Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche

Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche was born in the seventh lunar month of 1951, the first son of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, into the Tsangsar family, which for generations had held the Barom Kagyu lineage. At eighteen months he was recognised as the seventh incarnation of the Drikung Kagyu lama Gar Drubchen, and soon after he was enthroned at his predecessor’s monastery, Drong Gon Tubten Dargye Ling in Nakchukha, Central Tibet.

Training

Shortly before 1959 he left Tibet with his parents and his younger brother, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, for Gangtok in Sikkim. After the Young Lamas’ School in Dalhousie, he entered Rumtek, the seat of the 16th Karmapa, at thirteen, and spent the next eleven years studying the Karma Kagyu, Drikung Kagyu and Nyingma traditions with teachers including the 16th Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and his father. He studied the major philosophical treatises and earned the degree of khenpo at an early age.

Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling and teaching

In the early 1970s he left Rumtek, where he had been personal aide to the 16th Karmapa, and joined his family in Boudhanath, where at the Karmapa’s command they built Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling beside the Great Stupa. After its completion in 1976 the Karmapa made him its abbot and advised him to teach Western practitioners. He has taught Western students since 1977, through weekend talks in Boudhanath and an annual autumn seminar translated into many languages. In 1980 he toured Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States with his father.

In 1981 he founded the Rangjung Yeshe Institute for Buddhist Studies, which later formed the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Kathmandu University, and Rangjung Yeshe Publications, which publishes his teachings. In 1995 he founded Rangjung Yeshe Gomde on Helgenæs in Denmark, and in 2006 the Dharmachakra Translation Group. Gomde says he oversees nearly 500 monks and nuns, mainly at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling, the Asura Cave retreat centre and Nagi Gompa.

His books include Indisputable Truth, Present Fresh Wakefulness and The Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. In 2008, at the request of the monks and disciples of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling, he wrote a short biography of his father, To Nourish Faith.