Chatral Rinpoche

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Kyabje Chadral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche is one of the very few great masters of the Longchen Nyingthig lineage and of the Dudjom Tersar lineage still living today. Rinpoche was born in the village Apse of Nyarong province of Kham and soon migrated to Amdo with his family. Rinpoche received the transmissions of the Ter cycles of Dudjom Lingpa, Sera Khandro, and others from the great wisdom dakini Sera Khandro Dewai Dorje herself and Tulku Dorje Dradul, the youngest son of Dudjom Lingpa. At the age of fifteen, he abandoned his ties with his family and went to many teachers to study and practice. He insisted on travelling on foot and refused to enter the residences of householders, staying only in hermitages, caves, or his own little tent.

From Kathok Khenpo Ngawang Palzang (1879-1941), the disciple of the great Khenpo Nyoshul Lungtok Tenpai Nyima, he received the transmissions and teachings of Longchen Nyingthig and many other teachings, and Khenpo became his most important Root Teacher. Rinpoche also received many transmissions from Kyabje Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro and other masters of Derge. In Central Tibet, he became one of the principal disciples of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche II, the tulku of Dudjom Lingpa. Rinpoche also transmitted many rare teachings to Shuksep Lochen, Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, and many other important masters.

Gyaltsap Retring, who was then the regent of Tibet, invited Rinpoche to Lhasa and received many transmissions and instructions on Dzogpachenpo meditation from him. As a result, many people from all wal Photo 1.38 Kaybje Cdhadral Rinpoche with Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche II in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1975. ks of life flocked to Rinpoche for teachings with offerings. He saw this as a distraction from the path and left suddently to the caves in the mountains blessed by Guru Rinpoche and other masters of the past. He then lived as a hermit for decades and became known as "Chadral" (a hermit), one who has abandoned mundane activities.

At the end of the 1950s, Rinpoche moved to Bhutan and then to India. He restored a simple temple of "Bhuntsok Ngayab Cholingî near Darjeeling in 1962, and later started a drupdra, where meditators were trained in Longchen Nyingthig practice. Rinpoche also built many temples, stupas, and a number of other drupdras in Nepal and India.

Today, he lives primarily at Pharping (Yangleshod), an important pilgrimage place in Nepal where Guru Rinpoche took the form of Vajrakumara, and attained the Vidyadhara stage of Mahamudra realization. Rinpoche refrains from any involvement in monastic or bureaucratic structures and maintains a hermit tradition. He has numerous disciples from Tibet, Bhutan, India and Nepal, as well as many from the West.

With courtesy from Dudjomba Buddhist Association