Masters and Teachers

The founder of the ancient Yungdrung Bön spiritual tradition was the Buddha Tonpa Shenrab. Tonpa Shenrab was born at the palace Barpo Sogye of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring. According to the Bön canon, his birth dates to 18,000 years ago. His father was Gyalbon Thodkar of the Mu clan, and his mother was Yochi Gyalzhedma. His teachings are called ‘Yung Drung Bön’ or ‘Eternal Bön’, and practitioners of Bön are called ‘Bonpo’. The great Shenrab dedicated his whole life to the practice of Eternal Bön for the benefit of all beings. He taught the teaching of Eternal Bön for about five decades, showing the path of compassion to many beings. At the age of 82, he entered nirvana. His death was a true reminder to many of his followers that we all have to experience the truth of impermanence. Throughout Shenrab’s teaching, he tried to communicate with every being, showing them how to recognize their true nature and live in the moment. The essence of his teachings is how to find our home within and abide joyfully with the treasury of contentment that we are all gifted with. His teachings continue to inspire many beings throughout the centuries.

Tonpa Shenrab descended from the heavenly realms and manifested at the foot of Mount Meru with two of his closest disciples, Malo and Yulo. Then he took birth as a prince, the son of King Gyal Tokar and Queen Zangpa Ringum, in a luminous garden full of marvellous flowers in a palace south of Mount Yungdrung Gutseg at dawn on the eighth day of the first month of the Wood Male Mouse Year. He married while young and had children.

At the age of 31, he renounced his worldly life and started to practice austerity and teach the Bön doctrine. Throughout his life, his efforts to propagate the Bön teachings were obstructed by the demon Khyabpa Lagring, who fought to destroy Shenrab’s work. Eventually, the demon was converted and became Shenrab’s disciple.

Once, Khyabpa stole Shenrab’s horses, and Shenrab pursued him through Zhang-Zhung into southern Tibet. Shenrab entered Tibet by crossing Mount Kongpo. This was his first and only visit to Tibet. At that time the Tibetans practiced ritual sacrifice. Shenrab quelled the local demons and imparted instructions on the performance of rituals using offering cakes in the shape of animals, which led to the Tibetans abandoning animal sacrifices.

He found the land unprepared to receive the Five Ways of the Fruit, the higher Bön teachings. So he instead taught the Four Ways of Cause. In these practices the emphasis is on reinforcing relationships with the guardian spirits and the natural environment, exorcising demons, and eliminating negativities. He also taught purification practices by smoke and water offerings and introduced prayer flags as a way of reinforcing fortune and positive energy. Before leaving Tibet, he prophesied that all his teachings would flourish in Tibet when the time was ripe.

The Founder And First Abbot Of Menri Monastery, Tibet

 ཉམ་མེད་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན།

Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen was born in 1356 in Gyarong in the village of Tegchog, East Tibet and is considered to be a manifestation of She-rab Ma-we Seng-Ge (the Wisdom Lion of Speech), the great liberator. His father was a Tantric master known as Lugyal from the Ra lineage, and his mother was Rinchen Men. From early childhood, he was recognised as an extraordinary child: without studying, he could recite mantras, remember and learn spiritual texts easily and was also self-aware. After discovering at the age of 10 the suffering of cyclic existence, he followed the teacher Chala Yungdung Gyaltsen, soon became a monk, took 25 vows and was given the spiritual name Sherab Gyaltsen. From then on, he received the higher teachings of Bön: Dho – the Path of Renunciation, Nag – the Path of Transformation, and Dzogchen – the Path of Self Liberation. With great devotion, he practised and learned mainly from the teaching tradition of Yeru Monastery and by following the Great Master Rinchen Lodoe.

Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen received complete transmission of empowerment (wang), oral transmission (lung), and oral instruction (tri) of the three main streams of Bön teaching: Dho, Ngag, and Dzogchen. He received fully-ordained monks’ vows at the age of 31 and entered into the great centre of learning of Bön – the Yeru Monastery in Tsang province. By participating in many other renowned Buddhist institutions and monasteries, he became very well known in Tibet and was recognised as a great wisdom scholar. During his stay at the Yeru monastery, he took charge of one of the schools. He also became a tutor of two royal sons of the Dru lineages and was enthroned as the successor of Kunga Wangden, the famous master of the Dru lineages. Through his work, he preserved and spread the outer, inner and secret teachings of Bön. From that time forward, every monastery has followed the same clear knowledge of the ancient system of monastic laws brought to life by Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen.

