Kathmandu, May 21

The autobiography of Guru Shangpa Rinpoche, Aavatar ko Rupmaa Mero Jeevenyatra (My Life Journey in a Form of an Avatar) was unveiled amidst a programme in the capital today.

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs  Sher Bahadur Tamang jointly unveiled the biography with the Rinpoche and urged all to follow the path of education and revere one’s mother as a  source of inspiration.

Speaking at the book unveiling ceremony, the Rinpoche  said, “Let my life and struggle be learned as a cautionary tale by the  people, who I think are inflicting pain and misery through artificial  things, while they do not truly know about pain.” The Rinpoche also  talked about his lifestyle, his childhood suffering and offered  gratitude to his mother for all the pain she bore raising him.

Shangpa Rinpoche is the head of Karma Kagud sect of Buddhism. He heads various gumbas in Nepal like Hemza Gumba of Pokhara, Tharpa Choling Ani Gumba of Muktinath, Kuchap Ternga Gumba of Jomson, Kirtipur Gumba in Kirtipur and Dhugyud Choling Gumba in Lumbini.

He is also a social worker who chairs the Shangpa Foundation, which has helped hundreds of impoverished children in  the western part of the country.

A revered mentor of Nepali Buddhists, Shangpa Rinpoche was born in Dolpa district of Nepal and later migrated to Tibet with his parents. Later, at the age of nine he settled in Pokhara with his mother after the death of his father where he received education in a local gumba.

Later he was recognised as the second reincarnation of Shangpa Rinpoche, and received the title Shangpa Rinpoche by 15th reincarnated his holiness Karmapa.