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Kyabje Zong Rinpoche
I recently started to read biographies of some great contemporary masters, and I have would like to share what I found.
Zong Rinpoche had many disciples in Tibet, India and the West. He was the teacher and root Guru of H.E Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, as well as a teacher of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of the FPMT. He was also one of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's teachers.
Below is an excerpt taken from the book, CHOD IN THE GANDEN TRADITION
ZONGTRUL JETSUN LOSANG TSONDRU THUBTEN GYALTSEN-or Venerable Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, as he is known to countless ordained and lay disciples-was born in 1905 in the village of Nangsang in the Kham province of eastern Tibet. His father and both his grandfathers were ngakpa, tantric practitioners of the Nyingma tradition, and two previous incarnations of Kyabje Dorje Chang (“Vajradhara, Lord of Refuge,” as Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was also known) had taken birth within the Zong-go family: Zongtrul Phuntsok Chopel and Zongtrul Tenpa Chopel (1836-1899).
It is said that when Zongtrul Tenpa Chopel was about to pass away, his niece’s husband came to visit him and persuaded him to extend his life. Later, when Zongtrul Rinpoche was again about to end his earthly existence, his niece’s husband made the same request. This time the master refused, but on being asked to take rebirth within the same family, he gave his relative three apricots. He told him to eat one himself, to give the second to his niece, and to plant the last one in front of their house. “When the tree first begins to bear fruit,” Rinpoche said, “I will once again take rebirth in the Zong-go family!” Five years later, Zongtrul Rinpoche fulfilled his promise.
In 1916, following his recognition as the new incarnation of Zongtrul Tenpa Chopel, the eleven-year-old Zong Rinpoche made the long and arduous journey to central Tibet. He came to study at Ganden Monastery, one of Tibet’s great monastic universities, forty kilometers (twentyfive miles) northeast of Lhasa. Upon his arrival, his appointed attendant offered the young tulku some sobering advice. “From now on,” he said, “you need to study hard, because you will not be respected back at your home monastery if you don’t do well. My duty is to earn whatever I can to support your Geshe ceremony.” This was no small feat. The occasion of a student earning his Geshe degree was marked by a feast offering’ and a personal donation to the entire population of monks, which at that time numbered around 2,500. Unfortunately, the attendant did not live to see Rinpoche complete his degree. When Zong Rinpoche entered Ganden’s Shartse College, the fourteen-year-old Venerable Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche (who was to become one of the main tutors of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama) guided the new student by taking him through his first lesson in elementary dialectics. He was later to become Zong Rinpoche’s chief mentor.
Zong Rinpoche received his full ordination from the Thirteenth Dalai Lama at the Potala Palace, and soon after that, during even his first year at the monastery, his teachers began to see in the young lama the makings of a talented debater. During an all-night debating session on Pramana between Ganden’s twin colleges of Shartse and Jangtse, he surprised the senior Jangtse scholars with the depth of his debating skills.
During a similar session a year later, he advanced a debate on the opening verse of Pramanavarttika, the foremost dissertation on Buddhist logic by the famed seventh-century Indian logician Acharya Dharmakirti. Zong Rinpoche’s performance led the famous Geshe “Amdo” Sherab Gyatso to remark, “There would not be a worthier debate on this subject even if Dharmakirti himself were here in person!” Along with his formidable skill in debate, Zong Rinpoche possessed a fertile intelligence and great powers of retention, and his name gradually became known throughout the three great Gelug monasteries of central Tibet: Ganden, Drepung, and Sera.
Zong Rinpoche had many disciples in Tibet, India and the West. He was the teacher and root Guru of H.E Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, as well as a teacher of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of the FPMT. He was also one of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's teachers.
Below is an excerpt taken from the book, CHOD IN THE GANDEN TRADITION
ZONGTRUL JETSUN LOSANG TSONDRU THUBTEN GYALTSEN-or Venerable Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, as he is known to countless ordained and lay disciples-was born in 1905 in the village of Nangsang in the Kham province of eastern Tibet. His father and both his grandfathers were ngakpa, tantric practitioners of the Nyingma tradition, and two previous incarnations of Kyabje Dorje Chang (“Vajradhara, Lord of Refuge,” as Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was also known) had taken birth within the Zong-go family: Zongtrul Phuntsok Chopel and Zongtrul Tenpa Chopel (1836-1899).
It is said that when Zongtrul Tenpa Chopel was about to pass away, his niece’s husband came to visit him and persuaded him to extend his life. Later, when Zongtrul Rinpoche was again about to end his earthly existence, his niece’s husband made the same request. This time the master refused, but on being asked to take rebirth within the same family, he gave his relative three apricots. He told him to eat one himself, to give the second to his niece, and to plant the last one in front of their house. “When the tree first begins to bear fruit,” Rinpoche said, “I will once again take rebirth in the Zong-go family!” Five years later, Zongtrul Rinpoche fulfilled his promise.
In 1916, following his recognition as the new incarnation of Zongtrul Tenpa Chopel, the eleven-year-old Zong Rinpoche made the long and arduous journey to central Tibet. He came to study at Ganden Monastery, one of Tibet’s great monastic universities, forty kilometers (twentyfive miles) northeast of Lhasa. Upon his arrival, his appointed attendant offered the young tulku some sobering advice. “From now on,” he said, “you need to study hard, because you will not be respected back at your home monastery if you don’t do well. My duty is to earn whatever I can to support your Geshe ceremony.” This was no small feat. The occasion of a student earning his Geshe degree was marked by a feast offering’ and a personal donation to the entire population of monks, which at that time numbered around 2,500. Unfortunately, the attendant did not live to see Rinpoche complete his degree. When Zong Rinpoche entered Ganden’s Shartse College, the fourteen-year-old Venerable Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche (who was to become one of the main tutors of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama) guided the new student by taking him through his first lesson in elementary dialectics. He was later to become Zong Rinpoche’s chief mentor.
Zong Rinpoche received his full ordination from the Thirteenth Dalai Lama at the Potala Palace, and soon after that, during even his first year at the monastery, his teachers began to see in the young lama the makings of a talented debater. During an all-night debating session on Pramana between Ganden’s twin colleges of Shartse and Jangtse, he surprised the senior Jangtse scholars with the depth of his debating skills.
During a similar session a year later, he advanced a debate on the opening verse of Pramanavarttika, the foremost dissertation on Buddhist logic by the famed seventh-century Indian logician Acharya Dharmakirti. Zong Rinpoche’s performance led the famous Geshe “Amdo” Sherab Gyatso to remark, “There would not be a worthier debate on this subject even if Dharmakirti himself were here in person!” Along with his formidable skill in debate, Zong Rinpoche possessed a fertile intelligence and great powers of retention, and his name gradually became known throughout the three great Gelug monasteries of central Tibet: Ganden, Drepung, and Sera.
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