In 1405, he founded the original Menri Monastery, known as Tashi Menri Ling in the mountains. Bön protectors directed him as to where exactly he should build Menri Monastery. With support from them and miraculous powers, he built the whole structure of sMenri Temple, including the monks’ living quarters. He decided to preserve there the traditions and teaching system of the destroyed Yeru Wensakha monastery. Tashi Menri Ling Monastery soon became the mother monastery of Bön.

Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen became the crowning ornament of Bön for his mastery of texts, systems and rules; he came to be considered the second Buddha. There are no texts from these three sections of Dho, Ngag and Dzogchen that he did not teach or write about in all three transmission lineages of Bön. He passed away at the age of 60, leaving behind many great scholars and practitioners.

He is the worldwide spiritual leader of the Bön religion of Tibet. He was born in Amdo, in the far eastern region of Tibet, in 1927 and became a monk at the age of eight, at Kyong Tsang monastery, near where he was born.

When he was sixteen, he entered the Dialectic School at the monastery, and after eight years of study, took his Geshe degree, specializing in Tibetan medicine, astronomy and astrology. Soon after, at the age of twenty-six, he travelled to Gyalrong in eastern Tibet, where he printed the Bönpo scriptures, a set of over one hundred books called the Kangyur, from wood blocks kept by the king of Trochen Gyalpo, one of the eighteen kingdoms of Gyalrong. He then brought the published Kangyur back to Kyong Tsang Monastery. Then he travelled to central Tibet in Tsang province, for further studies at the Bön monasteries of Yung Drung Ling, sMenri and Khana. Later, he went to Drepung monastery in Lhasa to do research and practice, staying five years until the 1959 uprising. At the time of the conflict against the Chinese in 1959, he fled on foot from Tibet to Mustang, on the border of Tibet and Nepal, then to Pokhara, Nepal, and then to India. While in India, he got word that the Abbot of Yungduung Ling monastery and many Bönpo lamas had reached the Bön monastery of Samling, a very old and important monastery in the Dolpo region of Nepal, and he went to join them. After some time, they all travelled down to the valleys of Nepal.

Later, he went back to Samling monastery in order to borrow books so that they might be republished. The books of the Bönpo are very important to practice and study, and when the lamas had fled Tibet, the books had to be left behind and were later destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The only copies of many texts were often in remote outlying areas, so it was important that the books be republished. While at Samling, he met Dr. David Snellgrove, a researcher of Oriental and African studies from London University, who advised him on where he could best print the texts. Based on this advice, he and the Abbot of Yung Drung Ling took the books to New Delhi, where he worked with Samten Gyaltson Karmay and Lopon Tenzin Namdak to republish the texts. Later, Dr. Snellgrove invited them to come to England with him under the sponsorship of the Rockefeller Foundation. There, they taught Tibetan culture and religion and studied the ways of the West. Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong, as he was then called, stayed in England for three years during which he lived and studied with Benedictine, Cistercian and other Christian monastic orders, and travelled to Rome to meet Pope Paul II.

In 1964, he returned to India to found a school funded by sponsors in England. His Holiness the Dalai Lama asked him to start the school in Massori, India, and he staffed it with volunteer teachers from the West. He remained as head of the school for three years, teaching Tibetan grammar and history. Each month, he sent his salary, three hundred rupees a month, to the refugee Bönpo lamas living in Manali, India, for them to buy food. He also helped create a meditation centre in Manali for the lamas and monks. Later, the school that he had founded was moved to the south of India, where it became the first permanent Tibetan settlement in the region.

In 1965, Lopon Tenzin Namdak returned to India and, with the help of the Catholic Relief Service, purchased land in Himachal Pradesh, India, to found Dolanji, the home for the Tibetan Bönpo refugee community. In 1966, Geshe Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong travelled to the University of Oslo, Norway, at the invitation of Per Kvaerne, where he taught Tibetan history and religion for two years. On March 15, 1968, while in Norway, he received a telegram from India which stated that the Protectors of Bön had selected him as the 33rd Abbot of Menri, and spiritual leader of the Bönpos. The Abbot of Yung Drung Ling, Lopon Sangye Tenzin, Lopon Tenzin Namdak, and about ten other Bönpo Geshes had prayed in the Drup Khang, or Protector’s temple, for fourteen days. The guardians then selected Geshe Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong from a group of ten Geshe monks eligible to be the new Abbot through a divination process.

