Khandro Rinpoche’s website: www.mjkr.org

Khandro Rinpoche, the daughter of Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche, was born in Kalimpong, India in 1967. At the age of two, Rinpoche was recognized by the 16th Karmapa as the reincarnation of the Great Dakini of Tsurphu, Khandro Urgyen Tsomo, one of the best-known female masters of her time.

Khandro Rinpoche is a lineage holder and teacher in both the Kagyü and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. She speaks fluent English, Tibetan, and Hindi, and completed a Western education from St. Joseph’s Convent, Wynberg Allen, and St. Mary’s Convent, all in India. Rinpoche has been teaching in Europe, North American and Southeast Asia since 1987.

She has also established and heads the Samten Tse Retreat Centre in India for nuns as well as Western practitioners. Rinpoche’s efforts at Samten Tse are directed towards fulfilling her vision of providing a place of study and retreat for both nuns and lay practitioners, as well as establishing a spiritual community of both monastics and lay practitioners with students from both East and West. Rinpoche also heads various charitable projects bringing health care and education to remote areas in India, and is very actively involved with Mindroling Monastery in India.

“Enlightenment is not about becoming something or someone else. It is the recognition of our intrinsic human nature, which is absolute truth. This absolute true nature is called “Buddha nature.” The term Buddha, from the Sanskrit tatha, or tathagata, means “gone beyond,” going beyond an ignorant state to become completely inseparable from absolute truth, which is our genuine ground. This is the essence of Buddhism and the main focus of our understanding and practice.” — Khandro Rinpoche