Khyongla Rato

Khyongla Rinpoche was the tenth incarnation of a lama, the first Khyongla, born in 1510, who as a child was known as Jigme; later in life he became widely known for his teaching of the dharma, when people started calling him the "Lama from Khyong Yul" or "Khyongla".

Khyongla is pronounced Chungla. The name Rato is a reference to Rato Monastery, aka Rato Dratsang, where Khyongla Rato studied.

The current Khyongla Rinpoche was born in 1923, in a small village called Ophor, south of Chamdo in the Dagyab, Kham region of what was then Tibet.[8] At the age of five, Norbu, as he was then known, was recognized as an incarnate lama, and on his sixth birthday he was taken to his labrang (a lama's residence).[9] He became a monk and studied at Rato Monastery, later moving to Drepung Monastery, where he received his Lharampa Geshe degree (equivalent to Doctor of Divinity), and finally to Gyuto Tantric University, where he served as abbot.[10]

In 1958, the 14th Dalai Lama was taking the examinations for his Lharampa Geshe degree. Khyongla Rato was asked to be one of two scholars who, during Monlam, would represent Rato Monastery as debating challengers in the Dalai Lama's final examination at the Jokhang. Altogether there were eighty challengers from ten monasteries. As Khyongla Rato says in his autobiography, on page 233, when it was his turn to debate, "For half an hour our thrilling interchange continued until the senior tutor, my good friend Ling Rinpoche, raised his hand and I returned to my place, exceedingly joyful and relieved."[11]

A photographic exhibition featuring Khyongla Rinpoche, Return to the Roof of the World, was held at the Leica Gallery in New York in 2011. It follows Nicholas Vreeland's journey as a photographer while accompanying his teacher on his return to his birthplace in Dagyab, eastern Tibet, fifty years after he had left.[12]

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche studied with over seventy teachers, including Konchok Gyatso, Geshe Yeshe Loden, and from the age of 25 with Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, the senior tutor of the 14th Dalai Lama. While Khyongla Rinpoche was still quite young, he attended a teaching from Pabongkhapa Déchen Nyingpo, and this served as a significant inspiration to him.[11]

While first in India, at the request of the Dalai Lama, Khyongla Rato Rinpoche helped to write texts on the grammar, literature, history and religion of Tibet; these were used in the education of the families of Tibetan exiles.[11] In the 1970s, as a result of urging from his students, Khyongla Rato wrote an autobiography, My Life and Lives; the book focuses primarily on his years in Tibet. Joseph Campbell, the American mythologist, edited the book and wrote the introduction.[13]

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche teaching on "Om Mani Padme Hum" on September 22nd, 2014, at The Tibet Center, NYC

In 1975, Khyongla Rato founded and was director of The Tibet Center in New York City. The center is also known as Kunkhyab Thardo Ling (translation: Land pervaded with Seekers of Liberation), a name that was given to the center by Ling Rinpoche. Khyongla Rato taught at the Tibet Center for almost 40 years.[14] Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, the subject of the documentary film Monk With A Camera, is the current director. Tibet Center students include Nicholas Vreeland, Richard Gere, Adam Yauch and Joseph Campbell.[15]

Over the years many different teachers have taught at The Tibet Center, including not only high lamas from Tibetan Buddhism, but also Buddhists from the Chan, Theravadan and Zen traditions, as well as teachers from the Jain, Hindu and Christian religions, and scientists and philosophers.[16]

Despite having no prior acting experience, Khyongla Rato was asked to portray a monk in the 1993 film Little Buddha, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, who "wanted the real thing."[17] Khyongla Rato consulted the Dalai Lama, who told him he should go ahead and do this, so he ended up playing the role of the Abbot of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Bhutan.[18][19][20]

Kyongla Rato Rinpoche has considerable screen time in the 2014 documentary Monk with a Camera, because he is the "root guru" of Nicholas Vreeland, the subject of the film.

• My Life and Lives: The Story of a Tibetan Incarnation, edited and with a foreword by Joseph Campbell, 1977, Rato Publications, New York ISBN 0-9630293-0-4, ISBN 978-0963029300[11]

• An obituary: Khyongla Rato Rinpoche passes away at 100., Radio Free Asia Tibetan, May 24, 2022
• Rato Dratsang Foundation
• The Tibet Center, New York City and New Jersey
• His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Visits to Deyang Dratsang and Ratö Dratsang
• Photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's visit to Rato Dratsang
• Abbot of Rato Dratsang,Director of The Tibet Center Rato Dratsang
• Notes and an audio file from the Jamyang Buddhist Centre
• Beyond the Dalai Lama: Profiles of Four Tibetan Lamas-in-Exile, Time, by Elizabeth Dias, July 28, 2011
• The Tibet Center Official Facebook page
• Atisha’s “Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment” – Ven. Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, The Meridian Trust, May 2016