Rinchen, Gendun

དགེ་འདུན་རིན་ཆེན་

Je Khenpo Gendun Rinchen(1926 - 1997) 

Born in:

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Paro, Bhutan

Tibetan date of birth:

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Year of the Male Fire Tiger, 15^th sexagenary cycle.

Tibetan date of passing:

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^th day, ^th month, Year of the Female Fire Ox, 17^th sexagenary cycle.

Gendün Rinchen was born in a small cave by the side of the path to Paro Tagtsang, so as a child he was nicknamed "Dragphugpa" (Cave Man).

At a young age he showed great interest in the Buddhist religion and at seven he received novice ordination at Tashichö Dzong in Thimphu and was given the name Gendün Rinchen.

When he was twenty-seven he travelled to Lhodrak Lhalung, center of the tradition of Padma Lingpa in Southern Tibet. There he studied the Thirteen great texts of Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy from Khatok Khen Rinpoche. At the age of twenty-nine he went to Drigung in Central Tibet where he studied classical Tibetan orthography, grammar and poetry; the works of Mipham Rinpoche and Khenpo Shenga and received many tantric teachings including those on the Mañjuśrīnāmasamgīti. Afterwards he went to Samye Monastery where he received the empowerments and instructions of the Rinchen Terdzö; the Nyingthig and Longchenpa's Dzödun from Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje.

After returning to Bhutan, he entered a three-year meditation retreat at the Tagsang Palphug hermitage, which was followed by another three year retreat he entered when he was forty at Kungachöling in Paro. From Lopon Sonam Zangpo, a disciple of Drubwang Shakya Shri, he received teachings on the Six Yogas of Naropa, Mahāmudrā, and so on.

For ten years he was the abbot of Tango Monastery where he wrote many commentaries on Buddhist philosophy, sutra and tantra.

In 1990 he was enthroned as the 69th Je Khenpo of Bhutan and subsequently travelled throughout the country giving religious teachings. At the age of 61 he resigned from the post of Je Khanpo and retired to a life of prayer and meditation at Jangchub Ding in Yangchenphug. In 1997, on the ninth day of the third month according to the Bhutanese calendar, he died sitting in a straight meditation posture. It is reported that his body remained sitting thus for more than a week or eleven days during which time his body remained flexible and showed no signs of decay.

His physical remains are now preserved in a gold and silver reliquary stupa in the Shabdrung Chapel of Tashichö Dzong, Thimphu. (Source: Wikipedia)

Library Items

Text

Je Khenpo Gendun Rinchen: The Precious Lamp: An Extensive Explanation of the Words and Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra

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This is a commentary on Ratnagotravibhāga by the 69th Je Khenpo of Bhutan, Gendun Rinchen. The commentary was composed in 1983 at the request of his students when he was giving lectures on Ratnagotravibhāga in the Maitreya Temple at Phajoding, Bhutan. It is most likely the first commentary by a Bhutanese scholar. The author claims to have based his commentary on the annotated commentary of Khenpo Zhenga while also including the best of other commentaries by Tibetan masters.

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par bshad pa rin chen sgron me;Je Khenpo Gendun Rinchen;དགེ་འདུན་རིན་ཆེན་;dge 'dun rin chen;brag phug dge shes;བྲག་ཕུག་དགེ་ཤེས་;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par bshad pa rin chen sgron me;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་རིན་ཆེན་སྒྲོན་མེ།;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་རིན་ཆེན་སྒྲོན་མེ།

Other names

• བྲག་ཕུག་དགེ་ཤེས་ · other names (Tibetan)
• brag phug dge shes · other names (Wylie)

Affiliations & relations

• Drukpa Kagyu · religious affiliation