An Abbreviated Life Story of Ven Trisur Rinpoche
(as told to Catherine Fradet and Irene Turner in 2016 on the occasion of his teaching visit to Nalanda Monastery)
Question: maybe Rinpoche could start with his life in Tibet…
I was born (1934) in central Tibet, Tsang, in an area South of Lhasa, called Lhatse, where there was a big monastery. My parents were of a humble family, and my father worked as a tailor. We were two boys and one girl.
My family was quite poor, so when I was seven they sent me to the local monastery, because in those days it was common that parents would send their children to a monastery. That monastery, founded by the 5th Dalai Lama, was called Lhatse Chode-Ganden Ogmin. There, I took the rabjung (pre-novice) vows. My monastery – differently from Sera, Ganden and Drepung, was under the supervision of the great monastery of Tashi Lhumpo, so that the abbot there would come to give us the vows – so, I took my vows from him.
There I started – like everybody else – with the Tibetan alphabet, learning to write and read. But we children were pushed to study very hard, so soon I had to memorize many prayers related to the rituals and practices to be performed there. After, we started memorizing many different texts used in our philosophical studies, such as the root texts of the Parchin (Abhisamayalankara) and Madhyamika together with their commentaries, especially the respective commentaries by the fifth Dalai Lama.
When I was 16 years old, after having completed the basic, foundational studies, I was required to go to one of the bigger monasteries to be able to continue my philosophical studies. So, I went to Sera-je, where I first had to sit an exam before being allowed to start studying in depth. In those days there were famous teachers, from whom I was fortunate to I receive teachings from.
In this way, I progressed trough the studies of the great philosophical texts, Pramanavartika, Madhyamika, Abhisamalayankara and so forth. These studies are called “Tsenyi” and involve lots of discussions, memorizations and debate, as well as all the relevant exams. It was hard, intensive study.
I started with the Pramanavartika – the introductory studies; followed by six years of studying the Abhisamayalamkara, after which came “Uma” (Madhyamika) for 2 years. Actually, I studied all of the Abisamayalamkara, Madyamika, Pramanavartika, and Vinaya, as well as Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara, with Geshe Sopa, as my (main) teacher. My other teachers included Geshe Ngawang Gendun, Geshe Ngawang Rigtsel, and Geshe Lhundrup Tabgyay, the former abbot of Sera Je Monastery. I was in the middle of all these studies at the age of 25, when the Chinese started to give us problems in Lhasa.
In those days, life conditions were very difficult in the monasteries in Tibet – it was not like nowadays (in India) when food is available and distributed at mealtimes by the monastery’s central kitchen. In those days, the monks had to organize their own food, bringing it from home. It used to take me 20 days to walk from my home to the monastery, because I had to carry everything: my bedding, my clothes and other basic necessities, and especially the food, which mainly consisted of tsampa.
Normally (without having to carry food), you would need a minimum of three days to walk between Lhatse and Shigatze; then, from Shigatze to Lhasa another nine days. But, because we had to carry all our own things, including all those many kilos of tsampa, these trips took much longer!
Food was scarce in the monastery, and there wasn´t a lot of choice. Basically, our meals consisted of just tsampa with the occasional little piece of meat, mixed together with tea. Nothing else. Occasionally we had a few offerings during pujas, but this was not so often. However, people would also send tsampa from the villages for us monks to eat.
But all this didn´t matter because we were totally focused on our studies, and our minds were happy even though there was little food. These tough conditions were not a problem for me, as I was completely absorbed in my studies. If you had more food, you would have to spend a longer time preparing and cooking it, which takes extra energy, both mental and physical… so too much distraction! So, it was better like that! In this way, my time was spent almost entirely on all the studies!
In 1959, the Chinese reached Lhasa, and that is when the problems really started. His Holiness had already left from Norbulinka. Then, on the 7th but mainly on 8th day of March – the uprising started. There were shootings and demonstrations around Norbulinka. We could hear the shouting and saw monks running out in all directions.
This commotion soon spread into the surrounding area of Lhasa. Although the monks had no weapons, some knew there was a governmental reserve in the Potala, so these monks went there to try and get some weapons to defend themselves.
Around four o´clock in the afternoon, there was shooting in the mountains around Sera, in Nordeling, which caused a lot of fear. It was a big commotion, monks running into all directions, some trying to hide, so much confusion! Later on, as the monks were going back to their rooms for the night, a rumour started circulating around Sera-je that the Chinese would come and ‘clean’ Sera, killing everyone during the night, which caused so much panic to the monks. Then, some shouting started within Sera itself; so, alongside other students, we tried to hide in some places like under our house, or inside the khamtsen (communal residence) within the monastery, but at some point, we all decided to run away to escape the shooting.
