Visiting Teachers

H.E. Luding Khenchen Rinpoche

His Eminence Luding Khenchen Rinpoche is the 75th chief abbot of Ngor Monastery. He has held this post for over 40 years. His Eminence was born in 1931 in Tsang, Tibet, to an important religious family. He was ordained as a monk at the age of 10. As befitted a major lineage holder, he was given extensive training by the best teachers in the Sakya and other traditions. At the age of 24, he succeeded his teacher, the former Ngor abbot Jamyang Thupten Lungtog Gyaltsen, as abbot of the Ngor Monastery, and has served as abbot continuously since that time. For 500 years, Ngor Monastery has been the head of hundreds of other branch monasteries, and its school of ritual studies has been the citadel of training and practice of tantric ritual in the Sakya tradition.

H.E. Jetsun Kushok Chimey Luding

Her Eminence Jetsun Kushok Chimey Luding is known by many names: Mrs Luding, Lama Chime, Jetsun Kushok, Chime Osel Rikdzin Bhutri Thrinley Wangmo, Sakya Jetsunma, Chime Luding or just plain Chime-La. She is often mentioned in conjunction with her family: sister of His Holiness Sakya Trizin, the sister-in-law of His Eminence Luding Khenchen Rinpoche, or the mother of Luding Shabdrung Rinpoche. On other occasions she is invoked as one of the three women in the history of Sakya to have transmitted the Lam Dre teachings. She is spoken of as an emanation of Vajrayogini, the enlightened energy of liberation. But to those who know her well, she is the earth itself, stable, unshakable, free from the eight worldly dharmas, and a pure example of the fruition of practice under difficult circumstances.

H.E. Luding Khen Rinpoche

His Eminence Luding Khen Rinpoche is an excellently qualified, wise, and compassionate Dharma teacher, and a member of one of the great families of Tibetan Buddhism. His mother is Her Eminence Jetsun Kushog Chime Luding, the sister of His Holiness the Sakya Trizin, and his father is Sei Kushog, the brother of the senior abbot of Ngor Monastery in India.