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25-604: This stupa is unlike others as it does not enshrine human remains. Only the Druk Gyalpo’s photo in a ceremonial dress adorns a hall in the ground floor.His mother Queen Ashi Phuentsho Choden Wangchuck built this in his memory. The Memorial Chorten of Thimphu was conceived by Thinley Norbu Rinpoche (1931–2011),according to the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism . It was erected in 1974 in memory of Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, 3rd Druk Gyalpo, who had died in 1972. The main patron

50-657: A number of years in New York City, Thinley Norbu sought out a quiet place for practice in the countryside on the east coast of the United States. After a long search, in 1991 he chose some land in the rolling hills of upstate New York and named it Kunzang Gatshal, Always Noble Joyful Park ( Tibetan : ཀུན་བཟང་དགའ་ཚལ། , Wylie : kun bzang dga' tshal ). For the next twenty years, Kunzang Gatshal served as Thinley Norbu's primary residence and focal point of dharma activity. He gave teachings to disciples on this land, and

75-490: A smaller golden spire above the front porch. It is approached through a small garden and a gate decorated with three slate carvings. On the exterior of the gate are representations of the three protective bodhisattvas – Avalokiteśvara (the symbol of compassion), Mañjuśrī (the symbol of knowledge) and Vajrapāṇi , the symbol of power. On the interior are slates engraved with the image of Ngawang Namgyal , Gautama Buddha and Padmasambhava . Large prayer wheels are located to

100-582: Is accessed from the second level and a protective railing covers the terrace on the third floor. The second floor is dedicated to teachings of the Drukpa Lineage of the Kagyu school to subdue eight varieties of evil spirits and the top floor is dedicated to the teachings of Lama Gongdü ( Wylie : bla ma dgongs 'dus ). Combined, these three floors form the esoteric teachings of the Nyingmapa sect. All of

125-638: Is circumambulated only in a clockwise direction (reciting prayers and whirling the large red prayer wheels), as is the rule for any religious structures in Bhutan. The Monlam Prayer Festival is held here when the Je Khenpo (the religious head of Bhutan) addresses and blesses those who congregate for the occasion. Thinley Norbu Rinpoche Kyabje Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche ( Tibetan : ཕྲིན་ལས་ནོར་བུ། , Wylie : phrin las nor bu , THL : Trinlé Norbu ; Chinese : 聽列諾布 ) (1931 – December 26, 2011)

150-416: Is distinct here is the outward flaring of the rounded part to give the shape of a vase (a pyramidal shape), unlike a dome shape. The chorten depicts larger than life size images of wrathful deities with their female consorts in large numbers, and many in explicit Yab-Yum sexual poses (one count puts the number of such images at 36). The chorten is a large white structure with a golden spire crowning it and

175-717: The East. In 1986, during a lull in Tibet-China relations, he went back to Tibet where he secretly gave many teachings to Tibetan disciples. He also frequently travelled to Pema Osel Ling, California, the center of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche . He helped with the final sculpting of the face of the Guru Rinpoche statue in Pema Osel Ling, and also gave many teachings there, including the full Dudjom Tersar empowerments during

200-689: The US in 2010. Thinley Norbu died in Palm Desert, California on December 26, 2011, which according to the Tibetan Buddhist Lunar Calendar is the 2nd day of the 11th month of the Iron Rabbit year. His body was transported to his temple at Kunzang Gatshal in upstate, New York where it stayed for several weeks before being flown to Paro, Bhutan and driven around the country so disciples could pay their respects. His cremation

225-523: The West he wrote a number of books, including many that were published posthumously: THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription The THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription of Standard Tibetan (or THL Phonetic Transcription for short) is a system for the phonetic rendering of the Tibetan language . It was created by David Germano and Nicolas Tournadre and was published on 12 December 2003. It

250-625: The chief architect of the Thimphu Memorial Chorten , built in 1974 under the guidance of his father, to honor the memory of the Third King of Bhutan, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (1928–72). Thinley Norbu first came to the United States of America in the 1970s to seek medical treatment, and then spent a number of years in Nepal before permanently settling in the US in the early 1980s. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, after spending

275-455: The chorten is consecrated to the teachings of Vajrakīlaya . It has four shrines, each with different pictures of the king; with the eastern shrine housing a Buddha image. From the ground floor, a staircase leads to two more floors and each floor has four shrines. A centrally placed large wooden carving covers all three levels, behind the shrines; a large number of wooden carvings mostly depict wrathful looking protective deities. The roof of chorten

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300-420: The left. The chorten attracts many elderly Bhutanese on a daily basis who circumambulate the chorten, whirl the large red prayer wheels and pray at the shrine. It has four entrances but only one entrance is open for devotees to visit the shrine. The chorten is decorated with richly carved annexes facing the four directions, and contain mandalas, statues and a shrine dedicated to the third king. The ground floor of

325-517: The students of White Lotus School, his sons Garab Dorje Rinpoche and Jampal Dorje Rinpoche , and other family members. Thinley Norbu's father was Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje (English: Fearless Wisdom Vajra) . His mother was Mayum Tseten Yudron (English: Turquoise Lamp of Firm Life). Thinley Norbu's parents had seven children: Semo Dechen Yudron ( Tibetan : སྲས་མོ་བདེ་ཆེན་གཡུ་སྒྲོན། English: Turquoise Radiance of Great Bliss.) Thinley Norbu ( Tibetan : ཕྲིན་ལས་ནོར་བུ། English: Jewel of Activity)

350-530: The summer of 1995. Most of his later years were spent at Kunzang Gatshal , giving spoken teachings and writing more than a dozen books, many of which were published posthumously, and several that still remain unpublished. Thinley Norbu's books have become quite popular in the west, but in contrast to many other Tibetan teachers he did not seek publicity or large numbers of students. In 2009, although in poor health, Thinley Norbu again travelled to Asia, spending several months in Nepal and Bhutan before returning to

