Tengyur Rinpoche
Tengyur Rinpoche is a geshe lharampa graduate from Sera Jey
Monastery, a junior English translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama since 2012.
Tengyur Rinpoche was born in 1981 in Mon Tawang, Arunachal
Pradesh, India. His father is from Tawang Zhol village and his mother, who relocated to Tawang before 1959, is originally from Lhasa. He is the sixth oldest among ten siblings, comprising six brothers and four sisters.
In 1990, at the age of nine he formally joined Sera Jey Monastery in Bylakuppe. The following year, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited Gyudmed Tantric College, he recognized Tengyur Rinpoche as the reincarnation of Drengkhar Khensur Urgen Gonpo, one of the former abbots of Tawang Monastery. Subsequently he was recognized at Sera Je Monastery and Gaden Namgyal Lhatse Monastery in Tawang.
Tengyur Rinpoche studied at Sera Je Secondary School from 1991 to 1998 and received his Secondary School Certificate with distinction. In 1998, he began his advanced philosophical and dialectical training and studies at Sera Jey Monastery where he undertook the three-year foundational course on Pramana, the seven-year Paramita (Perfection of Wisdom), the four-year Madhyamika (Middle-way Philosophy), three-year Vinaya (Monastic Discipline), and one-year Adhidharma (Metaphysics in Buddhism) courses. He was awarded the Geshe Lharampa degree (comparable to a PhD) in 2020. He received his novice ordination from His Eminence Choden Rinpoche at Sera Jey in 1994 and full ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2009.
In addition to the formal monastic curriculum, Tengyur Rinpoche made time to study Tibetan and English grammar and literature. He has attended various conferences and discussions on Tibetan grammar and literature as well as on science and Buddhism, and he has written articles on these topics. He had the rare opportunity of serving as English interpreter for His Holiness in numerous teachings attended by thousands from all over the world. He is a Registered Teacher of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition and has taught at many FPMT centers globally.
In 2014, inspired by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s advice for followers of Buddhism to engage more actively in social causes, Tengyur Rinpoche established Thubten Shedrubling Foundation (TSF) in Tawang in order to build a school for economically underprivileged children and a center where lay adults can study Buddhism, Tibetan language and other subjects such as English and computer literacy that will help them advance professionally. TSF has been offering these free after-school and adult classes since 2017. In 2022 Tengyur Rinpoche founded Tashol Tengyur School.
In 2021, Tengyur Rinpoche led the founding of Wisdom Bridges, Inc. a US-based NGO that is dedicated to helping children in remote Himalayan communities to fulfill their potential through education that bridges traditional wisdom and modern learning and preserves their language and culture.
Currently Tengyur Rinpoche is doing Master’s program at Harvard Divinity School.