Loden Sherab Dagyab

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Loden Sherab Dagyab Kyabgön Rinpoche , Loden Sherab for short (born July 27, 1940 in Menya, Eastern Tibet), is a Tibetan Buddhist teacher ( Lama ) and belongs to the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism . The surname Dagyab, which denotes his country of origin, was adopted by him in order to have a surname for passports that could be used in Europe. After 1966 he worked as a research assistant at the University of Bonn for over forty years.

Tibet

As so-called patrons (Tibetan Kyabgön ), the clergy known as Dagyab Rinpoche, to whom he is assigned, were the spiritual and secular heads of the Dagyab region in northeastern Tibet since the 17th century . The Dagyab Rinpoche were among the few highest-ranking lamas to be officially entrusted with the patronage of Buddhist teachings by the Tibetan government. Loden Sherab is currently the only lama of this rank living in the west. The Dagyab Rinpoche are classified as Tulku (consciously reborn Lama). Among the tulkus living in Indian exile, Loden Sherab is the one who holds most of the Buddhist transmissions of the Gelugpa tradition.

As a monk of Drepung Monastery in Tibet, Loden Sherab completed his studies in Buddhist philosophy at this monastery university. As a young man, Loden Sherab was also a member of the monastic communities of Ganden Monastery and Ratö Monastery in central Tibet.

Loden Sherab was not only trained in the Gelug tradition. He also received numerous teachings from the Kagyu and Sakya traditions, two other great schools of Tibetan Buddhism .

Together with his friends Jampa Losang Panglung and a classmate who bears the title Gyälzur Rinpoche, he belonged to the inner circle of the Tibetan scholars who are known with the titles Thrichang Rinpoche and Ling Rinpoche . Both scholars were the current Dalai Lama's official teachers.

exile

Loden Sherab escaped in 1959, during the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the uprising of Lhasa, at about the same time as the Dalai Lama to India into exile. Only after his escape from Tibet did he acquire the academic degree of Geshe Lharampa in exile in India .

In Indian exile in Dharmsala, Loden Sherab wrote a Tibetan dictionary that is still very popular today. After his marriage to the daughter of a Tibetan doctor from Darjeeling, he accepted a position offered to him at the Department of Linguistics and Cultural Studies of Central Asia at the University of Bonn in 1966 and moved to Bonn. In his work as a research assistant, he worked in particular on issues relating to Tibetan iconography (under the direction of Klaus Sagaster ), Tibetan legal documents (together with Dieter Schuh ) and the history of his home country Dagyab (as an employee of Peter Schwieger ). In all of these topics he was in charge of or involved in well-known Tibetan publications. He is the father of two grown children and lived with his family near Bonn .

From 1984 on, Loden Sherab Dagyab remembered his calling as a Tibetan Buddhist incarnation outside of his university research . As "Dagyab Rinpoche" he gave and gives teachings in many places around the world. His most important points of reference, however, are still the province of Dagyab in eastern Tibet and the exiled monastic communities of Drepung, Ganden and Ratö in Mundgod in southern India .

Loden Sherab was the spiritual director of a Buddhist center in Erlangen, later Langenfeld (Middle Franconia), which he named Chödzong in 1986, since it was founded in 1985. In 1998 it moved its headquarters to Fürth ( Middle Franconia ). Centers as well as study and meditation groups were established under his supervision in Eschbach / Pfalz (Chöying, 1993–1997), Hanover (Chöling, from 1994), Frankfurt (Chödzong, 1996–1998), Bayreuth, Bergisches Land, Berlin, Bingen, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Erlangen, Freiburg, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Cologne, Mannheim, Mainz, Miltenberg, Munich (later: Norbu Ling), Nuremberg, Schweinfurt, Stuttgart. Activities for which he was involved were: inviting lamas, monks and thangka painters to Germany, interreligious dialogue (for years he was co-editor of the academic journal “Dialogue of Religions” edited by Michael von Brück ), a European meeting of Tibetan dharma teachers, sponsorships for Tibetans in exile and Tibetan children. Under his spiritual guidance numerous books and since 1987 the magazine "Chödzong" (later: "Chökor") have been published.

In autumn 2005 he opened the Tibet House in Frankfurt am Main , which is to be run as a Tibetan cultural center in the tradition of the existing Tibet Houses in New Delhi , Barcelona , London and New York . Loden Sherab's main concern here is the integration of Buddhism in the West.

Loden Sherab was a founding member of "Dagyab eV" and still works actively in this association. Dagyab eV would like to offer the people in the Tibetan province of Dagyab help in coping with very elementary problems such as education and health care. These include the initiation and continued support of schools for nomadic children, construction and promotion of Tibetan Buddhist art schools ( thangka ) and the development of traditional Tibetan medicine schools, so that the residents Dagyab get an affordable basic medical care. Projects for monasteries make up less than 10 percent of spending in Dagyab, apart from earmarked donations. The association tries to target groups that have traditionally been neglected, such as the nuns.

Works

• The sadhanas of the rgyd-sde kun-btus collection . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1991, ISBN 3-447-03109-3 .
• The sadhanas of the sGrub-thabs' Dod-'jo collection . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1991, ISBN 3-447-03108-5 .
• Buddhist Lucky Symbols in the Tibetan Cultural Area: An Examination of the Nine Most Popular Symbol Groups . Diederich's Yellow Series, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-424-01122-3 .
• Buddhist Orientation Aids: A Basic Introduction . Chödzong, Langenfeld 1994.
• Buddhism in the west. Texts by HE Dagyab Kyabgön Rinpoche. Writings of the DBU, Colorful series (without year)
• with Regine Leisner: Dagyab: where Tibet is still Tibetan . Theseus Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89620-111-5 .
• with Regine Leisner: The Sixfold Guru Yoga . Chödzong, Langenfeld 1994.
• with Thomas Lautwein : Mindfulness and immersion: Lamrim - the Tibetan meditation . Hugendubel, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7205-2264-4 .
• Tibetan Buddhism in the West . Tibethaus Germany, Frankfurt, M. 2010, ISBN 978-3-931442-81-1

Web links

• Literature by and about Loden Sherab Dagyab in the catalog of the German National Library
• Rinpoches Publications , tibethaus.com
• Website dagyab-rinpoche.com
• The Spiritual Director of the Tibet House
• Dagyab eV