Jigme Phuntsok

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Jigme Phuntsok
Tibetan: འཇིགས་མེད་ཕུན་ཚོགས་
Wylie: 'Jigs-med Phun-tshogs

Khenpo ("Abbot") Jigme Phuntsok (1933-2004) was a Nyingma lama from the Dhok region of Kham (in what is now the modern Chinese province of Sichuan. His family were nomads. At the age of two he was identified as the reincarnation of Terton Lerdo Lingpa (1852-1926). He studied Dzogchen at Nubzor Monastery, received novice ordination at 14, and full ordination at 22 (or 1955).

In 1959 he made the crucial decision to remain in Kham rather than flee to India. Between 1960 and 1980 he returned to a nomadic lifestyle in order to avoid falling victim to the Cultural Revolution.

In 1980 Jigme Phuntsok founded the Serthar Buddhist Institute (also called the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute, near the town of Serthar (Chinese Seda), apparently without permission from the Chinese authorities. These however seem to have turned a blind eye to his activities, especially as he avoided politics. The Institute's popularity grew until there were 8500 students at the site, including about 1000 ethnic Chinese as well as students from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.

In 1987 Kigme Phuntsok met and befriended the Ninth Panchen Lama. In 1989 he also met the fourteenth Dalai Lama, whom he later pointedly refused to denounce. After this the Chinese government refused him permission to travel, even for humanitarian health reasons.

Around 1999 the Sichuan United Work Front pressed him on the issue of his support for the Dalai Lama, and demanded that he reduce the number of students at the Institute (either to 150 or to 1400, depending on reports). Jigme Phuntsok refused. In summer of 2001 several thousand members of the People's Armed Police and the Public Security Bureau descended on the site, razing its structures and dispersed its students. The event attracted international media attention.

Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok died of heart failure in 2004, at the age of 70.