Kyabje Khensur Kangurwa Lobsang Thubten Rinpoche (25 December 1925 – 22 January 2014), was a Buddhist monk, Abbot of Sera Jey Monastery, and the founder of Tibetan Buddhist Institute (Adelaide). Khensur means "former abbot" and Rinpoche means "precious teacher."
Former Abbot of Sera Je monastery, Holder of the transmission lineage of the Kangyur, considered widely as the greatest scholar of Abhidharma of his age and, perhaps, the foremost Vajrayogini practitioner, Kyabje Khensur Kangyur Rinpoche was one of the last great practitioners and scholars largely trained in Tibet. He was known at Sera Je as one of the "Three Greats."
Rinpoche taught all over the world including India, Australia, USA, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. Because of his extremely high qualifications, advanced knowledge and spiritual insights so rarely found in Lama's today, Rinpoche was often requested to teach at Sera monastery, where thousands of monks flocked to hear him speak.
His administrative achievements include his election first as the Sera Je disciplinarian and then, in 1982, his appointment as the monastery's abbot. His charitable achievements include the reestablishment of Sera Je School and founding of the Tibetan Sponsorship scheme.
He was born to a farming family in a mountainous valley of eastern Tibet (Kham) in what is now the Kartse (Ganzi) Prefecture of Western Sichuan. This area was the birthplace of many great lamas of contemporary times, including Khensur Rinpoche Urgyen Tseten, the late Geshe Ngawang Dhargye and the late Geshe Rabten, teacher of many leading western scholars of Tibetan Buddhism.
Rinpoche was not a recognised reincarnation (tulku). However, at a very early age, he displayed signs that he very likely was the reincarnation of someone of great spiritual attainment. Among these were an affinity for religious ceremonies such as pujas.
Early life, family and village Source:
Kyabje Rinpoche was born in a village called Rinda which had about 30 houses and some 300 people. Nearby was Dhargey Gompa, the local monastery. Rinpoche's family had ten members i.e. two elder sisters, himself and various other close relatives. His mother died when he was two or three years old from a disease which turned her hands black. His sister Dolma then took care of the family.
His home was confiscated by the Chinese when they invaded Tibet. Rinpoches's village celebrated the various festivals including Saka Dawa, Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Jan chub cho je (celebrating the founder of Sera Monastery), Monlam and Losar (Tibetan New Year). Rinpoche was a little boy of about three when his first spiritual teacher, Kushog Gyalden Rinpoche cut his hair and gave him the name in religion, Lobsang Thubten. This was done with the understanding that he would become a monk in the future.
Dhargey Gompa and ordination Source:
At the age of seven he entered his first monastery Dhargey Gompa, two hours away by foot or 1/2 hour by horse, where his hair was shaved off. There were around 1900 monks from all three main Lhasa Monastic universities, including seven high Tulkus (reincarnations), and although the young monks (including Rinpoche) called themselves monks, they did not take the novice monk ordination (getshul) until they were older. He stayed there for 1 1/2 yrs until the Nationalist Chinese army invaded and completely destroyed the monastery. He then returned home to informal schooling. Some months later, he moved into a small school established by Gyalden Rinpoche with four other students from Dharye Gompa.
Rinpoche left Dhargey in 1944 to study at Sera Monastic University in Lhasa, remaining there for 18 years. In the meantime, Dhargey Gompa was rebuilt, only to be destroyed again around 1965 by the Chinese communists. There were about 300 elder monks and 100 younger ones, under Gyalden Tulku, the current incarnation of Rinpoche's first teacher, Gyalden Rinpoche. Rinpoche returned home in 1940, his father having died six months beforehand, spending some time at the rebuilt Dhargey Gompa. In 1965, he completed his Lharampa Geshe, the highest possible degree in Buddhist Philosophic Studies.
Sera Monastery in Tibet Source:
In February 1944, Rinpoche headed for Sera Monastery, one of three famous monasteries in Lhasa. Sera is dedicated to the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat Sect, a branch of Tibetan Buddhism and at the time Rinpoche entered, it had 5,500 monks. When he was 18 yrs old, Rinpoche took the first step to become a Novice Monk, by making three full length prostrations before the Abbot, and was asked many questions to see if he was a suitable candidate for becoming a monk. He was then given a yellow protection thread and told that he should remain humble and study well. Thus he became a full Sera Jey monk.
In 1948, Rinpoche became a Gelong, a fully ordained Buddhist Monk, which meant he took the 253 precepts (vows). Mostly monks from Kham only studied in Lhasa for 3 years, then they returned to their former monastery. However, after returning from a pilgrimage, taken immediately after his full Ordination, his teachers advised him to stay at Sera longer to continue his studies and not return to Kham. By about 1949, Rinpoche was in class 5 and had about 30 students. In 1949 Rinpoche received both Yamantaka and later, Vajrayogini Initiations from Ling Rinpoche (later to become the Dalai Lamas teacher).
During the next 5 years (1949–53) Rinpoche had many problems because he did not have any money, and had to beg for food from his friends. There was not much food but he studied well because of this ... "they say that when you are hungry your mind is very alert".
