Dudjom Rinpoche
Several prophecies of Padmasambhava indicated the coming of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche specifying that he would be a great teacher and terton. Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche (Jigdral Yeshe Dorje) was born in the region of Pemakod in Tibet in 1904.
In his previous lives, he had been the arhat Shariputra, the preeminent disciple of the Buddha, Kyeuchung Lotsawa, one of the main 25 disciples of Guru Rinpoche, and in his most recent previous life, the great terton, Dudjom Lingpa. As a treasurer discoverer or terton, he received, notably in his youth, direct transmissions from Guru Rinpoche, Yeshe Tsogyal, and Manjushri. He was equally renowned for his mastery of all of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions. He composed numerous sadhanas and commentaries as well as compiling and editing all of his and his predecessor’s termas. He was well known throughout Tibet for his erudition and as a master of meditation until he fled Tibet in 1957.
In exile, HH the Dalai Lama named him as the Supreme Head of the Nyingma School. Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche had countless disciples and established many retreat and practice centers in India, Nepal, Sikkim, North America, and Europe, notably in France where he passed into parinirvana in 1987.
Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche
Kyabje Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche, born in 1920 in Yakde (Central Tibet), was one of the last lamas to be trained in Tibet. A master of dzogchen and one of the preeminent historians and Nyingmapa scholars, Kyabje Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche studied the philosophy of all of the Three Vehicles from 1937 to 1949. Trained in all four Tibetan Buddhist Schools, he mastered in particular the teachings and practice of the Nyingma school, especially those of the Great Perfection. Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, Jetsun Shugseb Lochen Rinpoche, Drukpa Yangzin Rinpoche, Dzogchen Lama Gonpo Rinpoche and Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche were his root lamas, but he also received transmissions and teachings from HH the Dalai Lama, Lama Dzogchen Thubten Rinpoche, Kharag Yongzin Rinpoche, Kangyur Rinpoche, Khyentse Chokyi Lodro Rinpoche, and Chadral Rinpoche, among others. He received the complete treasure cycle of Dudjom Lingpa twice in Tibet and the oral transmission from Chadral Rinpoche. From the master Kharag Yongdzin, he received the Treasure of the Yangti Nagpo (dark retreat) of Trulshik Dongag Lingpa. He completed several retreats of the Yangti Nagpo at Pema Yangtse in Sikkim, and was one of the last lineage holders of this treasure.
From 1949 to 1959, after having completed several solitary retreats, he started teaching and performing rituals for monastics and lay people. In 1959, he fled the Chinese Communist regime in Tibet and took refuge in India where he spent two more years in retreat. Then he served HH the Dalai Lama as a researcher for the Library in Dharamsala. He published a multi-volume work called the Early History of Tibet which outlined the history of all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
In 1962, Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche asked him to be his representative in Japan. Khetsun Rinpoche taught Tibetan Buddhism for ten years at the University of Tokyo. In 1974 at the request of HH the Dalai Lama and Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, he founded the Nyingmapa Wishfulfilling Centre for Study and Practice, the first Dudjom Tersar Institute outside of Tibet in order to preserve and promote the tradition and practices. Later he moved the center to Nepal and finally to its current home in Sundarijal, near Kathmandu. Rinpoche gave numerous non-Tibetans the teachings, instructions and transmissions in Nepal as well as in the USA, Europe, and Japan.
He was named an honorary professor at the University of Virginia, Indiana University and Rice University in the United States. At the age of 90, on 5 December, 2009, Rinpoche declared his intention to enter into his final meditation where he stayed for 24 hours before finally leaving samsara on 6 December 2009.
Lama Tenzin Samphel
Born in 1961 in Spiti in the Indian Himalayas, Lama Tenzin began his monastic studies at the monastery of Kyabjé Düdjom Rinpoche in South India. After twelve years of study and practice at Urgyen Do Ngak, he became a Lama and he taught Buddhism and philosophy in the same monastery. Since 1987, Lama Tenzin had lived in France where he is the representative of His Holiness Shenphen Dawa Rinpoche in the Urgyen Samye Chöling center. In 1999, he became the Lama responsible for Shedup Künsang Chöling on the advice of his teacher Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche.
