Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen

Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, 1894–1977, known also as Negi Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen ,  Tenzin Gyaltsen (bstan 'dzin rgyal mtshan), and various other names like Kunu (khu nu) Rinpoche, Kunu Lama and Negi Lama (ne gi bla ma), was born in 1894 in the village of Sunam which lies in the Kinnaur district of India in the western Himalayas. He passed away at the age of 82 at Shashur Monastery in the Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachel Pradesh on February 23, 1977, while teaching the final page of Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation. Khunu Rinpoche was not officially recognized as a tulku, nor was he an ordained Buddhist monk, but a layman (, Skt. upāsaka) who had taken lay practitioner's vows before becoming a Tibetan Buddhist master.

The 14th Dalai Lama’s "respect for him was profound: He would prostrate to Rinpoche in the dust when they met at the Great Stupa in Bodh Gaya." Known as the “Precious One from Kinnaur,” his birthplace in northern India, according to Gene Smith's research on reminiscences, interviews, and writings of H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche, and Matthieu Ricard, his profound knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism led him to be recognized by lamas of different schools as one of the "greatest Tibetan lamas of his time although not ethnically Tibetan." He lived the life of a wandering yogi with a devoted female companion, the Drikung Khandro. He is renowned as one of the influential teachers in the Rimé (non-sectarian) movement within Tibetan Buddhism, and as a Dzogchen master.

A foremost scholar of Sanskrit and Classical Tibetan "as a prerequisite to the study of the religious texts" who "gained a reputation for extraordinary scholarship," Khunu Rinpoche traveled widely in Tibet and India disseminating essential teachings of Buddhist philosophy, and was known for shunning attention. The 14th Dalai Lama found it difficult to locate him and sent emissaries to Buddhist pilgrimage sites and the places where Khunu Lama was known to have taught. He was accidentally discovered living incognito in a Shiva temple in Varanasi. The Dalai Lama visited him, and after initially being turned away, asked Khunu Lama to teach the younger tulkus who had accompanied him into exile, and to teach him personally as well.

His students include Drikung Khandro, Khenpo Konchok Gyaltsen, Lamkhen Gyalpo Rinpoche and the 14th Dalai Lama. While the Dalai Lama has highly qualified teachers and debate partners, he used to clarify philosophical concepts in discussions with Khunu Lama and called him the "Shantideva of our time." Among several teachings that the Dalai Lama received from Khunu Rinpoche was the celebrated Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra or Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life by Shantideva. His Holiness said Khunu Lama Rinpoché was a lay practitioner, but he "had no hesitation in receiving a thorough explanation of Shantideva’s ‘Way of the Bodhisattva’ from him," and often refers to him as "one of my root gurus" when teaching.

His seminal work on bodhicitta was translated and published under the title of Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea: Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta by Wisdom Publications in 1999.

Two reincarnations of Khunu Lama have been identified, both of whom are teachers of Buddhism. Jangchhub Nyima was born to a Tibetan father and Danish mother and currently teaches in India and Denmark. Tenzin Priyadarshi was born into a family of Brahmin parents in Bihar, India, and is known for his continued interest in Sanskrit Buddhist literature, and was the first Buddhist Chaplain at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.