The Dezhung incarnation line began with the Second Dezhung, Lungrik Nyima, who was considered a reincarnation of a lama named Jamyang Tenzin, or possibly Jamyang Nyima. The line was based at Dezhung Monastery in Kham, although the Third Dezhung Rinpoche, Kunga Tenpai Nyima, was primarily eucated at Tarlam Monastery. He taught at the University of Washington for many years, training some of North America's best scholars of Tibet. In some sources Lungrik Nyima is enumerated as the first of the line and Kunga Tenpai Nyima is the second.
Biographies
Dezhung Lungrik Nyima
b.1840 - d.1898
The Third Dezhung, Kunga Tenpai Nyima
b.1906 - d.1987
Dezhung Rinpoche is considered one of the most highly learned Tibetan lamas of his generation. He was knowledgeable in doctrine and history, and taught both extensively, most famously at the University of Washington in Seattle. Trained in pre-Communist Tibet, he moved almost constantly among monasteries to receive teachings from multiple traditions, mainly in the Sakya. His incarnation line's seat was in Litang, but trained primarily in the Jyekundo and Derge regions. Chief among his many teachers was Gaton Ngawang Lekpa. In the 1950s his niece Jamyang Dagmola married Dagchen Rinpoche and together they settled in Seattle in the early 1960s. Among his many American students were Gene Smith, David Jackson, Janet Gyatso, Elisabeth Benard, and Cyrus Stearns. After retiring from the University he taught at dharma centers across North America. At the end of his life he reestablished one of his monastic seats, Tharlam Monastery, in Boudanath, Kathmandu, where he passed away in May 1987.
