H. H. DRUBWANG PENOR RINPOCHE

Palyul Namdorl Ling Monastery

The Supreme Head of Ngagyur Nyingma tradition

H.H. Pema Norbu Rinpoche, believed to be an emanation of Pandit Vimalamitra, was born in the twelfth Tibetan month of the Water Monkey Year (1932) at Powo, a village in Kham, Eastern Tibet.  The name of his father was Sonam Gyurme and his mother was Zomkyid.  At the time of his birth, sweet scented flowers miraculously bloomed in his village where no flowers usually appear in the cold and dry winter months.  He was recognized as the third Drubwang Penor Rinpoche through the prophecy of the fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche, Thubten Chokyi Dorjee, who forecast the birth of Penor Rinpoche in the following words: 

“In the upper region of sacred Powo,

At the foot of a majestic hill,

Surrounded by beautiful trees and lakes,

With a large river flowing from the south,

To a couple bearing the names, Sonam and Kyid,

A noble child will be born in the Water-Monkey Year,

Possessing great qualities (he) would benefit the doctrine and the beings.

I, the fifth Dzogchen, prophesy this.”

Khenpo Ngagchung, a prominent Dzogchen adept of his time, foreseeing the exceptional destiny of the new incarnation gave him the refuge vow, an empowerment of Manjushri, a sacred statue and composed a long-life prayer that thousands of his followers around the globe chant today.  At the tender age of five, Penor Rinpoche was brought to Palyul Monastery, the seat of his former incarnations, and enthroned by Thubten Chokyi Dawa and Karma Thegchog Nyingpo, as the reincarnation of the second Drubwang Penor Rinpoche (1887-1932) and as the eleventh throne-holder of Palyul Monastery.

Palyul Namgyal Jangchub Choling, one of the six great Nyingma monasteries, was established under the patronage of Lachen Jhampa Phuntsok, the King of Dege, and Trichen Sangye Tenpa in 1665.  Rigzin Kunsang Sherap, a prominent Dzogchen master and a Treasure-Holder prophesied by Padmasambhava, became the first head of the monastery, which grew rapidly into one of the biggest monasteries in Tibet.  In the following centuries, Palyul - often referred to as the Glorious Palyul of the East - became a famous centre of ardent learning and practice under the guidance of its successive throne holders.  Hundreds and thousands of its monks attained the “rainbow body” or other spiritual accomplishments.  Penor Rinpoche was to oversee this large monastery with over four hundred branch monasteries and more than three hundred thousand monks and nuns.

Penor Rinpoche spent his early youth at Palyul and Dago studying and receiving teachings from many masters including the tenth throne holder Karma Thegchog Nyingpo, who prepared him to be the eleventh throne holder. As a small child, while he was playing with a precious vajra, he accidentally dropped it, breaking it into two pieces.  Fearing that his teacher would reprimand him, he quickly glued it back together with his own saliva, making the vajra stronger than ever.  On another occasion he accidentally dropped a fragile ritual bell onto the stone floor.  Everyone present assumed that the bell had been broken but when Rinpoche picked it up, the bell was still whole and had a more melodious sound.

One day when Rinpoche was a small boy, an old man approached him and insisted that Rinpoche should practice Phowa on him.  Rinpoche innocently complied with the old man’s bidding.  To his horror, he realized that he had killed the old man.  He immediately practiced again to revive the corpse, which lay before him.  To Rinpoche’s utter relief, the old man came back to life and said, “For heaven’s sake, why did you call me back? I was already in the pure land of Lord Amitabha.” Another incident illustrating Rinpoche’s extraordinary powers at a tender age occurred when he left his footprint indelibly etched in a stone.  This incident, among others, testifies to the karmic continuity of Rinpoche’s former practices.  Penor Rinpoche used to make intricately woven knots in a blessing cord using only his tongue.

Amongst his numerous masters, Penor Rinpoche benefited immensely from the very warm and close relationship he enjoyed with his master, Thubten Chokyi Dawa.  At the age of thirteen, he received novice ordination from him. At twenty-one, full ordination and a vast number of teachings including essential instructions and empowerment of Nyingma tradition.  Despite his old age and poor eyesight, his master said, “If I am not able to give the entire teachings, instructions and empowerment to Penor Rinpoche, then I would have not lived my life.”

