Our 8th Anniversary: Reflections on the last 12 months
This has been a momentous year for all Bönpos worldwide but also for FPYB (we organised our first ever teaching and meditation retreat!), and for our Founding Members, Carol and Dmitry, personally – it’s exactly 30 years since we first met Yongdzin Rinpoche and began working with him.
Celebrating a Hundred Years of Wisdom
This year saw thousands gathering at Triten Norbutse Monastery to celebrate the great life and work of Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche and join in the inauguration of the new temple.
Scenes from the celebrations at Triten Norbutse monastery. Photo credit: Carol Ermakova
The celebrations included academic conferences, music and dance as well as rituals, prayers and offerings. At the request of Khenpo Gelek Jinpa, FPYB founders Carol and Dmitry both presented papers and contributed to a special anniversary volume. You can read the articles here @
Cause and Effect: meeting, studying and working with Yongdzin Rinpoche by Dmitry Ermakov
Dmitry’s presentation Rainbow Body and Christ sparked lively discussion and will soon be available on our Articles page.
Conference presenters and organisers. Photo credit unknown
Passing into Great Bliss
Just a few months after greeting so many devotees, Yongdzin Rinpoche retired to his retreat place near Jarsing Pauwa. There, on 12th June, he entered tugdam, and remained in this state of profound meditation for eight days. His holy body or kudung was then transported in a grand procession to Triten Norbutse Monastery, where it remains for devotees to pay homage until the final rites take place on 4 – 9 August 2025.
Yongdzin Rinpoche’s kudung arrives in Triten Norbutse Monastery. Photo credits: Gaurav Gurung, Jon Kwan, Melong Yeshe.
The whole of the international Bönpo community unites in prayers during this special time.
རོང་ཆེན་ཕུག་མོ་ཆེའི་ནང་དུ་ག་ཐ་སྒང་རུ་ལྷ་སྡེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་༧སྐྱབས་རྗེ་སྨན་རིའི་ཡོངས་འཛིན་སློབ་དཔོན་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྣམ་དག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གི་དགོངས་རྫོགས་མཆོད་འབུལ་དུ་ཞི་ཁྲོའི་ཚོགས་མཆོད་འབུལ་བཞིན་པ།
Zhithro Tsogcho offering to Yongdzin Rinpoche at Rongchen Phugmoche. (Public video fragment from WeChat)
༧དཔལ་གཤེན་བསྟན་རབ་རྒྱས་གཡུང་དྲུང་གླིང་དུ་གསེར་གཡུ་མདོའི་ལྷ་སྡེ་ཡོངས་ནས༧སྐྱབས་རྗེ་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་ཡོངས་འཛིན་སྨྲ་བའི་དབང་པོ་མཆོག་དགོངས་པ་བོན་དབྱིངས་སུ་གཟིགས་ནས་དི་རིང་དགུང་ཞག་བཅུ་གཅིག་གནམ་གང་ཉིན་བླ་གྲྭ་བོན་གཤེན་ལྔ་བཅུ་ལྷག་ཙམ་གྱིས་བླ་ཆེན་དྲན་པ་ནམ་མཁའི་སྟོང་ཚོགས་དང་སྔ་དགོངས་དུས་གསུམ་བླ་མ་མཆོད་པ་ཕུལ་ཞིང་དམ་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་དྲིན་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་བཞིན་དད་གུས་མོས་འདུན་དྲག་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་གསོལ་འདེབས་དང་སྨོན་ལམ་རྣམས་པར་དག་པས་གདུང་མཆོད་ཕུལ་བའོ། ༢༠༢༥/༦/༢༥
Offering of Drenpa Namkha Tsog and Lama Chöpa in Pal Shenten Yungdrungling. (15/06/2025.Public video fragment from WeChat)
ཁོད་སྤུངས་དྲན་པའི་སྙིང་ཐིག་གསང་སྒྲུབ་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་པ་ལེགས་སོ།། / The Secret Practice of Khöpung Drenpa’s Innermost Essence Tsog at FPYB headquarters, North Pennines, UK. (Photo: Carol Ermakova)
While this is of course a sad time, we also rejoice in all the countless activities our beloved Root Lama and Honorary Member of FPYB so skilfully and compassionately accomplished to benefit all sentient beings. The team at FPYB is committed to continuing his living legacy by producing top-quality study and practice materials, particularly for the ever-growing Western sangha.
