Late H.H Dudjom Rinpoche

By Pekoe Tenzin Nyima created the doc: "Late H.H Dudjom Rinpoche"


The late H.H Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, was born on 10 June 1904, into a noble family in the S.E. Tibetan Province of Pemako. He was recognized as the incarnation of Dudjom Lingpa (1835-1904), a famous discoverer of many concealed teaching (Terma,), particularly those related to the practice of the yidam Vajrakila.



Dudjom Rinpoche studied with many of the most outstanding lamas of time, beginning his studies with kenpo Aten in Pemako. At the age of eight, he began to study with Oygyen Chogyur Gyaltso, a personal disciple of the great Patrul Rinpoche.



In his teens he attended the great monasteries of central Tibet such as Mindroling, Dorje Drake and Traje Tingpoling, as well as those of East Tibet, like Kathong and Dzongchen.



It was to Mindronling that he retuned to perfect his understanding of the Nyingma tradition. Unique in having received the transmission of all the existing teachings of the Nyingma Tradition, Dudjom Rinpoche was famous in particular as great termon, whose termas are now widely taught and practiced, and as a leading exponent of Dzogchen.



A master of masters, he was acknowledged by the leading Tibetans lamas as possessing the greatest power in communicating the nature of mind, and it was to him that they sent their students when prepared for this mind-direct transmission. He was also famous as a very prolific author and a meticulous scholar. His writings are celebrated for the encyclopedic knowledge they display of all the traditional branches of Buddhist learning, including poetics, history, medicine, astrology and philosophy.



Amongst the most widely-read of his works are the Fundamentals of the Teaching of Buddha, and History of the Nyingmo School, which he composed soon after his arrival in India as an Exile.



At the invitation of H.H. The Dalai Lama, Dudjom Rinpoche also wrote a political history of Tibet. Another major part of his works was the revision, correction and editing of many ancient and modern texts, including the whole of the canon teachings of Nyingma school.



Upon leaving Tibet, he established a number of vital communities of practitioners in India and Nepal such as: Zangdok Palri in Kalimpong, Dudul Rabten Ling in Orissa, and the monasteries at Tsopema and Boudhnath. Latterly, he founded several major centres in the West, including Urgyen Samye Choling, in France, and the Yeshi Nyingpo centres in America.



He passed away in France on 17th January 1987.