Shar Khentrul Rinpoché Jamphel Lodrö
Khentrul Rinpoché is a nonsectarian master of Tibetan Buddhism. He has devoted his life to a wide variety of spiritual practices, studying with more than twenty-five masters from all of the major Tibetan traditions. While he has genuine respect and appreciation for all spiritual systems, he has the greatest confidence and experience with his personal path of the Kalachakra tantra as taught in the Jonang-Shambhala tradition.
Shar Khentrul Jamphel Lodrö Rinpoché spent the first 20 years of his life herding yak and chanting mantras on the plateaus of Tibet. Inspired by the bodhisattvas, he left his family to study in a variety of monasteries under the guidance of over twenty-five masters in all the Tibetan buddhist traditions. Due to his non-sectarian approach, he earned himself the title of Rimé (unbiased) Master identified as the reincarnation of the famous Kalachakra Master Ngawang Chözin Gyatso. Khentrul Rinpoche is considered the 7th emanation of Bodhisattva Akasagarbha.
When he was chosen to be a teacher (khenpo) of the prestigious Tsangwa Monastery in Dzamthang, Rinpoche chose to renounce his position though in favor of dedicating himself to strict practice.
While at the core of his teachings is the recognition that there is great value in the diversity of all spiritual traditions found in this world; he focuses on the Jonang-Shambhala tradition. The Jonang lineage, thought to be extinct until recently by many Western scholars, he found held the most advanced teachings of Kalachakra (wheel of time) containing profound methods to harmonize our external environment with the inner world of body and enlightened mind.
Since 2014, he has travelled to more than thirty countries guiding students to realize their own sacred truth of limitless potential through a clear, systematic step-by-step presentation of the Kalachakra Path to enlightenment. By teaching people how to cultivate a flexible mind and remove bias, Khentrul Rinpoché aspires to create compassion-based communities, transforming this world into a golden age of global peace and harmony.
The Life Story of Khentrul Rinpoché Jamphel Lodrö
Khentrul Rinpoché is considered to be the third incarnation of the great Kalachakra adept Ngawang Chözin Gyatso. From his humble beginnings as a nomadic yak herder, Rinpoché’s life has exposed him to some truly extraordinary experiences. From his secret incarnation, through yak herding to his trip to the west, follow his timeline highlighting some of the key events which have helped shape the person he is today.
An Unbiased View
Khentrul Rinpoché Jamphel Lodrö is a rimé master. ‘Rimé’ means a ‘non-sectarian’ or ‘non-biased’ view. While some people may think this is related to the idea of all systems being equal, it is actually focused on recognizing the value and benefit of multiple points-of-view. Khentrul Rinpoche wrote a rime book titled “Ocean of Diversity” that includes all the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism as well as many of the religious traditions alive in our world today. We work to cultivate an unshakeable and genuine respect for pluralistic traditions seeing the value in all faiths. We are inclusive and welcome practitioners from all backgrounds.
Teachers
In Gratitude for All of Rinpoche’s Teachers The kindness of those who guide us to liberation is beyond measure. They teach the words of the Dharma, reveal their meaning, and lead us—step by step—toward direct recognition of our awakened nature. Khentrul Rinpoche offers heartfelt gratitude to the masters who have guided him in this lifetime. This list is offered in reverence and is not exhaustive—only a glimpse of the many teachers, and the living lineages they carried, whose compassion and wisdom he remembers with devotion.
བླ་མ་སྐལ་ལྡན།
Lama Kaldan
unsure: Unsure
Unknown Monastery
ས་མར་བླ་མ་དེ་ལོ།
Samar Lama Delo
unsure: Unsure
Unknown Monastery
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་ཡོན་བརྟན་བཟང་པོ།
Jetsun Lama Yonten Zangpo
Jonang
Dzamthang Tsangwa Monastery
ཐན་
Thanthan Lama
unsure: Unsure
Unknown Monastery
མཁན་པོ་འཇིགས་མེད་ཕུན་ཚོགས
Khenpo Jigme Phuntsog
unsure: Unsure
Unknown Monastery
སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཨ་ཁུ་དགོད་པོ།
Aku Gopo
Nyingma - Dzogchen
Denong Monastery
ཨ་ཀུ་དགེ་ཁོ།
Aku Geko
Gelug
Kirti Monastery
ཤུག་ཆུང་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ།
Shugchong Khandroma
Nyingma - Dzogchen
Shugchong Monastery
མཁའ་འགྲོ། ཏ་རེ་ལྷ་མོ།
Tare Lhamo
Nyingma
Nyanlang Monastery
བླ་མ་ལོང་ཚེར།
Lama Longtser
Sakya
Dewu Monastery
བླ་མ་བཤད་པ།
Akushabha
Sakya
Raktsa Monastery
ཇོ་ནང་སྐྱབ་མགོན་མཆོག་སྤྲུལ་འཇིགས་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ་མཆོག
HH Jonang Kyabgon Chogtrul Jigme Dorje
Jonang
Dzamthang Tsangwa
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་བློ་བཟང་འཕྲིན་ལས།
Lama Lobsang Trinley
Jonang
Tashi Chöthang Monastery
Sagang Khenpo
Sakya
Thubten Tashi Gephel Ling Monastery
གཟན་དཀར་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་རྡོ་རྗེ།
