Rinpoche lived in Tibet until 1959, when he was forced into exile in
India. Educated in Tibet before the Chinese invasion,
Rinpoche began his religious training at Rading monastery. Later he
joined Goman College, Drepung Monastic University,
where he remained for 15 years. He also studied at Tara Nahtas Monastery.
Because of changes in the political climate in what was the Soviet Union,
and the restoration of religious freedom in
Mongolia, many Mongolians have been traveling to India to receive teaching
and initiations once again. Rinpoche himself
wishes, and the Mongolian people also wish him, to return to Mongolia
as soon as possible.
In addition to his monasteries in Mongolia, Rinpoche also is the Abbot
of the Taktan Phunstok Ling Monastery near Lhasa. In
Tibet, he is one of the most revered teachers of the Kalachakra, and
many monasteries there follow his teachings which he
originally taught in a former incarnation as the scholar Taranatha.
For this reason His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the
Tibetan Government have also offered land in India to Rinpoche. They
are requesting him to build a new Taktan Phunstok
Ling Monastery in Dharmsala, where people could study the Kalachakra
Tantra.
His Holiness the Ninth Khalkha Jetsun Dampa Rinpoche Incarnation Lineage
In the 17th century, the office of the First Khalkha Jetsun Dampa was
conferred by the Fifth Dalai Lama. Historically, the
Khalkha Jetsun Dampa is known as the head of the Mongolian Gelugpa
lineage of the Tibetan Buddhism. He is revered by
many Mongolian people as the Bogdo Gegen or Urga - in their eyes the
living Buddha. The Eighth Khalkha Jetsun Dampa
passed away in 1924, before communist takeover of Mongolia.
Prior to his nine incarnations as the Khalkha Jetsun Dampa, Rinpoche
also was the incarnation of the great Tibetan historian
and Tantric practitioner, Taranatha (b.1575 AD). Taranatha work is
of special interest with respect to the history of
Buddhism in India. In his work he assembled materials from both oral
and written tradition which provide a remarkable clear picture of the tantric
period of Indian Buddhism. Taranatha's writings are generally respected
as being particularly authentic and reliable. David Templeman writes in
the Tibet Journal (Vol.VI, No.2) that Taranatha, who was the "last great
person to emerge from the Jonang sect, is possibly one of the Tibetan historians
most frequently referred to by modern writers on the history of Buddhism."
Thank you to Gaden Choling
for this biography of His Holiness.
