Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–1991) was one of the most prominent Nyingma masters of the twentieth century. He was a teacher to the present Dalai Lama and to many of today’s senior Tibetan lamas, and a prolific author and treasure revealer.

Early life and training

He was born in 1910 in the Denma region of Derge, in Kham, to the Dilgo family, which claimed descent from the ninth-century king Trisong Detsen and had been major patrons of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. At one month old he received blessings and the name Tashi Peljor from Mipam Gyatso. In his teens he was enthroned at Shechen Monastery by the fourth Shechen Gyeltsab as a reincarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. Shechen Gyeltsab became his root guru. He also studied with Khenpo Zhenga and, for many years, with Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, who in 1945 gave him the transmission of Jamgon Kongtrul’s Rinchen Terdzö.

After Shechen Gyeltsab died in 1926 he entered secluded retreat, and he spent many years in retreat in all. In 1934 he took Khandro Lhamo as his consort and lived as a householder, never fully ordained. They had two daughters. He revealed treasure teachings, among them Pema’s Heart Essence of Longevity, and his writings fill twenty-five volumes.

Exile and Shechen

He left Tibet in the late 1950s, after the Dalai Lama had gone into exile, and stayed in Kalimpong with Dudjom Rinpoche before Bhutan became his main home from 1965. The Treasury of Lives says he spent three decades teaching and giving transmissions across Bhutan, India and Nepal. He recognised his grandson as the Seventh Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche. He first visited the West in 1975 and established a three-year retreat centre in the Dordogne in France.

In 1980 he built Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling at Boudhanath in Nepal, which became the main seat of Shechen outside Kham and a centre for publishing Nyingma scripture. From 1985 he made three visits to Tibet, where he took part in rebuilding Shechen and presided over the reconsecration of Samye in 1990.

Students and legacy

Shechen lists the Dalai Lama, Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Pema Wangyal Rinpoche, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche and Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche among his students, alongside teachers from all four schools. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche names him as his main teacher. He died in Bhutan on 27 September 1991, and more than fifty thousand people attended the cremation. His reincarnation, Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche, was born in 1993. His autobiography, Brilliant Moon, was translated by Ani Jinpa and published by Shambhala in 2008.