Prayers and Practices Page
In an outpouring of devotion, the worldwide sangha joins in offering prayers, Tsog, Guru Yoga and other practices, and we have created a special Prayers and Practices page where you can download many of the texts suggested by Khenchen Tenpa Yungdrung Rinpoche. Since several prayers on this page were translated by Yongdzin Rinpoche himself, they carry his very special blessing.
The page includes new translations into Spanish and Italian.
Yongdzin Rinpoche checking a translation with Carol and Dmitry, Shenten Dargye Ling, 2006. Photo credit: Christophe Moulin
Sharing our Work
This past year, we were delighted to gift Khenpo Lungrig of Shenten Yungdrung Hlatse Gön monastery in Ladakh with dozens of FPYB publications for his monastery’s library. As Khenpo Lungrig told us, he needs these to lend to visitors who are curious to know more about Yungdrung Bön, its teachings and traditions.
Geshe Sherab Nyima and Dmitry Ermakov, Triten Norbutse Monastery. Photo credit: Carol Ermakova
Giving FPYB books to Khenpo Lunrig. Photo credits: Tom Maroshegyi and Carol Ermakova
Many Geshes also asked us for the Tummo: Practice of Self-Blazing Blissful Wisdom from the Compassionate Sun of Mother Tantra and we were happy to oblige.
We also continue to support the work of Triten Norbutse Monastery through directly donating all proceeds from the sale of How to Practise Dzogchen in Daily Life to Association Triten Norbutse.
Supporting Practitioners through Study Materials
As part of the Centenary Celebrations, Drubdra Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin gave a wonderful explanation on the short Long-Life Practice of Drenpa Namkha Yab-Yum mantra. Carol immediately transcribed it, Dmitry put it together, Drubdra Khenpo checked it, and it was offered to the international sangha. You can read it here @ https://yungdrungbon.co.uk/2025/02/03/explanation-of-the-short-long-life-practice-of-drenpa-namkha-yab-yum-tsedrub/
Drubdra Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin teaching in Triten Norbutse monastery. Photo credit: unknown
Our most recent publication, འཆི་རྟགས་གསལ་བའི་སྒྲོན་མ། The Clear Lamp of the Signs of Death, was published to support practitioners attending the retreat led by Shedrub Lopön Lodrö Tsugphü in Germany. This new edition includes a translation of Dharani of the Flaming Topknot as well as new photographs showing how to prepare a ransom to remove obstacles. The book will soon be available in French, too.
Du Tri Su
The Polish sangha reached out to us and asked if they could translate དུ་ཏྲི་སུའི་སྒྲིབ་སྦྱོང་གི་སྒྲུབ་གཞུང་མུན་སེལ་སྒྲོན་མ་འཁོར་བ་དོང་སྤྲུགས་བཞུགས།། THE LAMP WHICH DISPELS DARKNESS: the practice manual of DU TRI SU which purifies defilements and dredges all beings from the depths of Samsara for an upcoming retreat. Of course, we agreed, and are very happy that this powerful practice is now benefiting many in Poland, too.
New Publications
Carol and Dmitry giving Yongdzin Rinpoche a new book with his teachings translated into Russian. Triten Norbutse, March 2025. Photo credit: Largen Lama
This year we released 4 new books in English, 2 in Russian, and 4 in Italian.
The Practice of Equanimous Contemplation – edited transcript of teachings by Yongdzin Rinpoche.
The Clear Lamp of the Signs of Death – edited transcript of teachings by Yongdzin Rinpoche, plus instructions on how to avert inauspicious omens.
Sang for the Lu – short, effective offering to the Lu including auspicious days for this ritual.
Long-Life Practice of Tsewang Rigdzin from the cycle of Tsewang Jyarima – practice plus explanation by Yongdzin Rinpoche.
Found in Translation
Spanish
This year we have at last started a Spanish translation project! The first book is already underway, and several prayers have been uploaded onto FPYB Prayers and Practices page. Thanks to Maria Claudia Garavito for her dedication.