Each of the Geshe’s names was written on a small piece of paper, each of which was enclosed in a small ball of ceremonial dough made from barley flour and holy medicine, and these balls were placed in a vase. After prayer and rituals lasting two weeks, the Abbot of Yung Drung Ling shook the vase and three names came out, one by one, onto a special Mandala. All of the other names were removed from the vase, and the three were put back in, and the process began again. This time, two names were shaken out, one after the other. The first held the name of who was to be the new Abbot, and this ball was used in initiation and rituals, and then opened in front of all the people present, who promised to honour him as the one true Abbot. The second man chosen would hold a very important position with the Bönpos as a lama and teacher.

On the night of March 14 in Norway, Geshe Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong had a dream that he and the man whose second name was to emerge from the vase were on the top of a temple, each holding a conch shell, used in the monastery to make music at special times. It became very windy, and the second man was unable to hold his conch, and it blew out of his hand and broke on the ground below. Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong was able to keep his conch safe in his hand and play, despite the terrible storm. The next morning, the telegram came inviting him to become the new Abbot. So he returned to India and assumed his duties as the spiritual leader of the Bönpo at a very crucial time in their long history. Their world had been destroyed and their lineage almost lost, but he had to lead them to a new beginning. It would take a very strong and compassionate man to help them build new monasteries and schools, and to save their culture and religion in strange and new surroundings. Many lamas came from Tibet, Nepal and India to give him their initiations and teachings, and for over one year, he intensively trained and practised for his role as Abbot, the leader who would guide the Bönpo and hold all the teaching lineages.

Slowly over time he was able to build a new sMenri monastery in Dolanji, and after that a Bön Dialectic School, which awards Geshe degrees, with certification recognized by H. H. the Dalai Lama. He also founded an orphanage at the monastery for Bön children, called the Bön Children’s Welfare Center.

Today, there are approximately four hundred Tibetans living in Dolanji, along with one hundred orphans and one hundred monks. Two hundred and fifty Bönpo children from all over India and Nepal attend the boarding school in the village. Dolanji has become a thriving centre of Tibetan culture and religion of the guidance of His Holiness Lungtok Tenpa’i Nyima

 ༸སྐྱབས་རྗེ་སྨན་རིའི་ཡོངས་འཛིན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།

H.E. Menri Yongdzin Rinpoche is the most senior teacher of the Bönpo tradition. He was born in 1926 in southeastern Tibet. Rinpoche began his studies at an early age and took his vows at 15. He continued his studies at the major Bönpo monasteries: gYung-Drung-Ling and sMenri in Tsang near Shigatse in central Tibet. Rinpoche’s two main masters were Bonruponlob Rinpoche and the Venerable Lopon Sangye Tenzin, Rinpoche.

Rinpoche was elected to the position of Lopon in 1953 at the young age of 27. This same year, he obtained the Geshe degree from sMenri Monastery. As Lopon, or Head Teacher, Rinpoche is part of an unbroken lineage of 33 generations through Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen, the founder of sMenri Monastery in Tibet. He was the teaching master from 1953 to 195,7 when conflicts between the Chinese and Tibetans in Central Tibet became severe. He entered a long retreat in northern Tsang until 1960, when the Chinese invasion forced Rinpoche to flee Tibet. With great difficulty, including being shot and incarcerated by Chinese soldiers, Lopon Rinpoche was able to reach safety in Nepal.

In 196,1, Professor David Snellgrove invited him to London under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation Visiting Scholar program. He remained in England for three years, collaborating with Professor Snellgrove on The Nine Ways of Bön, the first scholarly study of the Bön tradition to be made in the West.

Returning to India in 1964, Rinpoche founded Dolanji Settlement in northern India in order to give a home to the Bönpo people in exile. He returned to Europe in 1969 as a visiting scholar at Munich University to collaborate on a Tibetan-German-English dictionary. From 1970 to 1979, Lopon Rinpoche taught the monks at the Bönpo Monastic Centre in Dolanji while at the same time supervising the publishing of a large number of important Bönpo texts in New Delhi. By 1978, enough texts were published to organise a curriculum around them. A traditional dialectic school was established under the guidance of Lopon Rinpoche. The purpose of this college was to preserve the Bönpo philosophical tradition, where analysis and logic are applied to the teachings of the Sutras, the Tantras, and especially to the Dzogchen. In 1987, he founded another Bönpo monastery and International Education Centre known as Triten Norbutse, near the well-known hill of Swayambhu, west of Kathmandu, Nepal.

