Sakyong Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche

Sakyong Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche is the eldest son of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and he now holds the Shambhala lineage. He has drawn far less controversy than his father did. Much of his time goes to travel and to the work of the Sakyong Foundation. His books have sold well and earned recognition, among them Ruling Your World and Running with the Mind of Meditation. That second title means exactly what it says: the book pairs spiritual practice with physical effort. He runs, and he runs seriously, taking part in marathons that raise money for Tibet.

Across the West, he directs the activity of Shambhala. He works alongside teachers and leaders to bring Eastern and Western approaches together within the dharma. His own upbringing included a European and Western education, and he built on what his father started, which has reshaped how many people in the West think about Buddhism.

He was born in 1962 in Bodhgaya, India, the same town where the historical Buddha reached enlightenment. His mother, a nun, went by the name Konchok Paldron. His father was Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Given the name Osel Rangdrol Mukpo at birth, he grew up in a Tibetan refugee settlement in India with his mother. His father had left for Oxford University when the boy was one. They came back together when he was seven, when he traveled to Samye Ling, the first Tibetan retreat center in the West, which his father helped found.

His stay in Scotland was short. Chogyam Trungpa had moved to the United States in 1970, and his son followed two years later. In 1979 the father gave him the title Sawang, meaning earth lord, which set him up as the future heir of Shambhala and a future Sakyong, or earth protector. After Chogyam Trungpa died in 1987, the Sawang went to Nepal and studied for three years with Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, then the head of the Nyingma School.

In the meantime, Chogyam Trungpa's main student, Osel Tendzin, took over the Shambhala lineage in the West. He may have been an even more divisive figure than Trungpa. He died of HIV/AIDS in 1990. Five years after that, in 1995, Sawang Osel Rangdrol Mukpo was recognized as the incarnation of Mipham the Great, counted among Tibet's greatest lamas and himself held to be the reincarnation of Buddha Maitreya. Maitreya is the Buddha yet to come, the successor to Siddhartha Gautama, who is expected to teach the pure dharma. Not long after this recognition, Penor Rinpoche gave him the title of Sakyong.

He went to Tibet in 2001, where thousands greeted him as both the Sakyong and the reincarnation of Mipham. There was an immediate request that he take up his father's role as Abbot of the Surmang monasteries and serve their people. He was also asked to lead an orphanage, an institute, and the Weyen and Khamput monasteries. He agreed to all of it, and he now supports these communities through the Konchok Foundation, one of the few organizations the Chinese government permits to work on community growth and health among Tibetan monks and nuns. Three years later he returned to Tibet after stopping in India, where he met Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje. He still visits.

A Sakyong's consort carries the title Sakyong Wangmo. The first was Diana Mukpo, Chogyam Trungpa's wife; the second is Sakyong Mipham's wife, Khandro Tseyang Ripa Mukpo, daughter of Terton Namkha Drimed Rabjam Rinpoche. They married in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on June 10, 2006. She received the title of Sakyong Wangmo in 2008 at a ceremony performed by Penor Rinpoche. The couple have three daughters. Drukmo Yeshe Sarasvati Ziji Mukpo, born in August 2010, is the first heir. Jetsun Yudra Lhamo Yangchen Ziji Mukpo arrived in March 2013, and Dzeron Okar Yangchen Ziji Mukpo in April 2015.

His life looks very different from his father's, who was an avid drinker. Both loved the arts, and both wrote poetry and made art alongside their other work, but the overlap ends about there. The Sakyong is drawn to movement, and a good deal of his teaching, including one of his books, rests on what physical activity such as running can offer a meditator. Beyond his own dharma work, he puts energy into other organizations that carry the Shambhala vision forward. Within the Buddhist community he is held in warm regard as a teacher and leader, and his life is built around compassion and the benefit of others. - Kate Mattes

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