Background
He died in 1916 and the 12th Tulku was born in 1917.
He died in 1916 and the 12th Tulku was born in 1917.
Dhardo Rinpoche was educated in the traditional Tibetan monastic style, taking his Geshe Degree and graduating at the Lharmapa level at Drepung Monastery, and doing further study at Gyud-medical Tantric College.
The 11th tulku rose to the Abbot of Drepung and during the 1912 invasion of Tibet by China was the most senior of the retired abbots in the National Assembly. In 1951 he was appointed abbot of the Tibetan monastery at Bodh Gaya, and from 1954 onwards combined this with a few months per year stay in Kalimpong near the India-Tibet border. Kalimpong was to become an important staging post for Tibetans fleeing the Chinese invasion.
He was abbot of Yiga Choeling Monastery, Ghoom from 1964 till his death in 1990.
In 1962 he stopped with the job in Bodhgaya. Sangharakshita considered Dhardo Rinpoche to be a living bodhisattva and he is still revered as such in the Triratna Community.
Dhardo Rinpoche"s motto was: "Cherish the doctrine. Live united; radiate love", which also became the motto of the school he founded.
He was concerned especially to teach the children at his school that "actions have consequences".
The thirteenth in the line of Tulkus, Tenzin Legshad Wangdi, was born in 1991 and still goes by the name of Dhardo Tulku.
