| Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche |
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Born in 1910 in the East of Tibet, Kyabje Dilgo Rinpoche was one of the great Masters of this century. His father, a minister to the King of Dergé, already had three sons, one of whom had died, and the others had taken monastic orders. So his father wanted to make this son his successor. However, Tashi Peljor – as he had been named at birth - was more attached to a spiritual life than to worldly responsibilities. Moreover, several great Masters, including Mipham Rinpoche himself, brought pressure to bear on his father to allow the child to take monastic vows. But his father refused to let him go. When he was ten, the child was seriously burnt, and had to stay in bed for a whole year. So, his life being in danger, his father finally gave in. At the age of eleven, he was sent to the Shechen monastery, where he became a disciple of Shechen Gyaltsap Rinpoche, who recognised him as the mind incarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. The abbot of Shechen, Rabjam Rinpoche and Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö were his two other principal Masters. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was unanimously recognised by all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism as an outstanding Master. He was a pillar of the rime (non-sectarian) movement, and as such held an impressive number of transmissions and teachings of all the Tibetan schools, which he transmitted to practitioners of the respective lineages. He was also one of the principal teachers of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and transmitted many teachings to His Holiness across the years, particularly from the Nyingma school. The spiritual Treasures revealed by Khyentse Rinpoche make up five of the twenty-five volumes of his writings. In addition, he edited three hundred volumes of precious Buddhist works threatened with disappearance, built or rebuilt several monasteries and taught in the East and in the West thousands of people from all parts of the world. It was under his spiritual direction and at the request of Tsetrul Pema Wangyal Rinpoche that several three-year retreats were able to take place in Dordogne. He also built the Shechen monastery in Nepal, of which the current head is Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, his grandson and spiritual heir.  From the beginning of 1991, the health of His Holiness Khyentse Rinpoche declined. That summer, he went on retreat in the vicinity of Paro Taktsang, one of the most sacred places in Bhutan. Shortly afterwards, on the evening of 27 September, he seated himself in meditation, and left his body. His kudung (embalmed body) was incinerated in November of the following year in Bhutan, during a moving ceremony at which some fifty thousand people from all over the world were present. Thanks to indications given by one of his oldest and most respected disciples, Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, the reincarnation of Khyentse Rinpoche was found in the person of a young boy born on the 30th of June 1993 at Bodnath, Nepal. The ceremonies of enthronement of the young child, Ogyen Tenzin Jigme Lhundrup, took place on 3-9 December 1998 at the Shechen monastery in Nepal. They were attended by fifteen thousand people from forty different countries. The young Tulku now lives in the Shechen monastery, where he is being educated in the appropriate manner under the direction of Rabjam Rinpoche.      |