Zankar Tulku Jampchup Dorje
Kagyu
Yuthök Monastery
མཁན་པོ་ཤེས་སྟན
Lama Zharten
Jonang
Doli Doka Monastery
མཁན་པོ་ཕུན་ཚོགས།
Khenpo Phuntsok
Kagyu
Yuthök Monastery
མཁན་པོ་འཇམ་སེར།
Khenpo Jamser
Kagyu
Yuthök Monastery
རྡོ་གྲུབ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཐུབ་པ།
Dodrupchen Rinpoche
Nyingma - Dzogchen
Drupchen Monastery Tibet
སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཀརྨ་བསོད་ནམས།
Tulku Karma Sonam
Kagyu
Yuthök Monastery
མུག་ཡང་མཁན་པོ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས།
Mukyang Khenpo Lobsang Tsultrim
Nyingma - Dzogchen Nyingtik
Dongzang Monastery
བླ་མ་ཀུན་རྒྱམ།
Lama Kunkyam
Nyingma - Kathok
Denong Monastery
ཀློ་བླ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཀ་དག
Tulku Katag
Nyingma - Dzogchen Nyingtik
Denong Monastery
མཁན་པོ་སངས་རྟན།
Khenpo Sangten
Nyingma - Palyul
Denong Monastery
རྟ་བ་བླ་མ་རྣམ་གྲོལ།
Tawa Khenpo Jigme Namdrol
Nyingma - Kathok
Tharthang
བློ་མ་བློ་རྒྱམ།
Lama Logyam
Nyingma - Kathok
Denong Monastery
མཁན་པོ་བློ་ཚུལ།
Khenpo Lotsul
Nyingma - Palyul
Tharthang Monastery
མཁན་པོ་འོད་ལྡན།
Khenpo Öden
Nyingma - Palyul
Tharthang Monastery
རྒྱ་སྒོ་བླ་མ་ངག་བློས།
Gyago Lama Ngaklu
Jonang
Jonang Shol Monastery
མཁན་ཆེན་ཤེས་རབ་གསལ་བྱེད།
Khenpo Sherab Saljay
Jonang
Jamdha Monastery
Khenpo Jigten
Nyingma - Palyul
Tharthang Monastery
མཁན་པོ་ཨ་ཁུ་བློ་བརྟན།
Khenpo Arik Lothen
Gelug
Kirti Monastery
དཀར་རྒྱ་ལུང་རིགས།
Kyagya Longrik
Gelug
Kirti Monastery
མཁན་པོ་ཨ་ཁུ་ཐབས་མཁས་སང་།
Khenpo Aki Tamchösang
Gelug
Kirti Monastery
མཁན་པོ་བློ་བཟང་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས།
Khenpo Lobsang Tsultrim
Nyingma - Palyul
Tharthang Monastery
སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་བློ་བཟང་ནོར་བུ།
Tulku Lobsang Norbu Tharthang
Nyingma - Palyul
Tharthang Monastery
དམར་དབང་སྤྲུལ་སྦྱིན་པ་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
Marwan Tulku Jinpa Gyatso
Gelug
Kirti Monastery
ཨ་ཁུ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།
Aku Lodrö Gyamsto
Gelug
Kirti Monastery
ཨ་ཁུ་འཇིགས་རྒྱམ།
Aku Jigyam
Gelug
Kirti Monastery
Lineage of the Parents
FATHER
ཕ་ཤར་ཐུབ་བསྟན།
Aph Shar Thubtan
A respected thangka painter, known for integrity and devotion to the Dharma
Khentrul Rinpoche’s father was a deeply accomplished Nyingma practitioner, tantric monk, and master thangka painter. Due to the political circumstances of the time, he was forced to disrobe, yet his inner realization and devotion to the Dharma never wavered. He personally taught Khentrul Rinpoche many mantras, prayers, and foundational practices, planting the karmic seeds for Rinpoche’s future path.
As a gifted artist, he created the essential conditions for the Drolmi Kazug Puja by painting two extraordinary thangkas: one depicting the 21 Taras and another of the five Lungta animals. When Khentrul Rinpoche was 19 years old, his father traveled to paint the walls of a newly re-established monastery, where he passed away on the monastery grounds. This profound and karmically charged moment became a turning point in Rinpoche’s life, inspiring him to enter monastic life and dedicate himself fully to the Dharma.
Earlier in his life, a lama performed a mirror divination predicting that Rinpoche’s father would be reborn as a great tantric practitioner in Rebkhong, Amdo. After his passing, a different lama independently confirmed the same prophecy, affirming the depth of his realization and his ongoing connection to the tantric lineage.
Sacred Images
MOTHER
ཨ་མ་ཤེས་རབ་སྒྲོན་མེ།
Ama Sherab Dronme
A strong woman of faith and devotion, who inspired Rinpoche
Sherab Drolmé was a great practitioner from childhood. In her youth, she often ran away from her samsaric home to seek a life of Dharma as a nun, but her family set out on horseback to recapture her and bring her home. One day, she met a Dakini who told her not to run away. The Dakini told her that she had the karma to marry two tantric monks and would have great children born to her. At this time, many of the monks were forced to practice secretly within marriage. The Dakini said, “Don’t worry, one day you will have a chance to practice dharma seriously.” Sherab Drolme studied the Dharma and became devoted to her teacher, Getsé Khentrul. She married two times to tantric monks, with Rinpoche’s father being her second husband. She was separated from her beloved teacher, Getsé Khentrul, who promised her not to worry that he would return very soon. Unbeknownst to her, he passed away. During her pregnancy, she dreamed he was returning and returned to her as Khentrul Rinpoche. Many people in different areas of Tibet (China) secretly confirmed his reincarnation and that her teacher had passed away. All of Sherab Drolmé’s children are monastic or dedicated practitioners. She practiced seriously for the rest of her life. The villagers asked the Jonang Lama Salden where she was reborn when she passed away. He said she went to Sukhavati. In another place simultaneously, the Nyingma Khandroma Kunla said the same thing.
Sacred Images