Tenga Rinpoche

Biography

Tenga was not his name at birth but a childhood nickname. It abbreviates a Tibetan phrase meaning “one who loves the teaching of the Buddha”: the boy was so called for his early interest in practice. Earlier incarnations were not known by this name.

He was born on 6 August 1932 in Nangchen, in the eastern Tibetan region of Kham. At seven he was recognized as the third reincarnation of Lama Samten, a disciple of the 7th Sangye Nyenpa, who had attained realization through the practice of the yidam (meditational deity) Karma Pakshi and was counted among those who revered the protector Shing Kyong, the main protector of Benchen Monastery. The second incarnation, Tenzin Chogyal, was recognized by the 8th Sangye Nyenpa, completed two three-year retreats under the 1st Jamgon Kongtrul and then returned to Benchen, which was left without a leader. As for the prophecy that named the parents, the date and the place of birth of the third incarnation, the sources report it thus: it was made by the 11th Situ Rinpoche at the request of the 9th Sangye Nyenpa. At nineteen Tenga Rinpoche received full monastic ordination and the name Karma Tenzin Trinley Pal Sangpo. He studied at Benchen and Palpung monasteries; his teachers were the 9th Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche, Gelek Drubpe Nyima, and the previous Tai Situ Rinpoche and Jamgon Kongtrul. He studied tantric rituals and philosophy, and learned traditional Tibetan medicine from his uncle. He completed his education with a three-year retreat. He is said to have been well versed in painting, mandalas and sculpture, and it is in this sense that he is called an artist. No examples of his work are described in the sources, and I do not presume to judge them.

In 1959, after the Chinese army came into Tibet and following the departure of the Dalai Lama, he left Benchen and went abroad with Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and his brother, the 9th Sangye Nyenpa. He spent about a year, or a year and a half, in Kalimpong, then settled at Rumtek in Sikkim, the main seat in exile of the 16th Karmapa. There he served the Karmapa for seventeen years, the last nine as Dorje Lopön, the vajra master who leads the rituals. In 1974 he accompanied the Karmapa on his first journey to Europe and America.

From 1976 Tenga Rinpoche lived near Swayambhunath in Nepal. There he founded Benchen Puntsok Dargyeling Monastery and a retreat centre at Pharping, a sacred site not far from Kathmandu. In 1986, according to some sources, a new Benchen Monastery was established in Kathmandu itself. From 1978 he often taught in Europe and visited France regularly, teaching at Kagyu-Dzong in Paris and at Vajradhara-Ling in Normandy. On 21 September 2003 he laid the cornerstone of the Temple for Peace in Normandy.

He recognized Ogyen Trinley Dorje as the 17th Karmapa and visited him at Tsurphu in 1993. In December 2010 Tenga Rinpoche was among the Kagyu lamas invited to Bodhgaya for the 900th anniversary of the Karmapa lineage; the 17th Karmapa held a long-life ceremony there for him and his two other senior teachers.

Tenga Rinpoche died on 30 March 2012 in Kathmandu. According to Buddhist sources, he remained in the meditative state of tukdam for several days; the sources differ on the length: until 3 April, or eleven days.

His reincarnation, Nyima Döndrup, was born on 14 December 2014 in Nepal. In 2017 he was recognized following the indications of the 17th Karmapa, who met the boy on 21 March in Bodhgaya at a ceremony at Tergar Monastery.