Lopön Tenzin Namdak
Lopön Tenzin Namdak (Tibetan: སློབ་དཔོན་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྣམ་དག, Wylie: slob dpon bstan 'dzin rnam dag, born 1926 in Khyungpo Karu – Wylie: khyung po dkar ru – in Kham) is a Tibetan religious leader and the most senior authority and teacher of Bon, in particular of Dzogchen and the Mother Tantras.
In 1933, at age seven, Tenzin Namdak went to Tengchen and in 1941 he went to Yungdrung Monastery, where he helped execute a series of wall paintings for a new temple.
Tenzin Namdak left Menri in 1959 due to increasing conflicts between the indigenous Tibetan people and the encroaching Han Chinese since the Battle of Chamdo in 1950.
Riding this exodus, Tenzin Namdak tried to reach safety in India in 1960, but was shot and captured by Chinese Communist soldiers and imprisoned for ten months.
Soon after Dr. Kepplar arranged funds from the Catholic Relief Services with the help of a friend of his who was working in the USA embassy in India, for the Bonpos to purchase a land where they could rebuild their community.
After difficulties in acquiring the land, Gungthang Tsultrim helped register the land for the organisation "Bod kyi Bonpo Tsokpa" by including Dolanji in the organisation called Tsokpa Chuksum, in which other settlements were registered, such as the Bir settlement in Himachal and Clement Town in Dehradhun etc.
Most of the inhabitants in the new settlement came from the Mount Kailash region and Upper Tsang in the west, and from Hor, Kongpo, Derge and Amdo (Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture) in the east.
The foundation for the principal temple was inaugurated in 1969 and completed in 1978 and named Pel Shenten Menri Ling (Wylie: dpal gshen bstan sman ri'i gling).
Thus a lama's college (shedrup; bshad sgrub) was established in 1978, organized under the guidance of Lopön Rinpoche who served as one of the two professors.
The official name of the college is Yungdrung Bön Shedrup Lobnyer Dude (gyung drung bon bshad sgrub slob gnyer 'dud sde).
The purpose of the college at Dolanji was to preserve the tradition of philosophy established and developed at Yeru Wensaka (gyas ru dben sa kha), where philosophical analysis and logic were applied to the understanding of Do Ngag Semsum (mdo sngags sems gsum), that is, to the teachings of the Sutras, the Tantras and Dzogchen.
Unlike the Nyingmapa tradition, the Bönpos developed a system of logic and debate specifically relating to the Dzogchen teaching.
At Menri in Tibet, all instruction in Tantra and Dzogchen was done in private except for the philosophy college where the monks studied the five scripture system Dozhung Nga (mdo gzhung lnga).
Another Bönpo monastery and college known as Triten Norbutse (khri brtan nor bu rtse), located near Swayambhu, west of Kathmandu, Nepal was established under Tenzin Namdak's direction.
In 1989, Tenzin Namdak traveled to England, America and Italy, at the invitation of the International Dzogchen Community of Chögyal Namkai Norbu Rinpoche in those countries.
