Top: left to right, Rölpe Dorje Rinpoche, Karma Senge Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsering Gyurme, Gesar Mukpo, Lady Diana Mukpo, Ashoka Mukpo, Garwang Rinpoche, Lamen Dr Mitchell Levy. Front: Chandali, David Mukpo. Taken at Surmang Namgyaltse, 2002.

The Mukpo Family Lineage

Surmang is the spiritual home of the lineage of reincarnated Buddhist teachers known as the Trungpa Tulkus. They trace their ancestry back over the centuries. The Vidyadhara, the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa was the eleventh Trungpa Tulku. He was born into the Mukpo clan of Tibet, whose great ancestor was the famous monarch Gesar of Ling.

The Mukpo clan includes the Vidyadhara’s surviving family, who also bear the name Mukpo, in addition to any other honorific titles or religious names also given to them.

This direct family connection between the Mukpo clan and Surmang—the religious and temporal seat of the Trungpa Tulkus—is at the heart of the Konchok Foundation.

The Foundation is named after Lady Kunchok Palden, the mother of the Vidyadhara’s eldest son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. She fled Tibet into exile with the Vidyadhara in 1959 and revisited Surmang again for the first time in 2001 when she accompanied the Sakyong. For a description of this visit, please see Auspicous Connections.

Lady Diana Mukpo, the Vidyadhara’s widow and holder of the title Sakyong Wangmo, is one of the founders of the Konchok Foundation. Together with her current husband, Acharya Mitchell Levy, MD, she visited Surmang in 2002. For a description of this visit please see Visit of Lady Diana Mukpo and Acharya Mitchell Levy 2002.