In 1992, Lopon Tenzin Namdak published Heartdrops of Dharmakaya, a handbook of Dzogchen meditation practices, from preliminaries to the most advanced Tögal practices. This is the first book in English that is commonly available that actually describes in detail the practices of Dzogchen. Lopon Tenzin Namdak has travelled to the West several times.

 ༸སྐྱབས་རྗེ་སྨན་རིའི་ཡོངས་འཛིན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།

Rinpoche was born on the 12th day of the 1st Tibetan month of the year 1962 in the small Himalayan village of Tsakha in the Dolpo region of northwest Nepal. Many years ago, the Dolpo region was a part of the Zhang-Zhung kingdom. In the Dolpo region we can still find the culture and language of Zhang-Zhung.

There is a small Bonpo Monastery in his village called Tarzong Phuntsok Ling Bonpo Monastery. It was the only place where people can study traditional education as well as the Tibetan language. Yangton Lama is the abbot of Tarzong Phuntsok Ling Bonpo monastery. This monastery is one of the most precious and secret monasteries for the lineage of Yangton lamas. Lopon Rinpoche is a member of the famous lineage of Yangton lamas. The Yangton lineage goes back to the time of Buddha Tönpa Shenrab over 18,000 years ago. Yangton lamas were the priests for the ancient kings of Tibet. Yang n’gal Tsec Cho was the priest for Nyatri Tsenpo, the 1st king of Tibet. The Yangton Lama Yang n’gal, who was the priest of the Tibetan King Pude Gungyal, established the first Yangton Monastery at Bonri in the Kongpo region of Tibet.

The Yangton lineage originated after the great practitioner Yangton Sherab Gyaltsen became famous for the perfection of his understanding and excellence in Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen Teachings. Through his studies, he compiled the essence of Dzogchen teaching and created the first written manuscript of the Dzogchen Experiential Transmission (Nyam-Gyud) teaching. In 1107 AD, he became the sole Transmission holder of the Dzogchen teaching.

At the age of 13 and on the advice from his uncle Yangton Lama Nyima Tseten, Lopon Rinpoche went into a series of 3 months retreats during 1975, 1976 and 1977. During this time, he focused on the practices for the outer, inner and secret Deities of Bön. During these retreats, Rinpoche completed the foundation practices of Dzogchen by accumulating nine hundred thousand preliminary practices. He also received various Transmissions and Empowerments of Dzogchen teachings from a variety of different masters.

In 1979, Lopon Rinpoche’s brother, Lama Tashi, brought Rinpoche to sMenri Monastery in India. sMenri Monastery is the main Bonpo monastery for Tibet as well as for the exile community of India. Rinpoche was ordained by H.H. the 33rd sMenri Trizin and H.E. Yongzin Rinpoche. His studies focused on Sutra, Tanta and Dzogchen as well as Ritual, Grammar, Poetry, Astrology, Divination, Medicine, Thangka painting, Mandalas and Stupas. Lopon obtained his Geshe Degree (Doctorate) from the Bön Dialectic School in 1989.

Soon after completing his Geshe Degree, Rinpoche was unanimously appointed Principal Instructor of the Bön Dialectic School by H.H. the 33rd Mentri Trizin and H.E. Yongzin Rinpoche. Again in 1992, His Holiness and Yongzin Rinpoche further honoured Rinpoche by giving him the title of Ponlob. It is the second most revered position in sMenri Monastery. Lopon Rinpoche continues to teach at the Bön Dialectic School, where he is responsible for the training of the students. He occasionally visits the Dolpo region of Nepal to give the Transmission of Preliminary Practice and teach other aspects of the Bön Religion to thousands of lay people, monks and Tantric practitioners. Rinpoche regularly visits the United States and Europe, where he enjoys teaching the elements of Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen to Western practitioners. In 2009, he founded the Bön Center Khyungdzong Wodsel Ling in Los Angeles, in the United States.

