Trungram Gyaltrul Rinpoche

Trungram Gyalwa Rinpoche (Trungram Gyaltrul Rinpoche) is the head of the Trungram descent, and one of the highest tulkus of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

He has received extensive transmissions of the Nyingma ancestry, and teaches in the spirit of the nonsectarian Rimé movement.

He is also the first incarnate lama to earn a Ph.D. in the West, having completed a doctoral program in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Harvard University.

Gyalwa has founded organizations throughout Asia and United States which aims to modernize ancient Buddhist teachings.

He was awarded a Ph.D. in 2004, with a dissertation on Gampopa, the most prominent disciple of Milarepa, focusing on Gampopa's seminal role in the development of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Trungram Gyalwa gave his first public teaching as a young boy to visitors from European countries.

He taught the essence of Naropa's Mahamudra and the practice of Avalokiteshvara.

The next year he gave a teaching on the 37 practices of Bodhisattvas to the monks of Rumtek, praised by all the khenpos and rinpoches present.

Soon after, he performed his first initiation, transmitting the essence of the Kagyupa Long Life Buddha practice.

Trungram Gyalwa has given teachings and initiations and helped create groups and centers for Buddhist studies in many countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bhutan, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan and the United States.

Born into a Nepalese Sherpa family, Gyalwa was recognized by Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa as the Fourth Trungram Gyalwa Rinpoche, the reincarnation of the third Trungram Gyalwa.

Trungram Gyalwa was born into a Nepalese Sherpa family.

Some accounts speculate that Trungram Gyalwa had a transparent abdomen as an infant, which eventually led his parents to take him to seek out the 16th Karmapa, supreme head of the Kagyu lineage.

According to accounts shared by some spiritual center, in a public audience, before his parents had a chance to speak with the Karmapa, the 16th Karmapa recognized the child on sight as the “intentionally reborn” manifestation (tulku) of the third Trungram Gyalwa.

The 16th Karmapa explained Trungram Gyalwa's marking as a symbol of his predecessor's realization of Mahamudra practice.

Some sources state that the 16th Karmapa proclaimed the boy as the 4th Trungram Gyalwa, with the formal name of “Trungram Gyalwa Tulku Karma Tenpai Gyaltsen Trinlay Kunkhyab Pal Sangpo", and bestowed him with dharma robes. He gave Gyalwa Buddhist refuge vows and wrote a long-life prayer for him. Trungram Gyalwa was enthroned at Rumtek Monastery, the main seat of the Karmapa, in Sikkim, India.

Gyalwa Trulku was the personal name of the first incarnation of the Trungram Gyalwa lineage.

The term "Trulku" refers to incarnation.

Since the first Trungram Gyalwa belonged to the Trungram teaching lineage and was highly respected, his full name was Trungram Gyalwa Trulku Rinpoche.

However, he often used "Gyaltrul," the shortened form of "Gyalwa Trulku," making his name Trungram Gyaltrul Rinpoche.

The 4th Trungram Gyalwa Rinpoche is also known as Trungram Gyaltrul Rinpoche, and, to a lesser degree, Drungram Gyaltrul, Tenpai Gyaltsen, Gyalwa Lama, and Gyalwa Trulku.

He himself prefers to write Trungram Gyalwa, although his official name is either H.E. Trungram Gyalwa Rinpoche or H.E. Trungram Gyaltrul Rinpoche.

In the West, he often uses Trungram Gyalwa Rinpoche, PhD; worldwide, his students simply call him Rinpoche.

Trungram Gyalwa's studies began at Rumtek Monastery at age three.

There he received a traditional monastic education, followed by studies on Tibetan and Buddhist literature and philosophy at Jamyang Khang school.

He took the vows of a novice monk (getsul), but did not later take full ordination, and returned his novice vows before attending university.

Trungram Gyalwa entered the Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies in Rumtek, where he studied the traditional fields of Buddhist philosophy, logic, epistemology, soteriology, cosmology, codes, debates, history, poetry, Sanskrit, literature, medicine, and meditation.

During his time at Nalanda, he, with others, helped to set up and run the Students' Welfare Union of Nalanda.

He also served as one of the three main teaching assistants of Nalanda Institute.

He earned the title of Ka-rabjampa ("one with unobstructed knowledge of scriptures") from Nalanda, and also received the degree of Acharya, or Master of Buddhist Philosophy, with First Class Honors from Sampurnanant Sanskrit University, in Varanasi, India.

Reflecting the non-sectarian approach of his predecessor, Trungram Gyalwa's teachers come from all four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism (Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Geluk).

He studied with some of the most prominent masters of recent years, including the 16th Karmapa and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

He received most of his teachings and empowerments from these two Rinpoches and from Khenchen Trinley Paljor Rinpoche (appointed by the 16th Karmapa to be Trungram Gyalwa's tutor).

His other Buddhist teachers include Sakya Trizin, the late Ugyen Tulku Rinpoche, the late Khamtrul Rinpoche, Trulshik Rinpoche, the late Kalu Rinpoche, the late Salje Rinpoche and the late Gendun Rinpoche.

He studied extensively under Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and Khenpo Choedrak Rinpoche.

Besides traditional Buddhist education, Trungram Gyalwa studied liberal arts at Kirkwood College in Iowa, U.S.A., and later at Newbury College in Massachusetts, U.S.A. He worked with Professor Donald Lopez as a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, and was involved in a teaching exchange program and sutra translation there.

Later, he studied Chinese for six months in Taiwan at the Language Learning Center of National Taiwan Normal University.

He is fluent in Tibetan, English, Nepali, Sherpa, Chinese, and has a good knowledge of Sanskrit, Hindi and French.

Trungram Gyalwa entered the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences as a doctoral student in the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies.

His concentration was on Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies with special emphasis on comparative studies.