LIFE HISTORY OF HEAD LAMAS OF EACH SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

H.H Drabwang Penor Rinpoche, Nyingma
H.H Gyalwang Karmapa , Kagyu
H.H Sakya Trizin, Sakya
H.H Ganden Tripa, Gelug
H.H sMen-ri Trizin,Bonpo

H.E Drabwang Penor Rinpoche, Nyingma
The Supreme Head of Nyingmapa Buddhism
His Holiness the third Penor Rinpoche of Nyingmapa Palyul Lineage for Vajrayana in Tibet is the master to confer this initiation. He has succeeded H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche to be the Supreme Head of Nyingmapa Buddhism since 1993. He is also the eleventh throne holder of Palyul lineage.

He was prophesied in some Sutras and by Guru Rinpoche in the Ratna Lingpa's Treasure. The fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche, had made a detailed prophecy about the birth of him. He was bornt in Powo of Kham region in the eastern Tibet, in the ancestral heritage of Terton Duddul Dorje. Khenpo Ngaga, one most important Dzogchen master, of the time, gave full support to the fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche's prophecy. Both of them recognised Penor Rinpoche as the emanation of the great Dzogchen master Bimalamitra and reincarnation of second Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche.

At the age of four, he was invited to the Palyul monastery, had his studying and receiving teachings from many masters and scholars. Later Penor Rinpoche entered four consecutive years' retreats with his master Choktrul Rinpoche. He successfully accomplished all the stages of the practices, including Terton Migyur Dorje's Namchoe, Terton Ratna Lingpa's Ratling, the most profound innermost teachings of Dzogchen, and the practices of secret sealed protectors etc. He ascended the Golden Throne of the Palyul Lineage Holder at the age of twelve.

When he was young Penor Rinpoche was in retreat to practice the "Illusory body of Manjushri" a mind treasure of Mipham Rinpoche. At the conclusion of the retreat, a sweet, enchanting sound could be heard coming form his shrine room and the mirror on his alter radiated brilliant light.

Once when Penor Rinpoche visited the dentist, he had a tooth extracted, which Kunsang, his secretary, kept it in a small casket. Several years later, he opened the casket to look at the tooth and was astounded to see the small shiny relics had appeared. Nyoshul Khenpo said that his was a sign showing that Penor Rinpoche has attained the stages of realisation of a boddhisattva.

Penor Rinpoche left Tibet in 1959 and was exiled in India. He started building Namdroling Monastery from 1963 and established the Sangha community in Mysore district of south India. Today this monastery has a Sangha community to home over 1,500 lamas and has become the single largest Nyingmapa Monastic Institution out of Tibet consisting primary school, higher scholastic Institute, Retreat centre, a nunnery, home for old age and so forth. In fact it has all the facilities to study all the aspects of the Nyingmapa tradition.

Beside this Penor Rinpoche has visited Tibet four times. He re-built the Main Palyul Monastery and gave financial support to many other branch monastery. He also gave teachings and empowerment to thousands of monk while he was there. At one such incident, in Gonjo region, he had given long life empowerment to thousands of people, without once having to have the ritual vase refilled. The water seemed to keep pouring out of it in a never-ending stream.

Penor Rinpoche started visiting other countries since 1985, preaching Dharma and established many centres in States, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Philippine, Malaysia and Nepal beside other monasteries around Northern part of India.

In short, Penor Rinpoche is a master whose wisdom is as deep as ocean, whose samadhi is as stable as mountain, who has attained transandal wisdom at early age. He is indeed a master who embodies the foresight of Manjushri, the compassion of Avalokiteshvara, and the dynamism of Vajrapani. It is very auspicious for us to have a chance to receive blessing from a supreme master as His Holiness Penor Rinpoche.

H.H Gyalwang Karmapa , Kagyu
After his mother had wonderful dreams during her pregnancy, he was born into his nomad family in the Lhatok region of Eastern Tibet in 1985. On the day of his birth, a cuckoo landed on the tent in which he was born, and a mysterious conch-like sound was heard by many throughout the valley. 

In Tibet, such events are considered auspicious portents of the birth of an enlightened teacher. 

The young nomad, named Apo Gaga, lived a life that seemed, to his family, full of blessing, but Apo Gaga did not reveal to them who he was. However, in 1992, he asked them to move the location of their nomadic home to another valley, and told them to expect a visit from travelling monks. Soon after setting up their home in the new location, followers of the Sixteenth Karmapa came to that valley pursuant to the secret instructions of the Sixteenth contained in his letter of prediction. The birth and the other details of Apo Gaga's life matched the predictions of the letter. Apo Gaga was discovered to be the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje. 

