This biography of His Holiness is from the official website of the Palyul Lineage, palyul.org
The Third Drubwang Pema Norbu (“Penor”) Rinpoche was born in the Powo region of Kham, East Tibet to Sonam Gyurme (father) and Dzom Kyi (mother) during the twelfth month of the lunar calendar the year of the Water Monkey (1932). His birth took place during the most bitter, cold, bleak and dry part of the winter season, a time when nothing grows and the land is blanketed with thick, deep, heavy snow. Yet at the time of his birth, sweetly-scented flowers burst into blossoms all around the home of the infant tulku. Moreover, two search parties for the new tulku, one sent by Dzogchen Rinpoche and one sent by Khenchen Ngagi Wangpo, met each other at the same time at this same house, thus confirming the recognition without doubt. Communications and travel in the high mountains of Eastern Tibet were not as speedy as today so this was considered to be a very auspicious sign.
Khenchen Ngagi Wangpo Rinpoche foresaw the exceptional destiny of the new incarnation. In 1936, the year of the Fire Mouse, the young Pema Norbu (“Penor”) Rinpoche was invited to the Palyul monastery where he took refuge with the great and learned Khenpo. Khenchen Ngagi Wangpo Rinpoche performed the traditional hair-cutting ceremony and gave him the name “Dhongag Shedrup Tenzin.” Khen Rinpoche then granted him the long life empowerment of Amitayus and composed the long-life prayer which was chanted daily by thousands of Penor Rinpoche’s followers all over the world through until the time of his parinirvana.
Rinpoche was formally enthroned by his master Thubten Chökyi Dawa (1894-1959) [the second Chögtrul Rinpoche], and Karma Thekchok Nyingpo (1908-1958) [the fourth Karma Kuchen Rinpoche]. In time, Penor Rinpoche would become the Eleventh Throneholder of Palyul Monastery with its more than four hundred branch monasteries. He spent many years at Palyul, studying and receiving teachings from numerous masters and scholars. He received mind-to-mind transmission from Lungtrul Rinpoche Shedrup Tenpai Nyima. He also received training and instructions from the Fourth Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, the Tenth Throneholder, who carefully prepared him as his successor. In turn, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche trained the Fifth Karma Kuchen Rinpoche.
There are many instances demonstrating Penor Rinpoche’s extraordinary powers even as a young child. On one occasion he was playing with an old and precious vajra when it suddenly slipped through his fingers and dropped to the ground, breaking in two. Fearing a reprimand from his teacher, he quickly glued it back together with his own saliva, making the vajra stronger than ever before. A similar incident occurred later on when, during the Chasum ceremony, he accidentally dropped his ritual bell onto the stone floor. Everyone assumed that the bell had shattered, but when Penor Rinpoche picked it up, it was unbroken and rang even more sweetly than before. At the age of 15, Penor Rinpoche left his footprint in stone near Dago retreat monastery above Palyul where it can still be seen today.
Once while he was still young, Rinpoche was approached by an old man who insisted that he practice Phowa for him. Innocently he complied with the request. At the end of the practice, he shocked to see that the old man had passed away – the Phowa had worked only too well! Immediately he started to practice again, to revive the corpse lying there in front of him. To his immense relief, the old man came back to life, but instead of thanking him, he shouted, “For heaven’s sake, why did you bring me back? I was already in the Pure Land of the Buddha Amitabha!”
For many years following, the old man’s great grandson worked at Namdroling Monastery in India.
Penor Rinpoche studied with many lamas, benefiting most deeply from the warm and close relationship he enjoyed with his great master, theSecond Chögtrul Rinpoche. At the age of twelve, in the water sheep year 1944, Penor Rinpoche began to receive the most important transmissions and empowerments of the Nyingma School. From Chögtrul Rinpoche he received the Great Empowerment of the Kagyé and the Rinchen Terdzö empowerments, transmissions and secret sealed protector empowerments. From Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, he received the Namchö, the terma revelations of Ratna Lingpa and the major empowerments of the cycles of Kagye and Lama Gongdu.theSecond Chögtrul Rinpoche. At his lay ordination, Chögtrul Rinpoche gave him the name Thubten Lekshe Chökyi Drayang, “Upholder of Buddha’s Teaching with the Eloquent Speech of Melodious Dharma.” At Dago retreat monastery, he received and engaged in the Namchö Dzogchen preliminary practice teachings of Sangye Lakchang, “Buddha in the Palm of the Hand.” He also learned general subjects, including writing, poetry, astrology and medicine, and went on to study the sutras with Khenpo Nuden, Khenpo Sonam Dondrup and Khenpo Gondrup.
