Remembering Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

It is with great heartache that we share that Ven. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, a prominent teacher of the Karma Kagyu School, has passed at the age of 91 on June 4, 2023. We'd like to take a moment to appreciate this remarkable master and prolific author. We are happy to have published over a dozen books by Thrangu Rinpoche over the years, and we are grateful to be a part of the incredible impact Rinpoche has made on the world.

On June 8th Thrangu Monastery issued the following address:

“…On June 4, the full moon day of the fourth Tibetan month, Saga Dawa—the sacred anniversary of the Buddha Shakyamuni, our incomparably kind teacher, passing into parinirvana—Rinpoche decided that he had completed his activity for this life… The Gyalwang Karmapa instructed that, as Rinpoche needed to be in a peaceful environment, this news should not be announced for four days. This is the reason why no announcement has been made until now.”

A Short Biography of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche from the Preface to An Ocean of Ultimate Meaning

Khenchen Thrangu, the ninth Thrangu Rinpoche, whose personal name is Karma Lodrö Ringluk Marwe Sengge, was born in the region of Gawa in the east of the Tibetan plateau in 1933. At about the age of four he was recognized as the rebirth of the eighth Thrangu, Karma Tendzin Trinle Namgyal, by the twelve-year-old sixteenth Karmapa, Rigpe Dorje, and the eleventh Taisitupa, Pema Wangchuk Gyalpo.

From an early age, Thrangu Rinpoche showed great aptitude in scholarship, studying at the Thrangu monastic college under Khenpo Lodrö Rabsal from 1948 to 1953. In the late ﬁfties, the Communist suppression of Tibetan monasteries caused him to ﬂee to India in a large group of refugees. Surviving an intense military attack, he reached India via Bhutan in 1959. After demonstrating his scholarship by obtaining the scholastic degree of Geshe Rabjam at an examination in West Bengal—the highest degree awarded within the Gelugpa
tradition of the Dalai Lama, which emphasizes scholastic studies—in 1968 Thrangu Rinpoche became the khenpo (professor) of the new Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, India, and the tutor for the principal tulkus of the Karma Kagyu tradition.

Since the late 1970s, Thrangu Rinpoche has traveled extensively, spending most of each year teaching at centers in the Far East and the West.

Books by Thrangu Rinpoche

As one of the foremost teachers in the Karma Kagyu tradition, Thrangu Rinpoche wrote several books and commentaries on the Mahamudra tradition including Tilopa's Wisdom, An Ocean of the Ultimate Meaning, and more.