Tulku Rinpoche

Guru Tulku Rinpoche, Venerable Tenzin Thrinley Namgyal, is the abbot of the Thubchog Gatsel Ling Monastery in Bomdila and chairman of the Monyul Traditional Culture Development Society. He was abbot of Tawang Monastery from 2008 to 2016. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2022, from Arunachal Pradesh ^[1].

The twelfth incarnation

He is recognised as the twelfth incarnation in the line of Merag Lama Lodroe Gyatso, who founded Tawang Monastery in the 17th century ^[2]. Born on 3 November 1968, he trained as a monk in Buddhist philosophy and psychology at Dagpo Shedrupling Monastery and the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala ^[2]. He earned the Geshe Lharampa, the highest degree in Buddhist philosophy, at Drepung Gomang in Mundgod, and a further doctorate in Vajrayana studies at Gyudmed College ^[2].

Teaching and service

He founded the Guru Tenpai Dronme Vidyalaya at Shakya Choeling in West Kameng district, a residential school that teaches both religious and modern subjects to monks and poor children from the region ^[2]. He has helped edit the Dalai Lama’s books and teachings for publication and translated them into local dialects ^[2]. He teaches widely in India and abroad ^[2]. Through his teaching he has persuaded local people to stop hunting the region’s wildlife and to plant trees together ^[2].