Sakyong Mipham

His father, Chögyam Trungpa, was a Buddhist monk who fled Tibet in 1959 (at age 20).

His mother, Könchok Paldrön, was a nun who met Trungpa in Tibet and was among the refugees who fled with him to India.

For several years, Mukpo lived with his mother Konchuk Paldron in a Tibetan refugee camp in northwest India.

Sakyong Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, Jampal Trinley Dradül (born Ösel Rangdrol Mukpo ca. November 15, 1962) is a Tibetan Buddhist lama and holder of the Sakyong Lineage of Mukpodong, a family lineage.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche was born Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo in Bodhgaya, India about November 15, 1962, although his mother was not certain of the exact date.

His father left India in early 1963 to study at Oxford University.

At the age of seven, he went to live with his father at Samye Ling in Scotland.

Ösel was left at Samye Ling in the care of Akong Rinpoche when his father moved to North America.

Later that year when Akong travelled to India, he left the boy in the care of Christopher and Pamela Woodman.

Diana Mukpo returned to retrieve the boy from the couple who were caring for him near Samye Ling but they refused to surrender him.

Social Services took custody of young Ösel and he was moved to Pestalozzi Village, a boarding school for orphaned children established during WWII.

He resided there until Social Services could conduct a home inspection in the US.

Young Ösel was released to his father's custody in 1972 after more than two years alone in Britain.

Ösel Mukpo has two younger half-brothers by his father and Diana Mukpo, (Gesar Mukpo and Tagtrug "Taggie" Mukpo), a half-brother, Gyurme Dorje Onchen, by his mother "Lady" Konchuk Paldron and her husband Lama Pema Gyaltson, and two younger step-brothers (Ashoka Mukpo) and David Mukpo, sons of Diana Mukpo and Mitchell Levy.

In 1979, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche performed a ceremony officially investing his son Ösel Rangdröl with the title of Sawang ("earth lord").

This confirmed Ösel as his Shambhala heir and the future Sakyong.

After his father's death in 1987, the Sawang began his studies with Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, in Nepal which continued until the Mahasiddah's death.

At that time and at the instruction of Khyentse Rinpoche, Mukpo began his studies with Pema Norbu Rinpoche(Penor Rinpoche) in India where he attended Shedra at Namdrolling Monastery and continued to oversee the Vajradhatu community.

The young Sakyong spent six months each year in the east in his studies, and six months in the west relating to the sangha.

When Trungpa Rinpoche's Regent Ösel Tendzin died in 1990, the 27-year-old Sawang was acknowledged by Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche as Trungpa's successor in the Kagyu, Nyingma and Shambhala lineages and head of the Vajradhatu organization.

The Sakyong led the Shambhala organization, a worldwide network of Buddhist meditation centers, retreat centers, a monastery, and other enterprises, from 1991 until 2021 when they parted ways.

He is the son of the renowned Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

The Sakyong was recognized in 1995 as the tulku (reincarnation) of Mipham the Great, the great Rime teacher of the late 19th century.

Upon discovering that Trungpa Rinpoche had given the boy the name Mipham Lhaga, Penor Rinpoche recognized Mukpo as the tulku of Mipham the Great, and in May 1995 he was formally enthroned as Sakyong.

Since then he has been known by the title Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

In 2002 the Sakyong began running.

His first marathon was Toronto in 2003.

He trained and ran in nine marathons, including Big Sur, Chicago, and the New York and Boston Marathons in 2005

In 2005 the Sakyong met and married Semo Tseyang Palmo Ripa, daughter of the Tibetan Buddhist Rinpoche Terton Namkha Drimed Ripa, a Nyingma master and holder of the Ripa family lineage.

They first met when Penor Rinpoche invited the Gesar Lingdro dancers to perform at Namdroling monastery where the Sakyong was studying.

The Sakyong's mother, Konchuk Paldron also knew the Ripa family, and had close ties to the bride's paternal uncle, though the Sakyong did not meet them until this time.

In late 2008 and early 2009 the Sakyong received the Rinchen Terdzo, or the complete cycle of terma teachings of the Nyingma school of Buddhism from Namkha Drimed Rinpoche in Orissa, India.

This cycle of teachings had been given to Namkha Drimed Rinpoche by the Sakyong's father, Chogyam Trungpa in Tibet.

In 2009 he began teaching the Scorpion Seal terma, the highest teachings of the Shambhala lineage to more than two thousand students.

For the next several years he taught extensively on these deep teachings at the four Shambhala retreat centers, Shambhala Mountain Center in Colorado, Karme Choling, in Vermont, Dorje Denma Ling, in Nova Scotia, and Dechen Choling, in France.

In July 2018, after more than two decades at the helm Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche agreed to temporarily step back from his administrative and teaching duties to allow space for an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

He continued to write and teach on this terma cycle until the summer of 2018.

He resumed teaching in late 2019.

He legally separated from the Shambhala organization in February 2022 after an impasse in which the Shambhala Board of Directors could not agree with the Sakyong Potrang - the organization representing the Sakyong - on a way forward together.

He moved to Nepal and gives teachings to his international sangha most weekends online.