Dharamshala: A former CTA staff Venerable Sampho Jigme Wangchen Rimpoche, passed away peacefully at his home on Sunday, 6 February 2022, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Brief Bio of Sampho Jigme Wangchen Rimpoche:
Venerable Sampho Jigme Wangchen Rimpoche was born in Lhasa, and at the age of seven, he was recognised as the reincarnation of Tokden Shakya Shiri, the great Dzogchen master of Tibetan Buddhism. He studied his Tibetan from Tarkhang School in Lhasa, Tibet.
In 1959, he escaped Tibet via Nathula (the border between Sikkim and Tibet) with his family and close relatives.
Later in 1960, he began his service in the newly set up Tibetan government-in-exile, where he has served as Secretary of the Council of Tibetan Education and Culture. He had also edited the biography of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tibetan Freedom Press, the book on Tibetan history translated by Phuntsok Tashi Takla from the Chinese Tang dynasty annals, and Tsepon T. W. Shakapa’s Tibet: A Political History.
Apart from that, Venerable Sampho Jigme Wangchen Rimpoche had also served as the Headmaster of Tibetan Refugee School in Simla, Assistant Director at the Tibet House, New Delhi, and Tibetan language teacher at Girls High School in Gangtok, Sikkim.