Dhardo Rimpoche (1917-1990) was recognized as an incarnation, or tulku, of the chief abbot of Losel-ling College, Drepung Monastery located in central Tibet. He was the second tulku in the Gelug lineage and eleventh in the Nyingma lineage.
Dhardo was educated in the tradition Tibetan monastic style, taking his Lharampa Degree (Doctor of Philosophy) at Drepung Monastery, and doing further study at Gyud-med Tantric College. In 1951 he was appointed abbot of the Tibetan monastery at Bodh Gaya, and then in 1954 moved to Kalimpong near the India-Tibet border. Kalimpong was to become an important staging post for Tibetans fleeing the Chinese invasion. Dhardo Rimpoche founded an orphanage and school for Tibetan refugees, which he named the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Cultural Institute (ITBCI), and was abbot of Yiga Choeling Monastery, Ghoom.
During the 1950s and 1960s Dhardo Rimpoche was friend and teacher to Sangharakshita, an English Buddhist who spent 14 years based in Kalimpong before returning to England to found the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO). Sangharakshita considered Dhardo to be a living bodhisattva, and he is still revered in the FWBO. In the 1980's the FWBO Aid for India charity (now known as Karuna Trust) undertook to provide funding for the ITBCI.
Portions of Dhardo's relics, the ashes from his cremation, have been installed in several stupas in the West - at Sudarshanaloka Retreat Centre (near Thames, New Zealand), at Padmaloka Reatreat Centre (near Norwich, England), at Guhyaloka Retreat Centre, (near Alicante, Spain), and at Taraloka Retreat Centre in Wales.
Dhardo Rimpoche's motto was: "Cherish the doctrine; live united; radiate love". He was concerned especially to teach the children at his school that "actions have consequences".
The Third Dhardo Tulku, Tenzin Legshad Wangdi, was born in 1991
External Sources
Further Reading
