Lungtok Tenpai Nyima (Tibetan: ལུང་རྟོགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ, Wylie : lung rtogs bstan pa'i nyi ma) was the 33rd Menri Trizin, the abbot of the

Menri Monastery Menri Monastery ( — "medicine mountain") is the name of a Bon monastery in Tibet that has been refounded in India. The name derives from the medicinal plants and medicinal springs on the mountain. Menri became the leading Bon monastery in the T ...

and former leader of Bon. At the age of 17 he took novice monk vows and got the name of Sherab Namdak (shes rab rnam dag) from Sherab Tenpai Gyeltsen (shes rab bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan). He achieved Geshe degree at age of 25 at Kyangtsang Monastery under the guidance of the chief teacher Horwa Drungrampa Tendzin Lodro Gyatso (hor ba drung rams pa bstan 'dzin blo gros rgya mtsho, 1889-1975) Lungtok Tenpai Nyima's first visit to the West was thanks to the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropy, philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, aft ...

and David L. Snellgrove who brought him,

Lopön Tenzin Namdak Lopön Tenzin Namdak (, born 1926 in Khyungpo Karu – – in Kham) is a Tibetan religious leader and the most senior teacher of Bon, in particular of Dzogchen and the Mother Tantras. Early life Tenzin Namdak's father was a farmer in Cham ...

(slob dpon bstan 'dzin rnam dag) and Samten Gyaltsen Karmay to London in 1961. In 1967 he was invited by

Per Kværne Per Kværne (born 1 April 1945) is a Norwegian tibetologist and historian of religion. Biography Per Kværne was born in Oslo, Norway. In 1970 he received the mag.art. degree in Sanskrit at the University of Oslo. From 1970 to 1975 he worked as a ...

to Norway in the interest of doing research together and to lecture on Tibetan history and religion at

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

. In 1968 at the new Tibetan Bonpo settlement in Dolanji, after a seven days long special ritual of selection process by the highest bonpo teachers and lamas, he was appointed on the golden throne of Nyamed Sherab Gyaltsen as the 33rd abbot of Menri monastery. He was enthroned on the 4th of March 1969 as supreme head of all the Bonpo followers and the chief of all the Bonpo Lamas both in exile and in Tibet, and received the name Lungtok Tenpai Nyima as his enthronement name. Lungtok Tenpai Nyima was the first Tibetan monk to have an in-person meeting with

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

and had a great relationship with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.

References

{{Authority control Bon Abbots 1929 births 2017 deaths People from Tibet