A grand lineage

Birth and early childhood

Receiving ordination, teachings and tantric initiations

Giving teachings and initiations

Tutoring Kundun

A prolific author

A practice fit for a King

An new generation of disciples

What they say

Bringing Buddhism to the West

Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche

Recognized as an emanation of Vajrayogini, Trijang Rinpoche is one of the world’s most renowned Lamas. Almost every Gelug Lama in the world will have received teachings from him, directly or indirectly, and therefore, almost all Gelugpas today hold him as their lineage Lama. It was because his extensive teachings throughout his life that we now have so many of the lineages and practices in all corners of the globe.

Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche rose to great renown as the current Dalai Lama’s Junior Tutor for 50 years. Many of the practices that the Dalai Lama is now conferring to people all around the world would have come from Trijang Rinpoche. He as also the root Lama of many Gelug Lamas who have taught around the world, including Zong Rinpoche, Geshe Rabten, Lama Yeshe and Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. Geshe Kelsang has likened Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche to "a vast reservoir from which all Gelugpa practitioners of the present day received ‘waters’ of blessings and instructions," and the FPMT describes him as "one of the foremost Tibetan Buddhist masters of our time." In turn, these other highly respected Lamas brought the practice global in their respective centers.

It is widely acknowledged that without his guidance, the situation of Tibetan Buddhism in general and in particular of the tradition of Master Je Tsongkhapa would be in quite a different state. A great number of present-day Tibetan Buddhist masters are his students and whatever they have accomplished, they owe it directly or indirectly to the great kindness of this master, who stands out as one of the most influential figures in the history of Tibet and its Buddhism.

A grand lineage

Trijang Rinpoche’s first incarnation was that of the chariot driver Chandra. It was Chandra who escorted Buddha Shakyamuni out of the palace for the final time, to renounce his worldly position to become a Buddha. Chandra exchanged his clothes with Shakyamuni before bidding him goodbye, thus leaving him to begin his spiritual path.

Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche is also recognized as the incarnation of the great Chandrakirti, the great expounder of Nagarjuna’s view of emptiness. Then, he also incarnated as Atisha, the Indian master who started the Kadampa tradition and author of the seminal text, the Lamrim, that combined the entire breadth of Lord Buddha’s Sutra teachings.

Birth and early childhood

Trijang Rinpoche’s father, Tsering Dondrub, was descended from the uncle of the 7th Dalai Lama, Losang Kelsang Gyatso and he was knowledgeable in the Dharma. His mother, Tsering Drolma, came from the village of Gungtang Nanggong, which is also where Trijang Rinpoche was born in the winter of 1901, the "Year of Increase" or the "Iron Bull year".  An apricot tree mystically flowered and 30 apricots bloomed at his birth even though it was deep in winter. Before he could walk, he already showed great interest in religious paintings, statues, and tantric ritual implements; and would make as if he was reciting prayers.

When news of his precocious actions reached Ngarampa Losang Tendar and Geshe Gendun Dragpa Chen, who were responsible for finding the reincarnation of Losang Tsultrim Palden, the 85th Ganden Tripa and former Trijang Rinpoche, they travelled to his birthplace of Gungtang. When the child saw them, he yelled out: "Gendun Dragpa!" and later asked him to wash his feet. Gendun Dragpa used to wash the feet of Losang Tsultrim Palden when he had rheumatism. The child also correctly identified the former Trijang Rinpoche’s private Buddha statue, rosary and bowl from among a selection. This and other signs led the search party to conclude that they had probably found the correct incarnation.

Upon being given a list of names of several boys who had shown encouraging signs, the 13th Dalai Lama said, "It would be best to recognize the boy born to the Gungtang girl Tsering Drolma in the Iron Bull year as the reincarnation of the former occupant of the Ganden throne."

The 13th Dalai Lama invited him in 1904, when he was three, to the Lhasa Trijang residence. He quickly and easily learnt to read, study and comprehend, from the alphabet onward, whatever he was taught.

