Khenpo Jigme Puntsok

Kyabje Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok (Tibetan: , Wylie transliteration: 'jigs med phun tshogs 'byung gnas) (1933 – 7 January 2004) was a Nyingma lama and Terton from Sertha Region. His family were Tibetan nomads. At the age of five he was recognized "as a reincarnation of Lerab Lingpa (las rab gling pa, 1856-1926). Known also as Nyala Sogyel (nyag bla bsod rgyal) and Terton Sogyel (gter ston bsod rgyal), Lerab Lingpa was an eclectic and highly influential tantric visionary from the eastern Tibetan area of Nyarong (nyag rong)." while apparently untouched by the violence and destruction of the Cultural Revolution. By its end in 1976, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok's fame had grown exponentially. His teachings and his images circulated around the Tibetan plateau. In 1987, Khenpo led hundreds of his students from Serthar Institute on a pilgrimage to the sacred mountains of Mount Wutai in China's Shanxi Province. En route in Beijing, he met again with the 10th Panchen Lama as he gave teachings on the 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas. During the meeting, the Panchen Lama blessed and officially endorsed Larung Gar and bestowed its name as Serta Larung Ngarik Nangten Lobling (gser rta bla rung lnga rig nang bstan blob gling), or Serta Larung Five Science Buddhist Academy. in a continuation of the 13th Dalai Lama's and Terton Lerab Lingpa's relationship. The same year, the Queen of Bhutan with Dilgo Khyentse invited Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok to visit, and teachings were given to the king. as reported in detail by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD). Afterward, around 8,000 students were expelled and 3,800 residences and meditation huts were demolished. A joint 2017 Tibet Watch and Free Tibet report on Larung Gar states Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok refused to expel students before the demolitions began, and was held incommunicado for a year In late November 2003, his younger sister Ani Mundron died at Larung Gar.

After becoming ill during a teaching on 3 December 2003, he was taken to the Barkham hospital, Sources state the actual cause of his death remains a mystery.

Serta Larung Five Science Buddhist Academy

In 1980, Jigme Phuntsok founded Larung Gar, known as Larung Gar Buddhist Academy and by its official name as bestowed by the 10th Panchen Lama, Serta Larung Ngarik Nangten Lobling (gser rta bla rung lnga rig nang bstan blob gling) or Serta Larung Five Science Buddhist Academy.

Despite its remote location, it grew from a handful of disciples gathering in Khenpo's home to be one of the largest and most influential centers for the study of Tibetan Buddhism in the world, numbering more than 10,000 monks, nuns, and lay disciples by the year 2000.

Overall, the student body of the academy was made up of monks, nuns, lay "vow-holders" of both Tibetan and Chinese origins, and tantric practitioners. They studied under four major religious divisions in the Institute: Ngarig Nangten Lobling, Pema Khandro Duling Nunnery, Lektso Charbeb Ling, and the International Religious Committee.

Ngarig Nangten Lobling consisted of 2,500 Tibetan monks.

Pema Khandro Duling Nunnery is the home for study to approximately 5,000 nuns, as of late 1990s, from all regions of Tibet. More than half of those who came to Serthar are women and the curriculum allowed nuns to achieve a coveted Khenpo degree, or Khenmo for women, for the first time in Tibetan history. Entry into the relatively small number of nunneries that exist in other areas of Tibet is limited, but Serthar was open to virtually anyone who genuinely sought to become a student of Jigme Phuntsok's ecumenical vision. Khenpo's niece, Jetsunma Mume Yeshe Tsomo, is recognized as the tulku of Khandro Mingyur Pelkyi Dronma

Lektso Charbeb Ling is the section that trained over 1,000 lay Tibetan "vow-holders" and tantric practitioners from Sêrtar and other regions of Tibet.

The International Religious Committee oversaw 1,000 disciples from regions of the People's Republic of China and students from other Asian countries. Roughly ten percent of the nearly 10,000 students attending the academy were ethnic Han people. Tibetologist Glenn Mullin said, "It is interesting to see how strong Tibetan Buddhism has become throughout China these days. There are small study and practice centers almost everywhere in the country. Some have become explosively huge, like Khenpo Jigmey Puntsok’s place in Kham, which always has well over 10,000 full time students and trainees in residence."

