The Je Khenpo: Bhutan's Chief Abbot, from 1651 to the 70th

The office

The Je Khenpo is the Chief Abbot of Bhutan’s Zhung Dratshang, the Central Monastic Body, and chairs the council that governs its affairs. The office was created in the seventeenth century under the Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, who founded both the Bhutanese state and its monastic body. The first Je Khenpo, Pekar Jungne, took office in 1651.

Unlike many high offices of Tibetan Buddhism, the Je Khenpo is not a reincarnation title passed from one life to the next. He is chosen. Under Article 3 of the Constitution, His Majesty The King appoints the Je Khenpo on the recommendation of the Five Lopons, the senior masters of the monastic body, from among monks who are learned, respected, ordained in the Drukpa tradition and accomplished in meditation. The Je Khenpo in turn appoints the Lopons.

Only two people in Bhutan wear the saffron kabney, the ceremonial scarf: the King and the Je Khenpo. The Je Khenpo spends the summer at Tashichho Dzong in Thimphu and the winter at Punakha Dzong, and the monastic body moves with him each season.

The 69th

Among recent holders, the 69th Je Khenpo, Geshe Gendün Rinchen (1926–1997), born in a cave near Taktsang and later abbot of Tango, wrote histories of Bhutan and lives of the Zhabdrung and Drukpa Kunley. He stepped down in 1996 to devote himself to meditation.

The 70th Je Khenpo

Trulku Jigme Choeda was born in 1955 in Kurtoe, Lhuentse, and was recognised as the reincarnation of Geshe Pema Tshering of Tharpaling in Bumthang. He entered monastic training at eight, studied at Tango under his predecessors, completed several three-year retreats, and served as Drapoi Lopon and then Dorji Lopon before his enthronement as the 70th Je Khenpo in 1996. Thirty years on, he is the longest-serving Je Khenpo in the office’s history. He was awarded the Order of the Druk Gyalpo in 2018.

His tenure has been one of reform as well as continuity. He discouraged cash offerings, meat and alcohol at cremations, and has travelled to every part of the country. In June 2022, at the Royal Family’s request, he conferred full ordination on some 140 nuns at Paro — described as the first such ordination in the Himalayan Vajrayana tradition in modern times. In November 2025, during the Global Peace Prayer Festival marking the Fourth King’s seventieth birth anniversary, he presided over the Kalachakra empowerment and ordained more than 260 nuns from fourteen countries.

Project 108

For Project 108 the Je Khenpo offered 120 sacred Ringsel — relic pearls — to be enshrined inside the chortens, now kept at Sarpang Dzong where the monastic body prepares the zung, and offered support for one of the 108 chortens. He will be in Gelephu from 21 October, leading prayers and rituals of purification and blessing before the chortens rise on 1 November. How the offering tradition he leads was revived is told in Yojay in Bhutan; the full list of masters is in Project 108 Masters.