Tenzin Rinpoche was born in Amritsar, India, not long after his parents escaped their Tibetan homeland in 1959 during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. At age 10 Tenzin Rinpoche was ordained as a monk at Menri Monastery near Dolanji, India. There he was recognized by head teacher Lopon Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche as a reincarnation of the famous master Khyung Tul Rinpoche, a renowned meditation master, teacher, scholar and healer who died in the mid-20th century.

   

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Education

From the age of 13 Rinpoche practiced dzogchen under the guidance of masters from both the Bon and Buddhist schools of Tibet, including (from Bon) His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima, Lopon Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche, Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, and Geshe Yungdrung Namgyal. From his early adolescence until young adulthood, Tenzin Rinpoche was raised like a son by his root teacher Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, today revered as the most senior teacher of the Bon tradition. An accomplished scholar in the Bon Buddhist textual traditions of philosophy, exegesis and debate, in 1986 Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche completed an 11-year course of traditional studies at the Bon Dialectic School of Menri Monastery, where he received his geshe degree, equivalent to a doctorate in philosophy from Western universities.

Upon graduating Tenzin Rinpoche was employed at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives at Dharamsala, India. That same year His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama appointed Rinpoche to be the Bon tradition's representative to the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies of the Tibetan-Government-in-Exile.

   

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Family Life

In spring 2004 Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche married Tsering Wangmo, sister of Lama Khyimsar Rinpoche (lineage holder of the Bon monasteries Pungmo Gon and Lhari Nyiphug in Tibet and founder of the Tibetan Yungdrung Bon Institute, United Kingdom).  In the fall of 2005 their first son, Senghe, was born. The Wangyal family currently resides in Charlottesville, Va., not far from Ligmincha Institute.