Anti-slaughter movement

Jigme Phuntsok first started the Anti-Slaughter Movement in the 1990s, after seeing an increase in the slaughter rate of livestock from Tibetan households and in the way that livestock suffered in transportation to domestic Chinese markets. As a religious teacher, he requested traditional herders to reduce their sale of livestock to commercial markets or to stop altogether. His students and many other lamas made similar appeals to herders to refrain from selling their livestock for commercial slaughter. Large numbers of herders responded by taking an oath to stop for a period of three years (or forever). Today, the practice of herders vowing to refrain from commercial activity with their yak herds has built into a movement that began in Sertha and spread to the larger geographical areas of the Eastern Tibetan Plateau and into the ethnic Tibetan pastoral areas of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, and Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

Relations with the government

During the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion he made the crucial decision to remain in Tibet rather than flee to India. Between 1960 and 1980 he returned to a nomadic lifestyle in order to avoid the Cultural Revolution.

In 1980 Jigme Phuntsok founded the Serthar Buddhist Institute (also called the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute, near the town of Sêrtar (Chinese Seda). The institute's popularity grew until there were 8500 students at the site, including about 1000 ethnic Chinese as well as students from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.

In 1987 Jigme Phuntsok met and befriended the 10th Panchen Lama. In 1989 he also met the 14th Dalai Lama, whom he refused to denounce, much to the chagrin of the Chinese Communist Party. After this the Chinese government refused him permission to travel for any reason for a period of time.

Khenpo made extensive travels across Tibet and China, teaching and revealing terma. In 1990, at the invitation of Kyabjé Penor Rinpoche, he visited India, where he taught at various monasteries, including the Nyingma Institute in Mysore. At Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama resumed the connections he and Khenpo had in their previous lives by receiving teachings from Khenpo for two weeks. In the summer of 1993, he visited various Dharma centres in India, Bhutan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, USA, Canada, and France, including Lerab Ling, where he gave empowerments and teachings including the empowerments of Tertön Sogyal's termas, Tendrel Nyesel and Vajrakilaya, as well as his own terma treasures of Manjushri and Vajrakilaya, and Dzogchen teachings.

Around 1999 the Sichuan United Work Front pressed him on the issue of his support for the Dalai Lama, and demanded that he reduce the number of students at the institute (either to 150 or to 1400, depending on reports). Jigme Phuntsok refused.

In summer of 2001 several thousand members of the People's Armed Police and the Public Security Bureau descended on the site, razing its structures and dispersed its students. He was detained by the government and held incommunicado for a year, then released in poor health while reportedly under constant surveillance. In December 2003, Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok became ill during a teaching, was admitted to a hospital in Barkham and then moved to another hospital in Chengdu. The actual cause of his death at the military hospital in Chengdu is reported to remain a mystery.

Publications

Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok. A Branch of the Kilaya Tantra Gurkhukma called: The Sole Kilaya of the Sacred Bond of the Heart. Yeshe Melong, Nepal, 1990 Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok. Placing Buddhahood Within Reach. Chagdud Gonpa/Padma Publishing, 1993 Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok. The Lamp Which Illuminates Religious and Secular Ethics (lugs gnyis blang dor gsal ba'i sgron me). Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok. Melodious Cloud of Heart Advice (snying gdam sprin gyi rol mo). Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok Series. Lotsawa House. Translations of Tibetan Masters. Works by and about the influential Nyingma teacher and treasure-revealer Kyabje Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche (mkhan chen 'jigs med phun tshogs), aka Khenpo Jigphun., https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/khenpo-jigme-phuntsok/ Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok. Always Present: The Luminous Wisdom of Jigme Phuntsok. Edited by Khenpo Sodargye. Snow Lion, 25 April 2015 Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok. Always Remembering: Heartfelt Advice for Your Entire Life. Translated by Khenpo Sodargye, Wisdom Publications, 2019. Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok. Life and Spirituality: 365 Lessons by His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche. Edited by Khenpo Sodargye, 31 May 2020.