By 11 pm most of us monks had left the monastic buildings; we were groups of monks, making a huge line on the path to Tsang into the night. There were some Chinese planes flying above us, dropping some bombs, but fortunately nobody was hurt.
I then decided to leave for my home place, Lhatse, since at that time the areas around Lhatse, Shigatse and Tashi Lhumpo were still protected, under the control of the Panchen Lama – who had been granted some kind of protection, which meant there was no fighting like in Lhasa. My parents lived in Shigatse, but first I went to my monastery in Lhatse, where it was quiet for three months and we had no problems.
But then the Chinese arrived, many of them, so there were the officials, the army as well as the Tibetans who worked for them. That is when they started the new rules, telling us that we needed to be “reformed”. Although they claimed that we were all in one group, together, still at the same time they started encouraging us, the people, to denounce each other: not just in the villages but also in the monasteries! So, we were supposed to denounce mainly monks and lay people who had responsibilities in the monastery and the village. Not only that, but also denounce those that were rich and influential, that had important jobs, people like traders, etc. They told us to accuse them of stealing, lying, cheating and so forth, telling us that we would be considered ‘good’ citizens by denouncing others, and that we would be saved in this way.
Following this, the Chinese started imprisoning those who were being denounced, forcing them to make confessions in public. These people were subjected to at all kinds of accusation, humiliated, beaten, and forced to ‘confess’. During the public confession, they were made to stay in awkward positions, bending on the floor for hours (Rinpoche demonstrates with his hands); and if they would fall onto to the ground, they were beaten in front of everyone. In this way, they were accused, punished and eventually imprisoned. The same evil treatment was applied to both monks and lay people.
Furthermore, the Chinese were taking the possessions of the people in the village and distributing them to whoever they wanted. For instance, if you had a horse, the Chinese would take it away and give it to the beggars in the street. As they were taking everyone´s possessions and distributing them to whomever they wanted, people were losing their wealth.
At that point, the monks were no longer allowed to stay in their monasteries, so I decided to go back to my parent´s home in Shigatse: it had become problematic to stay in our monastery. As it happened, there was a worker in my monastery – a layman from Amdo – that quite liked the dharma and had also been studying by himself and reading the texts. This man had started to work under the supervision of the Chinese, but, as he seemed to like me, he advised me to leave the monastery as it was becoming too dangerous there. He said to me that the best place to go to was Tashi Lhumpo. I told him that I had no connection with Tashi Lhumpo, but that my parents were in Shigatse, so that´s where I would like to go. He told me that this was good, as it was a safe place… and he also told me that there were many beautiful women there! (laughter)
Therefore, I decided to leave for Shigatse, near my parents. Although this man gave me a horse who had previously been given to a beggar, since this beggar had nothing to give to this horse, it was very hungry and too weak to carry me, so I ended up having to walk.
There, I started to plan my escape with five other monks (by now, they all passed away), in secret, without telling my parents. We then left and travelled together for two weeks to the Nepali border. There, we saw were many other groups of people escaping, some of them with donkeys carrying children and their possessions and so forth. The trip was very challenging physically as we had to climb up steep mountains, but this meant there wasn´t much danger from the Chinese army. I escaped first to Nepal, then to India.
At that time, His Holiness was in Mussorie, in the North of India, so when I arrived I went directly to meet Him. His Holiness told me to join the other monks in Buxa (which used to be a concentration camp for the Japanese during the second war and was now the refugee camp for the monks). But first we had to go and report to a refugee reception center in Mussimaram (?), from where we were dispatched to our final camp. Buxa is in Assam – close to the (Tibetan) border, and 1500 monks were already living together there in very precarious conditions. Moreover, it was very, very hot all the time.
I stayed there for a few years, pursuing my studies. The conditions for food were difficult. From the time we escaped we had been eating anything we could find, such as old tsampa, and other types of bad-quality food. This took its toll on the body, and many monks got TB, including myself. I had already been sick with TB once in Shigatse, where I had some treatment Now, in Buxa, the TB came back, and it became very serious.
Many of the monks there were sick, so we were kept in secluded tents together, to be treated, and to avoid passing it to others. My case was quite severe, so I was sent with other monks to Rajasthan, into a Christian hospital that specialized for TB. There, the the sick monks were finally being treated. I stayed there for a year and ended up needing a lung surgery. After that, I got better again, and started recovering without any further problems; so that I could go back to Buxa to continue with my studies.
There, I finished my Madhyamika studies, followed by the Vinaya. Many monks were still sick, and the conditions continued to be extremely difficult. Food was fine in the beginning, but later on, the support coming from Indian government and others became less and less, so that we were only getting old rice and so forth to eat. People were getting sick, and the conditions were becoming worse. At that point it was advised for the monks to leave Buxa and go and build new refugee camps; but I didn´t want to. Yet, following the advice of His Holiness the Dalai Lama I went to the south of India. This was in 1969.
