Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche (1931 – 26 December 2011) was a teacher in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and a senior holder of the Dudjom Tersar treasure cycle. He was the eldest son of Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, the head of the Nyingma school in exile, and the father of the Bhutanese-born filmmaker and lama Khyentse Norbu (Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche), as well as of Dungse Garab Rinpoche.^[1]

Recognised as an incarnation of Tulku Drime Oser, one of the seven sons of the nineteenth-century terton Dudjom Lingpa, Thinley Norbu spent significant periods in Bhutan after leaving Tibet during the late 1950s. Several of his children, including Khyentse Norbu, were born in Bhutan, and his teaching activity remained closely tied to the Bhutanese Nyingma community even after he settled in the West. He moved to the United States in the 1970s and from the 1980s onward taught primarily from Kunzang Gatshal in upstate New York and other Western centres.^[2]

Thinley Norbu died on 26 December 2011 in Palm Desert, California. His writings and recorded teachings have continued to circulate in English through Shambhala Publications and other imprints, and his sons remain prominent figures in the contemporary transmission of the Dudjom Tersar lineage.^[3]

Family and Lineage

Thinley Norbu was born in 1931 in Lhasa. His father, Jigdral Yeshe Dorje (1904–1987), was widely regarded as the principal living Nyingma master of his generation and served as the supreme head of the Nyingma school from the 1960s. The Dudjom family belongs to the Dudjom Tersar lineage, a treasure tradition revealed by Dudjom Lingpa (1835–1904) and continued by his recognised reincarnation Jigdral Yeshe Dorje. Thinley Norbu's identification as an incarnation of Tulku Drime Oser placed him within the line of seven sons of Dudjom Lingpa, all of whom were considered emanations of significant earlier figures.^[4]

His own sons include Khyentse Norbu, recognised in 1961 as an incarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, and Dungse Garab Rinpoche, who teaches within the Dudjom Tersar lineage. Through Khyentse Norbu, Thinley Norbu's family line is also connected to the Khyentse incarnation tradition that links the Sakya, Nyingma and Rime movements of nineteenth-century Tibet.^[1]

Education and Tibet

In his youth Thinley Norbu studied for nine years at Mindrolling Monastery, one of the principal Nyingma seats in central Tibet, where he received the standard course of monastic education in sutra and tantra. He also received transmissions from his father and from a number of other masters of the early twentieth century. He left Tibet during the late 1950s amid the Chinese occupation and travelled south through the Himalayas with his family.^[2]

Years in Bhutan

Following the family's exile, Thinley Norbu spent extended periods in Bhutan, where his children were born and where the wider Dudjom family maintained close ties with the Bhutanese state and with monastic communities including those associated with the Gangteng Tulku's seat at Gangteng. The Bhutanese phase of his life is documented in his autobiographical writings, in which he describes Bhutan as one of the formative settings for his early teaching career.^[1]

Move to the West

From the 1970s, Thinley Norbu travelled to and eventually settled in the United States. He taught at a series of Dharma centres affiliated with the Vajrayana Foundation and Pema Osel Ling, and from the 1980s onward maintained Kunzang Gatshal, a residence and teaching seat in upstate New York. He was a patron of the Vajrayana Foundation in California, founded by his student Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, and oversaw the propagation of the Dudjom Tersar in Western communities.^[5]

Writings

Thinley Norbu's published works include The Small Golden Key, a concise introduction to Vajrayana Buddhism aimed at Western readers; Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-Nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis (1981/1985), a tantric exposition of the five elements; White Sail: Crossing the Waves of Ocean Mind to the Serene Continent of the Triple Gems (1992); Welcoming Flowers from across the Cleansed Threshold of Hope; and A Cascading Waterfall of Nectar. Several volumes have been issued by Shambhala Publications, and a number of his works appeared posthumously.^[3]

Death and Legacy

Thinley Norbu died on 26 December 2011 in Palm Desert, California, corresponding in the Tibetan lunisolar calendar to the second day of the eleventh month of the Iron Rabbit year. His funeral rites were observed at Dudjom Tersar centres in the United States, India, Nepal and Bhutan. Within the Bhutanese Nyingma tradition, his place is principally as a senior holder of the Dudjom Tersar transmission and as a parent of Khyentse Norbu, whose Bhutanese cinema and educational projects have given the family wider public recognition outside religious circles.^[1]

References

1. Thinley Norbu — Wikipedia
2. Thinley Norbu Rinpoche — Rigpa Wiki
3. Thinley Norbu Rinpoche: A Guide for Readers — Shambhala Publications
4. Thinley Norbu — The Treasury of Lives
5. Thinley Norbu Rinpoche — Kunzang Gatshal Foundation