Tai Situpa, 12th

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PeopleTai Situpa, 12th


པདྨ་དོན་ཡོད་ཉིན་བྱེད་
Twelfth Tai Situ Pema Dönyö Nyinje(b. 1954 - ) 

Tai Situ Rinpoche, the Twelfth Tai Situpa, Pema Donyö Nyinché (Tib. པདྨ་དོན་ཡོད་ཉིན་བྱེད་, Wyl. pad+ma don yod nyin byed) was born in 1954, in Dergé, Eastern Tibet, and recognized as the reincarnation of the previous Tai Situpa, Pema Wangchok Gyalpo, by the Sixteenth Karmapa. At the age of eighteen months he was brought to his monastic seat, Palpung Monastery, and enthroned there by the Karmapa according to tradition.

Due to the changing political situation in Eastern Tibet, he was taken to Tsurphu Monastery in Central Tibet, at the age of five. It was there that he performed his first Red Crown Ceremony, assisted by Ninth Sangyé Nyenpa Rinpoche. He stayed in Tsurphu Monastery for one year and then left Tibet with his attendants for Bhutan. Later, he went to Sikkim, to Rumtek Monastery, where he remained under the care of the Sixteenth Karmapa and received his formal religious training. He also received important transmissions from many great masters, notably Kalu Rinpoche, the Ninth Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Saljay Rinpoche, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, the late Drikung Khenpo Konchok, and the late Khenpo Khedup.

At the age of twenty-two, Situ Rinpoche assumed responsibility for founding his own new monastic seat, Sherab Ling Monastery, close to the Tibetan community of Bir, in Northern India. In 1980 he made his first tour to Europe, and has since traveled widely in North America, Europe and South-East Asia.

In 1992, Tai Situ Rinpoche recognized the Seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, and enthroned him at Tsurphu Monastery in Tibet. He has become Orgyen Trinlé Dorje's main teacher in the Mahamudra lineage. (Source Accessed April 12, 2020)

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Other names

  • ཏའི་སི་ཏུ་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་ · other names (Tibetan)
  • ta'i si tu bcu gnyis pa · other names (Wylie)
  • Tai Situpa, 12th · other names

Affiliations & relations

  • Karma Kagyu · religious affiliation
  • Karmapa, 16th · teacher
  • Karmapa, 17th · student