Penor Rinpoche passes awayPosted on Wednesday,
2 April, 2009 - His Holiness Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche, 77, one of the most profound Buddhist spiritual teachers, passed away on March 27 in India following a chronic illness. Rinpoche was the third Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche, the eleventh throne-holder of the Palyul lineage and a former supreme head of the Nyingma school in Mysore, India. He was born in 1932 in the Powo region of Kham in Tibet.
Ugyen Wangchuk, a Bhutanese monk in Mysore, via a telephone interview, said that all the trulkus, khenpos and sangha of Namdroling monastery were mourning the loss of a great teacher, who guided and nurtured all monks like his own children.
He said that, at present, Rinpoche’s body was in a meditative state and might be displayed for public blessing on the 10th and 15th day of the 2nd month in the lunar calendar. He also said that his followers worldwide are performing prayers. Rinpoche has thousands of devotees in India, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and in the west.
Before Rinpoche’s demise, Bhutan’s Ambassador to India, V Namgyal, represented His Majesty the King, the government and the people of Bhutan at a special prayer ceremony on March 21. Ugyen Wangchuk added that the devotees had actually arranged the ceremonial prayer for Rinpoche’s long life.
The gathering at Sogyal Rinpoche’s teaching in Thimphu on March 28 also dedicated a moment of thought for late Penor Rinpoche. Meanwhile, special prayer ceremonies are being conducted across Bhutan.
The prime minister, Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley, told media that Bhutan would always remember Penor Rinpoche as a great master and teacher. He said that Rinpoche had made special contributions to the promotion and advancement of Buddhadharma in Bhutan.