At the age of thirteen, he received novice (getsul) ordination and with it the name “Dongak Shedrup Tendzin Chokle Namgyal” (All-Victorious Holder of the Teachings of Study and Practice of the Sutras and Tantras). At twenty-one he took full (gelong) ordination with his master at Tarthang Monastery and received a vast number of teachings covering all the essential instructions and empowerments of the Nyingma tradition. This lineage of the vinaya is a very pure one, transmitted to Tibet by Shantarakshita during the time of Padmasambhava.
At the time of his ordination, Chögtrul Rinpoche offered Penor Rinpoche the yellow robe that had been treasured and handed down by generations of lineage holders. Despite the tremendous difficulties of escaping from Tibet, Penor Rinpoche was to carry this robe with him all the way to India while leaving behind many other precious possessions. As a direct result, during his life in exile he was able to ordain more than 10,000 monks and nuns, so making a priceless contribution towards the stability of the vinaya vows and Vajrayana practice during this age of degeneration.
From the great Khenpo of Kathok monastery, Khenpo Lekshe Jorden, Penor Rinpoche received many transmissions. One special one was the Kham tradition of the Anuyoga empowerment of the Do Gongpa Dup through Mokton Dorje Palzang’s famous empowerment ceremony “The River of Honey.” Penor Rinpoche also received the ancient tradition of Kathok monastery and at the same time the empowerments, transmissions and teachings of Jamgon Kongtrul’s “Treasury of Essential Instruction;” Tertön Dorje Lingpa’s “Condensed Utterance of the Lama;” the Dorje Lingpa terma “Hung Kor Nyingtik;” Ngari’s Complete Condensation of Kagye; and Lerab Lingpa’s great terma revelation, the cycle of Tendrel Nyesel. The transmissions he received from Karma Kuchen Rinpoche included Nyelpa Delek’s Anu Yoga empowerment from the Rinchen Trengwa tradition.
Another of his teachers was Khenpo Khyentse Lodrö, also known as Khenpo Nuden, from Kathok. In a forest above the Dago retreat centre, Khenpo Khyentse Lodrö performed the Drupchen of the Anuyoga Dupa Do, at the same time giving the very first transmission of his newly written four volumes on Anuyoga. Khenpo told the following story. Before the second Drubwang Pema Norbu had passed away, he had given the Khenpo a small knife. At the time he had not given it much thought, but now he realized what this had really meant. The knife represented the sword of wisdom, and when he handed it to him, it was as if Pema Norbu was granting the Khenpo his blessing to finish writing these important new treatises, so as to be able to transmit them to his next incarnation.
From Khenpo Pema Jigme, a learned Khenpo from the Palyul tradition in Golok, Penor Rinpoche received the nine volumes of Jigme Lingpa’s collected works, the thirteen chapters of Karma Chagme’s “Ah Cho” and the collected works of So Wangdrak Gyatso. While he was receiving this transmission, Penor Rinpoche began to make intricately woven knots in blessing cords with his tongue, something which is done only by the most highly accomplished masters. He continued to make these special blessing cords until 1958. They were renowned for affording powerful protection when worn. One such cord is kept and treasured by one of his attendants today.
Around this same time, Penor Rinpoche happened to write the syllable Ah on a white conch shell. Once the ink had worn away, the syllable remained embossed on the shell. This shell is still kept as a object of veneration in Palyul monastery in Tibet.
Having received all the transmissions of the Kangyur and Tengyur, as well as completing a Vajrakilaya retreat, Penor Rinpoche entered into retreat with his master Chögtrul Rinpoche. To go into retreat with one’s own teacher is a rare privilege enjoyed by very few. Penor Rinpoche spent four consecutive years in retreat at Tarthang Monastery in the same room as his master. Already elderly and with failing eyesight, Chögtrul Rinpoche endured great personal hardship in order to give Penor Rinpoche virtually all the transmissions practiced in the Palyul tradition emphasizing the empowerments, transmissions and secret oral instructions of Tertön Migyur Dorje’s Namchö and the terma revelations of Ratna Lingpa.
