Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi at Kopan Monastery, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi is abbot of Kopan Monastery and Kopan Nunnery, the FPMT monastic institutions in Kathmandu, Nepal, and resident geshe at Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC), the FPMT center in Singapore. This story is based on the July 2020 video “The Story of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi and the History of Kopan Monastery,” in which Khen Rinpoche shares his experiences from when he was a boy in the Solu Khumbu District of Nepal to being a monk at Kopan in the 1970s to becoming the abbot of Kopan Monastery.

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi was born in Solu Khumbu District, Nepal, in 1962, and was ordained by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the age of twelve on Tibetan New Year.

His father, a carpenter, had developed a wish for one of his sons to become a monk after visiting Lawudo Gompa in Solu Khumbu—where Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s previous incarnation had meditated and where Rinpoche had established a monastery school called the Mount Everest Centre for Buddhist Studies in 1971—and seeing the little monks there. Lama Thubten Yeshe and Max Mathews (known as Mummy Max) visited their village in 1974, looking for young boys to join the Mount Everest Centre, which eventually moved year round to Kopan Monastery.

Khen Rinpoche’s father set out to meet Lama Yeshe, bringing along only Khen Rinpoche’s younger brother. But then before reaching Lama Yeshe, as Khen Rinpoche recounts, his father thought that he had better bring Khen Rinpoche, too, reasoning that if Lama Yeshe doesn’t accept both of his sons, he will accept one son. So his father returned home to get Khen Rinpoche.

“My mother told me that at that time I was washing my feet,” Khen Rinpoche says. “I was so excited to see Lama Yeshe. So I just completed washing one leg and had no time to wash the other leg. [As I left to go meet Lama Yeshe] I was wearing one shoe on my foot and carrying one shoe in my hand and rushing.” Happily, Lama Yeshe accepted Khen Rinpoche.

Four or five years after he began his monastic studies, Khen Rinpoche’s older brother, who was living in Kathmandu, advised Khen Rinpoche to leave the monastery and go to a school, thinking his brother wasn’t really studying at the monastery. When Khen Rinpoche consulted Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, who was overseeing monastic education at Kopan, Khensur Rinpoche said, “If you go to a school what can you achieve? Just the basic knowledge, not much more than that. But then you are also creating so much negative karma in your life. So even if you don’t learn much, it is better to stay in the monastery. In this way every day you can collect merit all the time.”

Many teachers from Sera Je Monastery in South India, such as Geshe Doga and Geshe Jampa Gyatso, came to visit Kopan Monastery and teach philosophy. Scholastic monks from Sera Je Monastery also would sometimes stay at Kopan while on pilgrimage in Kathmandu. “Then we had to debate with them,” Khen Rinpoche explains. “Most of us were not good in debate at that time, so we were very nervous to debate with them. … I noticed that whatever questions were asked to the monks from Sera, they answered very well.” This inspired Khen Rinpoche to want to know everything about Buddhist philosophy.

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi with Kopan monastics celebrating his birthday at Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In 1980, Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, Lama Yeshe, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche decided to send twelve Kopan monks to Sera Je Monastery to study. Lama Yeshe and Khensur Rinpoche asked Khen Rinpoche if he would want to go to Sera, which he did.

Khensur Rinpoche then accompanied the group of Kopan monks to Sera Je Monastery and stayed with them for the first month. Feeling discouraged after the first month, Khen Rinpoche told Khensur Rinpoche that he didn’t understand anything and wanted to return to Kopan. Khensur Rinpoche said, “One month is too short. So you must stay longer and try.”

Three or four months later, still feeling discouraged, Khen Rinpoche thought to return to Kopan. “But,” he said, “I didn’t have contact with my parents or my brother. At the same time I didn’t have money. So I couldn’t go back because there was no money for me to go back.”

After one year things improved. He understood more of what was being taught so he could debate with others. And Merry Colony, a long-time FPMT American student, began helping him at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Merry sponsored Khen Rinpoche until he graduated, about twenty years. He said, “Because of her support, I had a deep interest to study. Because of that, I was able to complete my studies.”

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi and Lama Zopa Rinpoche celebrating Khen Rinpoche’s birthday at Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, July 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Khen Rinpoche received the geshe lamrampa degree in 1997 and then completed a year of study at Gyudmed Tantric College. After he completed his studies, his mother told him a story he had never heard before.

When he was three years old, she and his father decided to go to India and leave Khen Rinpoche with his grandparents in Nepal. One week after leaving Khen Rinpoche with his grandparents, she had a dream that he was requesting to her, “Please don’t go.” Feeling uneasy and worried something might happen to him if she went to India, she set out the next morning to bring him home. His father, unhappy, went to India alone. Shortly afterwards Khen Rinpoche became very sick. If she had gone to India, she told him, then he probably would have died.

He says, “When I heard that, it really touched my heart and tears came to my eyes. If my mother didn’t protect me at that time, then there’s no way I can study, no way I can graduate, no way I can teach.”

After completing his studies Khen Rinpoche taught philosophy to the young monks at Kopan for nine or ten months. Then Lama Zopa Rinpoche decided to send Khen Rinpoche to teach at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, the FPMT center in Singapore, and the center invited him.

When he went to Singapore in October 1999 he thought he would just try it for one year, but has now been there twenty-one years. After Khen Rinpoche began to teach the FPMT Basic Program at ABC at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s request, Khen Rinpoche says, “Many people showed a big interest, especially the senior students. All of them came to the class. At the same time, I saw that people were very interested in learning Buddhist philosophy. They had very busy lives. They were at their jobs from morning until evening. Then they would have a quick dinner and come to class from 7:30-9:30 p.m. twice per week. When I saw that, it really encouraged me to teach more and share with them what I learned.”

About Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s visit to ABC in 2019, Khen Rinpoche says, “Rinpoche expressed that he was extremely happy about the center. He said that his wish is fulfilled. When Rinpoche expressed his happiness it really touched my heart. I am able to make a little contribution to fulfill Rinpoche’s wishes.”

In 2011, when Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup’s sickness got worse, Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked Khen Rinpoche to become abbot of Kopan. He advised Khen Rinpoche to spend eight months each year teaching at ABC and four months looking after Kopan.

“Who I am now is truly due to the kindness of the teacher, the gurus who teach me, who guide me, who show me the true path,” Khen Rinpoche says. “The best way to repay the guru’s kindness is to follow the guru’s advice as much as possible and fulfill the guru’s wishes. This way we make our lives meaningful.”

Watch “The Story of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi and the History of Kopan Monastery” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/-4GMJ-68xI8

You can find more information about Kopan Monastery and Kopan Nunnery online.

For information about Amitabha Buddhist Centre, please visit their website.