My Father’s Side
Dear friends around the world,
I’m always asked where I come from and how I came to be a Buddhist monk. While I have blogged some articles about my life, ranging from my childhood until where I am today, I have not really written much about the heritage stemming from my biological parents. From a very young age in America, I was brought up to think that I was purely Kalmyk Mongol. I didn’t get to know that I was also Tibetan until I was much older. I am proud of both my Mongol and Tibetan heritages when I finally found out of which both places are now in China. So connections to China are strong due to my heritage. I would very much like to explore my heritage, China and all that comes with it for personal growth, understanding and to know who I am. Nothing more and nothing less. I am connected to China and I am happy for it as I have admired the greatness of Chinese culture for decades.
My mother was the Mongolian Princess Dewa Nimbo, from Xinjiang, while my father was an ex-monk from Golok in Amdo, Tibet and was a disciple of His Holiness the 10th Panchen Lama. Both of these places have their own unique environment, people, languages, cultures and way of life, and are both now part of the People’s Republic of China. Since that is the case, that makes me Chinese, through biological heritage. I wanted to share with all of you some information about these two places, because not many people around the world know about Xinjiang and Golok. I hope you enjoy reading some quick facts about two lands and the two peoples that I descend from.
I do thank Buddhist Pastor David Lai for his research, work and writing of this post. It will go a long way to solve the ‘mystery’ that is Tsem Rinpoche’s ancestry. I also thank Buddhist Pastor Niral Patel for the editing.
I do hope very much to visit Xianjiang as the landscape is spectacular. I am very attracted to the landscape of mountains, blue lakes, forests and meadows. I would love to sit by one the turquoise lakes and do pujas.
Tsem Rinpoche
Father’s side
Golok, Amdo, Tibet Autonomous Region, China
His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche’s father Lobsang Gyatso (right) from Golok in Amdo, Tibet, together with his guru, the omniscient His Holiness the 10th Panchen Lama.
Rinpoche’s father Lobsang Gyatso is from Golok. The Golok Tibet Autonomous Prefecture is part of, what is today, the southeastern Qinghai province. To the Tibetans, much of Qinghai is in Amdo, one of the largest traditional regions of Tibet.
Amdo is the ancestral home of many important Tibetan Buddhist lamas and scholars that shaped the political and religious development in Tibet like His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, His Holiness the 10th Panchen Lama, and the great reformer and founder of the Gelug lineage, Lama Je Tsongkhapa. In Golok Prefecture of Amdo, over 90 percent of the 125,000 people who live there are of Tibetan ethnicity. A great majority of the people of Golok live a nomadic lifestyle with many still living in traditional Tibetan tents.
Tsem Rinpoche’s father, Lobsang Gyatso as a young man.
Over 8 million ethnic Tibetan people speak the Tibetan language and its dialects. Tibetans traditionally inhabit a wide area of the eastern region of Central Asia, bordering the Indian subcontinent. This area stretched from the Tibetan Plateau all the way down south, to northern parts of the Indian subcontinent such as Baltistan, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan. The Central Tibetan language (the dialects of U-Tsang, including the Lhasa dialect), Kham Tibetan, and Amdo Tibetan are all Tibetan dialects which share a similar literary language. Tibetans generally identify themselves as followers of Tibetan Buddhism or a native animist tradition known as Bon. On the other hand, there is also a minority population of Tibetan Muslims, and a smaller population of Tibetan Christians in eastern Tibet and northwestern Yunnan, China.
Tibetan cooking reflects the people’s religious dietary restrictions and adaptation to high altitudes. In Tibet, the most important crop to be cultivated is barley. The dough made from barley flour, called tsampa, is the staple food of Tibetans. This is either rolled into noodles, or made into steamed dumplings called momos. Meat dishes are likely to be yak, goat, or mutton, often dried, or cooked into a spicy stew with potatoes. Mustard seed is also cultivated in Tibet, and therefore features heavily in its cuisine. Yak yogurt, butter and cheese are frequently consumed, and yak yogurt is considered a privileged food.
Most parts of Golok are around 4,000 meters or 13,120 feet above sea level and that is why the summers are short, and winters are long and cold. Golok is famous across the Tibetan cultural sphere as the home of Amnye Machen, one of the four holy mountains of Tibet. The Amnye Machen peak rises 6,282 meters or 20,605 feet and is the highest mountain in Amdo. Each year, the Amnye Machen peak draws thousands of pilgrims who circumambulate around the mountain, as part of their religious practice. The circumambulation circuit around the sacred peak takes around seven days.
There is another famous and holy mountain in Golok, known as Nyenbo Yurtse. The sacred Nyenbo Yurtse is situated in the remote eastern corner of Golok prefecture and is stands at 5,369 meters or 17,611 feet tall. This mountain receives very little visitors, such as foreign trekkers, but is one of the most beautiful places in all of the northern Tibetan Plateau. At the base of the mountain, there is a deep fresh-water lake, and several regional tributaries feed this beautiful lake. The Golok prefecture is filled with grasslands, valleys, rivers and lakes. The famous Yellow River flows through Golok prefecture while carving a spectacular and awe-inspiring canyon in its wake.