Beginning with Ngöndro, up to the most profound innermost teachings of Dzogchen, he stressed every practice until the naked truth was revealed to his young disciple. He said, “If I am not able to transmit all the empowerments, transmissions and teachings to the third Pema Norbu Rinpoche before I leave this world, then this precious human life of mine will have been wasted.” With the constant guidance of his master, Penor Rinpoche successfully completed all the stages of the practice, accomplishing the root recitations of the Three Roots (lama, yidam, and khandro), the Namchö preliminary practices, tummo and tsalung, and the actual foundation practice of the Dzogchen “Buddha in the Palm of the Hand”, including trekchö, clear light tögal, inner tögal practice, darkness practice, and training in the dream state, the nature of sound and the pure realms.
HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche once said, “Penor Rinpoche is a saint who has transcended the boundary of samaya.” By this, he meant that Penor Rinpoche had actualized the experience of inner wisdom, and so realized the state in which there is nothing to grasp and nothing to release.
Every Tibetan dreams of making a pilgrimage to Lhasa, especially to see the famous Jowo Rinpoche, the “Precious Lord”, the holiest statue in the whole of Tibet. This statue depicts the Buddha as a prince at the age of twelve and is said to have been created while the Buddha was still alive.
In 1956, Penor Rinpoche, accompanied by a large entourage, set out for central Tibet. He was twenty-four years old. The party visited the great power places, monasteries, temples and sanctuaries of Tibetan Buddhism, including Samye, Dorje Drak, Mindroling, Drepung, Ganden, and Sera monasteries. Everywhere he went, Penor Rinpoche made generous offerings. He also visited HH the Fourteenth Dalai Lama at his winter palace, the Potala in Lhasa. From the Dalai Lama he received an empowerment of Long Life. The Lhasa Mönlam Chenmo was in progress, and he offered tea and distributed money to the entire assembly of monks.
When Penor Rinpoche returned to Palyul late in 1956, the situation in Kham had become very tense. The lineages that had over thousands of years preserved the purity and authenticity of the Buddhist teachings were in danger of being broken and lost forever. Foreseeing this, and at the bidding of his protective deities, Penor Rinpoche fled with a party of three hundred towards the northeastern frontier of India. It was to prove a long and fearful journey, full of tragedy and immense hardship. In the end, only thirty survivors reached India.
Penor Rinpoche’s protective deities guided him every step of the way. His group was pursued by soldiers. Bullets would fall at Rinpoche’s feet and hand grenades would roll right up to him. But they would only explode after he had moved away to safety. Hungry for food, some of the party would kill animals to eat, but Penor Rinpoche could not bear to see innocent animals being slaughtered and so would walk ahead of everyone else to drive away potential victims. Finally they reached Pema Köd and the east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. During 1960, more and more refugees poured into India and in 1961, Penor Rinpoche, with approximately six hundred people, moved south to Mysore.
The purpose behind Penor Rinpoche’s escape from Tibet had always been to keep alight the bright flame of the Buddha Dharma and so release sentient beings everywhere from the darkness of ignorance. Immediately upon reaching southern India he poured all of his energy and effort into creating a center where the transmission of the Nyingma teachings could be maintained unbroken and where the great living tradition of Palyul could be reestablished. In 1963, the year of the Water Hare, in Bylakuppe, South India, Penor Rinpoche began to build the monastery of Thegchog Namdrol Shedrub Dargyeling.
This was a task of enormous difficulty. The entire sum that Rinpoche had at his disposal to rebuild his whole life, his monastery and his tradition, was 300 rupees. But he had one resource which was unlimited and insurmountable — his tremendous courage and resolve.
At that time, there were only a handful of monks. Those around him who could not grasp the scale of his vision kept insisting that he reduce the size of the monastery he was planning to build. Today, when hundreds of monks stream into the assembly hall to find there is no room for them to sit, one can only wonder at Penor Rinpoche’s extraordinary foresight three decades ago.
Few masters of Penor Rinpoche’s status would have undergone the hardships he endured. Beneath the scorching heat of the Indian sun, he would carry stones, bricks and sand, and mix the cement until his hands and feet bled and became infected. Lack of water and roads made construction work even more difficult.
In the early days, he lived in a tent, making Tibetan tea with cheap cooking oil, as he had no butter, and drinking out of a tin can. An old woman found him one day digging all alone deep in a trench, making a toilet for one of his students who was in retreat. When people like this saw Penor Rinpoche raising the monastery with his bare hands, they thought at once of Milarepa and his solitary toil to build a ten-story tower for his master’s son.
