Khamtrul, Garje

From Buddha-Nature


སྒ་རྗེ་ཁམས་སྤྲུལ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་དོན་གྲུབ་
Garje Khamtrul Jamyang Döndrup(1928 - 2019) 

Kyabje Garje Khamtrul Rinpoche Jamyang Dhondup (Tib. སྒ་རྗེ་ཁམས་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་དོན་གྲུབ་) is the incarnation of the third Khamtrul, Gyurme Trinle Namgyal and a revered Nyingma master. Khamtrul Rinpoche was born on 29 December 1928 in Lithang, Kham province in Tibet. At the age of 8, Rinpoche was recognised as the reincarnation of the third Khamtrul, Gyurme Trinle Namgyal. During the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959, Rinpoche came to exile in India along with tens of thousand Tibetan refugees.

In 1962 Rinpoche, at age of 34, was summoned to Dharamshala by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to assist in efforts to establish the Tibetan community in exile. In 1966 Rinpoche was appointed Under Secretary of the Department of Religion and Culture. During his tenure as Under Secretary, Khamtrul Rinpoche helped in efforts to resettle monks from the refugee camps bordering Bhutan to South India. With fellow staff, he helped build the institutions that would serve as centres for the preservation of Tibetan culture and identity in exile.

From 1971 to 76, Rinpoche served as the Chief of Staff of the Department of Religion and Culture. He was then deputed to the Kollegal in South India to assist in the resettlement efforts. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, Rinpoche also served as a doctor to tend to the hundreds of Tibetan refugees battling with various epidemic diseases and others induced by the change in climate. In 1980, Rinpoche was appointed as Secretary fo the Department of Religion and Culture, a post he held until his retirement at the age of 60 in 1987. During these years of his service, Rinpoche formed a close bond with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Upon Rinpoche’s retirement, His Holiness asked Rinpoche to remain in Dharamshala as His Holiness’ consultant on Nyingma affairs. In this capacity, Rinpoche presided over countless ceremonies dedicated to the wellbeing of the Tibetan people and the Tibetan administration.

In 1991, Rinpoche founded the Lhundrup Chime Gatsaling Nyingmapa Monastery in Mcleod Ganj near His Holiness’ temple. In 2005, a second Chime Gatsaling was built-in Sidhpur. On 12 April 2009, His Holiness the Dalai Lama inaugurated the new monastery with hundreds of students and followers. Rinpoche has since given countless teachings and permissions to Buddhist devotees. He has contributed significantly to the social and spiritual wellbeing of the Tibetan people and Buddhist Sangha. Central Tibetan Administration

Library Items

Other names

  • སྒ་རྗེ་ཁམས་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་དོན་གྲུབ་ · other names (Tibetan)
  • ཁམས་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ · other names (Tibetan)
  • ga rje khams sprul rin po che 'jam dbyangs don grub · other names (Wylie)
  • ga rje rin po che · other names (Wylie)

Affiliations & relations

  • Nyingma, Dzogchen · religious affiliation
  • Third Khamtrul, Gyurme Trinle Namgyal (1879-1926) of the Garje Khamu Monastery · incarnation