The Magical Play of Illusion

Sharpa Tulku Tenzin Trinley was born in Lhasa, Tibet, into the Rampa family, whose members served in Tibet’s Ganden Phodrang government until 1959. He left Tibet following the Chinese occupation, and in India he spent time at the monastic settlement in Buxa and at Freda Bedi’s Young Lamas Home School before being sent to the United States in 1962 for Western education along with Geshé Lhundub Sopa and two other tulkus. In 1966, he returned to Dharamsala, where he served on the Tibetan Council for Religious Affairs. Subsequently he joined the newly established Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, where he translated for Dharma classes and worked on many translations of Buddhist texts, including the Yamantaka Cycle Classics published by Tibet House, New Delhi, in 1990. He has translated orally for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché, Kyabjé Trijang Rinpoché, Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, the Ninety-Eighth Ganden Throneholder Jampal Shenphen, Lati Rinpoché, and many other lamas and geshés. He moved to the United States in 1976 and currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin, with his family.