In addition to his letter of prediction, the Sixteenth Karmapa wrote many poems, or songs, predicting that though he would leave his traditional main seat in Tsurphu, Tibet, he would soon return there, that his root teacher would be HE Situ Rinpoche, and that he would study in India. Furthermore, the predictions of the 19th Century master Chogyur Lingpa matched the details of His Holiness's birth. These predictions were to be fulfilled, and in this way, it is traditionally said that the Karmapa is"self-recognized." 

The Karmapa's Return To Tsurphu In Tibet, The Historic Seat Of The Karmapas

The Seventeenth Karmapa did in fact return to Tolung Tsurphu Monastery in Central Tibet in 1992, where he was enthroned on September 27, 1992, with the permission of the Chinese government, a first in Tibet. Over 20,000 supplicants assembled. The following morning, some 25,000 people filed before His Holiness to receive a personal blessing.

At Tsurphu, the Karmapa studied the Buddhist sciences of mind, learned ritual, and practiced sacred arts, such as dance. Each day he received hundreds of visitors from throughout Tibet and around the world. He eventually began to offer empowerments and participated in various rituals at the monastery. At the age of about 10, His Holiness recognized the rebirth of reincarnate teachers, including such eminent teachers as Pawo Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche and the young Dabzang Rinpoche. 

While His Holiness was at Tsurphu, the monastery underwent extensive rebuilding to restore the temples, shrines, stupas, a shedra, and residences that had been destroyed over the years, fulfilling one of the main duties of a Karmapa. As the years went by, however, His Holiness came under increasing pressure from Tibetan and Chinese authorities to act in ways which were contrary to his obligations as a Karmapa. He publically refused to denounce the Dalai Lama and to recognize the Panchen Lama, and engaged in numerous other acts which were contrary to the wishes of the authorities. Finally, in 1999, recognizing perhaps that his usefulness in Tibet was being undermined, he decided to leave. Though he was under constant surveillance from the Chinese government, who refused to let him leave the country, he and a handful of attendants concocted a bold scheme to escape.

Karmapa's Great Escape

After months of careful planning, on December 28, the fourteen-year-old Karmapa pretended to enter into a solitary retreat, and instead, donned civilian garb and slipped out a window. Leaving Tsurphu Monastery with a handful of attendants, he began a daring escape by car, foot, horseback, helicopter, train and taxi, a heroic journey which was to become the stuff of headlines throughout the world. On January 5, 2000 he arrived, to the the great surprise and overwhelming joy of the world, in Dharamsala, India, where he was met by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. He received refugee status from the government of India in 2001. His Holiness continues to live near Dharamsala, awaiting permission from the Indian authorities to leave Dharamsala and return to Rumtek Monastery, the traditional seat of the Karmapas in India. 

H.H Sakya Trizin, Sakya
His Holiness (the present Sakya Trizin) was born into the Drolma Phodrang in the sixteenth "rabjong" (sixty-year cycle) on the first day of the eighth month of the Wood- Bird year (7th september 1945). His parents were Vajradhara Ngawang Kunga Rinchen, the previous head of the Sakya Drolma Phodrang, and Sonam Drolkar, the sister of a renowned minister of the Tibetan Government. They had four children, the eldest of which was a daughter, Jetsun Kusho Chime Luding, an accomplished practitioner who now lives and teaches in Canada. Two further children died in infancy before the birth of His Holiness in the Sakya Palace at Tsedong. It is related by those who were present that a number of auspicious signs accompanied his coming. and that an aura of rainbow light enveloped the place where he lay. The letter DHIH (the seed syllable of Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Primordial Wisdom) was traced upon his tongue, and the milk of one hundred dri (female yak) offered to the palace; also an image of Guru Padmasambhava.

His childhood name was Ayu Vajra. Then on the occasion of his first initiation (that of the nine-deity mandala of Amitayus), bestowed on him by his father, he was given his full name of Ngawang Kunga Thegchen Palbar Trinley Samphel Wangi Gyalpo.

He passed the first year of his life with his parents at Tsedong before he and his family returned to Sakya for extensive celebrations of the anniversary of his birth. Here at Sakya Monastery he was given the major initiation of Vajrakilaya and other profound transmissions by his father.