In 1906, at the age of five, he moved to the Trijang Residence at Chuzang Ritroe, where he met Pabongka Rinpoche. From him, he received his first teaching, the set of initiations into Manjushri from the Secret Lineage of Tsongkhapa. Pabongka Rinpoche took great delight in caring for the young child. Their strong connection was to last a lifetime and he became Pabongka Rinpoche’s closest disciple.

Receiving ordination, teachings and tantric initiations

In 1907, aged six, he went to Gepel Ling Monastery at Reteng, the birthplace of the Kadampa teachings. There, he took the five lay Pratimoksha vows and the ten novice vows of a monk, receiving the name Losang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso Pelsangpo. He memorized many Buddhist texts while studying there, including over half of the Madhyamakavatara by Chandrakirti, and analyzed their meaning. Later that year, he visited Ganden monastery, and was received by the Shartse and Jangste abbots, who he apparently recognized, along with the main temple, without introduction.

He spent the next 12 years studying the classical texts for the Geshe degree — Pramanavartika, Madhyamaka, Prajnaparamita, Vinaya and Abhidharmakosha — principally according to the textbooks by Panchen Sonam Drakpa. Before he was even eight years old, he had already received the Kalachakra initiation from Serkong Rinpoche, as well as empowerments into Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani.  He also studied the collected works of Je Tsongkhapa, the 1st Dalai Lama, and the Panchen Lama Chokyi Gyeltsen. At Ganden, he would debate all night outdoors in the bitter cold, even though it meant his hands would chap so badly that they would crack and bleed. He was the top student in his class.

Later, he also received empowerments of Guhyasamaja, Yamantaka, Heruka and Vajrayogini. He continued to receive countless instructions and initiations from Pabongka Rinpoche, including the Collected Works of Gyalwa Ensapa, the Collected Works of Panchen Chokyi Gyaltsen and the Guru yoga of Je Tsongkhapa called Ganden Lha Gya Ma. He received the "Empowerment into the Six Ways to Revolve the Chakras of Heruka" as well as all the Action Tantra empowerments from Khyenrab Yonten Gyatso, the 88th Ganden Tripa, in 1915, when he was only 14. When he was 15, he studied the complete Tibetan grammar and from then on, composed thousands of acrostic verses, such as:

“Ah Friends! While the spittle drools from the Death Lord’s smile
Bleaching your head as white as falling snow
Could this tedious life yield aught but chaff?
Dharma from my Guru is what I’ll practice!”

He also composed chants for spiritual practices and ceremonies, and scores for their music for use by Ganden Shartse monastery. He was a learned scholar and master debater. In 1919, when he was only 18, he debated before the Geshes of the three major Gelugpa monasteries for his final examination. They had wondered if he would be intellectually up to the task because he was so young and had not studied for very long, but they ended up "praising him to the skies" for the answers he gave. The 13th Dalai Lama awarded him third place, and he received the highest Geshe degree, the Lharampa.

Shortly afterward, he received the 253 ordination vows of a fully ordained monk from the 13th Dalai Lama. He was then admitted to the Upper Tantric College, Gyuto, in 1919, where he studied the Root Tantra of Heruka and its commentary by Je Tsongkhapa, Illuminating all Hidden Meanings.

From the ages of 20 to 22, Trijang Rinpoche received many further teachings and empowerments from his root Guru Je Phabongkhapa, including the initiation into the sindhura mandala of Vajrayogini according to Naropa, the Heruka body mandala empowerment according to Ghantapa, teachings on Lama Chopa, Gelugpa Mahamudra, the Lamrim Chenmo by Je Tsongkhapa and Seven Points of Training the Mind by Geshe Chekhawa. At this young age, Trijang Rinpoche had already begun to engage in his preliminary practices of purifying the mind and accumulating merit in conjunction with Lama Chopa; he also meditated on Lamrim and Lojong (training the mind).

