Tibetan lama Rimpoche dies at 78

by | Feb 19, 2017 | Fiat Lux

Tibetan lama Rimpoche dies at 78

Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche, the Tibetan lama who regularly taught in Lincoln for more than two decades, died Tuesday in Michigan.

The founder and spiritual director of Jewel Heart, a Tibetan Buddhist and cultural learning centre, Rimpoche began coming to Lincoln in the early 1990’s, and made visits at least annually until a few years ago when health problems prevented the travel.

Born in Lhasa, Tibet, in 1939, Rimpoche was recognised as an incarnate lama at the age of four and was tutored by the same two masters who taught the Dalai Lama. He was among the last generation of lamas educated in Drepung Monastery in Tibet.
He founded Jewel Heart in 1988 and began regular visits to Lincoln about two years later. Lincoln now has one of five Jewel Heart chapters in the U.S. He became a U.S. citizen in 1994. He was the author of two books, “Good Life and Good Death” and “The Tara Box: Rituals for Protection and Healing from the Female Buddha.”
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Forced to flee to India by the 1959 Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet, Rimpoche gave up monastic life and edited and printed more than 170 volumes of rare Tibetan manuscripts before being directed to teach western students in the late 1970s.

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