Year after year, with inexhaustible energy and determination, Penor Rinpoche kept working, oblivious to the numerous obstacles and hardships that confronted him. The importance of these activities to the preservation of the traditions of Tibet can not be understated or underestimated. Without the hard work of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, it is certain that these practices were in danger of being lost forever.
At Namdroling monastery, he established the following traditions: Sojong, the bi-monthly purification ceremony; Yarney, the rainy season retreat; Gaye, the special practice performed at the conclusion of Yarne; Terton Karma Lingpa’s “One Thousand Offerings to the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities,” the Vajrasattva Accomplishment Offering Ceremony; Terton Ratna Lingpa’s Vajrakilaya to expel negativity at the end of the old year; the Drupchen of One Hundred Million Recitations using different mandalas each year; the Anu Yoga Offering Drupchen of Tsokchen Dupa; the Great Dharma Medicine Accomplishment (Mendrup) Ceremony and many others. During one of the Mendrup rituals Penor Rinpoche was conducting, the practice of Nyingtik Palchen Dupa, a number of monks saw rainbows around the mandala and nectar overflowing from the skull cup.
His Holiness returned to Tibet in 1982 for the first time in more than twenty years. Endlessly and tirelessly he fulfilled the requests of the people throughout day and night. It is said that some practitioners even waited to pass away until Holiness arrived so they would receive his final blessing.
While in Tibet, His Holiness carried through activities to preserve and propagate the Dharma. He renovated many monasteries that were destroyedduring the Cultural Revolution, gave empowerments, transmissions and teachings to thousands. He also laid the foundation of the future by ordaining many monks and nuns.
Through this and three visits that followed, His Holiness revitalized the teachings in Tibet. Stories of the miracles that occurred while he was in Tibet abound. For example, he gave an empowerment in the Gonjo region of Kham to thousands of people without once having to refill the ritual vase (Bhumpa). But perhaps the most important miracle is that, out of ashes, today Palyul Monastery and branch monasteries in Tibet are thriving.
While in Tibet he obtained many rare and sacred texts from the Nam Cho cycle. When he returned to India in 1983, he had hundreds of copies of the newly acquired and complete Nam Chö as well as Ratna Lingpa’s revelations as well as other important texts from the Palyul tradition.
In 1984 he gave the first empowerments of the Namchö and Ratna Lingpa revelations in India. Present to receive these teachings was the twelfth throne-holder, His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche.
His Holiness also re-established the Nam Chö tradition of the annual one-month preliminary practice retreat, the 44-day Tummo Tsa Lung retreat, as well as Trekchö and Tögal retreat.
In 1985 His Holiness opened the Samten Osel Ling Three-Year Retreat Center. There he personally instructed thirty monks in traditional retreat courses.
He traveled to the United States for the first time in 1985 at the request of Gyaltrul Rinpoche, he gave the empowerments of the Namchö revelations at Yeshe Nyingpo’s retreat center Tashi Chöling for the first time in the West.
In 1985 at the request of Gyaltrul Rinpoche, he gave the empowerments of the Namchö revelations at Yeshe Nyingpo’s retreat center Tashi Chöling for the first time in the West. In his US tour in 1988 he gave the Nyingma Kama empowerments and at the request of Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo, he gave the Rinchen Terdzö empowerments at Kunzang Palyul Chöling in Maryland, also for the first time in the West.
His Holiness Penor Rinpoche continued to build the supports, both physical and human, so that the Dharma would propagate.
In 1990 he received teachings from the renowned master, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche that included Lama Yangtig, Nge She dron Me (Lamp of the Definite Understanding). He also received empowerments for Tendrel Nyesel, Lerab Lingpa’s Vajrakilaya practice, as well as Khen Rinpoche’s own treasures.
His Holiness spent the early 90s training many monks, lopons and khenpos, stationing them in Himalayan communities throughout Asia to strengthen Buddhist practice in those regions. He continued to work hard to insure local traditions would not be lost throughout his life. In some areas, because of the lack of properly-trained teachers, who would normally have learned their skills in Tibet, the population had begun to drift towards other religious traditions. Thanks to the hard work of His Holiness, the traditions in those regions have been not only strengthened, but are more vibrant than ever before.
In 1992 he went to Palyul Monastery for the third time and bestowed the Rinchen Terzod for the third time. He also toured the many Palyul branch monasteries in the region benefiting them with teachings as well as financial support.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as requested by the entire Nyingmapa Community, appointed him as the Supreme Head of the Nyingma School in 1993, following in the footsteps of HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and HH Dudjom Rinpoche. That same year he established the Tsogyal Shedrub Dargyeling Nunnery, on 27 November 1993.
