Dudjom Rinpoche

Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdral Yeshe Dorje (1904 to 1987), was born into a noble family in Pemakö, in south-eastern Tibet. He was recognised as the incarnation of the tertön Dudjom Lingpa (1835 to 1904), and he became a revealer of treasure teachings himself.

He began his studies with Khenpo Aten in Pemakö and then studied at Mindroling, Dorje Drak, Kathok, Dzogchen and elsewhere, returning to Mindroling to deepen his grasp of the Nyingma tradition. His main teachers included Phungong Tulku Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo and Jedrung Trinlé Jampa Jungné. At eight he began studying Shantideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva with Orgyen Chogyur Gyatso, a personal disciple of Patrul Rinpoche.

After the Tibetans went into exile, he was the first master to be given the title of Supreme Head of the Nyingma school. He settled first in Kalimpong, in India, and later in Kathmandu. He founded or supported communities of practitioners in India and Nepal, among them Zangdok Palri in Kalimpong and Dudjom Gompa at Boudhanath.

He was a householder yogin, married twice, with children. One son, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, is recognised as an incarnation of Longchenpa.

As a writer he produced more than forty volumes. The best known in English is The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History, composed soon after he reached India as a refugee, in Gyurme Dorje’s translation. At the Dalai Lama’s invitation he also wrote a history of Tibet. From the age of seventy-four he worked on revising and editing the Nyingma canonical teachings (the Kama). His own treasure cycles, including the Khandro Tuktik and the Dudjom Tersar ngöndro, are practised in the lineage that bears his name.

In the last decade of his life he taught in the West. He visited London in 1972, 1976 and 1979, and founded centres in France and the United States, including Urgyen Samyé Chöling in France. He settled with his family in the Dordogne area of France, where he gave his last large public teaching in August 1984.