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NEWS REPORT January 7, 2004
The announcement below was pieced together from VOA and Indian reports.
We at Kham Aid Foundation have no direct knowledge of the events described.
See also this related report.
Highly Respected Tibetan Buddhist Teacher Dies in Chengdu
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A highly respected Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Khenpo ("Abbot") Jigme
Phuntsok, died this morning at about 9:30 AM local time at a military hospital
in Chengdu, China. He was 67.
Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok had been hospitalized on December 29th due to a heart
ailment. His body is already being transported to Serthar Buddhist
Institute near Serthar town, Karze Prefecture in Eastern Tibet in Sichuan
Province.
Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok founded the Serthar Buddhist Institute in 1980, which,
at one time, housed more than 8,000 religious practitioners, including
ordained and lay students of diverse nationalities, and also a large number of
Chinese students. The Institute became one of the largest and most popular
Buddhist learning centers in Tibet or China.
Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok was born into an illustrious religious family of nomads
in the Dhok region of Kham in 1932. At the age of two, Terton Wangchuk and
Tashul Lama of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism recognised him as the
reincarnation of Terton Lerab Lingpa (1852-1926)-or Sogyal Rinpoche- a close
spiritual and personal friend of the 13th Dalai Lama. Khenpo first studied
under an uncle, a renowned scholar-lama at Nubsur Monastery, and was schooled
in Dzogchen (the Great Perfection teachings). At an early age of 14, he sought
monk ordination from Khenchen Sonam Rinchen, Abbot of Drakdzong Monastery. At
18, he remained at Dzatoe Changma Retreat Centre where he studied under the
guidance of many renowned teachers, practised meditation and lived as a hermit
for six years. He was ordained a bikshu (a fully-ordained monk) at the age of
22, and at 26 founded a retreat centre, Senggey Yangtsung, in Amdo.
Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok was a hugely popular religious figure. In 1980, he
established the Serthar Buddhist Institute as a non-sectarian study centre
with less than 100 students. Serthar Institute (known locally as Larung Gar)
later expanded to a spiritual oasis for over 8,000 monks, nuns and lay
students.