Meditation in the Modern World 

 

Chamgon Kenting Tai Situpa is the 12th in a lineage of Tibetan Buddhist masters of the Karma Kagyu tradition.

The renowned Tibetan master Chokyi Gyaltsen (1377-1448) was the first to bear the title Kenting Tai Situ by which later lineage holders became known.

The current Tai Situpa, Pema Donyö Nyinche, was born in 1954 to a family of farmers in the Palyul district of the Derge Kingdom. He was traditionally recognized and enthroned at Palpung Monastery at the age of eighteen months.

When he was six years old, political conditions forced him to leave Tibet with only a few attendants. He traveled to Bhutan first and then to Sikkim, where he joined theSixteenth Karmapa who had also come out of Tibet. After recovering from illness and exhaustion, Tai Situpa went to live at the newly constructed Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, the new seat of the Sixteenth Karmapa. He received his formal religious training under the guidance of the Sixteenth Karmapa, until 1975, when at the age of twenty-two, he assumed his own traditional responsibilities. He established his first monastic project, called Sherab Ling, at the request of his Tibetan followers who had settled in northern India.

In 1980, Kenting Tai Situpa made his first tour to European countries. Since then, he has traveled widely in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia lecturing on Buddhist philosophy and meditation. He founded Maitreya Institute in 1984 in response to Western interest in multicultural activity and spirituality. Tai Situpa visited his homeland, Tibet, in 1984, for the first time since fleeing the communist invasion. During his visit, he ordained more than 2,000 men and women and presented to the Chinese authorities a plan for the rebuilding, preservation, and propagation of the Tibetan Buddhist culture.

His Holiness was instrumental in the identification and enthronement of His Holiness Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the Seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu Lineage. The 12th Kenting Tai Situpa continues his role as a traditional Buddhist teacher and is renowned for his activities as a scholar, poet, artist, and architect, and his teachings on the meditation tradition of Mahāmudrā. He speaks fluent English and remains deeply involved in the advancement of interfaith and intercultural humanitarian efforts around the world. (Adapted from here.)

For further information about the Tai Situpa lineage see the biographies at The Treasury of Lives.

For details about HH Tai Situpa’s US tour, click HERE.

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