 མཁན་པོ་བསྟན་པ་གཡུང་དྲུང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་

Rinpoche is the abbot (khenpo) of Triten Norbutse Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, one of the two main Bon monasteries outside of Tibet. Khenpo Rinpoche was born in 1969 in Dhorpatan, a remote area of western Nepal. Established with aid from the Swiss Red Cross, the Dhorpatan settlement is one of the earliest refugee camps for Tibetans in exile; most of its residents are Bonpos from western Tibet.

The monastery in Dhorpatan, Tashi Gegye Thaten Ling, was founded by the 32nd Menri Abbot, Kundun Sherap Lodroe. Khenpo Rinpoche’s father, Lama Tsultrim Nyima, was an accomplished practitioner who dedicated his life to the welfare of the Dhorpatan community and the survival of the precious Yungdrung Bon tradition. It was a great loss to Khenpo Rinpoche and the community when his father passed away at a relatively early age.

At age 11, Khenpo Rinpoche joined other students in studying with Lama Sonam Gyaltsen Rinpoche, the abbot of Tashi Gegye Thaten Ling. After completing an initial course of study of the Bon ritual texts and Tibetan calligraphy, he transferred with three other students to Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India, for further studies. Khenpo Rinpoche said, “Upon our arrival at Menri Monastery, I had the golden opportunity to see both His Holiness Menri Trizin Rinpoche and Yongdzin (Lopon) Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. At that time, they were living a simple life in terms of material possessions, but they were engaged in the great endeavour of re-establishing the Yungdrung Bon doctrine in the world.”

Khenpo Rinpoche and his fellow students were admitted to the dialectic school at Menri Monastery, and for 13 years, Khenpo Rinpoche studied the complete Bon philosophical system of sutra, tantra and Dzogchen; and the general Tibetan sciences including Tibetan grammar, poetics, white and black astrology, Sanskrit grammar, sacred geometry or arts, and general Tibetan medicine.

In 1986, Khenpo Rinpoche began teaching philosophy and general Tibetan sciences to younger students, and he also participated in many ritual ceremonies, cultural and social activities. From 1989 through 1992, he served as accountant, treasurer and then president of the school, and for a time, he also served as the monastery’s ritual leader and discipline master. In 1994, having successfully completed the traditional 13-year course of study, Khenpo Rinpoche passed the 10-day final examination and was awarded his Geshe degree (doctorate) with acknowledgement from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

After graduating, Khenpo Rinpoche went to Kathmandu to further his studies of tantra and Dzogchen under the guidance of Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. In 1996, His Holiness Menri Trizin Rinpoche and Yongdzin Rinpoche appointed Khenpo Rinpoche as Pönlop (principal teacher) of Triten Norbutse Monastery. Khenpo Rinpoche says he strongly felt the blessings of His Holiness and Yongdzin Rinpoche and enthusiastically accepted the opportunity to serve the Bon community and its ancient teachings. Since then, Khenpo Rinpoche has taught at the Yungdrung Bon Academy of Higher Studies at Triten Norbutse Monastery, under the blessings of Yongdzin Rinpoche.

In 2001, Rinpoche was appointed as khenpo (abbot) of the monastery by H.H. Menri Trizin Rinpoche and H.E. Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. Triten Norbutse Monastery is one of the two main Bon monasteries outside Tibet. Today, 170 resident monks study and practice there.

Since 2005, Khenpo Rinpoche has taken the responsibility of establishing the congregation of Shenten Dargye Ling in Paris, France, for the preservation, research, teaching and practice of the Yungdrung Bon tradition.

 སྣང་ཞིག་སྐྱབས་མགོན་སྐལ་བཟང་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།

Nangzhig Kyabgon was born in 1983 and was recognised as the reincarnation of Nangzhig Kyapgön Tenpa Rabgye by high lamas of both Bön and Buddhist traditions. This includes very esteemed lamas such as Menri Yongzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche and the late 10th Panchen Lama. At the age of six, Nangzhig Kyapgön took monastic vows in front of the golden tombs of Nangzhig high lamas. He was initiated in the presence of four lamas, including Jawob Rinpoche. With a great celebration, he was enthroned upon the Golden Throne of Nangzhig Monastery.

Afterwards, he studied with Yongzin Tenzin Yeshé as well as other teachers. He became an expert in philosophy and science, particularly the unique Bön doctrine and philosophy. He also traveled to many different parts of Tibet and gave teachings and empowerments to all of his followers. He blessed the faithful with his empowerments of A Tri (A khrid), Nyengyü, and Dzogchen as well as with the internal, external and secret Bön initiations.

