KHEN RINPOCHE GESHE NYIMA TAMANG

About Ven. Nyima Norbu Thokar (Khen Rinpoche)

Ven. Nyima Norbu Thokar (Khen Rinpoche) is a Buddhist monk and founder and director of the Tamang Lungtog Thegchen Choekhorling Monastery, situated in Mahankal Rural Municipality-4, Kaleshwor, Batase, Lalitpur, Nepal

A senior monk at the Tamang Lungtog Thegchen Choekhorling Monastery much of Khen Rinpoche’s focus revolves around the day-to-day administration of his monastery in Lalitpur, Nepal, as well as teaching Buddhist Philosophy and the Tibetan language to his monks.

Khen Rinpoche is the title given by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to a monk who is an abbot of a Buddhist Monastery.

After completing his studies at Gaden Jangste Norling College in Mundgod in Southern India, Khen Rinpoche returned to his home country of Nepal to teach and provide spiritual guidance to the Buddhist community.

He is an important spiritual leader and teacher for nearly 3 million Tamang people in Nepal and abroad. As the only Khen Rinpoche in Nepal for his people his duties take him to many districts in Nepal as well as abroad. These duties include teaching Buddhist philosophy in the villages as well as providing spiritual guidance.

As founder and chairman of the Tamang Buddhist Federation Nepal, Khen Rinpoche is active in promoting Buddhism throughout Nepal, particularly in the Tamang community.

He is also active in preserving and promoting the Tamang culture and improving the social and spiritual well-being of the Tamang people. He has shown a leadership role in developing and promoting a written language for the Tamang people who, up to now, have had no written script. He speaks fluent Tamang and teaches the mother tongue to those Tamang teachers who wish to learn and teach their own students, as well as communicating with his people in their mother tongue.

He is also concerned about the lack of opportunities for many young people in the more remote areas of Nepal, particularly for the Tamang community. As treasurer of the NIFON Foundation of Nepal he has been very active in providing and promoting educational opportunities through the Foundation’s scholarship fund.