Russian
This year saw two books of Yongdzin Rinpoche’s teachings published in Russia. Touchingly, Dmitry was able to present Rinpoche with a copy at our last meeting earlier this year. We also gifted a copy to Arta Lama, resident lama in Moscow.
Italian
This year, thanks to the hard work of Paola Malatesta, we launched a new series of books in Italian. We now have several books on sale in Italy, published by small independent publishing house Carte Amarante. We look forward to adding new titles.
We have also updated our website to include more materials in Italian.
New titles in Italian. Photo credit: Carol Ermakova
Chinese
Earlier this year, the biography of the great Lady of Bön, Choza Bönmo that Dmitry wrote for the Treasury of Lives was translated into Chinese, as well as Russian and Italian.
Dzogchen Retreats in Italy
FPYB took a great leap of faith this year and organised our first ever teaching & practice retreat! Held in Tuscany, the retreat was led by Drubdra Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin and we were so happy to welcome both him and practitioners from Italy and beyond. Drubdra Khenpo began teaching on Spreading Supreme Wisdom: Concise Explanation and Commentary on the Supplication Prayer to Lord Tapihritsa, Mind Emanation of Kuntu Zangpo.The retreat was such a success that we almost immediately organsied a second, in May 2025, where Khenpo-la finished teaching on this text and also gave many lung-transmissions.
We are planning a third retreat, this time focussing on the Semdzin practices so crucial for stabilising and clarifying our Dzogchen meditation. This is the first time that the teachings of Tönpa Shenrab come to Calabria, and Drubdra Khenpo has kindly agreed to lead Lusang and Lutor rituals on the historic Iberian coast. Full details here.
We made the most of Drubdra Khenpo’s first visit to Italy – he was invited to talk at La Sapienza University in Rome.
Drubdra Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin in Italy. Photo credits: Carol Ermakova and Illaria Sacchelli
Drubdra Khenpo in London
Another first for FPYB this year was collaborating with Jon Kwan for a short weekend of teachings with Drubdra Khenpo in London. We helped out by supplying invocation cards, books, prayers and generally being on hand to field any questions. It was encouraging to see how newcomers responded to Khenpo’s warm teaching style, and engage in Guru Yoga together.
The Nagas
Several sanghas have asked about practices for the Lu or Naga water spirits. Earlier this year we translated a short, effective Lusang offering specifically aimed at these powerful beings, and in May Drubdra Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin led a moving ritual on the banks of the River Thames. Based on this, we have put together detailed guidance on making offerings to Nagas: Lusang, dos and don’t’s and added it to our Short Teachings page.
Bön in Russia
Carol and Dmitry managed to visit the Russian Bönpo sangha last summer. As well as visiting the two impressive teaching and retreat facilities there, Dmitry was also invited to present the latest Russian publications. You can watch a video of one presentation here @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdXMFMKjPEE
A word about finances
Increasing running costs
Although Founding Members Carol and Dmitry still cover all costs connected with FPYB premises (rent, electricity, heating, WiFi etc.), the Foundation’s IT costs are hit by inflation, too. These include things like website hosting, email provider, domain name, spam protection, etc. etc., all of which are vital for keeping FPYB running smoothly. The costs involved in producing books (software, proofing copies, ISBN numbers, legal obligations, sending 6 copies of each books to UK repository libraries etc.) are also going up.
So please, if you would like to see more top-quality Bönpo books, do consider making a regular donation to help offset the costs of book making software. Or sponsor an ISBN number for the next public book by donating €20 Euro.
And finally…
As ever, huge thanks to the Lamas for their generosity, time and patience, to our tiny but hardworking team of unpaid volunteers, including our lovely Trustees, and to all those who support our work. Your messages of encouragement mean a lot to us.
May the compassionate wisdom of Yongdzin Rinpoche and the precious teachings of Yungdrung Bön spread like sunrays, illuminating the path to Buddhahood for all sentient beings!
Yongdzin Rinpoche in his room in Triten Norbutse, March 2025. Photo credit: Largen Lama
Cover image: Founding Members Carol and Dmitry with Yongdzin Rinpoche, Shenten Dargye Ling. Photo credit: Largen Lama