Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön / གཡུང་དྲུང་བོན་ཉར་ཚགས་རིག་མཛོད།

Our Mission

Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön is a small non-profit organisation working to preserve the rich teachings of Yungdrung Bön. Founded in 2012 with the blessing of Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, FPYB was officially registered with the UK Charity Commission as an educational body in 2017 (Registered Charity (England & Wales) 1173639). Our first translation was made at the request of Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak in 1996, and since then we have worked in close collaboration with Yongdzin Rinpoche and other bona fide Bönpo lamas to produce dozens of books, videos and practice materials, many of which are now available to serious practitioners. We also hold a growing archive of teaching materials.

Why is it important to preserve Yungdrung Bön teachings through translations and edited transcripts?

བདེ་སྡུག་རྩ་བ་རང་གི་སེམས་ལགས་པས།།
Your own mind is the root of both happiness and suffering;
བཙའ་སྐྱོང་ཤེས་ན་ཕན་བདེའི་གཞི་མ་དང་།།
Knowing how to train it in the positive way, that is the basis for happiness
རང་ཁར་གཏོང་ན་སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་གཞི།།
Merely following the passions of your mind, that is the basis for the ocean of miseries and sufferings.
ཇི་ལྟར་འདམ་ཁ་ཤེས་ན་སྐྱེས་བུ་རབ།།
Thus if you know how to choose the right way, you are an excellent person.

ཡོངས་འཛིན་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་ཞལ་གདམས།
Oral instruction by Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche (Trnsl. Kh. Gelek Jinpa, C. Ermakova & D. Ermakov)

Since leaving Tibet during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Yongdzin Rinpoche has devoted his whole life to preserving his lineage for future generations, and an important aspect of this is publishing books. His first mission in exile was to collect the scattered copies of the Bön Kanjur and Katen which had either been miraculously smuggled out of Tibet or had survived in ancient Bön temples in Nepal. Yongdzin Rinpoche’s aim was to gather and reprint the necessary texts to re-establish the Geshe training programme in exile, and it is thanks to his tireless efforts that many contemporary Bönpo lamas now have the knowledge and qualifications to teach.
Here in the West, we are very fortunate. We can simply browse the internet or look in a bookstore to find many books on Buddhism, and even a few on Bön. However, authentic translations by erudite masters are very rare indeed, so it is our joint responsibility to do all we can to ensure the teachings of great master, Yongdzin Rinpoche and other erudite Bönpo lamas, are recorded intact, seriously and respectfully, not only as study and practice aids for ourselves, but also as an invaluable legacy for future generations. As Yongdzin Rinpoche is the current, supreme lineage holder and because many contemporary Bönpo lamas received empowerments, transmissons and instructions from him, his teachings and translations are especially precious as they are imbued with the powerful blessings of the living lineage transmission. For over 20 years, our Founding Members Carol Ermakova and Dmitry Ermakov have been working closely with Yongdzin Rinpoche and other lamas transcribing and editing Bönpo texts. They have recently been joined by a team of translators for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian. All our staff are unpaid volunteers. As Yongdzin Rinpoche says: ‘Books are my friends.’

PUBLICATIONS

Our dedicated, experienced team works in close collaboration with authentic Bönpo lamas to ensure all our publications are accurate, reliable and professional.

PROJECTS

Our projects focus on preserving the rich wisdom of Yungdrung Bön as a living tradition for generations to come.

Latest News

New page: Prayers & Practices

Over the past few years we have translated many prayers and practices into English, and today we have finally collected them into one place on our website, the new Prayers & Practices page. Most are offered gratis as a PDF download and all are available publicly. This new page includes several of the prayers that practitioners are encouraged to recite during this special 49-day period. Where possible, we have also provided links to videos of Drubdra Khenpo Tsultrim chanting the longer recitations. As previously, information about restricted practice materials can be found on our Publications page. We will keep the[…]

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Short Drenpa Namkha Tsog now publicly available