The Indian government gave us a huge piece of land in Bylakuppe (in Karnataka), so in the beginning all the monks started settling down there. However, as there would have been no room to try and rebuild all three great monasteries, the monks of Ganden and Drepung were sent to another part of India (Mundgod) leaving just us, the Sera monks, there. Even though in the beginning I didn´t want to go to Bylakuppe, I had nevertheless decided to follow His Holiness’ advice, and this turned out to be very positive in the end, as we started to rebuild Sera there.
Those days, the land that had been given to us was dense forest, hot and humid. We were given some tools to cut the trees and work on the land, to make it flat. We build houses, starting with 38 houses, for almost three hundred monks who were camping in tents. We were getting support from the Indian government, who gave us 2.80 rupees a day for working in the fields during the day, going back to our camp in bike or carts for the night. For some years, there was a lot of work to do, but gradually, as things settled down again, we could re-start our monastic activities.
At that point, we were four monks per room. So, we gradually built more houses, then the temple for Sera-je, then the temple for Sera Lachi (which is the temple common to the two colleges of Sera). Once everything was settled, after about two years, we could start to study in a formal way again, as we had done in Tibet. We started again with Pramanavartika, Parchin, Madhyamika, Abidharmakosha, Vinaya, going through all the Geshe studies again.
Thus, I was in the first-ever class that had been awarded the Geshe Lharampa degree in Sera-India, in 1979. You go through different levels to reach this degree. There was an exam after each of the five texts that we studied, plus more exams after that. Once all these exams were completed, I was awarded a Geshe Lharampa degree, and from there, I went to Gyurmed tantric college to study tantra.
Actually, I had manifested the wish to go to Canada-America (I had a friend there); but His Holiness the Dalai Lama advised me to get on and do my Tantric studies first.
I went through the different ranks in Gyurmed monastery, which again involved a great amount of texts to be memorized:
- first the general tantric studies;
- then, to become Geko (disciplinarian), I had to memorize 81 texts, preparing to be examined by the assembly and the abbot for several months before becoming Geko there after two years;
- Nex, I became the Lama Umdze, thus holding more responsibilities in the monastery;
- then Khenpo (abbot) for Gyurmed tantric monastery in 1985;
- later on I became the Jangtze Choje Rinpoche, (2010).
- NOTE: in June 2017, Rinpoche was appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the 104th Ganden Tripa – the “Holder of the throne of Ganden”, the spiritual guide of the Gelugpa school.
Gradually, I started teaching all the different philosophical subjects, Madhyamika, Abhisamayalamkara etc. When I finished my term as the abbot in Gyurmed, I became a “Khensur”, which is the title given to an ex-abbot, at which point I finally started travelling.
Thus, in 1990, I was able to travel to the USA – to Deer Park, to teach at Geshe Zopa´s Centre, where I stayed for 3 years. After that, I started travelling to other countries in Europe and America, such as France and the United Kingdom, giving teachings, while participating in prayer-festivals in Nepal as well.
In term of retreats, I have done all the major tantric retreats such as Guhya Samaja, Yamantaka, Heruka, Chittamatra Tara, and so forth. I first started doing some retreats in in Buxa, then later on continued practising in Sera.
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Geshe Tengye-la (from Vajra Yogini Institute), as well as Geshe Tenzin Dorje were from the same monastery as I was, in Lhatse, Tibet. My main teachers are essentially His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his two tutors – Ling Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche; also Song Rinpoche and others.
In Tibet, while in Sera monastery, I had received teachings from Geshe Sopa (who later on also became the teacher of Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa and Geshe Tengye). My main teachers were Geshe Ngawang Gendun, Geshe Ngawang Rigtsel, and Geshe Lhundrup Tabgyay, abbot from Sera-je monastery at that time. My previous teacher Geshe Ngawang Gedun’s re-incarnation was later on identified as the present Yangtsi Rinpoche, who is my student! This is how karma works… (laughter)
Yangsi Rinpoche’s story is like that: Geshe Ngawang Gedun, the previous incarnation, had also been the teacher of Geshe Sopa and Lama Yeshe, (and Geshe Tengye, etc). So the search of his re-incarnation was given to Lama Yeshe, who took responsibility for him. After he was found, Yangsi Rinpoche moved to Kopan, to start his training. Everything that Lama Yeshe did for Rinpoche was greatly supported and appreciated by Geshe Sopa and myself.