At the age of 19, he visited China’s sacred Buddhist Mount Wutai (Riwo Tse-nga) and there he did the retreat practice of Sherap Mawé Sengé (Bönpo Buddha of clear intellect and understanding). Then, he went to study at the Buddhist University in Beijing and graduated in the doctrines and philosophies of various traditions. During his time there, he also learned the Chinese language. During both the First and Second International Conference on Yungdrung Bön, he acted as president. In brief, he has completed his studies of Bön Sutra, Tantra, Dzogchen as well as other Tibetan cultural sciences and philosophies with Yongzin Tenzin Yeshé and the renowned scholar Böngya Rinpoche. Thus, he is the head and the throne holder of the Nangzhig Monastery.

 ༸སྐྱབས་མཆོག་རྒྱ་འོབས་བསྟན་འཛིན་དབང་རྒྱལ།

Gyawob Rinpoche was born in 1927 in Amdo Ngawa. He was recognised as the reincarnation of Khyungmong Tenpa Lodoe, who was the great master of Chinese Phowa Drongjug practice as well as the 21st reincarnation of Khyungmong Rinpoche. At the age of 7, Rinpoche entered the Nangzhig monastery and began his primary education until he completed all the monastic studies, such as reading, writing, recitation, chanting and so on. At the age of 11, he took the vows of a novice monk from Nangzhig Kyabgon Namkha Lodoe, and was then named Tsultrim Tenzin Wangyal. In addition, Gywob Rinpoche also received teachings of Bon Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen from Nangzhig Kyabgon Namkha Lodoe. At the age of 17, he received the empowerment, instruction and teaching of A-khrid, Nyengyu and Dzogchen from his uncle Sangye Tenzin, and in particular, he received teaching and empowerment of three mother tantras (Magyu Sangye Gyusum).

As Nangzhig Kyabgon Tenpa Rabgye appointed him as the representative of Nangzhig monastery, Gyawob Rinpoche took responsibility for looking after all the interior and exterior matters of the monastery. When religious freedom was granted in the entire Tibet, Rinpoche also took initiative to open the door of Bon in the Nangzhig monastery. Taking a great hardship, he restored the religious objects such as stupas and statues that were destroyed before and also built temples to place those objects.

Rinpoche has contributed to many activities in terms of developing the interior and exterior compound of the monastery. At the age of 63, he visited Khyungmong Yungdrung Phuntsok Ling, the main seat of Khyungmong Tenpa Lodoe. Rinpoche also gave empowerment, initiation and teaching of A-khrid, Nyengyud and Dzogchen to a large number of audiences there.

In the same year, there was a serious drought in the nomads’ land due to the lack of rainfall. Rinpoche then helped the nomads by producing a rainfall with rituals like Klu mchod ‘o ma’i rgya mtsho (a ritual offering to Naga spirit) and Char ‘beb bdud rtsi ‘khyil ba (a rain-making ritual). All the residents of that place were very delighted, and the news spread all over Tibet, which made him famous in many parts of Tibet.

Gradually, Rinpoche visited Lhasa, Beijing, Hrang-he and Hrin-tig. He gave them empowerments and instruction on the practice of Yungdrung Bon to a large number of students of Chinese origin. Thus, he did great benefits to many sentient beings. In collaboration with Nangzhig Kyabgon, he established the Higher Education Centre of Yungdrung Bon Teachings and Practices at Nangzhig Monastery in 2001.

When Rinpoche reached the age of 80, the staff of the monastery and general public followers organized a gathering to celebrate his 80th birthday. During that celebration, about ten thousand people gathered from different parts of Tibet to perform a long-life prayer and ritual.

After the ritual, the conference was held at the Nangzhig Monastery to discuss how to follow, how to preserve, and how to propagate the doctrine of Yungdrung Bon, and in particular, how to restore and propagate the culture and tradition of Zhangzhung and Tibet. The conference was mainly initiated by Rinpoche, and a hundred participants gathered there included renowned Lamas and Tulkus, distinguished scholars and high officials from all over Tibet. Thereupon, he donated all the money that he received as the 80th birthday present for the renovation project of Namgyal stupa. In this way, he also added another great contribution by renovating a religious site of veneration.