Ven. Lopon P. Ogyan Tanzin Rinpoche
Rinpoche
is a Nyingma Vajrayana master and the spiritual director of Ogyan chokhor
ling, the European Sangha of his personal students. He is an inspiring
teacher with extraordinary gifts of communication and a rare subtelty
of expression in English which allows fine detail of meaning to be nailed
with great simplicty. He is a Ngakpa and is keen to see this Tantric ordination
flourish in the West as it has for over a thousand years in the Himalayas
and Tibet.
He is the inspiration behind the Khye’u-chung Lotsawa Translation and Text Production Team, which produces English and other European language translations and electronic editions of Tibetan texts belonging to the Dudjom Tersar tradition.
He is also the founder and director of the Lhundrup Topgye Ling School which provides the only education available to a group of villages in the remote Arunachal Pradesh region of the North East of India. It is a traditional ‘drat-sang’ committed to the continuation into future generations of the spiritual, academic, artistic and cultural treasures of the Tibetan people.
Rinpoche was born into a family of ngakpas with an unbroken lineage of inherited spiritual gifts and accomplishments descended from the Terton Pema Lingpa. Originally from Pemako, Rinpoche now lives in Varanassi in India and regularly visits his school in the Pemako area of Arunachal Pradesh.
Rinpoche has studied with many of the greatest Lamas of his generation. His Root Lama is HH Dudjom Rinpoche. His retreat Master was Changchak Rinpoche. He holds the Nyingma lineages of Pema Lingpa, Chang Ter, Mindrol Ling, Dudjom Tersar and Longchen Nyingthig. He received initiations from Minling Trichen Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, DoDrupchen Rinpoche, Padma Norbu Rinpoche, Khordong Tulku Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche and Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche. He holds Dung-se Thrin-le Norbu Rinpoche and Chatral Rinpoche as his highest living rôle models.
As well as being a lama, Rinpoche is a highly respected academic with
a teaching career of three decades in higher education. Ven. Lopon P.
Ogyan Rinpoche's academic qualifications include: Sastri Pariksa (B.A.)
1975, Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, Varanasi; Senior Diploma (M.A.)
First Class, in Tibetan Language and Literature, 1977 Visva-bharati University
Santiniketan, West Bengal; Acharya in Tibetan Nyingma Philosophy (Lopon
- Special M.A.) 1979 International Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Cultural Preservation
Society, Kalimpong.
In addition to guiding and supporting his personal disciples and sangha,
Rinpoche has held a number of teaching posts in higher education: Lecturer
in Tibetan Language and Literature, Central Institute of Higher Tibetan
Studies, Sarnath, 1979-1994; Visiting Lecturer in Kelaniya University,
Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1998; Academic Consultant, University of Cardiff,
UK, 2006-2009.
Rinpoche is a founding member of the Nyingma Student's Welfare Committee, Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi where he served as president several times between 1979-1994.
He conducted Tibetan religious teachings and lectures in Belgium and Paris (1993), Taiwan (1994, 1996,1999), the United States (2000), Germany (2008) and the United Kingdom (2004, 2005, 2006 2007, 2008).
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2006