Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal

Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche

Short description

Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche was born in Tibet in 1950, and was recognized as a tulku of Sherab Khyentse, a great abbot of Gochen Monastery in Kham. Khenpo escaped from Tibet with his brother, Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, and their family in 1960. In India, he studied at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, and received his Bachelor’s Degree from Sanskrit University in 1970. In 1978, H. H. Dudjom Rinpoche appointed him as the abbot of the Wish-fulfilling Nyingmapa Institute in Boudhanath, Nepal. During the 1980’s Khenpo studied and worked closely with Dudjom Rinpoche in France and at the Yeshe Nyingpo center in New York. During the 1980's began doing the oral translation for the teachings of his brother, Khenchen Palden Sherab, at various centers in the U.S. In 1988, the "Khenpo Brothers" founded the Padmasambhava Buddhist Centers, which now have branches in the U.S., India, and Russia.

Main teachers

H. H. Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje; Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche; Lama Chi-me Namgyal (Khenpo's father); Gadra Lama Nyima Ozer (transmitted Tsasum Lingpa lineage); Raya Tulku (a togden near Gochen Monastery in his youth, who transmitted terma of Ratna Lingpa); Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche; Chatral Rinpoche; Dodrupchen Rinpoche; Kangyur Rinpoche; H. H. 16th Karmapa; Khenpo Thubten Tsondru; and Sangyum Kushog Rigdzin Wangmo, the wife of Dudjom Rinpoche.

Primary Lineages

• Tsasum Lingpa; Longchen Nyingthig; Mipham Rinpoche; Dudjom Rinpoche.

Published Works

• khyed chos che drug (The Six Sublime Pillars of the Nyingma School, pecha 2001) by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. A two-volume history of the Nyingma lineage during the sixth through ninth centuries.
• ye shes rdo rje 'od zer (Light Rays of Indestructible Wisdom) (Pema Samye Chokhor Ling, 2003) by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. A biography of H. H. Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdral Yeshe Dorje.
• Praise to the Lotus Born: A Verse Garland of Waves of Devotion (Dharma Samudra, 2004, English and Tibetan) by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal.

Books with Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche: Opening to our Primordial Nature (Snow Lion, 2006. A reprint of The Light of the Three Jewels, Dharma Samudra, 1993.) Publications by Sky Dancer Press include: Ceaseless Echoes of the Great Silence; The Door of Inconceivable Wisdom and Compassion; Lion's Gaze; The Prajnaparamita; and The Six Perfections.

Active Projects

• Translation with Carl Stuendel of Khenpo Tsewang's biography of Dudjom Rinpoche, ye shes rdo rje 'od zer (Light Rays of Indestructible Wisdom).

External Links

main website

Email: jowozegyal@catskill.net