharmashri authored one of the most famous treatises of the Nyingma School, the Lochen Kabum. These twenty four volumes of his collected works begin with his unprecedented writings on the intentional meaning of The Sutra Which Gathers All Intentions (Dupa mdo) and the Magical Net (Gyutrul Drawa), in the form of great commentarial expositions. His commentaries on the Guhyagarbha Tantra – the Sangdag Gongyen and the Sangdag Shelung – are famous for their clarity and eloquence. His teaching activity was also inconceivably vast. It is said that Lochen Dharmashri taught all of the subjects, the empowerments, transmissions and oral instructions, which he had studied not less than three of four times each. He gave full ordination to appproximately five hundred monks, and from the time he was forty-eight until the time he was sixty-four, he taught the Guhyagarbha Tantra continuously to about sixty students.