Giving teachings and initiations

In 1924, when he was just 23, Geshe Yonten of Ganden Shartse College requested him to teach, so he gave the oral transmission of the Collected Works of Je Tsongkhapa and His Main Disciples to about 200 monks, followed later by granting the empowerment of Vajrayogini according to Naropa to about 60 Lamas, incarnate Lamas and monks.

From then onwards, Trijang Rinpoche would receive numerous invitations to teach and give empowerments at many of the most prominent monasteries of the time. From the ages of 24 to 27, he travelled and taught extensively at many Gelugpa places of learning all over Tibet, becoming increasingly well known and teaching many thousands of monastics and lay people. He also taught at Sakyapa and Nyingmapa Centers at their request. He would often give teachings on the Lamrim, confer initiations to various practices including Avalokiteshvara, Chakrasamvara and Padmasambhava, and lead retreats. During his extensive travels he was known for making many offerings to the Sangha of many monasteries, helping them to rebuild their temples and reviving teachings in places where the teachings had degenerated or were lost.

During the next few years, until 1932, he received profound teachings from Pabongka Rinpoche, including the oral instructions of many secret Gelugpa lineages; he also engaged in Tantric retreats.

Tutoring Kundun

In 1933, the 13th Dalai Lama died, and Trijang Rinpoche helped Ling Rinpoche and other great Lamas from Sera Monastery and Namgyal Monastery consecrate the body and the reliquary. He was later also elected to be the Junior Tutor to the 14th Dalai Lama in 1941, when he was 30 years old. Together with Ling Rinpoche, who was the Senior Tutor, he helped to educate the young Dalai Lama, initially teaching him how to read and memorize texts to be recited. In 1942, he was one of the Dalai Lama’s ordaining monks (and later in 1954, acted as the "inquisitor into the secrets" when the Dalai Lama took full ordination.)

Later, it would be Trijang Rinpoche who granted the Dalai Lama some of the most important empowerments, including Heruka Five Deities according to Ghantapa, Vajrayogini according to Naropa, Chittamani Tara, Guhyasamaja; also, many extensive oral transmissions and discourses to the most central teachings of the Gelug lineage – the Collected Works of Je Tsongkhapa, the Guru Puja, Gelugpa Mahamudra and Yamantaka Tantra, the 800-verse Prajnaparamita Sutra, Wheel of Sharp Weapons and Lojong, among others.

The 14th Dalai Lama describes Trijang Rinpoche as his "root Guru" in two of his books. Trijang Rinpoche played an especially supportive role to the Dalai Lama during the struggle against the Chinese occupation at the most difficult and turbulent time of Tibetan history. The escape of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from Tibet in 1959 was also due to the wisdom and efforts of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, who also personally accompanied His Holiness on this perilous journey.

In between, while overseeing the full education of the Dalai Lama, he also always continued to teach and give empowerments to larger and larger numbers of monks at the tantric colleges, Tashi Lhunpo, Ganden, Sera, Namgyal and elsewhere.

According to Helmut Gassner, translator for the 14th Dalai Lama for 17 years, “Trijang Rinpoche was in many ways one of the most important figures of his time. In the 50s, he was the power behind His Holiness, a pillar of strength in the difficult and troubled times for the Tibetan people. This fact was well known to the Communist Chinese and so Trijang Lobsang Yeshe became their main enemy. It was also Trijang Rinpoche who taught His Holiness the Dalai Lama the concepts of Buddhism as well as the understanding of politics and mastering of social skills.”

Throughout this time, Trijang Rinpoche and Ling Rinpoche are both remembered for having a very respectful relationship, working very closely as tutors to His Holiness. He and the senior tutor Ling Rinpoche would also exchange teachings and initiations. For example, in 1969 he taught Ling Rinpoche the Lamrim Chenmo, and in 1970 he granted him Yamantaka empowerment. In return, in 1970 he received from Ling Rinpoche the Action Tantra empowerment of Vairochana and also teachings on the Lamrim.