He lost both of his parents at a very early age and was subsequently cared for by his maternal aunt, Trinley Paljor Zangmo. The latter was herself an outstanding practitioner who from then onwards took a key role in his upbringing. It was she who appointed his first tutor, Genphel Ponlop Kunga Gyaltsen, to teach him the fundamentals of reading, writing and liturgy, and it was she also who arranged his later escape from Tibet. From his junior tutor Kunga Tsewang he additionally learned the ritual of the Sakya heritage, including such subjects as chanting, music, ritual dancing and mudra. On completion of these studies a great celebration was held, in which His Holiness officially entered the Mahayana and Vajrayana Monasteries of Sakya to perform the traditional ceremonies.

One of his early childhood responsibilities was to preside over the annual Vajrakilaya puja at Sakya, which he was required to recite in full: an all-day event.

Then at the age of five he went to the monastery of Ngor E-wam Choden for further teaching. There he received from the great Ngor abbot Ngawang Lodro Zhenphen Nyingpo, who thus became his main Root Guru, the full Lam Dre transmission of Tsokshey and Lobshey.

Also in 1951 when still under the age of six he was taken on pilgrimage to Lhasa, where he formally received the title of Sakya Trizin (the Throne-holder of Sakya) from the Dalai Lama - thus becoming the forty-first holder of this position . A preliminary enthronement ceremony was held the following year, in which he accepted the official seals of this office.

Following the Parinirvana of His Root Guru Ngawang Lodro Zhenpen Nyingpo in 1953, the latter's Regent, Ngawang Tenzin Nyingpo, became another important guru to him. From this lama he received the initiations and reading tranmission (lung) for sGrub-thabs Kun-btus ("The Collection of Sadhanas"). And from Lama Ngawang Lodro Rinpoche he received the initiations and oral instructions relating to the Three Red Deities, the Three Vajrayoginis, and the two main Sakya Protectors.

At the age of eleven he again journeyed to Lhasa where he received teachings from the Dalai Lama at the Potala Palace. Also on this occasion he gave an extensive explanation of the Mandala Offering before the Dalai Lama and a large assembly. This event led to his wisdom being proclaimed throughout Tibet.

Another guru to His Holiness was the renowned Lama Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, from whom he received many Tantric initiations and teachings, both Sakya and Nyingma.

In 1957 he again received the Lam Dre teachings, on this occasion from the great abbot of Sakya, Vajradhara Jampal Zangpo, according to the tradition of the Khon Lineage transmission.

In 1959 at the age of fourteen he was formally enthroned as the Sakya Trizin, this three-day ceremony being preceded by a seven-day Mahakala ritual. Representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government were in attendance. But by this time the political and military situation in Tibet had undergone a dangerous deterioration, and his flight to neighbouring Sikkim - a three day journey from Sakya - soon became necessary. He was able to take with him only the barest minimum of possessions and a few attendants.

Arriving in India in 1959 at the age of barely 15 he was nonetheless able the following year to found Ghoom Monastery at Darjeeling, and Sa-Ngor Chotsok Monastery at Gangtok in Sikkhim; and also to begin the task of reassembling the Sangha.

Under the oversight of his aunt his studies continued with various of the great Buddhist teachers of the Sakya tradition who had survived the catastrophe in Tibet. From such great scholars as the Abbots Tritso Rinchen and Serjong Appey Rinpoche he received extensive philosophical teachings in Logic, Abhidharma, Madhyamika, the Prajnaparamita, and the "Discrimination of the Three Vows". Particularly from Khenpo Appey he received a thorough and detailed explanation of the Hevajra Root Tantra and other related teachings. And from one of the four Ngor abbots, Phende Khen Rinpoche he received the initiation and explanation of Yamantaka in the Ra Lotsawa Tradition, as well as the collected writings of Ngorchen Könchog Lhundrup.

On account of political tensions between India and China during the early 1960s which were giving rise to military activity in the border regions, His Holiness then moved from Darjeeling to the relative safety of Mussourie in the Himalayan foothills near Dehra Dun.

