Chimé Rigdzin Rinpoche (; Eng: Immortal Vidyadhara), 1922-2002), popularly known as C. R. Lama, was an Indian lama of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

who was the lineage holder of the Northern Treasures () tradition in the

Nyingma Nyingma (, ), also referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Nyingma school was founded by PadmasambhavaClaude Arpi, ''A Glimpse of the History of Tibet'', Dharamsala: Tibet Museum, 2013. ...

school of

Biography

At the age of four he was recognized and enthroned as the 4th incarnation of Khordong Terchen Nüden Dorjé Dropen Lingpa () the main re-incarnate lama of Khordong Monastery in

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibet, Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, located in today's Sichuan province. At seven years old he had already started discovering spiritual treasures ( terma) hidden by

Padmasambhava Padmasambhava ('Born from a Lotus'), also known as Guru Rinpoche ('Precious Guru'), was a legendary tantric Buddhist Vajracharya, Vajra master from Oddiyana. who fully revealed the Vajrayana in Tibet, circa 8th – 9th centuries... He is consi ...

. He was mostly trained by Tülku Tsurlo (, 1895-1954Chos dbying

015 015 may refer to: * 015, a telephone numbers in Malaysia, telephone number code in Malaysia * ''Global Underground 015'', DJ mix album by Darren Emerson * ''The Haunting of Tram Car 015'', 2019 novella by P. Djèlí Clark * JWH-015, chemical from t ...

, (p. 786-814 for the biography of ), vol. 62 in the 63-vol. collection (2015, publisher, etc., unknown).) and completed his education at the age of 19 with the degree of Dorje Lopön Chenpo. Shortly after, he left the monastery to enter into a traditional three-year retreat at Tsö Pema (Rewalsar) in India. Following that he visited many Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Tibet,

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

and India as a wandering

ngakpa In Tibetan Buddhism and Bon, a ''ngakpa'' (male), or a ''ngakma'' (female) (; Sanskrit ''mantrī'') is any practitioner of Vajrayana who is not a monk or a nun. The terms translates to "man or woman of mantra" or "man or woman of secret mantra". ...

. Later he settled with his family in

Kalimpong Kalimpong is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The region comes under Gorkhaland Territo ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

and became an Indian citizen. From 1954 to 1987 C. R. Lama was head of the Department for Indo-Tibetan studies at

Visva-Bharati University Visva-Bharati (IAST: ''Viśva-Bhāratī''), () is a public central university and an Institute of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which ...

Santiniketan Shantiniketan (IPA: Help:IPA/Bengali, �antiniketɔn is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendra ...

, West Bengal. In the late 1950s he was invited by

Giuseppe Tucci Giuseppe Tucci (; 5 June 1894 – 5 April 1984) was an Italian orientalist, Indologist and scholar of East Asian studies, specializing in Tibetan culture and the history of Buddhism. During its zenith, Tucci was a supporter of Italian fascism ...

to teach in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. During that time he met

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...

. In the following year he was invited to teach at

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

by Helmut Hoffman. During the 1970s he had a number of American and European students at

, including James Low and Ngakpa Chögyam, who also became his religious disciples. After his retirement in 1987, C.R. Lama regularly visited Europe, where he guided a small groups of pupils in different countries.

Literature

* * * * * *

References

External links

H.H. Khordong Terchen Tulku Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche: Short Biography
at Khordong.de

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigdzin, Chime 1922 births 2002 deaths 20th-century lamas Nyingma lamas Nyingma tulkus People associated with Santiniketan Rinpoches Tertöns Tibetan Buddhists from Tibet Tibetan emigrants to India Tibetologists Academic staff of Visva-Bharati University

Biography

Literature

References

Further reading

External links