01/09/2022
༄།༄༅། །ཨོཾ་སྭསྟི། རྒྱལ་ཀུན་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་ཆུ་གཏེར་ལས་བལྟམས་པའི། ། གསང་གསུམ་མཛད་འཕྲིན་སྟོན་ཟླའི་འོད་སྟོང་གིས། །ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཀུ་མུད་འཛུམ་བརྒྱ་འགྲོལ་མཛད་པ། །ངག་དབང་འཇིགས་མེད་ཆོས་གྲགས་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ ། །མདོ་སྔགས་ཆོས་ཚུལ་ཟབ་ཅིང་རྒྱ་ཆེའི་བཅུད། །སྨིན་གྲོལ་བསྐྱེད་རྫོགས་གདམས་པའི་ཟིལ་དངར་རྒྱུན། ། སྐལ་ལྡན་བུང་བའི་ཚོགས་ལ་འགྱེད་པའི་གཉེན། །ངག་དབང་འཇིགས་ མེད་ཆོས་གྲགས་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ། །དེ་ལྟར་གསོལ་བཏབ་སྨོན་པའི་བདེན་མཐུ་ཡིས། །མགོན་ཁྱེད་བསྟན་དང་འགྲོ་བའི་གཙུག་རྒྱན་དུ། །ཞབས་ཟུང་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཁྲི་ལས་མི་གཡོ་བར། །བསྐལ་བརྒྱར་ཆོས་འཁོར་སྐོར་བཞིན་བཞུགས་སུ་གསོལ། །
ཅེས་པ་འདིའང་རྗེ་མཁན་ཁྲི་རབས་ ༦༨ པ་ཞིང་གཤེགས་ཡོན་ཏན་འོད་ཀྱིས་མཛད་པའོ།། །།
བླ་མ་སྐུ་ཁམས་བཟང་བར་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །མཆོག་ཏུ་སྐུ་ཚེ་རིང་བར་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །འཕྲིན་ལས་དར་ཞིང་རྒྱས་པར་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །བླ་མ་དང་འབྲལ་བ་མེད་པར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས།།
OM SVASTI
Born from the ocean of compassion of all the Buddhas, Like the thousand rays of an autumn moon Fully opening the lily flowers,
Your three mystical enlightened activities
Illuminate the teachings of the Buddha.
Ngawang Jigme Choedrak -
May you live long!
Revealing the essence of the vast and profound teachings of sutra and mantra;
Your teachings of the generation stage and the perfection stage, skillfully mature and liberate an abundance of fortunate disciples,
Just as a stream of nectar nourishes an assembly of bees. Ngawang Jigme Choedrak, oh, spiritual master -May you live long!
Through the power and the truth
Of our supplications and prayers,
May you remain firmly on the indestructible throne,Oh, great protector!
As the crown ornament
Of the Dharma and of all sentient beings,
May you continue to turn the wheel of Dharma for aeons -So we supplicate!
Written by the late, His Holiness the 68th Je Khenpo Jetsun Tenzin Dondrub.🙏🙏🙏
ད་རིས་ ༧ སྐྱབས་རྗེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་འཇིགས་མེད་ཆོས་གྲགས་མཆོག་གི་ དགུང་ལོ་ ༦༨ བཞེས་པའི་ འཁྲུངས་སྐར་དགའ་སྟོན་གྱི་ཉིནམ་ལུ་ གཞུང་གྲྭ་ཚང་གི་ཁ་ཐུག་ལས་ དད་དམ་ལྷོད་མེད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ལས་ བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཕུལཝ་ཨིན་ལགས། སྐྱབས་རྗེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་ མ་དག་འགྲོ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་ཕྱིར་དུ་ སྐུ་ཚེ་ཞབས་པད་བརྟན་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་དང་ ཁྱད་དུ་འཕགས་པའི་ཆོས་འབྲེལ་མཛད་བྱ་ཚུ་ སྔར་ལས་ལྷགཔ་སྦེ་ ཕྱོགས་མཚམས་ཀུན་ལུ་དར་ཞིང་རྒྱས་པའི་ བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྨོན་ལམ་འབུམ་ཕྲག་སྦེ་ གུས་པའི་སྒོ་ལས་ཕུལཝ་ཨིན་ལགས། འཁྲུངས་སྐར་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ལགས།
Brief Biography of His Holiness the 70th Je Khenpo of Bhutan
His Holiness the 70th Je Khenpo of Bhutan, Trulku Jigme Choedra, was born at Drubtse Goenpa, Kurtoe, on the fifth day of the seventh month in the Wood Sheep year of 1955. His birth was accompanied by many auspicious signs. As such, in HH’s mother’s vision, she saw that His Holiness’s entire body was imprinted with the Six Syllable Mantra of Avalokiteshvara.
