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KYABJE JANGTSE CHÖJE RIZONG RINPOCHE
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Personal Background:
Rizong Rinpoche was born in the Western year 1928, in Matho, Ladakh, a
place very close to Leh. Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama and teacher
of his former incarnation, recognized him as the reincarnation of the
previous Rizong Rinpoche. His predecessors, both the former incarnation
as well as the one before that, already had a connection with Ladakh.
He was then installed as the new incarnation at Rizong monastery
in Ladakh.
From age four to eighteen, he stayed mostly in his monastery and had
his personal teachers. During that time he learned all the basics of the
Tibetan tradition, including reading and writing, memorization,
and the fundamental scriptures.
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When he was 18 years old (in 1947) he
traveled from Ladakh to Tibet. First he stayed in central Lhasa,
where he lived and studied with his principal teacher, the 94th Ganden
Tripa. With him he took the vows
of a fully ordained monk. After three years, in 1950, he joined Drepung
Monastery outside Lhasa and
stayed there until 1959. During these ten years at Drepung he was
studying hard and was able to
deepen his understanding of the scriptures.
In 1959, shortly after His Holiness the Dalai Lama had fled Tibet,
he also escaped. At that time, when
he came out of Tibet, he returned to Ladakh. Some time later he heard
that in Dalhousie there was a
good school, so he went there to continue with his studies. There
he finished his formal sutric studies
with the highest Geshe degree (Lharampa), and then went to the newly
re-established Gyumed Tantric
Monastery in Hunsur, Karnataka, where he stayed for some years.
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First he served as the chanting master (Umdze), and then became the
abbot of Gyumed. After acting
some years as the abbot of the Tantric College he became the abbot
of Drepung Loseling. This position
he held until he became the Jangtse Chöje, which leads, according
to tradition, in alternation with the
position of the Shartse Chöje, to the position of the head of
the Gelugpa, the Ganden Tripa.
Since retiring from the position of abbot of Drepung Loseling, Rinpoche
has had the opportunity to
travel abroad, and has been requested by many students to give teachings.
For six months, in 1999
and 2000, he gave the transmission of the whole collection of the
Buddha’s words in Dharamsala, India.
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