Penor Rinpoche
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| Pema Norbu Tibetan: པད་མ་ནོར་བུ་ Wylie: Pad-ma Nor-bu |
His Holiness (Kyabjé) Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche (1932-) is the 11th throne holder of the Palyul Lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, and is said to be an incarnation of Vimalamitra. He is widely renowned in the Tibetan Buddhist world as a master of Dzogchen. He is one of a very few teachers left from his generation who received all his training (in the traditional sense) in Tibet under the guidance of what Tibetan Buddhists consider to be fully enlightened teachers.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Life in Tibet
HH Penor Rinpoche was born in 1932 in the Powo region of Kham, East Tibet. He was recognized in 1936 by Khenpo Ngaga Rinpoche. Pema Norbu was formally enthroned by his root teacher, Thubten Chökyi Dawa (1894-1959) the second Choktrul Rinpoche, and Karma Thekchok Nyingpo (1908-1958) the fourth Karma Kuchen Rinpoche. He trained at the Palyul Monastery in Tibet, studying and receiving teachings from numerous masters and scholars, including the previous Karma Kuchen, the tenth throneholder. (Note: the "new body" of Karma Kuchen currently lives in Tibet).
[edit] Establishment in India
In 1959, recognizing the situation in Eastern Tibet to be very tense, HH Penor Rinpoche left with a party of 300 for the Hidden Kingdom of Pema Köd in Northern India. Only 30 of the original party survived. In 1961 they were resettled in South India in Bylakuppe in a series of Tibetan camps. HH Penor Rinpoche initially built a bamboo temple to train a small handful of monks in 1963.
[edit] Life in India
In the 1970s HH Penor Rinpoche began to train Khenpos in the Nam Cho cycle. By the 1980s Namdroling Monastery had many hundreds of monks.
[edit] Teachings in Western Countries
He made his first visit to the United States in 1985, invited by Gyaltrul Rinpoche to Ashland Oregan to confer the Nam Cho cycle of teachings. In 1987 he recognized a new age chaneller who ran the Center for Discovery and New Life, Catharine Burroughs, as the incarnation of Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo[1]. The historical Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo was the sister of the founder of Palyul, Kunzang Sherab. In September, 1989, he sent Bhaka Tulku to train her in Tibetan Buddhism. Bhaka Tulku left in February the following year after five short months.
In 1988 he gave the Kama teachings at Gyaltrul Rinpoche's Yeshe Nyingpo center in Ashland, Oregon, followed immediately thereafter by the Long Chen Nying Thig at Ven. Peling Tulku Rinpoche's centre in Canada, Orgyan Osal Cho Dzong. After this His Holiness gave the Rinchen Terzod empowerments at Kunzang Palyul Choling. Towards the end of this cycle of empowerments he ordained 25 western monks and nuns.
In 1995 he was invited by John Giorno to give teachings and empowerments for a week in New York City. His Holiness then travelled to Kunzang Palyul Choling to give the Nam Cho cycle. After this trip, he sent Khenpo Tsewang Gyatso, who had previously taught in the U.S. in 1992, to establish centers in New York and other regions.
Then in 1998 he established the Palyul Retreat Center in Upstate New York, near Greene, offering a one-month retreat course that follows a similar if abbreviated curriculum to the one at Namdroling monastery. He has offered Kalachakra empowerments, first in Rochester in 1996 and next at his retreat center in 2007. He also granted the Nam Cho cycle of teachings in Austin, Texas, in 2003.
[edit] Head of the Nyingmapa
HH Penor Rinpoche was elected the Supreme Head of the Nyingmapa, the oldest of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism, in 1992. He served in this post until 2003 at which point he retired from his duties and was succeeded by the late His Holiness Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche. (As of February 21, 2008, a new head of Nyingmapa has not been elected.)
The position, a ceremonial and administrative role created in the wake of the Tibetan diaspora, is conferred upon those lamas held in the highest esteem by a consensus of Nyingma lamas, Rinpoches, tulkus, and khenpos. Penor Rinpoche himself succeeded H. H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
[edit] Current activities
[edit] Activities for Monlam Chenmo
Each year a prayer festival called "Monlam Chenmo" is held in Bodh Gaya, the place of the Buddha's Enlightenment. Recognizing its importance, HH Penor Rinpoche has headed a committee of monks, tulkus and khenpos who organize the yearly prayer ceremony.
