Enthronement of His Holiness Gyana Vajra Rinpoche as the 43rd Sakya Trizin
March 16-17, 2022
Sakya Institute, Puruwala, India
Sakya Thupten Dargye Ling is overjoyed to share the following details regarding the enthronement. The livestream will begin on March 15 at 9:50 PM Minnesota Time (which is March 16 at 8:20 AM India Standard Time). Watch the first session, the formal enthronement, on YouTube or Facebook.
Please check the enthronement organizing committee's website for the detailed schedule and livestream links for the subsequent sessions, which include teachings and cultural programs.
In Tibetan Buddhism, an enthronement is a ceremony during which a guru or spiritual teacher formally accepts the mantle of leadership that comes with his or her position. Through the presentation of various offerings, disciples request the teacher to live long and teach the Dharma for the benefit of beings. This month, we will celebrate the enthronement of His Holiness Gyana Vajra Rinpoche, who will accept the leadership position of the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. After taking his seat and the chanting of traditional prayers, extensive offerings will be made. These will include a grand mandala representing the entire universe; representations of the Buddha's body, speech, and mind; and other representations such as the eight auspicious symbols, eight auspicious substances, and seven emblems of a universal ruler. Such occasions are said to be marked by the five excellent conditions of the excellent teacher, teachings, place, disciples, and time.
His Holiness Gyana Vajra Rinpoche will offer Dharma teachings based on Sakya Pandita's treatise Clarifying the Sage's Intent, and cultural performances and greetings will be offered to honor the festive occasion!
Khondung Gyana Vajra Rinpoche (b. 1979) was born in India on the tenth day of the fifth month according to the Tibetan calendar, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava. Rinpoche is the second son of His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trichen and Her Eminence Gyalyum Chenmo. Rinpoche will be the 43rd throne holder of the Sakya school, which was founded by his ancestor, the first Sakya Trizin Khon Konchok Gyalpo, in the eleventh century. In accordance with the resolution of His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trichen and His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Rinpoche, and with the blessed confirmation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the role of the Sakya Trizin will alternate every few years among the qualified family members of the Sakya Dolma Phodrang and Sakya Phuntsok Phodrang.
Since age four, Gyana Vajra Rinpoche has been engaged in a continuous stream of study and practice, and has received numerous Dharma teachings and the Path with its Fruit (Lamdre) teachings from his root guru, His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trichen. In addition, Rinpoche has received teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness Trulshik Rinpoche, His Holiness the 42nd Sakya Trizin, Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, Luding Khenchen Rinpoche, Luding Khen Rinpoche, Sakya Jetsunma Chimey Luding Rinpoche, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Dezhung Rinpoche, Khenchen Appey Rinpoche, Khenchen Kunga Wangchuk, Khenchen Migmar Tsering, Ven. Rinchen Sangpo, and Ven. Ngawang Gyatso.
Rinpoche’s training from a young age to his completion of major retreats have provided him with all the requisites to be the next Sakya Trizin. And in recent years, Rinpoche has dedicated himself to the bestowal and propagation of the Vajrakilaya teachings, which have been transmitted in an unbroken lineage since the time of Guru Padmasambhava, who bestowed the Vajrakilaya teachings to Rinpoche's ancestor, Khon Lui Wangpo Sungwa, in the eighth century.
In 2008, Rinpoche married Her Eminence Dagmo Sonam Palkyi. Rinpoche and Dagmo Sonam have three children, who are being raised in the Buddhist tradition.
Under the guidance of His Holiness the Sakya Trichen, Gyana Vajra Rinpoche founded Sakya Academy, a monastic school near Dehradun. The vision behind the establishment of this school is to equip the next generation of Buddhist monastics with both traditional and modern education. Since these children are mainly from underprivileged backgrounds, Rinpoche has been generously covering their expenses. Rinpoche and Dagmo Sonam, who serves as the academy's director, look after the 200 children enrolled there as if they were their own.
Lastly, Rinpoche holds numerous roles including his service as the president of the Sakya Monlam Foundation; vice president of Sakya Centre; chairman of the Phagpa Foundation that is working to establish schools in Mongolia; and a board member of Sakya Society, which operates Sakya Kachod Choling Retreat Center on San Juan Island, Washington, USA.
short bio based on published information from the Sakya Dolma Phodrang, Enthronement Organizing Committee, Sakya Centre, and Sakya Academy.
Long-life Verse for His Holiness Gyana Vajra Rinpoche
འགྲོ་ལ་ཀུན་དགའི་དཔལ་སྦྱིན་རིན་ཆེན་གསུམ། །
གཅིག་བསྡུས་རིགས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་ནུས་པའི་གར། །
འཁོན་གདུང་དྲི་མེད་ངོ་མཚར་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ། །
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན་པའི་གཙུག་རྒྱན་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ། །
dro la kün ga’i pal jin rinchen sum
chik dü rik sum khyentse nü pa’i gar
khön dung dri mé ngo tshar trul pa’i ku
dorje dzin pa’i tsuk gyen zhab ten sol
Wonderful manifestation of the stainless Khön lineage—combining the dance of the three races of knowledge, loving-kindness, and power into one—essence of the Three Jewels, who magnificently gives joy to living beings: Crown ornament of Vajradhara, please live long!
Verses of Auspiciousness and Dedication
ཐུབ་དབང་བསྟན་པའི་སྒྲོན་མེ་ས་གསུམ་གྱི། །
འགྲོ་བའི་མིག་གཅིག་དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མ་མཆོག །
ཞབས་པད་སྲིད་མཐར་བརྟན་ཅིང་ཕྲིན་ལས་རྒྱས། །
ཐུགས་ཀྱི་བཞེད་དོན་མ་ལུས་འགྲུབ་པར་ཤོག །
thub wang ten pa’i dron mé sa sum gyi
dro wé mik chik palden lama chok
zhab pé sithar ten ching trinlé gye
thub kyi zhé don malü drub par shok
Lord of sages, light of the teachings, you are the sole eyes of beings of the three places. Glorious and supreme guru: may your lotus feet remain firm until the end of existence, your activities flourish, and your noble wishes be accomplished without any exception.
དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མའི་ཞབས་པད་བརྟན་པ་དང་། །
མཁའ་མཉམ་ཡོངས་ལ་བདེ་སྐྱིད་འབྱུང་བ་དང་། །
བདག་གཞན་མ་ལུས་ཚོགས་རྫོགས་སྒྲིབ་བྱང་ནས། །
མྱུར་དུ་སངས་རྒྱས་ས་ལ་འགོད་པར་ཤོག །
palden la ma’i zhab pé tenpa dang
kha nyam yong la dé kyi jungwa dang
dak zhen malü tsok dzok drip jang né
nyur du sangyé sala göpar shok
May the glorious gurus’ longevity be ensured.
May all beings, infinite as space, have happiness,
and, by perfecting the accumulations and purifying the obscurations,
may I and all others be swiftly established on the level of buddhahood.
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Sakya Thupten Dargye Ling's mission is to provide Buddhist teachings and support for Buddhist practice. Officially established in 1980 as a nonprofit Buddhist church in Minnesota, we are blessed to have His Holiness the Sakya Trichen as our spiritual director. Sakya Thupten Dargye Ling is affiliated with Tsechen Kunchab Ling, seat of the Sakya Dolma Phodrang in the Americas.
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