Around this time he taught the Lam Dre Tsokshey at Varanasi. The Tibetan University had recently been established at nearby Sarnath, and this was a time for regrouping and re-establishing of contacts for many Tibetan people who had been scattered and separated by the traumatic events of recent years. His Holiness, His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpoche (head of the Tsharpa branch of the Sakya Tradition and of Nalendra Monastery), and H.E. Ngor Luding Khen Rinpoche (75th abbot of Ngor Monastery) were all present. This event was seen by many as a watershed, after which a new blossoming of Dharma activity came about.

In 1964 His Holiness undertook the task of re-establishing the main seat of the Sakya Order at Rajpur, near Dehra Dun in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was here that he founded The Sakya Centre for the training of young monks in ritual. 

In 1968, for the benefit of the lay followers of the Sakya Order he additionally established a Tibetan Settlement at Puruwala in Himachal Pradesh. 

Around this time also the King of Nepal donated some land at Lumbini (the birthplace of the Buddha) where H.E. Chogye Trichen established a monastery and temple.

In 1972, Sakya College, a faculty for the higher education and philosophical training of selected monks, was established at Rajpur by Venerable Khenpo Appey Rinpoche at the request of his Holiness, the former becoming its first Dean. Its function would be to provide high quality training in Tantra, Sutra, and common subjects for monks of the necessary ability, in order to maintain the living transmission of the Sakya teachings and commentaries for posterity. Through this particular initiative His Holiness played a major part in the revitalisation of the sutric and tantric traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and in ensuring the supply of a new generation of well trained teachers.

It was here at Rajpur also that in 1971-1972 His Holiness received from Chogye Trichen Rinpoche further extensive transmissions. These included "The Collection of All the Tantras", "The Collected Writings of Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo", The Lam Dre Lob Shey from the Tsharpa Tradition, and "The One Hundred Teachings " of the Jonang Tradition.

In 1974, to maintain the tradition of the Khön Lineage, His Holiness married Dagmo Kusho Tashi Lhakee, the daughter of the Minister of the King of Dege. That same year was highlighted by the auspicious birth of their first son, Ratna Vajra. A second son, Gyana Vajra, was to be born five years later in 1979.

In 1978, he received the complete "reading transmission" (lung) of "The Collected Works of the Five Great Founders of Sakya", and "The Collected Tantric Works of the Omniscient Teacher Gorampa", from the Lord of Refuge Dezhung Rinpoche.

Then in 1980 he performed the opening ceremony of the main Sakya Monastery, Thupten Namgyal Ling at Puruwala. Later, in January 1988, on the anniversary of the Parinirvana of Sakya Pandita, His Holiness consecrated and inaugurated the monastery and temple of Ngor E-wam Choden at Manduwala, near Dehra Dun. Meanwhile larger permanent premises for Sakya College (referred to earlier) had been built at Rajpur, and by the present time it caters for 130 monks, producing 12 graduates each year. 

Thus from the difficult beginnings of exile from his homeland His Holiness has worked ceaselessly for the preservation and successful reconstitution of Sakya's rich and profound Dharma heritage. Apart from these heavy responsibilities he has, in the course of his life so far, undertaken major and minor meditational retreats on twenty deities of the Sakya Lineage, given numerous initiations (including the entire "Collection of Sadhanas" three times), written a large number of texts, and in particular has bestowed the vast Lam Dre teachings on no fewer than eleven occasions. Moreover he has not only been a beacon to his own Tibetan community in their time of crisis, but has taken an extensive part in making the Dharma available world-wide, travelling repeatedly and regularly to teach in many parts of the world. These have included Austria, Canada, Estonia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, and United States. He is an unfailing source of wisdom and compassion for his fortunate disciples.

He lives, when not engaged on his many commitments, at the Dolma Phodrang in Rajpur, Northern India, together with his wife and two sons Ratna Vajra and Gyana Vajra, both of whom have themselves received an extensive education in the Buddha Dharma - this in the interests of preserving unbroken the traditions of the Khön Lineage.

H.H. Ganden Tripa, Gelug
His Holiness the 101th Ganden Tripa, Loungri Namgyel Rinpotche 

Born in Tibet in 1927, the Venerable Loungri Namgyel Rinpotche acquired after forty years of study the title and degrees of Geshe Lharampa (Doctor in Buddhist Philosophy, of the Highest Rank) and of Geshe Ngarampa (specialist of Tantras). 

The achievement of this double curriculum, which allies erudition and intense meditative practice, have made of him, one of the best qualified living Buddhist teachers. On these grounds, the Venerable Loungri Namgyel Rinpotche was sent by His Holiness The Dalai-Lama as envoy representing Buddhism at the oecumenical Assisi meetings convened on the initiative of HH the Pope John-Paul II in 1986 in Italy. 

