Kyabje Khensur Kangyurwa Rinpoche

Founder of Tibetan Buddhist Institute

Kyabje Khensur Kangyurwa Lama Jetsun Lobsang Thubten Rinpoche (1925-2014), or simply Rinpoche as his thousands of students around the world affectionately call him, was a Buddhist monk and also the Founder of Tibetan Buddhist Institute. Rinpoche was an extremely accomplished meditator and scholar and he was also loving, kind and inspiring to his many students around the world.

Rinpoche entered Dhargye Gonpa in eastern Tibet, at the age of seven to become a monk. At the age of eighteen he walked from eastern Tibet to central Tibet to further his studies at the renowned Sera Jey Monastery.

After the March 10 uprising of Tibet people in Lhasa following the Communist Chinese take over, Rinpoche followed His Holiness the Dalai Lama into exile in India along with thousands o his fellow Tibetan countrymen and women. There he continued his studies in the reestablished Sera Jey Monastery. At Sera Jey Monastery, Rinpoche distinguished himself as a scholar, an administrator and also as a meditator.

His scholarly achievements were recognised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who asked Rinpoche in 1972 to provide the oral transmission of the complete Tibetan canon, the Kangyurwa, to an assembly of monks at Dharamsala, from where he earned the title. On 11 September 1988, Rinpoche arrived in Australia and he spent over two decades living and teaching there. Rinpoche established the Tibetan Buddhist Institute in April 2005.

Rinpoche passed away at Sera Jey Monastery in January 2014.