Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920 – 13 February 1996) was a Tibetan Buddhist master of the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, widely revered as one of the twentieth century’s foremost holders of the Dzogchen and Mahamudra teachings.

Born in eastern Tibet, he was recognised as a reincarnate lama (tulku) and trained in the rich contemplative and ritual traditions of pre-1959 Tibet before settling in Nepal. He spent roughly thirty-three years in retreat and residence at the Nagi Gompa hermitage above the Kathmandu Valley, and founded several monasteries including Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling near the Boudhanath stupa and Tergar Osel Ling.

He was celebrated for the clarity and immediacy of his “pointing-out instruction,” the direct introduction to the nature of mind that lies at the heart of both Dzogchen and Mahamudra. His significance for the Atlas is as a root source of the contemporary contemplative stream: he was the father and principal teacher of four influential lamas — Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche — several of whom carried his transmission to a global lay audience and into the contemplative-science dialogue.

Through his recorded teachings, gathered in books such as the two-volume As It Is and Rainbow Painting, and the memoir Blazing Splendor, his emphasis on recognising awareness itself, in stillness and the present moment rather than through elaborate effort, became one of the clearest modern articulations of the view that liberation is the recognition of what is already present.