Our Lineage

Our Practice Tradition: The Karma Kagyu & Shangpa Kagyu Lineages

Dekeling’s stream of teaching is in the Karma Kagyu and Shangpa Kagyu traditions.

The Karma Kagyu lineage descends from the translator Marpa, the yogi Milarepa, and the first Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa.

The Shangpa Kagyu was founded in the 11th century by Khyungpo Naljor, who studied in India with many great masters, including the female adepts Niguma and Sukhasiddhi. Known for its rare and potent teachings, the Shangpa lineage has been carefully preserved and practiced to this day.

By the mid 1800s, the teachings of the Shangpa Kagyu were not unified as one tradition but were held in disparate areas by various lineages across Tibet. Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye gathered them again, and the latter secured them for posterity by including the linages’ empowerments, textual transmission, and practice texts in one of Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye’s Five Great Treasuries.

He professed that the Shangpa Kagyu teachings were especially profound for three reasons: 1) All of the lineage holders have been highly-realized bodhisattvas; 2) The key instructions—the very words of Niguma herself—have not been diluted; and 3) The blessings of the lineage remain potent.

Our lineage guides

  • Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche (1905 - 1989)

    A master of meditation and long retreat, Kalu Rinpoche completed a Shangpa Kagyu 3-year retreat in while in residence at Palpung Monastery in Tibet. When he was 25, he left the monastery and entered into a 12-year solitary retreat, later coming out to become the retreat master for the Karma Kagyu and Shangpa Kagyu centers at the request of  Situ Pema Wangchok, who requestd he become the retreat master long retreats. In 1951 he immigrated to West Bengal, India, and eventually built Samdrup Dargye Ling Monastery in Sonada, and took up permanent residence. In later years he traveled widely, establishing dharma centers and retreat facilities across the world, introducing many Western students to Tibetan Buddhist practice.

  • Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche (1940–2004)

    Kalu Rinpoche’s principal student, Bokar Rinpoche Chokyi Lodrö, was born in Tibet in 1940, but like many Tibetans, fled to India. He was 19. In India, he became the student of Kalu Rinpoche and completed both Shangpa and Karma Kagyu long retreats under his guidance. Later, Bokar Rinpoche served as the Retreat Master at Kalu Rinpoche’s monastery in India. In 1984, Bokar Rinpoche founded Bokar Monastery in Mirik, India, and in 1992, created the Mahamudra Program—a well-known progressive path of meditation practice designed for non-Tibetan students worldwide. Bokar Rinpoche passed away in 2004. He was beloved worldwide for his clarity, warmth, and depth of realization.

  • Khenchen Lodrö Donyö Rinpoche

    Khenchen Rinpoche was born in the Ngari region of Western Tibet in 1943. At the age of nine he entered Bokar Monastery and began his education under the direct guidance of Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche. In 1959, he accompanied Bokar Rinpoche to India and entered a boarding school in Darjeeling to continue his studies. Wishing to pursue higher education, in 1966, he left for The Central Institute for Tibetan Studies in Varanasi where he completed his higher studies and received the āchārya degree.

    In 1976, he was granted the title and certification of khenpo. From that time forward, Rinpoche has acted as the abbot (khenpo) of Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche’s monastery in Sonada. When Bokar Rinpoche passed in 2004, Khenchen Rinpoche has assumed Bokar Monastery’s primary leadership role.