Dilgo Khyentse | |
---|---|
Religion | Tibetan Buddhism |
School | Rimé (Khyentse custodians are technically Sakya) |
Personal | |
Born | 1910 Denkok Valley, Kham Derge, Tibet |
Died | September 28, 1991 Bhutan |
Spouse | Sangyum Lhamo |
Senior posting | |
Title | Rinpoche |
Religious career | |
Reincarnation | Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo |
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (Tibetan: དིལ་མགོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་, Wylie: dil mgo mkhyen brtse) (c. 1910 – 28 September 1991) was a Vajrayana master, scholar, poet, teacher, and head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism from 1987 to 1991.
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. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet, his personal effort was crucial in the preservation of Tibetan Buddhism.
He was born in the Denhok Valley at Kham Derge, Eastern Tibet in 1910 to a family directly descended from the ninth century King Trisong Detsen. His father was a minister to the King of Derge. 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 are known as the Preliminary Practices (Ngöndro), Khyentse Rinpoche spent most of the next thirteen years in silent retreat in remote hermitages and caves near his birthplace.