By the way, at one point Lama Yeshe wanted to send me to Australia, but I didn´t want to – I told him I just wanted to go to the US, with Geshe Sopa! Next, he tried to send me to Kopan! It was like that…
Around 1974, Lama Yeshe and I discussed what was best for Yangsi Rinpoche. Lama Yeshe requested help to provide a good education for him. With this in mind, he asked if I could go to stay at Kopan to teach Yangsi Rinpoche. When I shared this with Geshe Sopa, he said that I should go to Kopan to chek up what the situation was there, before deciding what to do.
As I was not finished with my own studies, I still had to take the final Geshe Lharampa exam within the next two years. During a private audience with His Holiness, I mentioned the possibility to go to Kopan, to teach Yangsi Rinpoche. However, His Holiness advised me to first finish my tantric studies and trainings.
Around that time, Geshe Sopa came to India when His Holiness was giving teachings at Sera. He was very impressed by the quality of education that the monks were receiving at Sera, so that he thought that it might be better if Yangsi Rinpoche came to Sera to continue his education. Finally, Yangsi Rinpoche moved in Sera, in about 1977. So, together with Geshe Sopa, I became his teacher, and we started taking responsibility to complete his education.
Eventually, Yangtsi Rinpoche went to the USA to study with Geshe Sopa in Deer Park, Madison, Wisconsin. Sadly, he then gave up his monastic vows, after which he moved to FPMT´s Central Office in Portland. From there, later on, he started Maitripa College, which offers philosophical studies based mainly on the Abhisamayalamkara and the Madhyamika texts. These studies are recognized by the University of Oregon, even though the government of the United States has not yet recognized them. Although at first Yangtsi Rinpoche started well as a monk, taking his studies very seriously, later on, he gave up his ordination. But he also started Maitripa College, which works very well!
Do you have any questions?
Question: in the West, the children are only interested in playing. What was Rinpoche´s motivation for becoming a monk at such a young age?
Rinpoche: in Tibet it was the parents that send the children to the monastery. Once I was there, I had my teachers, I had many rules to follow, and we had to study hard. I had no choice, but gradually I got interested in what I was doing. The difference for the Westerners is that you go for the studies and vows through your own choice, so you should also take great delight in what you are doing!
Question: Lama Tsong-khapa, as well as the scriptures, advise us to embark into solitary retreat after studies. Rinpoche didn´t have this opportunity, and did his retreats in Sera. We, as Westerners, don´t have this opportunity, as we have very busy lives. So, I would like to know: how important is it go to into solitary retreat?
Rinpoche: going into solitary retreat doesn´t mean going up into the mountain and being alone! It actually refers to physical and mental isolation.
- Physical isolation means being in a quiet place, where there isn´t so much social interaction – where you are not busy with socializing; and
- Mental isolation means to have no distractions in the mind, so that the mind can be entirely focused on the Three Principal Aspects of the Path.
- For you, to be able to do physical isolation, you need to stay in your place and avoid socializing too much, even though sometimes there is the need for social interaction, although it needs to be limited; and
- Mental isolation means focusing the mind, while it is free from attachment, anger and ignorance. In this way, the mind can stay focused on the Three Principal Aspects of the Path.
I forgot to mention that when we were studying the philosophical texts such as Madhyamika seriously, we could be spending the whole night debating. The evenings were important, as it was then that we went to the debating ground – but these debating sessions could last all night long!
Already during the first years of my studies, there were several monks that could spend the whole night in debate. During my time in Sera-je, there were two different classes: one studying the Abhisamayalamkara, and the other one, Madhyamika. These would alternate their all-night debate sessions on the debating ground, one being there every other day.
The first hours everyone was debating strongly, and later on, there were only two monks at a time, and this is when the others had a chance to catch up on their sleep; but these monks were also alternating staying awake, so that there was a continuity of debating all night long, where only dharma was spoken.
Nowadays, this doesn´t happen anymore, and during debating sessions, there are also prayers to be recited, and people can stop for some tea. But at that time, debating was continuous. Nowadays, there is nothing like we had it in India anymore…
Interview translated and checked by Catherine Fradet; transcribed and lightly edited by Ani Irene in Lavaur, 24th June 2016.
Revised 26th October 2025, on the occasion of Rinpoche´s passing away.
NOTE:
Tibetan uprising day is usually celebrated on 10th March, when it started… here is what followed (from Wikipedia): On The 15 March, preparations for the Dalai Lama’s evacuation from the city were set in motion, with Tibetan troops being employed to secure an escape route from Lhasa. On the 17 March, two artillery shells landed near the Dalai Lama’s palace, triggering his flight into exile. On 19 March the Chinese started to shell the Norbulingka, prompting the full force of the Uprising. Combat lasted only about two days, with Tibetan rebel forces being badly outnumbered and poorly armed, etc.