Chatral Sangye Dorje

བྱ་བྲལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།
bya bral rin po che
བྱ་བྲལ་སངས་རྒྱས་རྡོ་རྗེ།
bya bral sangs rgyas rdo rje

Small Biography

Kyabje Chadral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche Is a renowned Dzogchen master in his mid-90s, Chatral Rinpoche is reclusive yogi known for his great realization and strict discipline. Rinpoche is one of the few living disciples of the great master Khenpo Ngagchung and widely regarded as one of the most highly realized Dzogchen yogis. In addition to his relationship with Khenpo Ngagchung, Chatral Rinpoche also studied with some of the last century's most renowned masters, including Dudjom Rinpoche, Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, and the famed dakini, Sera Khandro. Rinpoche is one of the primary lineage holders of the Longchen Nyingthig, and in particular the lineage that descends through Jigme Lingpa's heart son Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu and then on to Patrul Rinpoche.

Though his main lineage is the Longchen Nyingthig, Chatral Rinpoche is also closely associated with the Dudjom Tersar lineage. He was empowered as the regent of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche and is currently passing on this lineage to this master's reincarnation, who lives primarily in central Tibet.

Chatral Rinpoche has shunned institutional and political involvement his whole life, choosing instead to live the life of a wandering yogi. To this day, despite his great age, he continues to move about, rarely remaining in one place for more than a few months. A lay yogi, he is also greatly concerned with maintaining strict discipline in the context of the Dzogchen view. He is especially well known for his advocacy of vegetarianism and his yearly practice of ransoming the lives of thousands of animals in India. In addition to his emphasis on the union of view and conduct, Rinpoche also stresses the practice of retreat. He has established numerous retreat centers throughout the Himalayas, including in Pharping, Yolmo and Darjeeling.

Rinpoche currently divides his time between Salbhari, India, and Kathmandu, Nepal. He has two daughters, Tara Devi and Saraswati, with his wife Kamala.

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མཆོག་གི་བླ་མ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རྒྱལ་ཚབ་ཏུ། །
Empowered and prophesised by all the supreme Lamas as their regent,
དབང་བསྐུར་ལུང་ཟིན་ཕྱོགས་མེད་གཞན་དོན་སྤྱོད། །
Impartially acting for the benefit of others,
སྦས་པའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཀུན་སྤངས་རྫོགས་ཆེན་པ། །
Renunciate hidden yogi, the Dzogchenpa,
སངས་རྒྱས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།། །།
Sangay Dorjey, at your lotus feet I pray.

Chatral, Dudjom and Khyentse Rinpoches

Primary Teachers

• Khenpo Ngagchung
• Dudjom Rinpoche
  
• Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro
• Kalu Rinpoche
• 5th Dzogchen Rinpoche
• Sera Khandro
  

Primary Students

• Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje
• Gyaltsap Redring Jampal Yeshe
• Dudjom Yangzi Rinpoche
• Kathok Situ
• Lopon Jigme
• Lama Dawa Gyaltsen
• Lama Sonam Topgye Kazi
• Lama Tharchin
• Chogyal Wangchuk Namgyal
• Shyalpa Jigme Tenzin Wangpo
• Muktinath Lama Wangyal [1]

Chatral and Penor Rinpoches

Primary Lineage

• Longchen Nyingthig
  
• Sera Khandro Terma
• Dudjom Tersar
  
• Jatson Nyingpo Terma
• Shangpa Kagyu
  

Primary Monasteries

• Katok Monastery
• Dzogchen Monastery
  

Alternative Names

Living Buddha Chatral Rinpoche

• Kathok Sangye Dorje
• Buddha Vajra
• Kusuli Sangye Dorje
• Chatral Sangye Dorje
• Chadrel Sangye Dorje
• Chadral Sangye Dorje
• Khatra Sangye Dorje
• Traktung Trowo

Alternative Spellings

• Jadral
• Jatral
• Jadrel
• Jatrel
• Chadrel
• Chadral
• Satrel (Kham Dialect)

External Links

• A wonderful translated biography of Chatral Rinpoche's life story (rnam thar)
• Dudjomba -- biography, teachings and lineage transmission of Chatral Rinpoche
• Chatral Rinpoche Series on Lotsawa House
• Chatral Rinpoche on vegetarianism and the benefits of saving lives | links to articles in PDF
• Dorje Mechar, The Rain of Adamantine Fire: a link to a PDF of the Tibetan text [2]

Internal Links

• A Powerful Message by a Powerful Yogi a recorded interview that was transcribed, of Rinpoche's advice about not eating meat.

Related Publications

• Compassionate Action by Chatral Rinpoche. Edited, introduced and annotated by Zachary Larson. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2007.
• Chatral Rinpoche. Compassionate Action: the Teachings of Chatral Rinpoche. Kathmandu: Shechen Publications, 2005. Edited with Commentary by Zachary Larson.
  

A Long Life Prayer

In English

Through the power and blessings of the undeceiving ocean of the three roots,

May the lotus feet of Sangye Dorje, lord of the dance,

Be firm and everlasting!

May his enlightened activities to benefit the teachings and beings Flourish!

In Wylie

bslu med rtsa gsum rgya mtsho'i mthu byin gyis

gar gyi dbang phyug sangs rgyas rdo rje yi

zhabs pad mi g.yo yun du brtan bzhugs nas

bstan 'gro'i don chen mdzad 'phrin mthar rgyas shog

In Tibetan

བསླུ་མེད་རྩ་གསུམ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་མཐུ་བྱིན་གྱིས།

གར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་སངས་རྒྱས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཡི།

ཞབས་པད་མི་གཡོ་ཡུན་དུ་བརྟན་བཞུགས་ནས།

བསྟན་འགྲོའི་དོན་ཆེན་མཛད་འཕྲིན་མཐར་རྒྱས་ཤོག