In 1983, His Holiness The Dalai Lama chose him as Abbot of the Tantric University of Gyutö, and then nine years later as Abbot of Ganden Shartsé monastery, one of the major gelugpa monasteries. 

In 1995, the Venerable Loungri Namgyel Rinpotche was also elevated at the honorary rank of Shartse Chöje, and became therefore the second dignitary in rank of the Gelugpa school. 

In early 2003 His Holiness the Dalai Lama elevated him at the highest position in the Gelugpa school, that of Ganden Tripa (litteraly the Holder of the Throne of Tushita). That position makes its owner the supreme spiritual head of the Gelug lineage founded by Dje Tsong Khapa, the great saint-yogi-pandit. The Gelug lineage is the most widespread in Tibet ; the major monasteries of Ganden, Drepung and Sera as well as the famed Tantric Colleges of Gyutö and Gyumed all belong to that school. (Note that contrary to widespread belief, HH The Dalai-lama does not head the Gelugpa school, although he is the spiritual head of all Tibetan Buddhists). 

The Venerable Loungri Namgyel Rinpotche lives now in Paris, France, where he teaches Buddhist practice and philosophy, at the center he founded in 1980, Thar Deu Ling

H.H. sMen-ri Trizin
His Holiness the 33rd sMen-ri Trizin Lungtok Tenpai Nyima is the worldwide spiritual leader of the Bön culture. Bön is the native culture of Tibet and one of Tibet’s five religious schools. Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong, as he was then called, was born in 1927 at Kyangthang, Amdo, a region on the eastern border of Tibet. At the age of eight he became a monk at Kyong Tsang monastery, which is located near the place where he was born.

When he was sixteen, His Holiness entered the Dialectic School at the Kyong Tsang Monastery. After eight years of study he received his geshe degree, specializing in Tibetan medicine, astronomy, and astrology.

At age twenty-six Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong traveled to Trochen Gyalpo, one of the eighteen kingdoms of Gyalrong in eastern Tibet. Using wooden blocks kept by the king of Trochen Gyalpo, he printed the Kangyur, a set of Bönpo scriptures, which contains over one hundred books. He brought this published Kangyur back to Kyong Tsang Monastery. He also traveled to Tsang province in the west region of Tibet to pursue further studies at the Bön monasteries of Yung Drung Ling, sMen-ri, and Khana. He stayed for five years at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa doing research and practice until the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1959.

At the time of the Chinese invasion he fled on foot from Tibet to Mustang, which is on the border of Tibet and Nepal. From there he went to Pokhara, Nepal, and then continued on to India. While in India Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong received word that the Abbot of Yung Drung Ling Monastery and many other Bönpo lamas had been able to reach Samling, a very old and important Bönpo monastery in the Dolpo region of Nepal. He returned to join these other refugee lamas. After some time they all traveled together down the mountains to the valleys of Nepal.

The books of the Bönpo are very important to their practice and study. When the lamas fled Tibet during the Cultural Revolution, they could not carry the books. The Chinese destroyed all the texts that were left behind in Tibet. It was important to make new copies of these sacred texts. The remaining Bön texts were often available only in very remote areas. Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong went back to Samling Monastery in the high mountains of Nepal to borrow texts so that copies could be made. While at Samling he met Dr. David Snellgrove, a researcher of Oriental and African studies from London University, who advised him on the best place to have copies printed of these sacred texts. Based on this advice, Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong and the Abbot of Yung Drung Ling Monastery took the books to Delhi, India, where they worked with Samten Gyaltson Karmay and Lopon Tenzin Namdak on the project of copying Bön texts.

Dr. Snellgrove invited Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong, the Abbot of Yung Drung Ling Monastery, Lopon Tenzin Namdak, and Samten Gyaltson Karmay to come to England under the sponsorship of the Rockefeller Foundation. There they studied the ways of the west while teaching Tibetan culture and religion in the Oriental and African Studies in London. Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong stayed in England for three years. During this time he also lived and studied with Benedictine, Cistercian, and other Christian monastic orders. In July 1964 he traveled to Rome where he had a private audience with Pope Paul VI.

