Holders of the Jonang Lineage

His Eminence Choekyi Nangpa Rinpoche has resided in India since 1993. He received numerous empowerments and transmissions from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, including the Hundred Guidance Instructions on the Kālacakra. In 1998, His Holiness appointed him Abbot of Jonang Monastery in Shimla. He also serves as Dorje Lopön (Vajra Master / Vajrācārya) for the monastery.

In 2014, he was appointed Jonang Gyaltsab Rinpoche, serving as the lineage representative in exile. Tulku Choekyi Nangpa Rinpoche holds the complete Jonang transmission lineages, with particular focus on the Kālacakra Tantra and its meditational deity cycles.

Rinpoche was entrusted with transmitting the lineage teachings by His Eminence Vajradhara (Dorje Chang) Ngawang Yonten Sangpo, his root guru. He instructs monks in Shimla according to classical Jonang tradition, directs retreatants of the Kālacakra Meditation Institute in the Six-fold Vajrayoga, and regularly travels to teach students across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

Geshe Kunga Rinchen, the second abbot of Jonang Monastery in Shimla, India, was born in 1971 in the Ngawa region of Amdo. In 1985, he took monastic vows under Lama Kunga Thukje Palsangpo at Se Gönchen Monastery. He completed three years of intensive practice in the Six Yogas of the Kālacakra Tantra, followed by two years of solitary retreat focusing on Chöd and related meditative cycles.

In 1989, he received full monk ordination in the transmission lineage of Jetsun Tāranātha from Khar Sherab Choephel. That year, he also undertook ascetic retreat across one hundred charnel grounds (dur khrod) with Wugye Tulku Tenkho and Lama Kunga Loden.

In June 1990, Geshe Kunga Rinchen arrived in India. He completed a seventeen-year curriculum of dialectical study in the Collected Topics (Bsdus grwa) and the Five Great Treatises under former Drepung Gomang abbot Tsultrim Phentsok and other scholars. In 2007, he was awarded the Geshe Kachu (Master of the Ten Treatises) degree at Drepung Gomang Monastery.

Geshe Kunga Tsamchung was born on April 1, 1978, in the Ngawa region of Tibet. In 1985, at the age of eight, he entered Se Monastery Thupten Shedrup Namgyal Ling, where he trained in Kālacakra ritual liturgy and ceremonial arts under Gen Jangchup. He later took monastic vows in the presence of the reincarnated Khar Sherab Choephel.

In August 1992, Vajra Master Kunga Thukje Palsangpo imparted full transmission and guidance on the Kālacakra. Under the same master, Geshe Kunga Tsamchung practiced the Six Yogas of the Kālacakra completion stage for three years, receiving detailed instructions on tantric liturgies and commentary manuals, including Tāranātha's Mthong ba don ldan (མཐོང་བ་དོན་ལྡན།) and Sgom rim. He received numerous empowerments, reading transmissions, and pith instructions (upadeśa) of the Jonang lineage.

At age nineteen, he joined Amchok Tsannyin Monastery to study classical Buddhist philosophy under the guidance of the abbot emeritus. At twenty, he took full monastic vows before Lama Kunga Thukje Pal. In 1997, Geshe Kunga Tsamchung traveled to India, receiving the blessings and spiritual guidance of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, and subsequently served as the third abbot of Jonang Monastery in Shimla from 2014 to 2019.

Khentrul Kyabje Kunga Choephel Rinpoche was born in 1983. At the age of eight, he was recognized as the reincarnation of Drokge Lama Jamyang Khyenrab Gyatso, beginning his formal training at Jonang Drokge Monastery.

For three years, Rinpoche practiced the Six-fold Vajrayoga of the Noble Kālacakra under the great Vajra Master Kunga Thukje Pal of Se Gönchen Monastery, receiving the full cycle of Jonang empowerments, textual transmissions, and experiential instructions. He subsequently undertook intensive Chöd practice, meditating in solitary charnel grounds and the sacred hundred springs of Muktinath.

In 1997, Rinpoche met His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, receiving teachings across the Rimé (non-sectarian) traditions. He entered Palden Drepung Gomang Monastic College to advance his philosophical studies. During this period, His Holiness the 9th Khalkha Jetsun Dampa Rinpoche formally recognized and enthroned him as the reincarnation of Drokge Lama Jamyang Khyenrab Gyatso. Rinpoche completed the entire academic curriculum at Gomang College, attaining the title of Geshe.

Following years of teaching at the Jonang Main Monastery in Shimla, Rinpoche traveled to Mongolia at the request of the 9th Khalkha Jetsun Dampa. In 2014, he founded two monasteries and Dharma centers in Mongolia: Jonang Takten Chöphel Ling and Jonang Takten Machik Kachö Ling, establishing regular cycles of Kālacakra practice, foundational preliminaries, Lamrim, and Chöd. Since 2019, by appointment of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Rinpoche serves as the 4th Abbot of Main Jonang Takten Phuntsok Choeling in Shimla.

Lama Yonten Gyamtso was born in 1966 into a rural family in Ngawa. He memorized root tantric treatises and liturgical manuals, successfully completing formal examinations at Se Gönchen Monastery. There, he studied the minor and major sciences under Vajradhara Kunga Thukje Pal. After passing his examinations on the Kālacakra Tantra, he entered the traditional three-year contemplative retreat.

Subsequently, he traveled to Lhasa for extended retreats, meditating in historic caves and secluded hermitages. He dedicated a decade to mastering Buddhist epistemology (Pramāṇa) and Middle Way philosophy. He taught philosophy for one year and conducted instructional classes in the Kālacakra ritual arts department for four years.

In late 1996, Lama Yonten Gyamtso arrived in India, studying Buddhist philosophy at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala before joining the core monastic assembly at Jonang Takten Phuntsok Choeling in Shimla. He now teaches internationally, with regular practice programs and centers in Russia and Europe.

Lama Aku Kunga was born in April 1948 in the Amdo region of Tibet. In his youth, he entered Se Gönchen Monastery as an ordained monk.

He spent more than three years studying the history, cosmology, and completion-stage yogas (Jordruk / Sbyor drug) of the Kālacakra under Kunga Gyaltsen. He also received classical Tibetan grammar education from scholar Muge Samten. Lama Aku Kunga studied sūtra and tantra with masters including Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. In India, he was a close disciple of the 9th Khalkha Jetsun Dampa Khutuktu, focusing on Chöd and tantric ritual practices.