Ngawang Gelek Namgyal, more well-known as Kyabje Sey Rinpoche, was born in 1963 as the son of the great enlightened yogi Kyabje Apho Rinpoche. Thus, His Eminence is the Third Lineage Holder of Togden Drubwang Dugu Shakya Shri, in both the spiritual and familial sense.

Drubwang Shakya Shri (1853-1919) was a great enlightened yogi and Terton of the 19th century. He was a great Master of the Drukpa Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and of the Rime Movement, amazingly accomplished in both Mahamudra and Dzogchen which he combined harmoniously.

Sey Rinpoche was recognized as the reincarnation of one of the heart students of Shakya Shri, the Ladakhi Tripon Pema Choegyal (1876-1958).

Tripon Pema Choegyal was a great tantric practitioner who also came to be recognized as the emanation of Gyalwa Gotsangpa 1189-1258 (alias Gotsang Gonpo Dorje, one of the greatest yogis of Tibet) by the Eleventh Gyalwang Drukpa, the Supreme Head of the Drukpa Lineage.

Tripon Pema Choegyal was born in a small village of Chamtrel, in the western Himalayan region of Ladakh. At the age of 19, around 1894, he traveled on foot from Ladakh all the way to Eastern Tibet to receive extensive teachings from the Mahasiddha of the Drukpa Lineage, Tokden Shakya Shri. He devoted the rest of his life to retreat and teaching. Shakya Shri appointed him the holder of his transmissions, naming him “Tripon” (literally Throne Holder) Pema Choegyal.

Tripon Pema Choegyal later founded retreat centers in Tibet and Ladakh. Some of the well-known retreat centers he founded or took the direction of, in Tibet, were Sangag Choeling Retreat center, Jarkyi Phukdrup, Dechen Choekhor, Upper and Lower Drupdhey Cheys, etc.

Among his close disciples were very eminent Drukpa Masters, such as the Eleventh Gyalwang Drukpa, Yeshe Gyatso (also known as Tenzin Khyenrab), Shri Sendrak Rinpoche, the Tokden Shakya Shri’s Grandsons Kyabje Thuksey Rinpoche and Yeshe Rangdrol, known as Apho Rinpoche, the very father of HE Sey Rinpoche, etc.

Sey Rinpoche, reincarnation of Tripon Pema Choegyal, (the very root Guru of his father) was born in the retreat centre of Taktsey in Sikkim, Northern India, in 1963, where his father, the yogi Apho Rinpoche had settled with his family after a most difficult journey out of Tibet.

On hearing about the birth of this son of Apho Rinpoche, the great Master and Regent of the Drukpa Lineage, Thuksey Rinpoche -also cousin of Apho Rinpoche- journeyed from Darjeeling to Sikkim to see the baby, traveling together with Khenpo Noryang, the Abbot of the Drukpa Lineage monastic eat at Darjeeling. They bestowed the vows of Genyen to the boy, naming him Ngawang Gelek Namgyal. To ward off obstacles to his life, they also bestowed him a Chod (“Cutting Through”) empowerment.

When Sey Rinpoche was aged two, the followers of Shakya Shri’s teachings in the western Indian Himalayas of Ladakh, Zanskar and Lahoul, hearing about the presence of the spiritual and familial descendant of Drubwang Shakya Shri in India, invited Apho Rinpoche to live in their regions and give extensive guidance and teachings. So the family departed from Sikkim to join the Western Himalayas.

Around that time, Kybaje Takna Rinpoche and other followers of Tripon Pema Choegyal in India requested His Holiness the late Dudjom Rinpoche (then Head of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism) for a divination to determine the whereabouts of their Guru’s reincarnation. His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche replied in a letter saying that the young son of Apho Rinpoche was the reincarnation, and that he would be able to do great service to the cause of the holy Dharma if they performed certain rituals of the Three Roots (Gurus, Yidam, Dakinis). His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche’s divination was confirmed when the child, on seeing a painting of Mount Meru and Four Continents done by his previous incarnation, in the care of an attendant, Choydhen, said that it belonged to him and demanded it be handed back. Choydhen immediately informed all the disciples of Tripon Choegyal of this act.

In 1967, Sey Rinpoche was enthroned as the reincarnation of Tripon Pema Choegyal through an elaborate ceremony performed in Dalhousie, India. A year later. his father undertook to bestow to his “Very Precious Son” the complete teachings and empowerments of Tokeden Shakya Shri, which included transmissions of the Eighteen texts of Chibri, the Mahamudra Practice of Kunga Tenzin, Twenti Two Anujna, Thirteen Deities of Akshobya, Lhenchik Chakrasamvara, the extensive Vajra Yogini empowerment, the Six Buddhas Families, Kilaya, etc.

Apho Rinpoche and his family spent three years in Ladakh, during which Apho Rinpoche founded the three retreat centers of Gotsang and Kheypang. In 1968, they left to settle in Manali (in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh) and established his monastery there. While in Manali, the young Sey Rinpoche received the complete empowerment and teachings of all the Three Jewels and Three Roots (konchok Tsa Sum) from the 8th Kyabje Khamtrul Rinpoche.

In the early 1970’s, he traveled to Tashi Jong and received there the transmissions of the Whispered Treasures (Ngak Dzo) form H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. From him, he also received the vows of Upasaka, the vows of Bodhicitta in the two Chariot or systems of transmission as well as empowerment in the Secret Assembly of Dakinis, Chetsun Nyingthik, etc.

While in Tashi Jong, Khamtrul Rinpoche also bestowed on him the empowerments and teachings on Ling Re Guru Puja and the transmission of the Chakmey Richoe.

For more information about Kyabje Sey Rinpoche, please visit his official website: www.seyrinpoche.org