Description
His Eminence Yongdzin (Lopon) Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche is the most senior teacher in the Bön tradition. He was the co-founder of Menri Monastery in India and Triten Norbutse Monastery in Nepal.
Born in 1926 in eastern Tibet, at age 7, he entered Tengchen Monastery. He took monk’s vows at 14, and at 15, he began studies at Yungdrung Ling, a Bön monastery in central Tibet. From there, he traveled to Menri Monastery in Tibet in 1948 and received his Geshe degree in 1952. That same year, he was elected to the lopon (head teacher) position at Menri.
After leaving Tibet in 1960, H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche went first to Nepal and then to England, where he spent three years studying, teaching and working. In 1964, he went to Himachal Pradesh, in Northern India. He worked to create a settlement and school in Dolanji for Bönpo refugees and Menri Monastery to support training new monks. After sufficient texts had been retrieved and published, His Eminence established a traditional dialectic school at the monastery to preserve the Bönpo philosophical tradition. In 1987, he founded a second Bön monastery, Triten Norbutse, just west of Kathmandu, Nepal, where he lived and taught for many years. Menri Monastery and Triten Norbutse Monastery are the two main Bön monasteries outside of Tibet.
His Eminence is the author of 13 volumes of texts in Tibetan and is considered the foremost living scholar of Bön. He has also written many works in English.
H.E. Yongdzin Rinpoche has frequently taught in Europe, the United States, and Mexico. He established a European center, Shenten Dargye Ling, in Bleu, France, and now resides permanently in Kathmandu, Nepal.
