[2] Dilgo Khyentse was born on the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month of the Iron Dog Year (1910), in the Denma region of Derge, in Denkok Valley, in Kham, Eastern Tibet,[1] during a teaching on the Kalachakra Tantra given in his house by Ju Mipham.

[4] His root guru was Shechen Gyaltsap Rinpoche, and Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro (1893–1959) was his other main spiritual master.

His eldest brother Sanggye was his constant travelling and practice companion, and they entered many brief retreats between teachings which included the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, the Madhamikāvatāra, Nagarjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, the Guhyagarbha Tantra, works by many masters including Ju Mipham, Terdak Lingpa, Mindroling, Guru Chowang, Jamgon Kongtrul, and by other great masters.

Two years later while in retreat, a severe fever occurred at the age of 25, and he then decided to become a tantric practitioner with a consort, which supported his transition as a terton.

[3][8] In 1936, he revealed a section of "one of his most celebrated treasures", Pema's Heart Essence of Longevity (pad+ma tshe yi snying thig),[3] which he discovered in the Kingdom of Nangchen.

He was a close student, and specifically received Jamgon Kongtrul's Rinchen Terdzod, a collection of Revealed Terma Treasures, and his Treasury of Knowledge (shes bya kun khyab).

In 1946, Dilgo Khyentse travelled in Kham and strengthened his connections to the lineage of another Terton, Chokgyur Lingpa when he discovered and decoded a sheet of paper which became the treasure cycle of the Kabgye (bka' brgyad).

[3] He continued his revelations as a Terton while travelling and teaching at Derge, Nangchen, Rebkong, Amye Machen, and other places in Do Kham during the early years of China's invasion.

[3] Khandro Llhamo refused to divulge his whereabouts for weeks in 1956, before Dilgo Khyentse and his family spontaneously migrated with masses of other Tibetans to Central Tibet and Lhasa,[3] leaving behind his library of dharma books and most of his own writings.

He was one of the foremost masters of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, for which he bestowed pith instructions, and is one of the principal holders of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage.

He rebuilt the Shechen Monastery near the great and spiritually significant Jarung Kashor stupa of Boudhanath, in Kathmandu valley, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In between his travels to Tibet, he gave many teachings over the years to hundreds of other monks, nuns, lamas, Khenpos and Khenmos, Rinpoches, disciples, laypeople, and to numerous international students.

During this same period and until his paranirvana on 27 September 1991 in Bhutan, Dilgo Khyentse was also involved in publishing as many Tibetan Buddhist teachings as possible, counting more than 300 volumes altogether.

[13] Student Matthieu Ricard remarked: "his disciples were as numerous as stars in the autumn sky...we felt that the sun had vanished from the world.

He received and gave empowerments, and wrote volumes of texts that revitalized and interpreted important transmissions and teachings from all four Tibetan Buddhist schools.

ཨོ་རྒྱན་བསྟན་འཛིན་འཇིགས་མེད་ལྷུང་གྲུབ་, Wylie o rgyan bstan 'dzin 'jigs med lhun grub), and informally called Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche.

[20][18] Trulshik Rinpoche also offered a Long Life prayer which he composed for Dilgo Khyentse II of Shechen, at the sacred Maratika Cave.

It was made by Matthieu Ricard, a French student, photographer, Buddhist monk, and author who had traveled with Khyentse for 14 years.

Along with rarely photographed areas of Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal, the film features interviews with the 14th Dalai Lama, who also speaks about his own spiritual life.

The film Brilliant Moon: Glimpses of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, written and directed by Neten Chokling Rinpoche,[26] and narrated by Richard Gere[27] and Lou Reed,[28] uses animation, previously unseen archival footage and photos along with new interviews of Tibet's qualified masters to tell Dilgo Khyentse's life story.