Penor Rinpoche then underwent a long-term retreat with his master, Thubten Chokyi Dawa at Darthang. Starting with preliminary practices and progressing to the most profound esoteric teachings of Dzogchen, he stressed every practice until the naked truth was revealed to him.  H.H. Dilgo Khyentse on one occasion said, “Penor Rinpoche is a saint who has transcended the boundary of Samayas.” Khenpo Jigmed Phuntsok repeatedly applauded Penor Rinpoche as an enlightened Buddha in flesh and blood.

During an accomplishment ceremony, many monks saw a rainbow appear around the mandala and the amrita boil in the skull-cup.  While conducting the accomplishment ceremony of Magon, the ritual cake of the dakini was seen shaking vigorously.  One day, while receiving Kangyur transmissions, Penor Rinpoche had a recollection of Lord Buddha seated at the bank of a river giving profound teachings to him and thousands others. According to Khenpo Ngagchung, Penor Rinpoche is also a manifestation of Vajrapani.  Rinpoche’s recollection clearly indicates that he had sat at the feet of the Enlightened One in a previous lifetime in the being of Vajrapani.

It was a dream of every Tibetan to make a pilgrimage to Lhasa, and in 1956, at the age of twenty-four, Penor Rinpoche, with a large entourage, began to travel towards Central Tibet.  There they visited numerous monasteries, ancient temples and sacred places, which spoke volumes of the sanctity and glory of Tibet’s past.  He also visited H.H. Dalai Lama at his winter palace, the Potala, and received a long-life empowerment. The great prayer festival, Lhasa Monlam Chenmo, was in progress, and he offered tea and distributed money to the entire assembly of monks.  By then the situation in Lhasa was very tense.  With a heavy heart, Rinpoche returned to his monastery at Palyul.

Foreseeing the irreversibility of the Chinese occupation and the threat this occupation posed to the existence of the Buddhadharma, Penor Rinpoche and three hundred others fled to the North Eastern frontier of India. The journey was a long and dangerous one, with only thirty people reaching India while many others dying at the hands of the Chinese. Bullets would fall by Penor Rinpoche’s feet sending up clouds of dust. Hand grenades would roll at his feet, exploding only after he had moved forward to a safe distance.  To survive, people with him killed animals for food.  Penor Rinpoche could not bear to see the butcher of innocent animals and would walk ahead to drive away the possible victims.  He and his group reached Pema Koe in the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh.  In 1961, Penor Rinpoche and approximately six hundred people moved south to Mysore.

The purpose of Rinpoche’s escape from Tibet was to keep the flame of the Buddhadharma burning brightly so that beings would not plunge into the darkness and gloom of ignorance.  Keeping this in mind, Penor Rinpoche re-established the great Palyul Monastery Thegchog Namdrol Shedrub Dhargyeling at Bylakuppe, Mysore, South India.  It was by no means an easy task.  Rinpoche had at his disposal the paltry sum of only three hundred rupees to rebuild his entire life and that of his monastery.  Rinpoche had, however, insurmountable hidden resources: his enormous courage and determination!

People around him did not see the vision that he had and insisted that he should reduce the size of the planned monastery, as there were only a handful of monks. Today, when monks by the hundreds cram into the monastery and find no place to sit, one can only wonder at the foresight that Penor Rinpoche had three decades ago.  Few masters of Penor Rinpoche’s status would have undergone the hardships that he went through: carrying stones, bricks and sand and working with cement in the scorching sun, his hands bleeding and full of sores.  Lack of water and paved roads made the construction even more difficult.  Penor Rinpoche even had to fetch water from the river.

At times during the working day he and his monks even ate Tsampa mixed with the dirty river water that ran by the monastery.  In the early days of settlement, he lived in a tent, making Tibetan tea with cheap cooking oil, as he had no butter, and drinking out of a tin mug.  Rinpoche even cut his upper robe in half, to share it with another lama.  An old woman found him one day digging all alone deep in a trench, making a toilet for one of his monks staying in retreat.

