Tenga Rinpoche

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Tenga Rinpoche (1932–2012) was a Tibetan lama in the Karma Kagyu tradition. Born in Kham, he was recognized as the reincarnation of Lama Samten at age seven. He studied at Benchen Monastery, was given the name Karma Tenzin Thinle Namgyal by Situ Rinpoche, and was ordained after a three-year retreat. He was skilled in mandala painting and sculpture.

In 1959 he left Benchen for Lhasa. After the Tibetan uprising, he escaped Tibet with Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche and eventually reached northern India, settling at Rumtek Monastery, the seat of the 16th Karmapa. He served there for seventeen years, including nine years as Dorje Lopön.

In 1976 he moved to Swayambhunath in Nepal, where he founded a second Benchen Monastery and a retreat center in Pharping. In 1986 he established a new Benchen Monastery in Kathmandu. He regularly visited France to teach, at Kagyu-Dzong in Paris and Vajradhara-Ling in Aubry-le-Panthou, Normandy, and in 2003 laid the cornerstone of the Temple for Peace in Normandy.

Rinpoche was a type 1 diabetic and faced serious health problems, including losing an eye and having a leg amputated. He died on 30 March 2012 at 3:24 am Nepali time, and for 11 days remained in tukdam, a meditative state after death.

Nyima Döndrup, the reincarnation of Tenga Rinpoche, was born on 14 December 2014 in Nepal and was identified in 2017 after the 17th Karmapa met him in Bodhgaya for a ceremony at Tergar Monastery.