![]() ![]() Indeed, Rinpoche always sought to take pain away from people, whether physically via initiatives like Kechara Soup Kitchen or spiritually through disseminating the precious Dharma. ![]() The delivery itself was an easy, painless one in a Buddhist context, this is taken to be the sign of a bodhisattva, a supramundane being who is characterised by their immeasurable compassion and spontaneous wish to always benefit others, whose existence causes no suffering to anyone, even the mother who gives birth to him. On the day Rinpoche was born, Princess Dewa dreamt of high lamas performing pujas in her home, heralding the coming of a great being or Dharma king. Siddhartha would later arise to become the Lord Buddha Rinpoche would later become one of the foremost propagators of Vajrayana Buddhism in South East Asia. It is an event that harkens back to the experience of Queen Maya who, while pregnant with her son Siddhartha Gautama, dreamt of a white elephant entering her womb. Every single night while she was pregnant with Rinpoche, Princess Dewa dreamt of a baby white elephant entering her courtyard and she would tie it to a tree. Because Rinpoche was born out of wedlock, his mother gave him up for adoption, unable to bear the shame and stigma of having an illegitimate child.Įven from such a young age, there were already signs that this was no ordinary baby. ![]() Unbeknownst to her however, Rinpoche’s father was already married, with a family of his own in Tibet. His father, Lobsang Gyatso, was a former monk living in Taiwan and working for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, while his mother Dewa Nimbo was a princess descended from the lineage of Genghis Khan. Rinpoche’s journey in this life began in Taipei, Taiwan where he was born on Octoto a Mongolian mother and Tibetan father. It was an upbringing marked by abandonment, violence and loneliness, in an environment far removed from the one he desperately longed to be a part of, the monastery. In comparison to other ‘golden children’ who were recognised as reincarnations from a young age, Rinpoche did not have an easy childhood. Yet, despite Rinpoche’s tremendous Dharma qualities, life back then was not so simple. This depth of guru devotion, which arose spontaneously, would come to be a defining feature for the rest of Rinpoche’s life. To some it would appear that this was not knowledge being acquired afresh, but a recollection of what had already been accomplished in past lives.Īnd most of all, the monks remember a young boy who instinctively showed an unusual level of devotion to his first guru (teacher), His Eminence Kensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tharchin, an abbot of one of the greatest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in South India. He had an incredible memory for the Buddha’s teachings however complicated the subject, he only needed to be taught once and he would remember it forever. The monks also remember a young boy who was simultaneously mischievous and cheeky but very kind, who read voraciously, borrowing hundreds of books to absorb every bit of Dharma he could get his hands on. And while other children longed to visit the mall to hang out with their friends, Rinpoche liked nothing better than to sit inside the prayer hall to recite mantras for hours upon hours. While other children played outside, Rinpoche followed the monks around the temple asking countless questions. Monks in Howell, New Jersey (USA), where Rinpoche grew up, remember a young boy who spent hours staring at the altar, memorising every single detail of each Buddha. Rinpoche was an unusual child, to say the least. For His Eminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche, that answer was very, very different. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Most children’s answers vary little, falling along the lines of firefighter, policeman, doctor, astronaut or engineer. ![]()
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