A Brief Life History of the Ven. Choeding Rinpoche

About a day’s travel from Lhasa in Tibet is the town of Phenpo.  Many years ago a Kadampa Geshe was practicing and meditating in this town.  Also in Phenpo lived Ben Kunkhyen, a member of one of the local families.  Ben Kunkhyen owned 40 Dro-Khel 40x40 kgs fields but was not satisfied with this and lived for many years as a thief and robber.  At the age of 40 Ben Kunkhyen was staying at Gola, a high pass between Phenpo and Lhasa, where he met an old woman that asked him where Ben Kunkhyen was living.  When he replied that he was Ben Kunkhyen the old woman died on the spot of a heart attack.

Thus Ben Kunkhyen realized how terrible his actions were and he went to the Lama who was living in Phenpo to receive teachings and to meditate on Love and Compassion.  He eventually took full ordination and received the name Gelong Tsultim.  However, the ordinary people called him Geshe Ben Kunkhyen.

After his death Ben Kunkhyen took rebirth many times.  In the year 1020 he was one of 13 Geshes, amongst them Geshe Potowa, who were staying in Shang Namling.  There was a misunderstanding between the Geshes and their sponsors and so the Geshes left for Shigatse in Tsang.  After walking for three miles the Tulku of Ben Kunkhyen remembered that he had left some things behind in Shang Namling, and so he went back.  The other 12 Geshes carried on to Shigatse and found the 12 Lama estate (La-khag), which is these days in Tashi Lhunpo, the seat of the Panchen Lama.

Choeding Rinpoche is the eighth emanation of Geshe Ben Kunkhyen at the Shang Gaden Choekhor monastery, which was founded in the year 1604 by the great Fifth Dalai Lama.  He was recognized as a Tulku by Phuchok Jampa Rinpoche, one of the tutors of H.H. the 13th Dalai Lama.born in 1936. 

Choeding Rinpoche entered the Gaden Choekhor Monastery at the age of seven. After several years spending in study, memorizing texts and passing Buddhist examinations he entered Sera Je Monastery at the age of 14 to study Buddhist Dialectics. 

In 1950 he escaped the Chinese invasion of Tibet and fled to exile in India.  He founded the new Gaden Choekhor monastery in Pokhara, Nepal. 

In 1991 he received a Geshe degree at Sera Je in South India.

This is the brief life history of Choeding Rinpoche,

Shang Gaden Choekhor Ling’s Rinpoche

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