While in exile in India, Trijang Rinpoche continued to teach the Dalai Lama, as well as many other disciples at the newly located monasteries in Buxa, the Tantric colleges in Dalhousie and a Tibetan monastery in Varanasi. At this time, he also granted many empowerments. It is these teachings and practices that continue to be shared with the world by his disciples, who in turn have become renowned masters – Zong Rinpoche, Geshe Rabten, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, SeraMey Geshe Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche, to name just a few.

As the great monasteries of Tibet – such as Ganden, Sera and Drepung – began to re-establish themselves throughout the Tibetan settlements in India, Trijang Rinpoche contributed significantly to keeping the teachings alive by continuously teaching and granting empowerments to hundreds of monastics and laypeople alike. He also made offerings to the Sangha, and donated statues and thangkas to the main temples of these monasteries.

During the early days in India, both Trijang Rinpoche and Ling Rinpoche played vital roles in outlining the basic structure of the Tibetan Government in Exile, advising the Dalai Lama, and laying down the foundations of the three great monasteries in South India, the Tantric colleges and various smaller monasteries (while heads of other sects provided their leadership to their respective orders).

Notably, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche also wrote Gyallu, the Tibetan National Anthem, which was adopted by the community-in-exile around 1950 and is still used to this day. The anthem focuses on the radiance of Buddha Shakyamuni.

By the spread of Buddha’s teachings in the ten directions,
May everyone throughout the world enjoy the glories of happiness and peace.
In the battle against dark negative forces,
May the auspicious sunshine of the teachings and beings of Tibet
And the brilliance of a myriad radiant prosperities be ever triumphant.

A prolific author

Although respected by Lamas in all Tibetan Buddhist schools, and even invited by them to give teachings and initiations, Trijang Rinpoche taught primarily from the Gelugpa tradition of Je Tsongkhapa. He was also the holder of the Ganden Oral Tradition that was passed to him in its entirety by his root Guru Pabongka Rinpoche.

In 1938, when Trijang Dorjechang was 37, Pabongka Rinpoche was invited to Ganden monastery to teach the Lamrim Chenmo, the Great Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, which he did over a four-week period to over 2000 monks and many lay people. During that time, Je Phabongka gave his chief disciple Trijang Rinpoche a copy of the text in gold lettering, along with ritual substances and other precious items.

Later, Trijang Rinpoche was responsible for editing this classic Lamrim text by his root Guru, Pabongka Rinpoche, entitled Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. This continues to serve as the central text used in monasteries and Dharma centers everywhere in the world, studied by both the Sangha and lay people.

Trijang Rinpoche also authored many other pivotal Buddhist texts that have become integral study and practice texts for practitioners. Among these texts are Liberation for Your Safekeeping, a composition from notes on Pabongka Rinpoche’s discourses on Lamrim (which is included among the Collected Works of Je Pabongka);  nitiations into Chittamani Tara, White Tara and the Protector Dorje Shugden, various biographies, rituals, prayers and supplications, including for the reincarnation of various Lamas.

According to Geshe Helmut Gassner, the Dalai Lama’s translator for 17 years and one of only two ordained Western Geshes, “The great master Pabongka was in the first half of the twentieth century the pivotal or key lineage holder of the Oral Geden Tradition. Many other teachers before him mastered certain aspects of the tradition’s teachings, but it was Pabongka Rinpoche’s particular merit to locate and find all these partial transmissions, to learn and realize them, and bring them together once again to pass them on through a single person. In his lifetime there was hardly a significant figure of the Geden tradition who had not been Pabongka Rinpoche’s disciple. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was the one capable of receiving and passing on the entirety of the Oral Geden Tradition once again. The Dorje Shugden practice is an integral part of that tradition.”

Many disciples regard Trijang Rinpoche as the most outstanding Master in every field of Buddhist teachings and Tibetan culture. He was the very source of all the fields of knowledge and a consultant in all of them. It was a well-known fact that he had really been the very epitome of a Master who had attained the highest realizations of the Sutras and Tantras, as well as an unsurpassable propagator.

