Kathok Situ Rinpoche: Heir of a Great Nyingma Monastery, Rooted in Bhutan

Katok: the mother monastery

In 1159, in Kham in eastern Tibet, the master Katok Dampa Deshek founded a monastery at nearly 4,000 metres that became one of the six “mother monasteries” of the Nyingma, the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism. Katok is often described as the oldest of them, and it was renowned for preserving the kama, the Nyingma’s unbroken oral lineage of teachings. It held some eight hundred monks before 1951, was destroyed in the 1960s and has since been rebuilt.

The Situ incarnations of Katok

Among Katok’s great incarnate lamas are the Katok Situs. The 3rd Katok Situ, Chökyi Gyatso (1880–1925), a nephew of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and a student of the greatest masters of the Rimé movement, founded Katok’s monastic college and raised the young Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. The 4th, Chökyi Nyima (1928–1962), died in the upheavals that followed 1959.

The 5th Kathok Situ

Ngedon Choeki Droenme — also known as Jamgoen Choeki Dorji Rinpoche — was born in 1978 in Darjeeling. His official biography names his parents as Dungse Shenphen Dawa Rinpoche, a son of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma in exile, and HRH Ashi Pema Choden Wangchuck, a daughter of Bhutan’s Second King. He was recognised as the reincarnation of the 4th Katok Situ by Dudjom Rinpoche, Chatral Rinpoche and other masters, enthroned at Phuntsholing by Penor Rinpoche, and enthroned again at Bodh Gaya in 1994 during the great Nyingma prayer festival.

For more than fourteen years he studied under the renowned yogi Chatral Rinpoche, of whom he was one of two principal heart-disciples, and he completed a four-year retreat.

In Bhutan

His seat is Kathok Yosel Samtenling Monastery and its meditation centre at Beylangdra in Wangdue Phodrang, a site sacred to Guru Rinpoche, where the monastic community was established in 2006. He also oversees temples and centres in Mongar, Thimphu, Sikkim and Darjeeling.

In the Gelephu Mindfulness City he leads one of the spiritual projects granted by Royal Kasho, Kathok Zhithro Kilkhor. And in 2026, with Trulku Kencho Tshering, he offered one Jangchub Chorten to Project 108, dedicating it to the benefit of all beings and to the fulfilment of His Majesty’s aspirations. Both will be in Gelephu for the gathering from 1 to 4 November. The prayers and rituals in Gelephu are led by His Holiness the Je Khenpo, Bhutan’s Chief Abbot. The full list of masters is in Project 108 Masters.