Pawo

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

• Tibetan :   གནས་ནང་དཔའ་བོ་
• Wylie :   Gnas-nang Dpa'-bo
• ZWPY :   Nainang Bawo

Nenang Pawo Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist lama, considered to be one of the highest lamas of the Karma Kagyu sect. The Pawos form a lineage of reincarnate lamas, tulkus, of which the first was born in 1440. They were traditionally the abbots of Nenang Monastery in Central Tibet.

The 10th Pawo Rinpoche, named Tsuglag Mawey Wangchuk, lived from 1912 to 1991. He was recognised by the 15th Karmapa, Khakyab Dorje. After completing the traditional education of a reincarnate lama followed by a period of meditative retreat, he became one of the teachers of the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. Pawo fled Tibet during the uprising against Chinese Communist rule in 1959, travelling to Bhutan and then on the Kalimpong in India. At the request of the Dalai Lama, Pawo served as an instructor at the Sanskrit University in Benares from 1962 until 1966. He later travelled and taught in Western countries, living in France for many years. In 1986 he established a new monastery, Nenang Phuntsok Chöling, near Boudnath in Nepal, where he resided for the remainder of his life.

In 1994, the 11th Nenang Pawo, while still an infant, was recognised by Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who is accepted as the current Karmapa by one faction of the Karma Kagyu and by the Chinese government. The 11th Pawo was enthroned at Nenang Monastery near Lhasa in 1995 and given the name Tsuglag Tenzin Künsang Chökyi Nyima. Following Ogyen Trinley's escape to India in 2000, which was aided by a monk from Nenang, reports surfaced that, in reprisal, the child Pawo had been removed from his monastery and that his religious education had been restricted.[1]

History

The first Pawo, Chöwang Lhundrup, was born in 1440 in Yarlung in Central Tibet. It is said that he was given the title Pawo, which means "hero", as a result of the supernatural powers he displayed at a young age. He became a student of the 7th Karmapa, Chödrak Gyatso, whom he encountered in southern Tibet. Chöwang Lhundrup established Sekhar Guthog as the seat of the early Pawos.

The second Pawo, Tsuglag Trengwa, was a disciple of the 8th Karmapa, Mikyö Dorje, as well as a famous author of historical and astrological texts. The fifth Pawo, Tsuglag Trinley Gyatso, moved the seat of the Pawos from Sekhar Guthog to Nenang Monastery, which is located in Central Tibet near Tsurphu, the main monastery of the Karmapas.

List of Pawos

External links

• Rangjung Yeshe wiki, entry on the Pawo Rinpoches
• Rangjung Yeshe wiki, entry on the 2nd Pawo Rinpoche
• Rangjung Yeshe wiki, entry on the 10th Pawo Rinpoche
• Article on Nenang Pawo, from Rangjung.com

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