A practice fit for a King

Like his teacher, Pabongka Rinpoche, Trijang Rinpoche was an adherent of the practice of the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden and widely promoted it. He wrote Music Delighting the Ocean of Protectors, a commentary to a praise of Dorje Shugden called Infinite Aeons, written by Dagpo Kalsang Khedrup, who was the Guru of Pabongka’s Guru, Dagpo Jampel Lhundrup.

Trijang Rinpoche stated, on many occasions, that Dorje Shugden is an emanation of the wisdom Buddha Manjushri. He also stated that in order for someone to become convinced that Dorje Shugden was a worldly spirit, "A mountain of absurd consequences, previously non-existent distorted ideas, would have to be accepted."

A new generation of disciples

Trijang Rinpoche’s disciples consider him to be in the same mental continuum as Atisha, and the lineage holder of all the essential Gelugpa lineages of Lamrim, Lojong and Mahamudra.

Trijang Rinpoche also had many other less well known disciples and was an object of pilgrimage first in Tibet and later in Dharamsala and Mundgod in India.

Almost every Tibetan sought his guidance and blessings in almost all situations and activities. These included great masters, senior and junior Rinpoches, Geshes, monks, nuns, ministers, business people, men, women, old and young, poor and rich, intellectuals or practitioners. Tibetans from practically every walk of life sought his help and advice in their good and bad times. He cared for everyone equally, without discrimination, with boundless compassion and patience.

Among these countless students, Trijang Rinpoche had many well-known disciples, some of whom have become especially renowned in the West, including the 14th Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe, and Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, who continues his unmixed practice and transmission of the Ganden oral tradition.

What they say

“These two (Ling Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche) remained my tutors until the end of my formal education, and I continually received numerous lineages of the Tibetan Buddhist heritage from both of them. They were close friends but very different characters. Trijang Rinpoche was a tall, thin man of great grace and elegance with a rather pointed nose for a Tibetan. He was gentle and had a deep voice, which was particularly melodious when he chanted. Trijang Rinpoche was one of the greatest poets of his generation, with an eclectic command of art and literature." ~ H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama

"It was Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang who offered His Holiness the most important transmissions of Dharma such as the Great Lamrim, the Chakrasamvara Tantra and many hundreds of various initiations and special instructions. He also helped His Holiness in his younger age to compose texts, prepare speeches, etc." ~ Gonsar Rinpoche

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, a scholar and Yogi who teaches in the West, has praised Trijang Dorjechang as his kind root Guru on many occasions. He has followed him and his lineage teachings and attributed his success with the New Kadampa Tradition to his root Guru. He has likened Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche to "a vast reservoir from which all Gelugpa practitioners of the present day received ‘waters’ of blessings and instructions."

"I have received these teachings from my Spiritual Guide, Trijang Dorjechang, who was an emanation of Atisha; thus the explanations given in this book, Joyful Path of Good Fortune, actually come from him and not from myself." According to Gonsar Rinpoche, his "compassion and wisdom and the service rendered to the Dharma and sentient beings were absolutely unsurpassable." ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, in the preface of his Lamrim commentary

[The teaching] came continuously, as a living tradition from Buddha Vajradhara to the late Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche.

“I received this teaching from Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche 40 years ago, somewhere across the river from Tsechor Ling valley in Lhasa. A number of people who are known in the West now were there, too: Lama Yeshe, Dagyab Rinpoche, Domo Geshe Rinpoche and also Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. We received the teachings at the same time.” ~ Gehlek Rinpoche, in his commentary to Offering to the Spiritual Guide (Lama Chopa)

Bringing Buddhism to the West

Trijang Rinpoche had seminal and far-reaching influence on Tibetan Buddhism’s transmission into the West. The FPMT website states, "The spreading of Dharma in the West is directly and indirectly connected with Trijang Rinpoche, due to his own teachings, as well as the activities of his disciples, including Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Geshe Rabten, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche and many others."

