Thuksey Rinpoche
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Thuksey Rinpoche (meaning "precious heart son") is a reincarnate-lama title of the Drukpa Kagyu, the Buddhist school that has been Bhutan's state religion since the 17th century. The first Thuksey Rinpoche, Ngawang Gyurme Palzang (1916–1983), was a leading Drukpa master who fled Tibet in 1959 and founded a monastery in Darjeeling. His present reincarnation, Jigmet Shedup Tenzin (born 1986), was recognised in 1987 and studied for nine years at Tango in Bhutan.
Thuksey Rinpoche (Tibetan for "precious heart son") is a reincarnate-lama (tulku) title within the Drukpa Kagyu, the school of Tibetan Buddhism that has been the state religion of Bhutan since the kingdom was unified by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in the 17th century. The holders of the title are closely associated with the Gyalwang Drukpa, the head of the lineage, and the name reflects the lama's role as a spiritual "heart son" and custodian of the Drukpa teachings.[1]
The lineage is significant to Bhutan both because of the country's foundational connection to the Drukpa Kagyu and because the present incarnation pursued his monastic training in Bhutan. As such the Thuksey Rinpoche line forms part of the living network of Drukpa masters who move between the Himalayan centres of the school in Ladakh, Nepal, Darjeeling and Bhutan.[2]
First Thuksey Rinpoche (1916–1983)
The first Thuksey Rinpoche, Ngawang Gyurme Palzang, lived from 1916 to 1983 and was one of the principal Drukpa Kagyu masters of the 20th century. Born into the family of the Drukpa hierarchs and a grandson of the renowned yogi Togden Shakya Shri, he was recognised as a "heart son" of the Gyalwang Drukpa and trained in the Drukpa transmission.[1]
After the Chinese takeover of Lhasa in 1959 he went into exile in India, where he re-established the lineage's institutions abroad, founding the Druk Thubten Sangag Choeling Monastery in Darjeeling. He became widely known as a teacher to both Himalayan and Western students before his death in 1983.[2]
The present Thuksey Rinpoche
The present holder of the title, Kyabje Thuksey Rinpoche, was born Jigmet Shedup Tenzin in 1986 in Chushul and recognised as the reincarnation of the first Thuksey Rinpoche. In July 1987 the 14th Dalai Lama and the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa together visited a cave associated with the Drukpa master Gyalwa Gotsangpa near Hemis Monastery in Ladakh and concluded that the child was the authentic reincarnation.[3]
After spending much of his childhood at the lineage's monastery in Darjeeling, he undertook nine years of advanced monastic education at Tango in Bhutan — the Tango centre of Buddhist learning above Thimphu — which forms his principal connection to the country whose state faith is the Drukpa Kagyu.[4] He has since taught and led practice and humanitarian activities within the Drukpa lineage internationally.
Significance for Bhutan
Because the Drukpa Kagyu is the established school of Buddhism in Bhutan, its reincarnate masters carry particular weight for Bhutanese religious life even when their seats lie outside the country. The Thuksey Rinpoche line illustrates the cross-border character of the lineage: a title rooted in the Tibetan Drukpa tradition, re-established in exile in India, and sustained in part through monastic training in Bhutan itself.
References
See also
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