His Holiness also traveled to centers in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore to grant teachings and empowerments and complete the connection with the students there.
His Holinesses activities in South India began to bloom and bear fruit. In 1999 he completed Orgyen Dongang Shedrup Osel Dargye Ling, the so-called “Golden Temple” of Bylakuppe. He then completed construction of a badly-needed hospital for the local area, that will serve not only the monastic community but also the local population.
On the international front, in 1995, he came to the United States for teachings and empowerments in New York City and to grant the Terton Migyur Dorje’s Nam Chö treasure revelations at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland.
He came again in 1997 and, during his visit, he founded the Palyul Retreat Center in the small rural community of McDonough, NY. In order to establish the Dharma firmly in the West, the Retreat Center serves as a place where Western practitioners do not have to travel so far to receive the teachings and carry through retreat. His Holiness taught the traditional retreat course Liberation is in the Palm of Your Hand from the first retreat in 1998 until 2008. Monks in attendance were astounded at the very personal style of teaching at the retreat. There are students who have spent an aggregated total of ten months receiving teachings directly from His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in the context of this retreat.
His Holiness Penor Rinpoche continued to travel widely, granting major empowerments and transmissions all around the world including India, Nepal, Tibet, other parts of Asia and the West. They included the empowerments of the Rinchen Terdzö, the Kalachakra Tantra, the Guhyagarbha Tantra, the Namchö revelations, the complete cycle of Ratna Lingpa’s revelations, the Nyingma Kama and others.
Even as he aged, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche tirelessly continued to travel widely, granting major empowerments and transmissions all around the world including India, Nepal, Tibet, other parts of Asia and the West.
In 2003 he visited the hidden kingdom of Pema Köd and the Mön area, to consecrate temples and give teachings.
In 2004 he completed a hospital. One of the great sponsors of our monastery, known simply as “Palmo-la,” sponsored and built many temples. This includes the Tara Temple, completed in the 90s, but more important, Zangdokpalri Temple, the temple to Guru Rinpoche. This temple was consecrated in 2004.
The year 2004 was a difficult one for His Holiness and had been predicted to be a “black year” in which his health would be endangered. Despite the entreaties of all, His Holiness insisted on continuing with leading the yearly retreats in the preliminaries, Tsa Lung/Tummo and Dzogchen in both India and the United States.
They include the empowerments of the Rinchen Terdzö, the Kalachakra Tantra, the Guhyagarbha Tantra, the Namchö revelations, the complete cycle of Ratna Lingpa’s revelations, the Nyingma Kama and others. Each year he attended the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo, the Great Prayer Festival held in Bodhgaya. Monks trained by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche oversaw much of the administration of the event. In particular stipends were given out according to a database developed in Namdroling Monastery.
Despite his weakening health, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche insisted upon traveling around the world to grant teachings and empowerments to all those who wished to receive them.
In 2008 he attended the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo, Losar in Namdroling Monastery, conducted a visit to Macau and Hong Kong as well as carrying through the summer retreat in the United States.
Despite his busy teachings schedule, His Holiness never stopped thinking of the well-beings of the young monks in his care. One cool January morning, he instructed a member of his household staff to drive him to Bangalore to shop. When there he ordered thousands of blankets. The monastery was chilly the winter of 2008 and His Holiness wanted to make sure that no monk was doing without a warm blanket.
In 2009 he stayed in the monastery until mid-January, when he visited Macau and traveled on to Bodh Gaya for the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo.
It was at Bodh Gaya that His Holiness health became noticeably more fragile. Although, when asked, Holiness responded that he was, in fact, fine, but that the accumulation of karmic causes and conditions were now conspiring together and creating the circumstances for us to perceive him in this way.
His devoted household attendants arranged for him to be flown to the finest hospitals and for some time His Holiness appeared to be improving. When he came to the temple on Losar morning, 25 February, for the first time, the severity of his condition became evident to all and tears flowed freely, even among the highest practitioners.
On 24 March His Holiness condition worsened and he was brought to the Columbia Asia Hospital in Bangalore. Following this, on 27 March, the first day of the second month, he returned to Namdroling Monastery. There all the close tulkus, khenpos, lopons, and other students sat with him. He looked around at them, closed his eyes, and departed from Cyclic Existence.
(this section is coming soon)