Since the tender age of four, His Holiness could vividly recall his own former lives, and was then recognized by the Great Yogi Lama Sonam Zangpo (root teacher of His Holiness Nyizer Trulku 67th Jekhenpo of Bhutan) as the reincarnations of: Geshe Pema Tshering (the learned sage of Tharpaling Temple in Bumthang who was also the spiritual teacher of the late Jigme Wangchuck King of Bhutan), Kheuchung Lotsawa (disciple of Guru Padmasambhava), Drubthob Saraha (one of the 84 Mahasiddhas), and Maitreya Buddha (heart son of Buddha Shakyamuni).
At the age of six in 1961, His Holiness went to Kalimpong, India, to receive the entire teachings of the Rinchen Terzoed from His Holiness Dudjom Rimpoche Jigdrel Yeshey Dorje. In 1963, at eight years, His Holiness joined Druk Sangag Choling Monastery in Darjeeling and received his Getshul Dompa (basic ordination) from Drukpa Thugsey Rinpoche. He studied ritual practices, recitations, and religious texts from Khenpo Sonam Dargye and Khenpo Noryang.
At the age of ten, His Holiness received the Kangyur Lung (transmission of Buddha’s teachings), Dudjom Tersar (treasure teachings of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche) and comprehensive blessings and empowerments of other important Buddhist texts from His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche in Kalimpong. Once again, at the holy place of Tsho Pema, India, His Holiness received the initiation and empowerment of the Rinchen Terzoed.
In 1970, at the age of 15, His Holiness arrived at the Tango Monastery at the lotus feet of the late 68th Je Khenpo Jetsun Tenzin Dhoendup, and was ordained as a monk at the Pung-Thim Dratshang. Thereupon, besides Rigney and Zhungchen Chusum (Buddhist philosophy), he also mastered Mahamudra practices (Chagchen) and meditations of Naro Choedrug (six cycles of Yoga Ro-Nyom Kordrug), which were taught by their Holinesses the late 68th Jekhenpo Jetsun Tenzin Dhoendup and the late 69th Jekhenpo Geshe Gedun Rinchen.
Further, His Holiness also received the initiations of Kuen-Khyen Ka Bum and Kargyud Gongmai Sungbum which he practised earnestly and intensively. At Tango, His Holiness diligently served as the clerk, Umze (chant master), Chorpoen (revision teacher), and storekeeper, among many other responsibilities.
In 1974, at the age of 20, His Holiness received teachings from Lopen Sangay Tenphel at Tango Choeying Phordang. Between the age twenty-one to thirty, His Holiness received full teachings and empowerment of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition and Dzogchen (highest realization). In addition, at the age of 24, he also received full teachings and empowerment of Terton Pema Lingpa from His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche.
In 1983, at 28 years, under the patronage of Her Majesty Gyalyum Phuntsho Choden, His Holiness went to Darjeeling to undergo the intensive 3 years retreat.
Having completed the retreat, His Holiness arrived back to Bhutan in 1986 to serve as the principal of Tango Shedra, Thimphu.
His Holiness has notably completed his three-years retreat (Losum Choksum) three times. During the ten-year retreat, he undertook sacred practices of Vajrayana which includes La-drup, Demchog, Tandin, Dorji Phagmo, Sengdongma, Mithrugpa, Chenrezig and Dzogchen meditations. After a year, at 32 years old, on the auspicious 17th day of the Fire Rabbit year 1987, he was appointed as the Drabi Lopen (now Tshogki Lopen - Buddha Acharya) of the Zhung Dratshang.
In 1991, His Holiness retired from the post of Drabi Lopen and went to Shar Chung-nye Goempa to undergo another retreat. At the time, His Holiness granted many initiations and taught the Kuenkhyen Kabum (teachings of Kuenkhen Pema Karpo) and the practice of Tendrel Rabduen (teachings of Tsangpa Jarey) to monks of the Shedra.
Then, in 1993 at 38 years, His Holiness bestowed the Kanjur Ja-Lung (initiation of the 84,000 words of the Buddha) at Thimphu Dechen Phodrang, which was funded by two pious sponsors - the families of Sheyma Rinchen and Sangay Wangdi.
His Holiness was also appointed as the Gelephu Neten and during the time HH held that important post, he bestowed many initiations, Wangs, and teachings. HH also instituted the “Ugyen Tshechu” among many other activities to spread the Buddha Dharma.
At the age of forty, he was promoted as the Dorji Lopen of the Central Monk Body (Zhung Dratshang) by His Majesty the 4th Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck. During his tenure as His Eminence Dorji Lopen, he elucidated the Kanjur and taught the thirteen texts of Terton Sangye Lingpa. He also delivered teachings of Nyondro (preliminary practice), Nyingthig, and Kuenzang Lami Zhelung (Nyingmapa teachings) in several Dzongkhags. He constructed temples such as the Kheng Tali Zangto Pelri Lhakhang, using his own contribution and offerings made by devotees.
Today, on the most auspicious 68th birth anniversary of His Holiness the Je Khenpo, we would like to offer our collective prayers and good wishes for the long life, good health, and happiness of His Holiness. May His Holiness remain with us for a long time to turn the wheel of Dharma.
