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Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Delek was born in Kham, eastern Tibet, in 1939. At age seven, Rinpoche joined the local monastery in Karze, Tibet and became a novice monk, where he received initial education in Tibetan language, formal training in prayer rituals, and later on, higher Buddhist texts. At age seventeen, Rinpoche went to Lhasa to pursue higher studies in Buddhist philosophy at the great Sera Jey Monastery.
In 1959 Khen Rinpoche followed His Holiness the Dalai Lama into exile and took refuge in India. Once in India, Khen Rinpoche and others continued their studies at Buxa Duar, East Bengal, in an abandoned prison camp used during the British Raj period that was made available by the Indian government and which the monks turned into a makeshift monastery.
In 1968 Khen Rinpoche took full ordination with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. In the early 1970s, Khen Rinpoche and the other monks at Buxa moved to South India, near Mysore, to re-establish Sera Jey Monastery at Bylakuppe. The monks interrupted their studies and worked for many years to clear the land, work the fields and rebuild Sera Jey Monastery by hand.
In 1982 Khen Rinpoche graduated as a geshe lharampa, the highest geshe degree possible. From that time, he has devoted himself to teaching the dharma and to leadership roles within the monastic systems, being appointed to the most senior positions:
- In 2002, His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed him Lama Oze, the second highest position at Gyumed Tantric College, a monastery associated with Sera Jey where monks do further studies in the rich and indispensable tantric tradition. In 2005 he became abbot there, serving a three-year tenure.
- In 2011, Khen Rinpoche was appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as abbot of Sed-Gyued Monastic Institute of Buddhist Studies in West Bengal.
- In May 2012, he was enthroned as the abbot of Sera Jey Monastery, the monastery of our dear Geshe Tenley.
His successive appointment to eminent positions has a very special significance within the monastic tradition.
Khen Rinpoche possesses a vast knowledge and understanding of the sutras and tantras, has practiced with great diligence throughout life, and manifests with a simple, kind demeanor.
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