Towards the end of his life he had many Western disciples himself and there are many thousands more who, though they have not met him personally, are still following his teachings through the teachings they have received from their own teachers, his disciples. In the Fall of 1966 he was invited to the West and visited Switzerland for medical treatment; then he visited Germany, England, France and so on, wherever Tibetans lived, giving teachings on tour. He was invited back to Switzerland in 1968 to consecrate a new Tibetan monastery, and travelled there with Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, and this was followed by another Western tour, returning to India in the Spring of 1969.

He encouraged Geshe Rabten, Geshe Kelsang and many other of his closest disciples to bring Je Tsongkhapa’s Dharma to Westerners, pointing out that "such efforts are never in vain, but are an important contribution to the Dharma and the well-being of sentient beings."

Trijang Rinpoche had also requested Geshe Kelsang Gyatso to go to England in 1977, giving "many predictions that there would be great results" and also giving him permission to present Gelug Dharma in a way that was suitable for Westerners but without losing any of the meaning of the teachings.

Despite his Tibetan background, Kyabje Trijang Dorjechang believed in Westerners’ ability to gain deep experience of Buddha’s Sutras and Tantras within their own countries and cultures, and encouraged his close disciples to "give to those who were mature enough to receive some Tantric teachings and initiations on top of the essential Dharma teachings like Lamrim, Lojong and great philosophical treatises."

Trijang Rinpoche was also the first Tibetan master to meet a Pontifax of Rome, when he met Pope Paul the Sixth in 1963.

Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche

Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche’s current incarnation, Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche, is now the 18th recognized incarnation in a long lineage of eminent Indian and Tibetan masters.

Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche was officially recognized by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama on April 23, 1985, before going on to study under some of Gelug’s most highly revered teachers, his root Guru the late Kyabje Lati Rinpoche and Kyabje Dagom Rinpoche. He is now continuing his studies under the supreme guidance of H.E. Dagpo Rinpoche, H.E. Yongyal Rinpoche and study helper Geshe Lobsang Phuntsok.

As the only person in the world permitted to practice Dorje Shugden amidst the Dalai Lama’s current ban on the Protector, Trijang Rinpoche has been at the forefront of this very difficult controversy. As such, he currently lives a quiet, humble life in America.

Though he is still young, Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche is already beginning to shine forth as the next generation of supreme teachers who will lead the way. He is currently the spiritual director of Trijang Buddhist Institute in Vermont, USA, guiding all activities of the organization, for both monastics and lay people.

Short Biography

The Third Trijang, Lobzang Yeshe Tendzin Gyatso was born on March 10, 1901, in Gungtang (gung thang). His mother was Tsering Drolma; his father, Tsering Dondrub, was a descendent of an uncle of the Seventh Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso (1708-1759). Tsering Dondrub had previously been Tsering Drolma’s father-in-law, until they married after the death of his son, Tsering Drolma’s husband. Altogether Tsering Dondrub fathered children with three women, and in each case at least one male child was recognized as a tulku.

As a child, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Second Trijang, Lobzang Tsultrim Pelden (1939-1901), who served as the Eighty-fifth Ganden Trichen from 1896 to 1899.

After his recognition, he was moved to Lhasa in 1904, first to Trijang Labrang and then to the Chuzang Ritro hermitage of the First Trijang, the sixty-ninth Ganden Tripa, Trichen Jangchub Chopel (1756-1838). Although the young tulku had been recognized by both the Nechung and Gadong state oracles, the title was contested by a rival candidate for some time.

It was during these early years that Tenzin Gyatso first met his would-be root guru Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo (1878-1941). Pabongka spent a number of years at the hermitage and spent time playing and eating with his young student. He also received teachings from Pabongka, such as the empowerment related to Mañjūśhrī, including Dharmarāja, and instructions on how to draw the hearth mandalas for fire rituals.

Tenzin Gyatso also studied with other teachers in his early youth. When he was eight, he received the Kālachakra initiation from the famed yogi Serkong Dorjechang, Ngawang Tsultrim Donden (1856-1918). In 1907, he received novice ordination from the fourth Reting Rinpoche, Ngawang Lobzang Yeshe Tenpai Gyeltsen.