[edit] Activities at the South Indian Monastery
His Holiness has been responsible for an ever-expanding population of Himalayan monks and nuns who come to Namdroling Monastery based on the traditional cultural style of sending a son or daughter to the monastery for an education. Many of the young monks and nuns come from extremely impoverished families located in Bhutan, Nepal or the Tibetan refugee camps in India. The monastery provides full room, board, clothing, medical care and an education in the traditional Tibetan Buddhist canon. The population of students exceeds several thousand.
[edit] Activities in South Indian Local Community
His Holiness sponsored the pavement of the road leading from Bylakuppe to Kushalnagar. He also built a small hospital that still requires equipment, but has provided infirmary services to the local community. A side benefit of his activities is that the temples he has built brings busloads of Indian tourists to the area daily, increasing the income and economic activity in the area.
[edit] Worldwide activities
His Holiness' main U.S. representative is Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche, who maintains a yearly travel schedule that includes Canada, Singapore as well as Arizona, California, Florida, Montana, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington DC.
Centers for practice are located internationally, including India, Taiwan, Hong Kong and America.
[edit] Retreats
Monks and international students go on retreat with HH Penor Rinpoche and receive teachings directly from him on two occasions per year. The first is within the 2nd month of the lunar calendar at Namdroling Monastery in South India. The second is in the United States at Palyul Ling. The retreats consist of the teachings as structured within the Nam Cho cycle beginning with Ngondro, followed by the Inner Heat practice of Tsa Lung, and then Dzogchen Trekcho and Togyal.
[edit] Palyul lineage
The Palyul lineage was founded in 1665 by Kunzang Sherab (1636-1699). It is based out of Palyul monastery, one of the six "mother" monasteries of the Nyingma lineage. The primary teachings followed by Palyul Monasteries were revealed by Terton Migyur Dorje, a "Dharma Treasure Revealer" who received teachings mystically. The works of Migyur Dorje have been passed down from teacher to disciple as the Nam Chö or "space treasure" cycle of teachings. It is these teachings that HH Penor Rinpoche follows and transmits to his students along with some texts from the Longchen Nyingthik cycle.
[edit] Monasteries
[edit] Palyul Monastery
Palyul Monastery has been rebuilt in Tibet since the cultural revolution. The temple was re-inaugurated in 2006 by HH Penor Rinpoche's schoolmate, Tulku Thubsang Rinpoche.
[edit] Namdroling Monastery
His Holiness' main monastery and current "seat" is the Namdroling Monastery, located South India, home also to the Ngagyar Nyingma Institute, where hundreds of lamas study and graduate from a ten-year shedra program which includes a three-year retreat. Three senior khenpos (professors of Buddhist philosophy), Khenchen Pema Sherab Rinpoche, Khenchen Namdrol Rinpoche, and Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche oversee the education of the thousands of monks and nuns enrolled in study at shedra (Buddhist college).
[edit] Northern Indian Palyul Monasteries
A Palyul monastery was reestablished in exile in Bir, India, by HH Penor Rinpoche's close friend, Dzonar Rinpoche. It is currently headed by Abbott Rigo Tulku Rinpoche and is often a teaching tour stop for HH Penor Rinpoche.
[edit] Other Palyul Monasteries
There are many small branch monasteries throughout Tibet and centers in Canada, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Philippines, and the United States that have been founded under HH Penor Rinpoche's guidance.
[edit] Prominent students
[edit] Tulkus
Penor Rinpoche's three main students (heart sons) are Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, Khentul Gyangkhang Rinpoche and Mugsang Kuchen Rinpoche. Other prominent students include Ajam Rinpoche, Chonjur Tulku Rinpoche, Dakmar Rinpoche, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, Ogyen Tulku Rinpoche, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and many others.
[edit] Khenpos
The three most senior Khenpos from Namdroling Monastery are Khenchen Pema Sherab Rinpoche, Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche, and Khenchen Namdrol Rinpoche.
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
[[1]] Most historical information drawn from:
- Zangpo, Tsering Lama Jampal (1988), A Garland of Immortal Wish-Fulfilling Trees, Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN-10: 0937938645, ISBN-13: 978-0937938645
Other information drawn from primary source knowledge. Can site if needed.
