A lineage that must remain alive today

The Manang story crosses generations. We look back not to build a monument to anyone, but to ask a present-day question: practice once lived inside family life, work, land, and village life. How can that way of practicing continue now?

Not a title. A way of living.

History tells us where we came from. But Rinpoche repeatedly brings the story back to ordinary life: how people worked, how they treated others, and how practice lived inside family and village life. What matters is not the claim of who we are, but whether this way of living and practicing remains alive.

Respect was not something they asked for

> "I do not think many Manangi people even know that their families have > this kind of heritage. It is not their interest to say, "I am this and > that," and ask people to give them credit or respect. They earned > respect through their own presence, their own pure work, and their > pure practice."

--- GarTul Chimi Dorjee Rinpoche · Manang · 28 July 2026

Papa Rinpoche

The villagers called him Papa Rinpoche.

For four or five decades, people from more than forty villages came to him when they needed help. Yet what Rinpoche remembers first is not a title, but how Papa Rinpoche lived.

What truly remained

Beyond wisdom, there was love and warmth.

> "So, generation after generation, the wisdom was there. But most > importantly, the love was there. The warmth was there."

--- GarTul Chimi Dorjee Rinpoche · Manang · 28 July 2026

The Third Generation

When it reached the third generation, the question became: what do we pass on?

After the previous generations passed, responsibility came to GarTul Chimi Dorjee Rinpoche. In 2019, H.H. Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang entrusted him with the work in Manang. From then on, the question was not only about this generation, but the next.

Why Rinpoche returned to Manang

"Go do some work for Manang."

Rinpoche had never planned to become someone who ran projects. What held him in Manang was the people, the land, and a connection that was difficult to put into a project plan. Later, his teacher told him to go and do some work for Manang.

> "How about now you go? Do some work for Manang. Do some activities. > Then anytime, any moment you want, you can come back."

--- Garchen Rinpoche · ·

> "Stretch my limbs. Stretch my heart."

--- GarTul Chimi Dorjee Rinpoche · Manang · 28 July 2026

For Rinpoche, the work therefore became more than an external project. The work itself also became part of practice.