Latri Khenpo Geshe Nyima Dakpa Rinpoche is the abbot and lineage holder of the Lha-Tri monastery in the Kham/Dege region of Eastern Tibet. He was born in Tibet in 1959 and grew up in Nepal at Dorpatan, the first refugee Bönpo community. His family is the lineage holder of the Lha-Tri lineage. His father, Lha-Tri Gyaltsen Nyima, was the third reincarnation of Tsultrim Phunstok, a great practitioner of Eastern Tibet.
When he was fifteen (1974) his father took him to the sMen-ri monastery at Dolanji, India (in the Himashal Pradesh region) so that he could become a monk there. It was during the Tibetan New Year, on the birthday of Nyam Sherab Gyaltsen that he took the vow to become a monk. From that day on he has been cared for and guided by H.H. the 33rd sMen-ri Trizin, the spiritual head of the Bön.
He received my Geshe degree which equals a Western PhD in 1987. After having received several letters from the people of the Lha-Tri monastery asking him to join them and help them educate the young monks of their monastery Rinpoche travelled to Tibet in 1987. There, in addition to visiting the Lha-Tri monastery, he also made a tour of thirty-eight other monasteries. The purpose of the visit was to enforce the connection between the monasteries in India and Tibet. Respectively his most important visits in Tibet were to the sMen-ri monastery as well as the Lha-Tri monastery, where he was enthroned as abbot.
