Jigme Phuntsok

Who was Jigme Phuntsok?

Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok was a Nyingma lama from Golog. His family were nomads. At the age of two he was identified as the reincarnation of the Terton Sogyal, Lerab Lingpa. He studied Dzogchen at Nubzor Monastery, received novice ordination at 14, and full ordination at 22.

Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok was the most influential lama of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary Tibet. A Tibetan Buddhist meditation master and renowned teacher of Great Perfection, he established the Serthar Buddhist Institute in 1980, known locally as Larung Gar, a non-sectarian study center with approximately 10,000 monks, nuns, and lay students at its highest count. He played an important role in revitalizing the teaching of Tibetan Buddhism following the liberalization of religious practice in 1980.

Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok was also an extraordinary Terton, uncovering many treasures texts in Tibet, as well as other parts of China, and India. In the 1990s, he began an appeal to traditional Tibetan yak herders to refrain from commercial sale of their livestock for spiritual and cultural reasons that has grown into the Anti-Slaughter Movement.