Khenpo Shenga
Khenpo Shenga (T. mkhan po gzhan dga’ མཁན་པོ་གཞན་དགའ་) (1871-1927), aka Shenpen Chökyi Nangwa (གཞན་ཕན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བ་, Wyl. gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba). An important figure in the Rimé movement of Tibetan Buddhism who revitalized study in much of Eastern Tibet by founding shedras and by revising the scholastic curriculum with an emphasis on the classical treatises of India.
He was a disciple of Orgyen Tendzin Norbu. He was also the nineteenth abbot of Dzogchen's Śrī Siṃha college, the founder and first abbot of Dzongsar's Khamshe monastic college, and the teacher of countless Nyingma, Sakya and Kagyu lamas. He and his disciples are said to have established nearly one hundred study centers, emphasizing the study of "thirteen great texts".
Writings
Khenpo Shenga wrote major annotation commentaries on the thirteen great texts that are studied in Nyingma study colleges (shedra). Including:
He also wrote a commentary on the root text of the Guhyagarbha Tantra.
His collected writings include A Mirror Clearly Reflecting What Must Be Known: The Six Topics of the Learned, as well as various praises and songs of realization.
A previously unknown commentary of his on Patrul Rinpoche’s Advice that is Virtuous in the Beginning, Middle and End was discovered recently in Tibet and published in Nepal.
Further reading
Online:
Khenpo Zhenga Zhenpen Chokyi Nangwa, Treasury of Lives
Khenpo Shenga, Tsadra Commons
Khenpo Shenga, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
Khenpo Shenga Series on Lotsawa House, Lotsawa House
TBRC Profile of Khenpo Shenga
In print:
- Bayer, Achim. The Life and Works of mKhan-po gZhan-dga' (1871-1927), M.A. Thesis, University of Hamburg
- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Brilliant Moon, Shambhala, 2008, pages 31-38.
- Jackson, David. Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic Dezhung Rinpoche (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003), pages 25-33.
- Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage, Padma Publications, 2005, pages 492-499.