One day a man arrived at the site where Rinpoche was working with a group of monks under the burning sun.  He briskly walked up to Penor Rinpoche and said, “I have come a long way to see Penor Rinpoche, and may I see him?” “Oh! Sure, why not?” Rinpoche answered.  He then took his visitor to his humble room and asked, “Yes, what can I do for you?” The man was both surprised and embarrassed.  He never expected Rinpoche to be so earthly and accessible.  His idea of Penor Rinpoche was different: a well-dressed monk on a high luxurious throne. Rinpoche appeared a true gem lying on the common soil upon which he himself toiled.

Year after year Penor Rinpoche, with inexhaustible energy and commitment, trudged steadily along the path of progress undeterred by the numerous obstacles and hardships that confronted him.  The energy that Penor Rinpoche expanded was not in vain and it has borne him abundant fruits.  Today Namdrolling Monastery at Bylakuppe, with more than one thousand five hundred members, can boast of being the largest Nyingmapa Monastery in the world.  Penor Rinpoche established the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute in 1978, unable to bear the sight of the priceless Nyingma doctrine being at risk.  The NNI, which is now a renowned center for advanced Buddhist education and research studies, has become a special pride of Penor Rinpoche.

Namdrolling Monastery also hosts a Retreat Center where thirty monks undergo intensive three-year retreats.  Penor Rinpoche personally instructs them on the Dzogchen Longchen Nyingthig cycle and the Namcho cycle of Terton Migyur Dorjee.  Every three years, large groups of qualified Vajracharyas pass out of the retreat.  Each fall, Rinpoche also gives instructions on Ngondro, Tsalung and Dzongchen during a month-long retreat undertaken by a large number of monks, nuns and the laypersons.  Studies are always coupled with practice and therefore Penor Rinpoche’s monastery is thus an ideal place for both intensive study and practice.  That was Penor Rinpoche’s dream and that is what he still emphasizes.

The younger monks go to the primary school where senior students teach them basic reading and writing in Tibetan and English, and basic monastic duties and Buddhist teachings from the Institute. Penor Rinpoche constructed Tsogyal Shedrupling Nunnery in 1993 where the nuns can study and practice.  He also has a Home for the Elderly where approximately thirty elderly people live and practice.  These can be seen with their prayer wheels and males, either sitting under the shade of a cluster of jackfruit trees or walking around the eight large Stupas, which Penor Rinpoche had built and dedicated to World Peace.

The compassion of Rinpoche extends to the local Indian people. The money that he receives in the form of donations is always spent on worthy causes such as the construction of roads and bridges, benefiting many people. Both in Tibet and India, Penor Rinpoche has become famous for making timely rain when the seasonal rain did not fall.  The local Indians have given him the nickname, “the Rain Lama.”  Penor Rinpoche has given the entire Rinchen Terzod empowerment five times and the Nyingthig and Namcho cycle several times more.  He was the first and so far the only Tibetan master to have given the Rinchen Terzod in the West.

Being a peerless full-fledged monk himself, Penor Rinpoche has ordinated over two thousand five hundred monks to date.  Apart from the teachings and empowerment he gives, he provides solutions to various human problems.  Day in and out, he selflessly works for the benefit of the living the dying and the dead.  The marvelous activities of His Holiness are expanding rapidly.  During his four return visits to Tibet since 1959, he renovated the mother Palyul Monastery and its numerous branch monasteries.  Furthermore, Dharma centers have now been set up in Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and the USA.  Rinpoche travels tirelessly throughout India, the Himalayas, South East Asia and the West bestowing teachings and empowerments to his countless disciples.

In 1993, during the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo, under the Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya, Rinpoche was unanimously appointed Supreme. Head of Nyingmapa Buddhism by distinguished representatives of Nyingmapa Buddhism around the world. H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche and H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche formerly held the title.  Penor Rinpoche richly deserves this honor, as he possesses the foresight of Manjushri, the compassion of Avalokitesvara and the dynamism of Vajrapani to benefit both doctrine and sentient beings.

We pray that H.H. Penor Rinpoche will live as long as space endures and guide all beings through the raging waves of Samsara.

Thank You.

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