Jigme Phuntsok

Kyabje Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok, (Tibetan: འཇིགས་མེད་ཕུན་ཚོགས་འབྱུང་གནས།, Wylie transliteration: 'jigs med phun tshogs 'byung gnas) (1933 – 7 January 2004), was a Nyingma lama and Terton from Sertha Region.

In the 1990s, he began an appeal to traditional Tibetan yak herders to refrain from commercial sale of their livestock for spiritual and cultural reasons that has grown into the Anti-Slaughter Movement.

He adopted Manjusri as his personal deity and he is said to have had visions of him several times, including once in 1987 when he visited Mount Wutai, the holy mountain abode of Majushri in China.

At the age of five, Khenpo was recognized as the reincarnate of Tertön Sogyal, guru to the 13th Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatsho, and became a monk at Nubzur Gonpa, a branch of the Palyul monastery in Sertar.

He became increasingly interested in Dzogchen, received formal religious training under Thubga Rinpoche at Changma Rithro in Dzachukha, and was selected to become the Khenpo, or abbot, of Nubzur Monastery at the age of twenty-four.

[1] From the rise of the People's Republic of China, Khenpo's spiritual path was greatly changed, to the point in 1959 he withdrew with a group of faithful monks into the remote Sertar mountains, and herded a small flock of goats and sheep.

There he engaged in meditation and gave teachings to small numbers of people and was able to continue his spiritual practice,[1][2] while apparently untouched by the violence and destruction of the Cultural Revolution.

[1] In 1980, the 10th Panchen Lama visited Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok at his mountain retreat which evolved into the independent and private Sertar Buddhist Institute.

He also undertook retreats at sacred locations and in caves, and authorized the prolific treasure revealers Khandro Tāre Lama and Namtrul Jigme Puntsok.

Khenpo made extensive travels across Tibet with the Panchen Lama, and to the rest of China teaching the Nyingma school's lineage and discovering hidden treasures.

In 1990, after the invitations by the 14th Dalai Lama and Penor Rinpoche, he visited Nepal and India, where he taught at various monasteries, including the Nyingma Institute in Mysore.

The International Campaign for Tibet reports the Serthar Public Security Bureau occupied monastic buildings at the institute, and Chinese authorities kept Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok under constant surveillance.

[5][9] The last teaching given by Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok was delivered from the Chengdu hospital during a telephone call to his students at Larung Gar: "Do not lose your own path; do not disturb others' minds.

The purpose of the academy has been to provide an ecumenical training in Tibetan Buddhism and to meet the need for renewal of meditation and scholarship all over Tibet in the wake of China's Cultural Revolution of 1966–76.

Entry into the relatively small number of nunneries that exist in other areas of Tibet is limited, but Serthar was open to virtually anyone who genuinely sought to become a student of Jigme Phuntsok's ecumenical vision.

Khenpo's niece, Jetsunma Mume Yeshe Tsomo, is recognized as the tulku of Khandro Mingyur Pelkyi Dronma[1] (mkha' 'gro mi 'gyur dpal gyi sgron ma, d.u.

Sertha Larung Five Science Buddhist Academy has operated with a standing executive committee of seven learned lamas, but major decisions were confirmed and implemented only after consultation with Jigme Phuntsok.

[2] Jigme Phuntsok's ability to uncover Terma has played an important role in inspiring devotion in the revival of Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary Tibet.

In the summer of 1993, he visited various Dharma centres in India, Bhutan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, USA, Canada, and France, including Lerab Ling, where he gave empowerments and teachings including the empowerments of Tertön Sogyal's termas, Tendrel Nyesel and Vajrakilaya, as well as his own terma treasures of Manjushri and Vajrakilaya, and Dzogchen teachings.

Around 1999 the Sichuan United Work Front pressed him on the issue of his support for the Dalai Lama, and demanded that he reduce the number of students at the institute (either to 150 or to 1400, depending on reports).

In summer of 2001 several thousand members of the People's Armed Police and the Public Security Bureau descended on the site, razing its structures and dispersed its students.