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Kyabje Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche, commonly known as Penor Rinpoche (1932 – 27 March 2009), was the eleventh throne-holder of the Palyul lineage, one of the six principal monastic seats of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as the third Supreme Head of the Nyingma tradition from 1993 to 2001, following Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and was recognised in the Palyul tradition as an emanation of Vimalamitra, the eighth-century Indian master associated with the introduction of the Dzogchen teachings to Tibet.^[1]

Born in the Powo region of Kham in eastern Tibet, Penor Rinpoche was identified at a young age as the third Drubwang Padma Norbu and trained at the original Palyul Monastery. He fled Tibet in 1959 in the wake of the Chinese occupation and re-established the Palyul tradition in exile, founding Namdroling Monastery at the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe in Karnataka, India, in 1963. Namdroling has since grown into the largest Nyingma monastery in the world, housing several thousand monks and nuns and a major shedra (philosophical college).^[2]

Although Tibetan-born, Penor Rinpoche maintained a sustained connection with Bhutan through Bhutanese students at Namdroling, through visits to Bhutanese monasteries, and through the recognition of Bhutanese reincarnations. He died on 27 March 2009 at Namdroling and was succeeded as Palyul throne-holder by the fifth Karma Kuchen Rinpoche.^[3]

Early Life and Recognition

Penor Rinpoche was born in 1932 in Powo, in the Kham region of eastern Tibet. Sources differ marginally on the date: most Palyul publications cite 1932, while the Western Palyul archive and other accounts give 30 January 1933. He was identified as the reincarnation of the second Drubwang Pema Norbu and brought to Palyul Monastery, where he received the full sequence of Palyul Nyingma transmissions, including the Namcho cycle revealed by Migyur Dorje in the seventeenth century. By the age of seventeen he had completed the principal Dzogchen and tantric trainings of the Palyul tradition.^[4]

Exile and Founding of Namdroling

Penor Rinpoche left Tibet in 1959 and travelled south into India. After several years of preparatory work he founded Namdroling Monastery in 1963 at Bylakuppe, the principal Tibetan refugee settlement in southern Karnataka. The monastery began with a small bamboo temple and a handful of monks. Over the following four decades it expanded into a complex containing the Padmasambhava Buddhist Vihara, the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute (the shedra) and a parallel nunnery. By the time of Penor Rinpoche's death in 2009, Namdroling housed several thousand resident monks and nuns drawn from Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, India and other Himalayan regions, and was widely regarded as the largest functioning Nyingma monastery in the world.^[1]

Supreme Head of the Nyingma School

In 1993, following the death of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche in 1991, Penor Rinpoche was elected the third Supreme Head of the Nyingma school in exile by the heads of the major Nyingma monasteries. He served until 2001, when the role passed to Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche. The Supreme Head position is administrative rather than doctrinal and is held in rotation by the senior heads of the principal Nyingma seats.^[2]

Connections with Bhutan

Penor Rinpoche's relationship with Bhutan was developed through three principal channels. First, a substantial portion of the resident monastic population at Namdroling was Bhutanese: senior khenpos including Khenpo Tenzin Norgay, born in Trashigang in 1965, completed their training at the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute and returned to teach in Bhutanese monasteries. Second, Penor Rinpoche made a series of teaching visits to Bhutan over the course of his life and gave Dzogchen and Namcho transmissions to Bhutanese students.^[5]

Third, Palyul sources record that Penor Rinpoche took part in the recognition of senior Bhutanese reincarnate lamas, in concert with other Nyingma masters of his generation. The present Gangteng Tulku, Kunzang Pema Namgyal, the ninth in the line of incarnations stemming from Pema Lingpa, received teachings from Penor Rinpoche among a wider group of teachers that also included Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and the sixty-eighth Je Khenpo. The exact attribution of recognition for Bhutanese tulkus often involves several senior masters and Bhutanese state authorities, and the role of Penor Rinpoche should be understood within that wider context rather than as a sole act.^[1]

Recognition Decisions and Public Discussion

Penor Rinpoche was at times the subject of public discussion in the Buddhist press for tulku recognitions made outside the traditional Tibetan and Himalayan world. In 1988 he enthroned an American student, Catherine Burroughs, as Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, and in 1997 he recognised the American actor Steven Seagal as a tulku of the seventeenth-century terton Chungdrag Dorje. The latter recognition prompted scrutiny in the Western Buddhist community; in a public statement issued through the Palyul administration, Penor Rinpoche denied that any donation had been received in connection with the recognition. These episodes are noted here for completeness; they were peripheral to his Bhutanese activities.^[6]

Death and Succession

Penor Rinpoche died on 27 March 2009 at Namdroling Monastery. He was succeeded as the twelfth throne-holder of the Palyul lineage by the fifth Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, whom he had identified as his successor several years earlier. His Yangsi (reincarnation), the fourth Drubwang Pema Norbu, was recognised in 2014 and is being trained at Namdroling.^[3]

Penor Rinpoche