Visiting Teachers

Tengyur Rinpoche is a Geshe Lharampa graduate from Sera Jey Monastery, a junior English translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama since 2012, currently doing a Master’s program at Harvard Divinity School.

Tengyur Rinpoche was born in 1981 in Mon Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, India. His father is from Tawang Zhol village and his mother, who relocated to Tawang before 1959, is originally from Lhasa. He is the sixth oldest among ten siblings.

In 1990, at the age of nine, he formally joined Sera Jey Monastery in Bylakuppe. The following year His Holiness the Dalai Lama  recognized Tengyur Rinpoche as the reincarnation of Drengkhar Khensur Urgen Gonpo, one of the former abbots of Tawang Monastery. Subsequently he was recognized at Sera Je Monastery and Gaden Namgyal Lhatse Monastery in Tawang.

Tengyur Rinpoche studied at Sera Je Scondary School. Then in 1998, he began his advanced philosophical and dialectical training at Sera Jey Monastery. He was awarded the Geshe Lharampa degree (comparable to a PhD) in 2020. He received his novice ordination from His Eminence Choden Rinpoche at Sera Jey in 1994 and full ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2009.

In addition to the formal monastic curriculum, Tengyur Rinpoche made time to study Tibetan and English grammar and literature. He has attended various conferences and discussions on Tibetan grammer and literature as well as on science and Buddhism. He had the rare opportunity of serving as an English interpreter for His Holiness the Dalai Lama in numerous teachings, attended by thousands from all over the world. He is a Registered Teacher of FPMT and has taught at many FPMT centers globally.

In 2014, inspired by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s advice for followers of Buddhism to engage more actively in social causess, Tengyur Rinpoche established Thubten Shedrubling Foundation (TSF) in Tawang, in order to build a school for economically underpriviledged children and a center where lay adults can study Buddhism, Tibetan language and other subjects such as English and computer skills that will help them advance professionally. TSF has been offering free after-school and adult learning classes since 2017 and founded the Tashol Tengyur School in 2022.

In 2021, Tengyur Rinpoche led the founding of Wisdom Bridges, a US-based NGO that is dedicated to helping children in remote Himalayan communities to fulfill their potential through education that bridges traditional wisdom and modern learning and preserves their language and culture.