OUR TEACHERS
Our Teacher & Exemplar
His Eminence
Kyabje Dagom Rinpoche
During his life, Kyabje Dagom Rinpoche was known for teaching the Buddha Dharma and providing spiritual advice to thousands of students worldwide. Rinpoche was a loving teacher who approached his students with compassion and loving-kindness, and because of this, his Dharma centers have flourished. Kyabje Dagom Rinpoche did not care to mix religion and politics. So, he put forth a great effort to ensure the happiness and peace of everyone in every country where he traveled. Throughout his life, Rinpoche blessed countless beings with the Buddha Dharma and lived his life according to the true teachings of Buddha.
H. E. Dagom Rinpoche was born in 1953 in Shota Lhosum, Tibet, and he was recognized as reincarnate lama, the 12th Dagom Rinpoche, by His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche when he was six years old. In 1959, Dagom Rinpoche left Tibet and joined Drepung Gomang Monastery in Mundgod, India, where he studied the major and minor Buddhist sciences for sixteen years. It was at Drepung Gomang Monastery that Dagom Rinpoche received his novice and full ordination vows.
In 1983, Dagom Rinpoche completed his studies and received the Geshe Lharampa degree, the highest degree in the Tibetan monastic system. Rinpoche continued to receive teachings, empowerment, and oral transmissions from great masters, such as H.H.Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang, H. H. Ling Dorje Chang, and Kyabje Gyara Dorje Chang, among others.
In 1987, Rinpoche passed the tantric examinations and served as the Headmaster of Gyume Tantric College in Hunsur, India. After completing his studies, he transmitted the Sutra and Tantra teachings to students worldwide. In 1992, His Eminence established Dharma centers in the United States (Dagom Gaden Tensung Ling in Bloomington, Indiana, and Dagom Choeling Dharma Center in Minneapolis, USA).
In 2007, the 12th Dagom Rinpoche performed the deed of Parinirvana (the enlightened being’s release from the cycle of rebirth). Fortunately, the enthronement ceremony of the 13th Dagom Rinpoche took place on November 21, 2016, in Chamdo, Tibet, at Shodo Monastery, the monastery to which the Dagom Rinpoche lineage of incarnations belongs. In this reincarnation, he is Lobsang Khyenrab Tenpai Wangchuk, having been recognized by Zonglo Chocktrul Rinpoche Jampa Khedrup, the second-highest lama of Jampa Ling Monastery in Chamdo. Rinpoche will be educated in Jampa Ling Monastery in Chamdo, which is home for more than 1,300 monks.
APPROVED BY Secretary Geshe Jangsem (Dagom Ladang, Kathmandu, Nepal)
Resident Teacher, Ven. Lobzang Dorje
The Venerable Lobzang Dorje began his dharma studies in January 1999 and took refuge under the guidance of Kyabje Dagom Rinpoche in May of that year. In 2002, he received Getsul (Novice) Vows in Kathmandu, Nepal, and took Gelong Vows (full ordination) in Switzerland from Kyabje Dagom Rinpoche in 2005. While he has studied with and has received numerous empowerments from many Gelug teachers, he also had the opportunity to study at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Centre of Buddhist Studies in Kathmandu, where he studied Tibetan and Buddhist Philosophy.
As the founder of Dagom Geden Kunkyob Ling, Ven. Lobzang Dorje fulfills a wish to provide a space where Buddha’s teaching would be available to an urban audience, particularly to minority group members and other underrepresented group members. In doing so, he hopes to create a setting that supports the ideals of social engagement where it intersects with concerns around racial and gender equality, sexuality, poverty, crime, and justice.
Ven. Lobzang Dorje holds graduate degrees from the University of Cincinnati, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and much of his adult life has been spent teaching as a university professor. After 33 years of university teaching, he retired as Professor Emeritus from Indiana University, Bloomington. As a faculty member in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, one of his primary research interests was the integration of geographical and criminological theories to explain patterns of crime in urban areas.
Before moving to Indiana to join the IU faculty, he completed a large-scale, four-year project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) that investigated the criminal behavior of adult opiate and cocaine users, reflected in the publication of Honey, Honey, Miss Thang: Being Black, Gay, and on the Street as well as "Workin’ It: Women Living Through Drugs and Crime. At Indiana University, he taught courses on race and crime, urban crime patterns, drug use and criminal behavior, and theories of crime and deviance. Ven. Lobzang's most recent book, Only for the Brave at Heart: Essays Rethinking Race, Crime, and Justice, combines his knowledge of the Dharma with his expertise in criminology and criminal justice.