In 1964 His Holiness the Dalai Lama asked Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong to return to India for the purpose of starting a school for Tibetan refugees in Massori, India. This project was funded by sponsors from England and staffed by teachers from the west who had volunteered to help the refugees. Later this school moved to the south of India after the first permanent Tibetan settlement was established there.

Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong was the head of the school in Massori for three years. During this time he taught Tibetan grammar and history. Each month he sent his entire salary of three hundred rupees to the Bönpo lamas, who now lived in Manali, India. This money made it possible for the lamas to buy food. He also helped create a meditation center in Manali for the lamas and monks. In 1965 Lopon Tenzin Namdak returned from England to look for a place where the Bönpos could settle in India. Catholic Relief Services helped the Bön people find land in Dolanji, Himachal Pradesh, India. The Bönpos were able, with much difficulty, to raise enough money to purchase this land.

In 1966, Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong went to Norway at the invitation of Per Kvaerne, who was at that time the assistant to Professor Simonsen at the University of Oslo. He taught Tibetan history and religion at the University of Oslo for two years.

When the Abbott of sMen-ri suddenly died in 1968, the Abbot of Yungdrung Ling, the second most important monastery in Tibet, became the temporary spiritual head of the Bonpo community in India. He arranged a ceremony in Dolanji to elect the successor of the deceased Abbot of sMen-ri. The Abbot of Yung Drung Ling, Lopon Sangye Tenzin, Lopon Tenzin Namdak, and approximately ten Bönpo geshes prayed in the Drup Khang, the Protector’s temple, for fourteen days. The name of each Bönpo geshe was written on a piece of paper and enclosed in a small ball of ceremonial dough made from barley flour and holy medicine. These balls were placed in a vase. After all the prayers and rituals had been done, the Abbot of Yung Drung Ling shook the vase and three balls came out, one by one, onto a special Mandala. All of the other balls were removed from the vase and the first three were put back in. Then the process began again.

This time two balls were shaken out, one after the other. The second ball held the name of the geshe who would hold a very important position with the Bönpo as a lama and teacher. The first ball, which held the name of the geshe who was to be the new Abbott, was used during a special initiation ceremony. After the rituals were over the first ball was opened in front of all of the Bön people, who had promised to honor the person named as the one true Abbot. When the paper was opened, it revealed that the guardians of the Bön religion had selected Geshe Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong to be Abbot of sMen-ri, the worldwide spiritual leader of the Bön

On the night of March 14 while he was still in Norway, Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong dreamed that he and another geshe were standing on the top of a temple. Each geshe was holding a conch shell used in the monastery to make music at special times. The wind began blowing very hard. The second man was unable to hold his conch shell. It blew out of his hand and broke on the ground below. This geshe’s name was, he later learned, the second one to emerge from the vase at sMen-ri Monastery. In the dream Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong was able to keep his conch shell in his hand and to play it despite the storm. The next morning on March 15, 1968, Sangye Tenzin Jong Dong received a telegram from Dolanji, India informing him that the Protectors of the Bön had selected him to be the 33rd Men-ri Trizin, Abbott of sMen-ri Monastery, and the spiritual leader of the Bön.

His Holiness the 33rd sMen-ri Trizin returned to India, and assumed his duties in Dolanji. Many lamas came from all over the world to give His Holiness initiations and teachings. For over one year he intensively trained and practiced for his role as the Abbott who would guide the Bön in the present and for the future.

This was an important time in the long history of the Bön. Their world had been destroyed, and life was beginning all over again for them not only as individuals but also as a community. They needed a strong and compassionate man to help them rebuild their culture and religion in strange and new surroundings. His task would be to hold the teachings and to keep the Bön people together.

Despite the great difficulties facing him, His Holiness the 33rd sMen-ri Trizin was able to build a new sMen-ri Monastery in Dolanji.Today this monastery has a population of one hundred monks. The Bön Dialectic School, which he established to educate the monks, awards geshe degrees with a certification recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His Holiness the 33rd sMen-ri Trizin created the Bön Children’s Welfare Center, an orphanage at sMen-ri Monastery, which cares for 110 orphans and semi-orphans. The Bon Children's Home in Dolanji provides living quarters for 115 children from the Himalaya area so that they can receive an education consistent with their culture. The Central School for Tibetans at Dolanji educates the children of Dolanji, as well as those in the Bön Children’s Welfare Center, and the Bon Children's Home. The town of Dolanji has a current population of over four hundred Bönpos and is now a center of Tibetan Bön culture and religion.

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