Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche

Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, born Tsering Paldrön in 1969, is the eldest daughter of Mindrolling Trichen Gyurme Künzang Wangyal, the 11th throne holder of the Mindrolling lineage, one of the six main Nyingma lineages. Her sister is Jetsün Dechen Paldrön. At two she was recognised by the 16th Karmapa as the reincarnation of Khandro Urgyen Tsomo, the Great Dakini of Tsurphu, and so she holds both the Nyingma lineage, as a Mindrolling Jetsünma, and the Kagyu lineage, as a tulku.

Lineage and teachers

Mindrolling has a line of female masters, the Jetsünmas, daughters of successive throne holders. It begins with Jetsün Mingyur Paldrön (1699–1769) and continues through Khandro Rinpoche. She began receiving teachings at a very young age. Her biography names her teachers as her father and root guru Mindrolling Trichen, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Trulshik Rinpoche, Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Tenga Rinpoche.

Centres and projects

In 1993 she established Samten Tse Retreat Centre at Mussoorie in India, a branch of Mindrolling Monastery. It is a place of study and retreat for nuns and Western lay practitioners, and it was conceived as a new home for the nunnery tradition that existed in Tibet. The same year she and her sister co-founded the Dharmashri Foundation, which archives, translates and distributes teachings. In 2003 she founded Mindrolling Lotus Garden in Stanley, Virginia, the North American seat of Mindrolling International. The Rangjung Yeshe Wiki says she set it up in the Rimé spirit, to host teachers from all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. She also leads Samten Tse centres and associations in France, Germany, Greece, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Poland and Spain.

She is president of Mindrolling International and of Samten Tse Charitable Projects. She remains closely involved with Mindrolling Monastery in India.

Her biography, last updated in 2019, says she had then been teaching for two decades in Europe, North America and Asia.