375-483: The texts were once hidden by Padmasambhava and were rediscovered by tertöns in the 19th, 12th and 14th centuries respectively. The top floor has paintings depicting various deities of the Nyingma school, and visions which appear in the bardo . Above the top floor there is a gallery, which can be walked around the circumference of the chorten and which has views of the city. The Chorten, held in great religious fervour,

400-487: Was 13 years old his parents separated, and his father later married Sangyum Rigdzin Wangmo ( Tibetan : རིགས་འཛིན་དབང་མོ། ) giving him four more half-siblings. Dekyong Yeshe Wangmo ( Tibetan : བདེ་སྐྱོང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དབང་མོ། ), Chimey Wangmo ( Tibetan : འཆི་མེད་དབང་མོ། ), Tsering Penzom ( Tibetan : ཚེ་རིང་དཔལ་འཛོམས། ), and Shenphen Dawa Norbu Rinpoche ( Tibetan : གཞན་ཕན་ཟླ་བ་ནོར་བུ། ) (1950-2018). Thinley Norbu's wife

425-568: Was Kusho Tseten Yudron. In his youth in Tibet, he studied for nine years at Mindrolling Monastery , one of the six major monasteries of the Nyingma school in Tibet. He received many teachings from many great saints throughout the region, besides his own father. In the mid-1950s, Thinley Norbu left Tibet at the onset of the Chinese invasion of Tibet . Having fled his homeland, he spent some time in Bhutan, where his children were born. There he served as

450-599: Was Sangyum Jamyang Chödrön ( Tibetan : འཇམ་དབྱང་ཆོས་སྒྲོན། Smooth Melodious Lamp of Dharma), and like his parents they had seven children together, three daughters and four sons. Semo Kelsang Chodron, Dzongsar Khyentse Norbu Rinpoche ( Tibetan : རྫོང་གསར་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་ནོར་བུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། ) (b.1961), Semo Yeshe Palzom (b.1964), Garab Dorje Rinpoche ( Tibetan : དགའ་རབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། ) (b.1967), Jampel Dorje Rinpoche ( Tibetan : འཇམ་དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། ) (b.1968), Semo Pema Chokyi ( Tibetan : སྲས་མོ་པདྨ་ཆོས་སྐྱིད། ) (b.1976), and Se Ugyen Namgyal. During his exile in

475-537: Was a major modern teacher in the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism , and patron of the Vajrayana Foundation. He was the eldest son of Dudjom Rinpoche , the former head of the Nyingma lineages, and also the father of Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche and Dungse Garab Rinpoche. His association with the Dudjom Lineage is a long one: he is held to be the incarnation of Tulku Drime Oser, who

500-713: Was attended by several thousand people, including some of Bhutan's royal family . Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche was born in 1931 in Lhasa , Tibet. In his autobiography he states: "I was born in Lhasa, between east and west, in the center, near the Rasa Trulnang Tsuklakhang (Temple of Miraculous Goat-Earth Phenomena) in Lhasa, known as the Jokhang Temple. " His father was the renowned Nyingma Buddhist master Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje , and his mother

525-517: Was held in a public buddhist cremation ceremony in Paro, Bhutan on March 3, 2012, and presided over by the third Dudjom Rinpoche, Sangye Pema Zhepa , the reincarnation of Thinley Norbu Rinpoche's father, the second Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdral Yeshe Dorje . A memorial of Thinley Norbu Rinpoche has been built on the site of his cremation in Paro, Bhutan, by his son Dungse Garab Rinpoche . Since Thinley Norbu's death in 2011, Kunzang Gatshal has been guided by

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550-578: Was one of seven sons of Dudjom Lingpa . He also was considered to be an emanation of Longchen Rabjam , the great 14th-century Nyingma scholar and siddha who composed the Seven Treasuries . He died in California on December 26, 2011, according to the Tibetan Buddhist Lunar Calendar the 2nd day of the 11th month of the Iron Rabbit year. His cremation was held in a public buddhist cremation ceremony in Paro, Bhutan on March 3, 2012, which

575-605: Was the Druk Gyalpo's mother, Phuntsho Choden . The architecture of the chorten has been designed to present it as “one of the most visible religious structures in Thimphu”. The Memorial Chorten, in the heart of the city, is designed is a Tibetan style chorten, also called the Jangchup Chorten, patterned on the design of a classical stupa, with a pyramidal pillar crowned by a crescent moon and sun. The feature that

600-517: Was the oldest son. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche ( Tibetan : ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། English: Sun of Dharma). Semo Pema Yudron ( Tibetan : སྲས་མོ་པདྨ་གཡུ་སྒྲོན། English: Lotus of Turquoise Light). Pende Norbu Rinpoche ( Tibetan : ཕན་བདེ་ནོར་བུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། English: Jewel of Beneficial Well-Being). Se Dorje Palzang ( Tibetan : སྲས་རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་བཟང་། English: Indestructible Noble Glory). Semo Tsering Yangchen ( Tibetan : སྲས་མོ་ཚེ་རིང་དབྱངས་ཅན། English: Melodious Long Life) When Thinley Norbu

625-646: Was visited by other lamas, including Kyabje Penor Rinpoche and Kyabje Dodrupchen Rinpoche . In the mid-1990s, Thinley Norbu built a temple on the land, personally directing all aspects of the construction and design until every statue and offering had been set. At around the same time, he founded a school for young children to learn pure dharma tradition and practice, White Lotus School ( Tibetan : པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་ཆོས་གྲྭ། , Wylie : padma dkar po chos gr+wa ), which he looked after with particular care. After settling in New York, Thinley Norbu traveled back several times to

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