Seen in “Monk With a Camera,” Who is Khyongla Rato Rinpoche and How Did He Guide Vreeland’s Journey?
The major character in Monk With a Camera (2014), aside from Nicholas Vreeland, is his mentor and teacher Khyongla Rato Rinpoche. Rinpoche is a scholar, teacher, former monk, and Vreeland’s root guru. Vreeland speaks about him with the utmost respect and adoration, and he’s credited with helping guide Vreeland through his Buddhist journey. But what is his history?
His biography on the Tibet Center’s website opens with this description:
Khyongla Rato is a reincarnate lama and scholar of the Gelugpa order of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in 1923 in the southeastern Tibet in the region called Kham. In 1928, senior Gelugpa monks divined that a five-year old boy living in this remote part of Tibet was the reincarnation of the ninth Khyongla of Tibet.
As such, he is considered the tenth Khyongla, or the tenth reincarnate of the first Khyongla, who was born in 1510 and was known for his teaching of the dharma. In those days, he was referred to as Khyongla, meaning “Lama from Khyong Yul.” Buddhist tradition follows a belief in reincarnation, and Khyongla Rato is the tenth. The name Rato comes from the Rato monastery where Khyongla Rato studied.
After being recognized as incarnate, he was taken at age six to live with a lama to study and become a monk. He studied at Rato Monastery, moved to Drepung Monastery and received his Lharampa Geshe degree (equivalent to a doctorate), and ended up at Gyuto Tantric University, where he served as abbot. He studied with over 70 teachers during his life.
He has authored texts on the grammar, literature, history and religion of Tibet at the request of the Dalai Lama, and wrote an autobiography that was edited and introduced by Joseph Campbell.
In 1975, he founded the Tibet Center in New York City and served as its director for many years (a position currently held by Nicholas Vreeland). Rinpoche still teaches at the center with translation and assistance from Vreeland.
He first met Nicholas Vreeland in New York in 1977, which began their association. The two have been learning and teaching together ever since.