Since Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche advised practising this tsog as one of the main practices to be done during the 49-day period following Yongdzin Rinpoche’s entering thugdam on 12th June, 2025, we are now releasing this practice in both eBook and printed public formats, making it available to devoted practitioners who have not yet received transmission so that everyone can do it during this period. Nevertheless, it is strongly advised to receive transmission and instructions for this tsog from a qualified Bönpo lama as soon as possible. The Accomplishment Practice of Khöpung༼ །ཁོད་སྤུངས་སྒོས་སྒྲུབ་བཞུགས། ༽ (p. 7–10) includes the heart mantra[…]

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Prayers to recite on the occasion of Yongdzin Rinpoche entering thugdam

Dear friends, Many of you have asked us  what practice we can do during this period following the passing of Yongdzin Rinpoche. Triten Norbutse Monastery may issue some guidance in the following days but, generally, one can do Guru Yoga with the following invocation: ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། EMAHO Marvellous! བསླབ་གསུམ་བསྟན་པའི་བདག་ཉིད་འགྲོ་བའི་མགོན། LAB SUM TEN PAI DAG NYI DRO WAI GÖN Oh, Lord of the Doctrine of the Three Trainings and the Protector of beings, ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཉི་དབང་རྣམ་རོལ་དགོངས་རྩལ་རྫོགས། KÜN CHYEN NYI WANG NAM ROL GONG TSAL DZOG the emanation of the omniscient Nyima Tenzin Wanggi Gyalpo with perfect Power and Knowledge! མདོ་སྡེ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་གནས་ལུགས་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེ། DÖ DE NGAG CHYI[…]

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Gone to Great Bliss

It is with the greatest sorrow yet profound gratitude that we share the news of Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche entering thugdam.

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91st Anniversary of Shardza Trashi Gyaltsen’s Rainbow Body

RIG-GYAI CHYI-PAL KÜN-CHYEN SHAR-DZA-PA རིགས་རྒྱའི་སྤྱི་དཔལ་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཤར་རྫ་པ། O, Splendour of the Universe, Omniscient Shardzapa PHO-CHEN-JA-LÜ WÖ DU DENG NA YANG འཕོ་ཆེན་འཇའ་ལུས་འོད་དུ་དེངས་ན་ཡང་།  You who have gone into the Luminous Rainbow Body of Great Transfer – DAG-SOG RIG-CHEN SOL-WA-TAB-PA NAM བདག་སོགས་རིགས་ཅན་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་པ་རྣམས།།  I and all fortunate followers pray to you: THUG-JE’E DOR-ME GONG-GYU PHO-PAR DZÖ ཐུགས་རྗེས་འདོར་མེད་དགོངས་རྒྱུད་འཕོ་པར་མཛོད། Through your compassion, please enable us to enter the unwavering Buddha-Mind! Translated by Dmitry Ermakov. Today is the 91st anniversary of the great Bönpo master Shardza Trashi Gyaltsen’s (Shar-rdza Bkra-shis rgyal-mtshan) realisation of Rainbow Body, which he achieved on the 13th day of the 4th month of the Wood[…]

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Athri Dzogchen Retreat with Drubdra Khenpo in Calabria / Ritiro Athri Dzogchen con Drubdra Khenpo in Calabria

Italiano sotto What – This 4-day residential retreat is a rare opportunity to deepen our practice as we become more familiar and stable with the true Nature of our own Mind. For beginners, the techniques taught here will help you recognise the Natural State and gain confidence in your practice. For advanced practitioners, these teachings will provide a rare opportunity to check and correct our Dzogchen meditation in the presence of a great master. Teaching from the Athri Dzogchen cycle, Drubdra Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin will give clear instructions on how to search for the mind, how to recognise the Natural[…]

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PUBLICATIONS

With the full support of Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, the supreme lineage holder of the tradition, Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön has published a range of books on many aspects of Yungdrung Bön, from a full-colour travelogue covering historic Bön sites in Nepal to detailed Tantric teachings. As well as edited transcripts of teachings on Dzogchen, we also publish translations of prayers and ritual practices for those who have appropriate transmissions.

We are currently working with a team of translators so more books in various formats will soon be available in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Russian.   All our publications are made in close collaboration with authentic Bönpo lamas.

Help us make more books

MULTIMEDIA

Our multimedia section offers presentations, short videos and full-length films in English. This is a great way for both scholars and practitioners to find out more about this ancient spiritual tradition.

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