Died 11 September 2015 | Other names Chöden Rinpoche Title Rinpoche | |
 | ||
Education Sera Jey Monastery, Lhopa Khangtsen Dharma names Losang Gyalten Jigdrel Wangchuk | ||
Kyabje Choden Rinpoche (Tibetan: སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ཆོས་ལྡན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ, Wylie: chos-ldan rin-po-che, in full: Tibetan: བློ་བཟང་རྒྱལ་རྟེན་འཇིགས་བྲལ་དབང་ཕྱུག, Wylie: blo-bzang rgyal-rten 'jigs-bral dbang-phyug), (1933 in Rong-bo district, Kham, eastern Tibet, — September 11 2015) is a contemporary yogi-scholar of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism and a reincarnation (sprul-sku) of the Choden lineage, the historical abbots of Rabten Monastery (Tibetan: རབ་བརྟེན་དགོན་པ Wylie: rab-brten dgon-pa) in Rong-bo, Kham.
Contents
The current Choden Rinpoche, Losang Gyalten Jigdrel Wangchuk – lit. "clear mind, fearless, powerful victory banner", has been known amongst his peers and students as an extraordinary scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, a yogic practitioner, for being gentle, kind and compassionate in his demeanour and a lineage-holder of rare and sought-after transmissions of the tantrayana (for example the chu-len practice that makes conventional intake of nutrition obsolete).
Family background and early life
Losang Gyalten Jigdrel Wangchuk was born into a "family of an official" (Geshe Gyalten in Kurukulla article), consisting of nine sons and five daughters. He was recognized at age three as the reincarnation of the previous Choden Rinpoche. According to Tseten Gelek of Sera Jey, his third eldest brother, Geshe Thubten Yampil rose to minor prominence in his local area as a compiler of over fifty volumes of Buddhist text and as a teacher of the Kālacakra tradition. The second eldest brother was reportedly "able to recite the Buddhist scriptures without even seeing them" (Reference: Tseten Gelek, Mandala 2000 July–August Article)
Education
Shortly after his recognition as the reincarnation of Choden Rinpoche, his uncle started acting as a tutor to the young lama. In his own words (reference: Mandala Magazine July–August 2000),
"From the age of 3 to 8 I was tutored by an uncle who lived in a hermitage, and at the age of 8 I entered the local Rabten Monastery, where I learned all the prayers and rituals. I was 6 years old when I first met the previous Pabongka Rinpoche, and I took many teachings from him at Rabten Monastery. I also took novice ordination from him then. At that time I did not know much about the practice. When I was 10 one ex-abbot of Drepung Loseling taught on the lam-rim and I attended the teachings, and it was around that time that my interest in the practice began."
Losang Gyalten Jigdrel Wangchuk enrolled in his local Rabten Monastery, of whom the previous Choden Rinpoche had been the abbot. The meeting with Pabongkha Rinpoche reportedly left a lasting impression:
"Rinpoche was very happy with me and I really admired everything that Rinpoche did: the way he walked, the way he dressed, everything. I felt, 'If only I could be like him', because I had such admiration from him."
The young lama, following Pabongkha's counsel, left Kham for further study at Sera Jey, Lhopa Khangtsen, where he completed the full traditional monastic curriculum at the age of 28 - a short period.