His life was not without difficulties. When Tenzin Gyatso was five years old, his father took monastic vows, which eventually caused considerable difficulties for the family. His mother and her two other children were evicted from their house by the relatives who had been left to care for her, in a situation which Trijang Rinpoche compares in his autobiography to what happened to Milarepa’s (1040-1123) mother. Tenzin Gyatso himself also often lived on the edges of poverty, at times going without sufficient food. To make things worse, during the brief Chinese occupation of Lhasa, which began in 1910, he contracted a severe case of smallpox. His brother, who also contracted smallpox during this epidemic, died.

When he was fourteen, Tenzin Gyatso received numerous empowerments and teachings from Drepung Gomang’s Buldud Tulku Lobzang Yeshe Tenpai Gyeltsen, including those of Vajrabhairava (both Ekavira and Thirteen-Deity), Guhyasamāja Akṣobhyavajra, Luipa’s Sixty-two Deity Heruka Cakrasaṃvara, Ghaṇṭāpa’ Five-Deity Heruka and the initiation of The Great Compassionate One, Avalokiteśvara according to the lineage of Bhikṣuṇī Śrī Lakṣmī (alternatively Śrīmatī, 8th. century).

Most of Tenzin Gyatso’s youth was spent studying. He joined the Dokhang Khamtsen of Ganden Shartse Monastery and was tutored by Geshe Lobzang Tsultrim. After concluding his study of the five topics of Pramāṇa, Mādhyamaka, Prajñāpāramitā, Vinaya and Abhidharma, in 1919 he received the Geshe Lharampa degree as well as full bhikṣu ordination from the Thirteenth Dalai Lama Tubten Gyatso (1876-1933). After this he entered Gyuto Monastery to engage in a detailed study of the tantras.

When he turned twenty-one, at Chuzang, he received from Pabongka, the empowrment of the Mañjūśhrī cycle again, as well as the Thirteen Golden Dharmas of the Sakyapas. He also received the four initiations into the sindhura mandala of Vajrayogīni Naro Kechari, together with commentaries on the generation and completion stages, as well as the Thirteen Pure Visions of Takphu, including Cittamaṇi Tārā. Furthermore he received other teachings associated with the Ganden Nyengyu, such as the Gelug Mahāmudrā and Panchen Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen’s (1570-1662) Guru Puja.

Tenzin Gyatso was Pabongka’s closest student, the one to whom he passed all of his lineages. In his autobiography, Trijang Rinpoche notes that during his time at Gyuto he would often travel to wherever Pabongka was teaching to receive instruction and that he would spend his free time meditating on the Lamrim and completing the approximation retreats of deities such as Vajrayoginī, Vajrabhairava Ekavira, Ghaṇṭāpa’s Five-Deity Heruka, Secret Hayagrīva and Bhikṣuṇī Śrī Lakṣmī’s Avalokiteśvara cycle. Each of these deities features prominently in Trijang Rinpoche’s writings. He also received the lineage of the Kadam Lekbam from Pabongka.

From Pabongka, Tenzin Gyatso also received teachings and transmission for the deity Dorje Shugden, which was the main protector practice emphasized by Pabongka. Trijang Rinpoche never spoke out publicly on the controversy that erupted over the worship of Dorje Shugden in the later half of the 1970s due to the Dalai Lama’s disapproval of the practice; instead he instructed his students to keep faith in both the Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden.

After completing his education, Tenzin Gyatso travelled throughout Tibet, including a visit to Kham. By this time, he was already giving teachings, oral transmissions and empowerments, including those of Heruka, Vajrayoginī and Guhyasamāja. One of his earliest teachings took place when he was twenty-four. At the request of Geshe Yonten of Ganden Shartse’s Dokhang Khamtsen, he gave the oral transmission of the collected works of Tsongkhapa and his main two students to about two hundred monks.

