Tibet
Triten Norbutse in Tibet was founded in the 14th century by the great Bönpo Master Shen Nyima Gyaltsen (born A.D.1360), a descendant of the Shen Lineage of Buddha Tönpa Shenrab, the founder of the Bön religion. Shen Nyima Gyaltsen was particularly known for his Tantric powers and for his commentary on the Ma Gyud (Mother Tantra). The monastery thrived for many centuries, being supported by several devout Bönpo villages nearby, and became important for the study and practice of the Ma Gyud and the protector Sidpai Gaylmo of the Red Mule.
Triten Norbutse was one of the four main Bönpo Monastic Institutions in Tibet that provided the entire Bön Cultural and Religious Education from that period on, until the Chinese occupation. The academic and cultural heritage in this monastery was very rich. The monastery was highly valued by all the Bönpo Communities in Tibet. It was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in 1959, but it has since been rebuilt and monks have resumed study there.
Nepal
Triten Norbutse Monastery in Kathmandu was founded by H.E. Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche in 1987 on a hill facing the great Stupa of Swayambhu in Nepal, which is said to have been miraculously blessed by the Buddha Tönpa Shenrab. The intentions for establishing the monastery were to provide a full Education and Practice Program in the Bön Tradition to the younger generation of Bönpo living in areas of the Himalayan Borderlands such as Dolpa and Mustang, as well as to Tibetan refugees.
Even though there have been Bönpo monasteries in Dolpa, Mustang, and other districts of Nepal for many centuries, today none of them are able to offer the opportunity to complete the full Bönpo study program leading to a Geshe Degree. Furthermore, students, scholars, and practitioners from other parts of the world should also be offered an opportunity to study and practice the tradition of Bön. To preserve and restore Bön’s Cultural and Religious heritage and to serve as a center for the social and religious life of the Bönpo Communities.
At Triten Norbutse Monastery, Yongdzin Rinpoche eventually initiated a 13-year ‘Geshe’ Degree Program. This is the highest academic qualification in the Bön Tradition and involves an extensive and rigorous comprehensive study of a broad spectrum of the Bön Religious Tradition. It includes Sutra (Path of Renunciation), Tantra (Path of Transformation), and Dzogchen (Path of Liberation) as well as debating, cosmology, astrology, traditional Tibetan medicine, Tibetan grammar, script and calligraphy, and Sanskrit grammar.
The monks also learn how to draw mandalas and various other aspects of religious iconography alongside receiving training in ritual worship such as making offerings and sacred music. Upon successfully completing the thirteen-year program, the monks are awarded the distinguished Geshe Degree acknowledged by H.H. The Dalai Lama. In addition to the Geshe Degree Program there is also a Meditation Group (Gomdra) specializing in Dzogchen – the Great Perfection.
The story of the modern Triten Norbutse Monastery in Nepal began in 1977, when Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche traveled from Menri Monastery in India to Swayambhu near Kathmandu to search for land for a monastery to serve the Bönpo community in Nepal. However, at that time he was not successful, so he returned to India where he continued to teach. In 1986 the first group of Bönpo monks completed their Geshe Examination outside Tibet.
Since Tibet was open to visitors at that time Yongdzin Rinpoche decided to travel there. On the way he stopped in Nepal near Boudhanath at the house of a Bönpo refugee named Norbu Lama. Although at that time the financial situation was very bleak, he asked his friends in the Bönpo Community in Kathmandu to look for a piece of land near Swayambhu because on his return from Tibet he would buy it.
At the time, his plan seemed very bold and highly improbable, but on his way back to India, he received news that an advance on a piece of land in Swayambhu had been paid, with money borrowed from Bönpo friends in Kathmandu. Yongdzin Rinpoche himself donated the money for the acquisition of the land from the gifts that he had received while giving teachings in Tibet.
