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Khensur Thabkhey Rinpoche. 1927 – 1999.
When Khensur Thapkhey Rinpoche was born his mother found golden flowers growing in the snow, which she took as an auspicious sign. From an early age the boy, named Thapkhey Gyatso, wanted to become a monk but, being the only son, his parents were not enthusiastic. However at the age of 14, he joined the local monastery, Shitsang Garser where he studied for some years. Later he journeyed to Lhasa to Drepung Gomang monastery where he continued his studies through the increasing Chinese domination in the 1950s. In 1959 the tension between the Chinese and Tibetans reach crisis point and His Holiness the Dalai Lama was forced to flee his country.
Rinpoche was one of the founding monks of Gomang College, Drepung Monastery, in India and in the late 1970s took the Geshe Lharampa exams and passed the oral and debate sections. Before he could sit the written exam he was appointed abbot of Gomang, a position he held from 1980 to 1984.
After that, The office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama approached him with a request to travel to New Zealand to become resident teacher at Dorje Chang Institute (DCI). He arrived in New Zealand on May 2, 1987 and remained at DCI until His Holiness’s first visit to the country in 1992 during which the Dalai Lama mentioned that Rinpoche should teach in Mongolia. Rinpoche went into retreat for a year at Te Moata on the Coromandel before leaving for Mongolia to teach at Gaden Hidd Monastery in Ulaan Bataar. However, his New Zealand students requested that he return to New Zealand which he did in 1995 and set up Trashi Gomang Centre in 1996. He also gave teachings throughout the country at places like Mahamudra Centre, Keri Keri, Whangarei, Wellington, Nelson, Golden Bays and surrounding areas, Blenheim, Christchurch and places on the West Coast. He also had devoted students in Hong Kong where he regularly taught.
In 1999 Rinpoche led some of his New Zealand and Hong Kong students on pilgrimage to Tibet. While at his home monastery Shitsang Garser, he fell ill and suffered a mild stroke; a blood vessel had burst in his head. Against all predictions that he would recover, Rinpoche steadily worsened and, on the morning of 29 July 1999, he died. He was in meditation for three days before the final signs of his passing away.
Celia Smith, Rinpoche’s translator and student has provided a brief biography and tribute to him which is well worth reading. Click here for her brief outline of Rinpoche’s life and achivements.
Geshe Dhonam, a Tibetan monk for over thirty years is the resident teacher and lives at the Centre.
Geshe Dhonam became a monk at Gomang College of Drepung Monastery in 1970 when he was 13 years old. In Tibet, Drepung, Sera and Gaden were the three great Gelukpa monasteries. At one time Drepung was the largest with 10,000 monks. When the communist Chinese invaded Tibet, many monks fled with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and, on the destruction of their monasteries in Tibet, rebuilt them in South India. It was the rebuilt Drepung in South India Geshe Dhonam entered as a boy. Over the 22 years he was at the monastery, he studied and passed all the major topics and attained the monastery’s highest qualification “Geshe Lharampa” in 1992.
Immediately after the exams, he was asked by the monastery to go to Buryatia, one of the newly established Russian states, to teach. Geshe-la was a resident teacher at a Buddhist Institute in Buryatia for eight years before returning to Drepung where he was then requested to come New Zealand and teach at Trashi Gomang Centre in Auckland. He arrived in time for His Holiness’s visit in 2002 and since then has taught regularly at the Centre and at Trashi Ge Phel Ling in Wellington. Geshe-la also teaches in Hamilton.
Venerable Tenzin Chosang currently based in Hamilton but continues his weekly meditation class at Trashi Gomang, Auckland.
Ven Tenzin began practising Buddhism in the 1990’s and in 1996 when HH Dalai Lama consecrated the newly bought property of Trashi Gomang, he also cut a lock of Ven Tenzin’s hair as a sign of Tenzin’s wish to enter the monastic life. In the years that followed, he took novice monk and then full ordination with His Holiness in Dharamsala and spent some time at Gomang Drepung Monastery in south India.
Following Khensur Thapkhey Rinpoche’s passing in 1999, ven Tenzin returned to Trashi Gomang to help stabilise and develop the Centre. He has provided a continual and multifaceted support since both as a monastic as well as taking on many practical roles. He was a founding trustee and has just completed a 5 year period as Director. He runs a weekly meditation class at the centre on Thurs. nights at 8 pm as well as in a broad spectrum of the community – helping various other Buddhist centers, giving instruction and talks as well as assisting with English documents, running classes at St Matthews in the City, the Sri Lankan temple in Hamilton, Auckland District Health Board’s mental health facility Seagar House, private houses and a Dharma Radio programme through the Chinese Buddhist Youth Association. You can contact him through the Centre or via email russellshipman@xtra.co.nz
Celia is our interpreter and translator, a trustee and one of the group who began the Centre. She also works as a wedding and funeral celebrant and in this regard can be contacted at celia.ceremony@lycos.comShe began studying Buddhism and Tibetan language in 1981 in Nepal and has continued that since then in India, France and most importantly, in New Zealand with Khensur Thapkhey Rinpoche from 1987. She was Khensur Thapkhey’s interpreter since 1991 and has continued to interpret for Geshe Dhonam since his arrival in 2002. From 2008 she will be based in Nelson and will continue to interpret for the Centre using electronic systems.