In 1950 most of the monks at Sera became ill, and every day in Trehor Khamzen, 1 or 2 died, suffering from high fever. It spread through both colleges, and more than a hundred died. In 1958 the Chinese had invaded Tibet and the burning of monasteries and killing of monks had started. Cases of genocide was widespread, and the resistance movement had grown considerably.
Escape to India Source:Kyabje Rinpoche and Jen Gibson, 2000; Unpublished Work "Fire and Stone; The Life of a Tibetan Abbot" Reproduced with permission from Tibetan Buddhist Institute
On 17 March 1959 the 14th Dalai Lama escaped in disguise and started his journey to Sikkim, India and Nepal. The day before, the Chinese had fired 2 tank bombs into the Norbulinka, and on 18 March bombs had landed at Sera, the day after he had escaped to India.
The situation in Lhasa had become desperate, and Rinpoche and Geshe Ngawang Dhargey went into Lhasa to see for themselves. Because of this, they were not in Sera when the Chinese had come to the monastery and arrested monks coming back from the city. In Lhasa, there were bombs, tanks fire, machine guns and flame throwers, especially around the Norbulinka. A day later, Rinpoche made the decision to leave, although many others senior monks did not, and most perished in the ensuing onslaught. There were 35 in the group, and only 3 Senior Monks. It was an honour that Rinpoche was asked to throw the Mo to find the way to go to lead them all to safety. Chinese aircraft were patrolling to see if there were any monks escaping ... "it was very frightening". The group travelled day and night for about a month. "Our feet hurt, our eyes were heavy and we had pains in our legs". We made it to Pempo and a Chinese plane appeared and started firing down on everyone around the village, many of whom were trying to escape.
Along the way, the group came across Rinpoche's teacher, Gyurme Urgyen Tsetan Rinpoche, and he then joined the party, making 4 Senior Monks in all. They reached Samye in the Lodkhar area, then ferried across a very large river in a yak hide boat. It was here that fortune smiled again. After taking a short detour to visit a Tara statue, they were given as much food as the donkeys could carry. It was extremely dangerous and now urgent that they leave Lodkhar. They eventually made the border into India, and arrived 24 days after the Dalai Lama's party. The locals were amazed to see that they had travelled across the mountains in winter which were covered in ice ... this was unheard of.
Life in India Source:
Buxa, south of Darjeeling was the area especially provided by the Indian Government for the refugees. Buxa had been a British prison for important people like Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru. Many monks, including Rinpoche, developed sores, diarrhoea and tuberculosis. Many died, and the rest were emaciated. At first many different countries provided assistance but gradually the overseas countries ceased sending supplies and so it remained the Government of India's responsibility ... "the rest of the world forgot us".
They stayed 11 years at Buxa and over this period the supplies became worse and worse. They were given very old, bad rice and weevily lentils. The flour was full of dead insects and everybody soon began to get sick. There were no fields to cultivate and no money. It was in the extremely harsh conditions that Rinpoche sat for his Geshe degree in 1963-4. Rinpoche had a dilemma, he could go into the study of tantra, or could stay and teach. If he did not teach, the teaching would degenerate. So he chose to stay and teach.
In 1966, he stayed for six months in Mussoorie where he received teachings on grammar and poetry, which became useful later for writing homages to various teachers and composing texts. He wrote several Long Life Prayers, including one for the reincarnation of his first teacher in Kham. Rinpoche stayed in Buxa until 1970, studying, doing retreats and receiving initiations. Because of the deplorable conditions, and that over a hundred of the older monks had died, and many many more had tuberculosis and other diseases, he developed a plan whereby all of us were to move to the new southern settlements and re-establish Sera Jey Monastery. Divinations were performed to see where each monastery should be located, there were 2 areas; one near Mysore at Bylakuppe and the other at Mungot, both in Karnataka state. Monks from Kagur sect went to Bylakuppe.
Relocation to Sera Monastery in India Source:
Upon arrival, the 300 monks discovered they were to live in a jungle, and stayed in army tents. The monks worked extremely hard for 2–3 years to clear it, prepare ground for planting crops and construct buildings and road. The Indian government gave them 50-60 rupees each a month for food and expenses, and also stones from a nearby quarry for building rooms (small, with just enough room for 4 beds and a fireplace for cooking). There were only two people who did not work; the Abbot and Rinpoche. They were designated to teach, meditate and study. The monks, out of respect, would not let Rinpoche work. A Health Care centre was established and a dispensary, and the water was much better, and Tuberculous became slightly less prevalent, however fever, malaria, tropical sores and other illnesses from the warm climate was still present.
Oral Transmission of the Complete Works of the Teachings of the Buddha
In April 1972, Rinpoche was asked to give the Oral Transmission of the Complete Works of the Teachings of the Buddha, 108 volumes each 400 to 500 pages, which took about 8 months, and given in Dharmsala. This is an extremely rare teaching, and for this reason he now bears the title of Kangyurwa. After completing the Kangurwa, he returned to Sera in early 1973 and was appointed by the Dalai Lama to the position of Gigue, Disciplinarian of Sera Je. It is usual to be in this position for 6 months, however Rinpoche held the position for 2 years. It was at this time that Tenzin (Nawang Thubten), Rinpoche's attendant, became a monk. He was only 5 years old at the time.
Roles