When he first went to see the land there was no proper path from the Ring Road. The land itself was on the side of a steep mountain and jungle overgrown with weeds. After Yongdzin Rinpoche returned to India in 1987, Norbu Lama started to direct the building of three rooms on the land, with the generous financial assistance of Professor Lin Yun of the University of California at Berkeley. Although at first the situation with the local population was difficult, eventually it improved and a relationship of trust and respect was established.
In December of 1988, Yongdzin Rinpoche returned to Kathmandu with two Geshes and when the three rooms were completed they decided to move in, even though there were no household items. They were soon joined by four refugee Bönpo monks who had recently escaped from Tibet. By 1989, three more rooms, a library, and a basic Gompa were added, and over the next three years a big kitchen, dining room, additional sleeping rooms, toilets, and a guest reception room were built with the help of the French organization, Association L ‘Etape, which sent volunteers and building materials.
In 1991, the building of a new Gompa began under the personal supervision of Yongdzin Rinpoche.
Artists were called from Bhutan to make the large statue of Tönpa Shenrab, sponsored by a Bönpo layman, Marong Chöje and his family in Dolanji. The other two statues of Drenpa Namkha (representing the power of all the Siddhas) and of Nyame Sherab Gyaltsen (founder of the original Menri Monastery) were made by Tibetan sculptors and offered by two other Bönpo families (Tenzin Ngodrup and Jamga) in Dolanji.
The internal decorations and the pictures of the Guardians, Midu, and Sidpai Gyalmo were drawn by Bhutanese artists, while the 19 painted Mandalas, the pictures of the 1,000 Buddhas, the large pictures of Nampar Gyalwa and of Sherab Jyamma (the Goddess of Wisdom), the drawings of the Buddhas of the Three Times and of Nyamed Sherab Gyaltsen and all the external decorations are the work of Bönpo artist monks of Triten Norbutse.
In 1992, a large Prayer Wheel (khorchen) was built, sponsored by Tenpa Rigdzin and his family in Kathmandu, and many new volumes of books expanded the Monastery Library. These include texts of all the major traditions of Tibet as well as books in many other languages, as Yongdzin Rinpoche believes that students should read all kinds of books, not only Bön texts.
Following his visit to Tibet in the same year, he brought back several books that were no longer available outside Tibet in order to publish them in India; these were also added to the library, which also housed the first copy of the Bön Kangyur (Canon) outside Tibet, comprised of 149 volumes. 1992 was also the year when Geshe Nyima Wangyal, who had studied under Yongdzin Rinpoche at Dolanji and was among the first to complete the Geshe course there, was enthroned as Abbot of Triten Norbutse Monastery.
Over the next two years, houses for Dark and White Retreats and a new, enlarged kitchen were built. The Dialectic School (Shedra) and Meditation Group (Gomdra) were officially established in 1994 and in November 1995 the monastery was inaugurated with seven days of puja, also in the presence of H.H. 33rd Menri Trizin Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche.
A house for the teachers of the monastery had begun in 1995 and completed in 1996. A new junior Lopön, Tempa Yungdrung, was elected in 1996 to teach the younger monks Logic, Grammar, and Sutra studies. At that time, five Geshes from Dolanji, India also began teaching a number of other subjects.
During 1997, a new building to accommodate 60 monks was constructed along with a stupa commemorating the Abbot of the Bönpo Monastery at Dhorpatan, Yundrung Kuleg, who had passed in 1996. A senkar li li bang bang, one of the 120 types of Physical Stupas described in the Biography of Tönpa Shenrab, was also constructed. This rotating, metal stupa holds 108 Butter Lamps that are offered to the 45 Peaceful and 80 Wrathful Deities (Zhitrö). This stupa is used to purify the local environment, as well as to purify the spirits of the dead so that they will gain a higher rebirth.
Future plans include the construction of a Retreat and Practice Building for the monks in the Meditation School and the purchase of land below the monastery in order to drill a well for drinking water.