Many of the descendants of Rinpoche’s paternal family currently live in Aba, which is the neighbouring land of their ancestral homeland, Golok. Aba, which is also known as Ngaba (as in the map below) or Ngawa County is part of Sichuan Province in China, while Golok itself is part of Qinghai province. Nevertheless, Aba is located in the remote northwestern part of the prefecture, on the border with Qinghai and Gansu. Aba has 70,000 inhabitants, about 8,000 of them Tibetan monks. The major city of the county, known as Aba City, has about 20,000 people. There are 37 monasteries in the area, two of the largest are in Aba City itself. To the south of the city it is mainly grasslands and forested valleys.
His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche’s paternal family. From left to right: half-sister, half-brother, father (Lobsang Gyatso), niece, and half-brother.
A map showing Golok, in Amdo Prefecture
Traditional Tibetan tents found in Golok
Amnye Machen in Golok is one of the four main holy mountains of Tibet
The area around Mt Nyenbo Yurtse, Golok, is excellent for hiking
A deep fresh water lake sits at the base of Mt Nyenbo Yurtse, Golok
The Yellow River flows throughout Golok prefecture creating awesome canyons
Aba, Sichuan
Aba, Sichuan
Aba, Sichuan
Aba, Sichuan
Kirti Gompa, or Gerdeng Monastery, is a Gelugpa monastery on the northwestern edge of the town in Aba, Sichuan
Aba, Sichuan
Aba, Sichuan
Aba, Sichuan
For more interesting information:
- H.E. the 25th Tsem Tulku Rinpoche’s Biography
- The Mala
- I Like This Picture of My Mother
- My Short Bio in pictures
- Sonia, Sara and me
- My Great Aunt the Princess
- My Father’s gift of Vajra Yogini
- My Royal Great Aunt
- This Is Me in Hollywood in the 80s
- The Promise – Tsem Rinpoche’s inspiring biography now in ebook format!
- My Previous incarnation
- Tsem Rinpoche’s heritage in China
- Tsem Rinpoche’s Torghut Ancestry | 詹杜固仁波切的土尔扈特血统
- My Childhood in Taiwan…Revisiting…
- My Short Bio in Pictures
- It Wasn’t Easy in New Jersey, but My Cousins/Aunts Helped…
- Fotomat and Me | 我和Fotomat
- Tsem Rinpoche in an American ‘Tantric Dress’!!!
- Kyabje Zong Rinpoche Cuts My Hair
- I’m Requesting Ordination in 1987
- Why I Conceived of Kechara Soup Kitchen or KSK
- How Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen changed my life
- The Cowshed That Was My Home in Gaden
- Kyabje Zong Rinpoche with Lama Yeshe and Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen
- Dharma Work, Attitude & TDL | 佛法工作、态度及图登达杰林佛法中心
- Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen’s special thangka | 属于格西簇亲格而辛的非凡唐卡
- My Precious Kyabje Zong Rinpoche statue
- His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche’s Precious Teaching Collection
- Short sharing about Kyabje Zong Rinpoche | 关于嘉杰宋仁波切的简短分享 | ༧སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ཟོང་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་གི་སྐོར་བགོ་འགྲེམས་མདོར་བསྡུས།
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Thank you for sharing your family stories with us Rinpoche. It feels like you are taking us along to discover the family background and beautiful hometown of you. Now I know Golok more, and I did some research about Nyenbo Yurtse too. All the videos and pictures show the sacredness of this mountain.
Rinpoche built Kechara, its a remarkable achievements because it has benefits sentient beings. When I noticed his father built Zi Lang Monastery in Aba, I have more understanding about karma and reincarnation. Rinpoche had childhood trauma, but his background has always related to Buddhism, they are connected for many lives time.
Its good to know our family ‘s ancestry . After a long search finally Rinpoche found all about Rinpoche’s ancestry and all the mysteries solved . The truth is always the truth, Rinpoche ‘s mother was the Mongolian Princess Dewa Nimbo from Xinjiang, and Rinpoche’s father was an ex-monk from Golok. Rinpoche is a Tibetan and not Kalmyk Mongol as thought all this while when he is much younger . Rinpoche’s paternal family currently live in Aba. Wow… Tsem Rinpoche’s father even built Zi Lang Monastery in Aba Sichuan. Both Golok and Xinjiang Tibetan people live in some of the wildest and most magnificent lands. These places of stunning and timeless beauty is increasingly attracting visitors for its extraordinary natural beauty, traditional nomadic culture and fascinating history. A journey into some of the most sublime landscapes on earth for anyone to visit. Looking at those beautiful pictures tell all simple amazing. I hope I could visit some day see the beauty of Xinjiang and Golok.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.