Today, Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche turns 75
Seventy-five years of life. More than half a century of teaching the Dharma. Thousands of students. Monasteries, institutes, retreat centres, books, translations, charitable projects — and countless personal encounters in which people received advice, blessings, encouragement, or simply kindness at a moment when they needed it most.
Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche was born in 1951 into the renowned Tsangsar family of Nangchen in Eastern Tibet. He is the eldest son of the great Dzogchen master Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and a great-great-grandson of the great treasure revealer Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa. At only eighteen months old, he was recognised as the seventh incarnation of the Drikung Kagyu master Gar Drubchen, a Tibetan siddha regarded as a spiritual emanation of Nagarjuna.
His childhood coincided with the disappearance of the old world of Tibetan Buddhism. After leaving Tibet, Rinpoche studied in Sikkim and India. At Rumtek he spent ten years studying the Karma Kagyu, Drikung Kagyu and Nyingma traditions under some of the greatest Buddhist masters of the twentieth century, including the 16th Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche, Khamtrul Rinpoche, Kunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen and his own father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche.
In 1974, Rinpoche joined his family in Boudhanath, Nepal, where, at the direction of the 16th Karmapa, they established Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery. When the monastery was completed, the Karmapa appointed the 24-year-old Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche as its abbot.
The 16th Karmapa also gave him an instruction that would shape the following decades of his life: rather than spending his life in long personal retreats, Rinpoche should devote himself to teaching Western practitioners. He improved his English and began communicating the Buddha’s teachings to people raised in a very different culture.
From this grew what we now know as the international Rangjung Yeshe mandala.
Rinpoche began his annual seminars in 1980. In 1981, together with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, he embarked on an extensive teaching tour through Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia. Over the decades came the library and Rangjung Yeshe Publications, the Rangjung Yeshe Institute, DharmaSun, Tara’s Triple Excellence, and an international family of Dharma centres and Gomdes. Today, Rangjung Yeshe Gomdes exist in many countries around the world — including Gomde Ukraine.
Rinpoche also assumed responsibility for Nagi Gompa, which developed into a flourishing community of nuns; supported higher Buddhist education; established major retreat programmes; founded the charitable organisation Shenpen; and, together with his family, worked to fulfil Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s final aspiration of establishing a great Buddhist monastery in Lumbini, culminating in the Temple of 1,000 Buddhas.
Yet perhaps the most important part of this life cannot be measured in monasteries, books, students or projects.
There is a small but telling detail in Rinpoche’s biography. Despite carrying responsibility for a vast international mandala and for the spiritual education and welfare of hundreds of monks and nuns, for decades Rinpoche has kept the doors of his personal shrine room open as often and as widely as possible. People come seeking advice, blessings and guidance — and sometimes simply because they need kindness and attention. Rinpoche receives them with warmth and his characteristic good humour.
Perhaps this tells us something essential about a teacher.
Not only what he teaches, but how he lives.
For us in the Ukrainian sangha, it is especially precious that within Rinpoche’s vast worldwide mandala there is also our small Gomde Ukraine. During the years of war, his blessings, teachings, care, and confidence that the Dharma should continue to live and grow here in Ukraine have meant more to us than we can easily express.
On Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche’s 75th birthday, we offer our heartfelt gratitude for the Dharma he has transmitted; for the lineage he preserves; for the places of practice he has created; for his tireless activity; for his patience; for his humour; for his kindness — and for showing through his own life how wisdom and compassion can become very concrete activity in this world.
Dear Rinpoche, may your life be long and strong.
May all your aspirations be fulfilled.
May your activity continue to benefit countless beings.
And may we have the merit to receive your teachings for many more years, to practise them, and to bring them into our lives.
Happy 75th Birthday, dear Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche!
With boundless gratitude, love and devotion,
Rangjung Yeshe Ukraine & Gomde Ukraine
Read more about the extraordinary life and activity of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche: