Dilgo Khyentse

When he was seven years old, he was publicly recognized as one of the reincarnations of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo by Shechen Gyaltsap Rinpoche (1871–1926) at Shechen, one of the six principal monasteries of the Nyingmapa school.

During the next few years Dilgo Khyentse received full schooling from various tutors, in addition to training in meditation, and in the study of the dharma in general, and of tantra specifically.

His root guru was Shechen Gyaltsap Rinpoche, and Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro (1893–1959) was his other main spiritual master.

After he completed what is known as the Preliminary Practices (Ngöndro), Khyentse spent most of the next 13 years in silent retreat in remote hermitages and caves near his birthplace.

He married Khandro Lhamo, a woman from a modest family, after he became ill following an austere retreat.

His teacher had prophesied that a cure for his illness would be marriage, despite the fact he was uninterested in it.

Lhamo became a well-known expert in Tibetan medicine, a supporter of Shechen Monastery and his life-long companion.

Dilgo Khyentse spent 20 years in retreat.

After completing a retreat at the age of 28, Khyentse spent many years with Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro.

After receiving from Khyentse Chokyi Lodro the many empowerments of the Rinchen Terdzo (the collection of Revealed Treasures or termas), Dilgo Khyentse requested to spend the rest of his life in solitary meditation.

But Khyentse Chokyi Lodro answered, "The time has come for you to teach and transmit to others the countless precious teachings you have received."

He was born in 1910 in the Denhok Valley at Kham Derge, Eastern Tibet, to a family directly descended from the ninth-century King Trisong Detsen.

His father was a minister to the King of Derge.

In the 1950s, as rebellions broke out in Kham in response to the imposition of Chinese Communist rule, Khyentse and his family escaped to central Tibet, leaving behind his library of dharma books and most of his own writings.

Then in 1959, after the 14th Dalai Lama left Tibet, Khyentse, his family and a few disciples left Tibet, including his brother, the 9th Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche and Tenga Rinpoche, and headed for Bhutan.

The royal family of Bhutan invited him to stay there and teach, and he became their advisor.

In 1980, he founded the Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal, where he transplanted the Shechen tradition to a new home near the great stupa of Boudhanath, just northeast of Kathmandu.

There he gave many teachings over the years to hundreds of other lamas, disciples, and students from around the world.

His senior student is Trulshik Rinpoche, whom he named as his spiritual heir.

Head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism from 1988 to 1991, he is also considered an eminent proponent of the Rime tradition.

As the primary custodian of the teachings of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Dilgo Khyentse was the de facto custodian of the vast majority of Tibetan Buddhist teachings.

He taught many eminent teachers, including the Dalai Lama.

After the Chinese invasion of Tibet, his personal effort was crucial in the preservation of Tibetan Buddhism.

Tashi Paljor, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (c. 1910 – 28 September 1991) was a Vajrayana master, scholar, poet, teacher, and recognized by Buddhists as one of the greatest realized masters.

Over this same period, and until his paranirvana in 1991, Khyentse was involved in publishing as many Tibetan Buddhist teachings as possible, over 300 volumes altogether.

He was one of the few Tibetan Lamas accorded the honorific title "His Holiness".

Following the death of Dudjom Rinpoche in 1987, he became the head of the Nyingma School, and remained so until his death in Bhutan on 28 September 1991.

Student Matthieu Ricard remarked

"'his disciples were as numerous as stars in the autumn sky...we felt that the sun had vanished from the world.'"

Final cremation ceremonies were held for him over a three-day period near Paro in Bhutan, in November 1992 and were attended by over 100 lamas, the Royal Family and ministers of Bhutan, 500 western disciples and 50,000 devotees.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was a perfect example of a Ri-me master.

Additionally he received teachings at Palpung Monastery from the 11th Tai Situ Rinpoche, and full instruction on the ancient Guhyagarbha Tantra and its various commentaries from Khenpo Tubga at Kyangma Ri-tro.

In all he studied with over 50 teachers from the various oral and practice lineages of Tibetan Buddhism.

Later on, the Dalai Lama regarded Dilgo Khyentse as his principal teacher in the Nyingma tradition and of Dzogchen.

Khyentse was also one of the main teachers of Chögyam Trungpa, whom he held in high regard.

Dilgo Khyentse was also a master to teachers from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Later, as he made frequent visits to give teachings to the 14th Dalai Lama at Dharamasala in India, he began giving teachings all over the Himalayas, India, Southeast Asia and the West.

He also engaged in scholarship and composed numerous poems, meditation texts and commentaries.

He was a terton (a discoverer of spiritual treasures) and was considered to have discovered numerous termas.

He was one of the leading masters of the pith-instructions of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, and one of the principal holders of the Longchen Nyingtik tradition.