Gonsar Rinpoche

At the time of the Seventh Dalai Lama, a young man from Amdo asked to be received into the home of his countrymen in Sera Monastery near Lhasa; he was refused because his appearance was shabby and shabby. Leaving there, but still on the monastery grounds, he met an old woman who gave him the idea of asking to be received into Chadrel House, and who assured him that his place was there. He did as he was told, and after being admitted into the convent, he studied with great enthusiasm. Before long, his qualities as a great master became evident. He became famous under the name of Master Ngawang Thöndrup, and served the Buddha's teachings greatly, both as abbot of Sera Je monastery and as one of the tutors of His Holiness the Eighth Dalai Lama. He spent much time in meditation in a cave on Mount Ghephel near Lhasa, where the Gonsar retreat monastery was later built. When the people of Lhasa saw the new monastery, they began to call it „Gonsar Rinpoce”, which in Tibetan means „Precious Lama of the new monastery”. This name has remained in the line of Gonsar Rinpoce to this day. The old woman who led the first Gonsar Rinpoce to Chadrel House in Sera University came to be recognised as a manifestation of Palden Lhamo (Mother Goddess Protector).

The fourth Gonsar Rinpoce, the previous incarnation of the current Gonsar Rinpoce, also studied at Sera monastery. After he finished his studies and took his Gonship examinations before twenty-five, he went to Mongolia and became one of the greatest Buddhist masters in that country in more recent times. Teaching there for more than thirty years and often manifesting supernatural powers, he was highly esteemed by the people, and almost all the contemporary masters of Mongolia, such as Tsenșab Ngawang Dorje, Tsenșab Ngödrub Țognyi, Tsenșab Ngawang Nyima, Tsenșab Ngawang Senge, Guru Deva Rinpoce, etc., became his disciples. He returned to Tibet at the beginning of the Bolshevik revolution, where he continued his vast activities. The parents and elder brother of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Taktser Rinpoche, are among his distinguished disciples.

The present Gonsar Rinpoce was born in 1949 in Shigatse, Tibet, into an aristocratic family known to be descended from the ancient kings of Tibet. At the time, his father was governor of Tsang Province in Western Tibet. At the age of three, Gonsar Rinpoce was recognised as the fifth incarnation (tulku) of the Gonsar Rinpoche line, a fact confirmed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. At the age of six he entered Sera monastery, which was then the second largest monastic university in Tibet. From the very beginning, he was brought up and trained under the gentle care of Venerable Geshe Rabten. Gonsar Rinpoce received a great number of teachings and transmissions from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and many other masters, in particular Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang and Geshe Rabten Rinpoce.

In 1959, when Tibet fell to the Chinese communist regime, Gonsar Rinpoce fled to India with his master and continued his studies there. At the same time, he learnt English and Hindi. In 1969, he began to translate into English the Buddhist teachings taught by his teacher Geshe Rabten to students in the West.

Since 1986, when Venerable Geshe Rabten passed into Parinirvana, Gonsar Rinpoce has continued the activities of his master, having spent thirty-three years as his closest disciple. Today, Gonsar Rinpoce is the director of the Rabten Choeling Centre of High Tibetan Studies in Mont Pèlerin (Switzerland), as well as of the other Rabten centres in Europe. He regularly teaches directly in English, French, German and Tibetan.

The first Gonsar Rinpoche was renowned for his remarkably broad and profound teachings on the gradual way (lamrim) of the development of the mind to complete enlightenment. The present Gonsar Rinpoce is renowned as one of the very few contemporary masters able to clearly and movingly convey all aspects of the Buddha's teachings.