Tenzin Gyatso visited India and Nepal in 1939, passing through Dungkar Monastery in the Chumbi Valley, where he bestowed the empowerments of Guhyasamāja, Heruka Cakrasaṃvara, Vajrabhairava and others. Although the majority of his teaching activities were associated to the Gelug tradition, there are exceptions. When he was twenty-eight years old, for example, during a stay in Chatreng, Kham, he gave the empowerment for the peaceful and wrathful forms of Padmasambhava and other Nyingma empowerments. Interestingly, later on in India, in 1965, he also gave the Fourteenth Dalai Lama the oral transmissions for two treasures of the Nyingma terton Choggyur Lingpa (, 1829-1870), the Barche Lamsel and Sampa Lhundrub .

After the passing of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in 1933, Tenzin Gyatso played an important role in the construction and enshrining of the Dalai Lama’s remains inside a golden stupa in the Potala Palace. In his autobiography, he recounts how he visited the Potala every day for year in order to perform the necessary offerings and rituals.

Following the discovery and selection of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, in 1941 Trijang Rinpoche was appointed as his assistant tutor, and, in 1953, as his junior tutor, or yongdzin , teaching him grammar and spelling. It was also in 1941 that Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo passed away.

Trijang Rinpoche’s Collected Works comprise eight volumes. Famous examples of his work include a condensed sādhāna of the Heruka Body Mandala, a gaṅacakra offering text of Heruka and a sādhāna of Cintacakra White Tārā. A comprehensive collection of ritual texts associated with Dorje Shugden which Pabongka Rinpoche asked Trijang Rinpoche to complete entitled “Music Delighting an Ocean of Oath-Bound Protectors”, comprises a whole volume of his Collected Works.

The second volume, further includes a number of essential ritual texts associated with the cycle of Cittamaṇi Tārā such as a four maṇḍala offering text, a gaṅacakra ritual, and a pacifying fire ritual text. Another important example of his writing includes the lyrics of the Tibetan National Anthem .

Trijang Rinpoche’s most famous work is undoubtedly Liberation in the Palm of the Hand, a Lamrim text based on notes taken over twenty-four days during Pabongka’s 1921 Lamrim teachings at Chuzang, which intertwined the Swift Path and Mañjūśrī’s Own Speech Lamrim systems along with the instructions on the Seven-Point Mind Training.

During the turbulent years following the Communist Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1949, Trijang Rinpoche stayed close to the Dalai Lama. In 1954, he accompanied the Dalai Lama to Beijing on the ill-fated meeting with Mao Tsedong, and, in 1959, he went into exile with him to India.

In India, Trijang Rinpoche continued teaching and travelling throughout the Tibetan communities such as Buxa, Dalhousie and later in the Karnataka settlements. Ganden Monastery was re-established in Lama Camp no.1 in Mundgod, and a residence, Trijang Labrang was established there for his use. Apart from teaching to the assemblies of Ganden, Sera and Drepung, Trijang Rinpoche also regularly taught in Bodh Gaya and Dharamsala. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he frequently met with Ling Rinpoche Tubten Lungtok Tendzin Trinle (1903-1983), the Dalai Lama’s senior tutor, in order to exchange teachings and empowerments.

Trijang Rinpoche travelled widely internationally, teaching and giving empowerments in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Switzerland, amongst others. In 1966, Trijang Rinpoche performed the site blessing ritual for the TibetanInstitute in Rikon. Later, in 1968, he consecrated the building together with Ling Rinpoche. During this 1966 trip to Europe, a delegation which included Trijang Rinpoche also met with Pope Paul VI (1897-1978, r. 1963-1978) in the Vatican, following the instructions of the Dalai Lama.

Trijang Rinpoche’s most famous students and lineage holders include figures such as the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Zong Rinpoche Lobzang Tsondru Tubten Gyeltsen (, 1905-1984), Loden Sherab Dagyab Rinpoche , Dakpo Lama Rinpoche Jampa Gyatso , Denma Locho Rinpoche, Gelek Rinpoche, Geshe Rabten (, 1920-1986) and Lama Yeshe ( 1935–1984), all of whom were instrumental in diffusing the Gelug teachings internationally.

Trijang Rinpoche passed away on November 9, 1981.