Rabjam Rinpoche
Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche
Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, born in 1967, is the grandson and spiritual heir of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Since his grandfather’s passing in 1991, Rabjam Rinpoche has taken the responsibility of transmitting Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s teachings, and is bringing his vision for the preservation of Tibetan Buddhist teaching and culture to fruition.
Rabjam Rinpoche is the seventh in the line of the Rabjam succession. The second Rabjam Rinpoche founded Shechen Monastery in Kham, eastern Tibet. The monastery became one of the six main Nyingma Monasteries in Tibet but was destroyed in the mid-twentieth century. At the age of three, Rabjam Rinpoche began taking teachings from his revered grandfather and today holds this unbroken lineage. He was raised by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and attended almost every teaching, drupchen (9-day ceremony), and empowerment that he gave during twenty-five years. He traveled throughout the world with Khyentse Rinpoche and first visited the West in 1976.
In the early 1980’s Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche built Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal and established Rabjam Rinpoche as its abbot. Today, there are 300 monks studying and practicing there under his guidance. Rabjam Rinpoche has created an administration and organization within the monk community that is a model of education, joyful discipline, and humanitarian activity.
Rinpoche is overseeing the education and upbringing of Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche, the young incarnation of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He spends part of the year with the young tulku in Bhutan and on retreat.