Bön: ranks and lineage

IColours

Colour used for this page of the library: Maroon (dark purplish red) #7A2E2A. Every colour code is approximate, since most paths name their colours without publishing codes.

Principal colour the colour of the path

Place of worship real sanctuaries

Ritual colours by occasion and season

Mourning and avoided colours

IIRanks

Bön is the indigenous religion of Tibet. Its main tradition today calls itself Yungdrung Bön (eternal Bön) and reveres Tonpa Shenrab as its founder. It has no central administrative church, but the Menri Trizin, abbot of Menri Monastery, is regarded as the spiritual leader of the whole religion. Menri Monastery was founded in 1405 in Tsang and rebuilt at Dolanji, India in 1967.

1. 1
   Menri Trizin (Throne holder of Menri) སྨན་རི་ཁྲི་འཛིན (sman ri khri 'dzin) · Menri Trizin, throne holder of Menri

   Abbot of Menri Monastery and spiritual leader of Bön. The 34th is Lungtok Dawa Dhargye Rinpoche, chosen on 1 January 2018.

2. 2
   Khenpo (abbot) མཁན་པོ (mkhan po) · Abbot

   Abbot of a monastery.

3. 3
   Lopön, Ponlop (head teacher) སློབ་དཔོན (slob dpon), དཔོན་སློབ (dpon slob) · Senior teacher, head tutor

   Principal teacher of a monastery. Lopön Tenzin Namdak holds the title Yongdzin and founded Triten Norbutse in 1987.

4. 4
   Geshe དགེ་བཤེས (dge bshes) · Geshe, highest academic degree

   The highest degree, after a 13-year programme at Triten Norbutse covering Sutra, Tantra, Dzogchen, debate, cosmology, astrology, Tibetan medicine, language and sacred arts.

5. 5
   Drangsong (fully ordained monk) དྲང་སྲོང (drang srong) · Fully ordained monk

   A fully ordained monk who keeps strict celibacy.

6. 6
   Novice monk Novice

   no source found

Followers: Bönpo (followers of Bön). no source found

IIIForms of address

IVVestments by rank

Flat drawings made from the descriptions in the sources, with no people shown. Colours are approximate.

VLine of succession

Bön reveres Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche as its founding Teacher. The teaching passed through several parallel family and monastic lineages (Dru, Zhu, Me, Yeru), and from 1405 Menri Monastery became the main centre. The Menri Trizin, abbot of Menri, is chosen by a ritual lot and regarded as the spiritual leader of Yungdrung Bön.

Bön: from Tonpa Shenrab to Menri

1. by Bön tradition, long before the time of the Buddha ShakyamuniTonpa Shenrab Miwoche སྟོན་པ་གཤེན་རབ་མི་བོ་ཆེ (ston pa gshen rab mi bo che)

   Founder and enlightened teacher of Yungdrung Bön.

2. 996 to 1035Shenchen Luga གཤེན་ཆེན་ཀླུ་དགའ (gshen chen klu dga')

   Treasure revealer of 1017, source of the Dru, Zhu and Me lineages.

3. founded 1072, damaged by flood 1386Yeru Wensakha Monastery གཡས་རུ་དབེན་ས་ཁ

   Major Dru-lineage monastery, predecessor of Menri.

4. #1 · 1356 to 1415, founded Menri 1405Nyame Sherab Gyaltsen མཉམ་མེད་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན (mnyam med shes rab rgyal mtshan)

   Founded Menri in 1405, first Menri Trizin.

5. #2 · abbot from 1415Rinchen Gyaltsen རིན་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མཚན

   Second abbot of Menri.

6. founded 1834Yungdrung Ling གཡུང་དྲུང་གླིང

   Second great Bön monastery.

7. #31 · 1910 to c. 1954 or 1958Nyima Wangyal ཉི་མ་དབང་རྒྱལ

   31st Menri Trizin, reformed the curriculum.

8. #33 · 1929 to 14/9/2017, chosen 1968, enthroned 4/3/1969Lungtok Tenpai Nyima ལུང་རྟོགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ (lung rtogs bstan pa'i nyi ma)

   33rd Menri Trizin, rebuilt Menri in exile at Dolanji.

9. 1967Menri re-established at Dolanji

   Menri refounded in exile in India.

10. 27/1/1925 to 12/6/2025Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak སློབ་དཔོན་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྣམ་དག

    Senior master, co-founder of Menri at Dolanji and founder of Triten Norbutse.

11. #34 · born 29/11/1972, chosen 1/1/2018Lungtok Dawa Dhargye (Dawa Dargyal) ལུང་རྟོགས་ཟླ་བ་དར་རྒྱས

    34th and current Menri Trizin, chosen by divination on 1 January 2018.

A venerated figure: the library shows no portrait, only the name inside a round seal.

VIOrdination and transmission

Bön monasteries developed on the Buddhist monastic model from the 15th century. Monks take drangsong vows and study toward the Geshe degree. The Menri Trizin is chosen by the Tagdril lot, after invoking the deities and protectors of Yungdrung Bön to reveal the truth.

1. Entering the monastery, taking vowsRequirement: no source foundRite: no source found
2. Geshe degreeRequirement: A 13-year programmeRite: Examinations and debate. No source found for details of the conferral rite
3. Choosing the Menri TrizinRequirement: Qualified Geshes are candidatesRite: The Tagdril lot. In 2018 the name of Geshe Dawa Dhargye appeared on the morning of 1 January.

VIIWhere the sources disagree

• Reversed ritual direction: Per Kvaerne (Encyclopedia of Religion) confirms that Bönpos circumambulate counterclockwise, the opposite of the Indian and Buddhist pradakṣiṇā. Turning prayer wheels counterclockwise was not cited from a separate source.
• Blue piping on Tibetan monastic robes: the Bön teaching says it is a mark of Bön. The Tibetan Nuns Project says the blue piping commemorates Chinese monks who helped when the Dharma was nearly destroyed in Tibet. The two sources disagree.
• The assignment names maroon, yellow and blue robes. There are sources for maroon and yellow in Tibetan robes generally, and for blue linked with Bön. No official source from Menri or Triten Norbutse was found describing how Bön robes differ from Buddhist robes.
• Wikipedia distinguishes three layers: old Bön (before 618), classical Yungdrung Bön (10th and 11th centuries), and New Bön, Bön Sar (14th century). This material covers only Yungdrung Bön.
• The old colour #7A3B2E (Tibetan earthy reddish brown) gives no original colour name. Proposal: change the basis to dmar smug, with a code near #7A2E2A.
• mau-that.json gives wall #8E2A1F, background #3F1C14 and accent #E3A93B for bon. The note on red pillars, brocade and butter lamps rates itself as medium reliability, and this search also found no source specific to Bön shrines.
• Hierarchy: placing Khenpo above Lopön follows common practice. No Bön source gives a clear ranking. No source found for the name of the Bön novice grade.
• The Tibetan script and hex codes were entered by the researcher according to common usage and need checking by a reader of Tibetan.
• The numbering of the Menri Trizins varies. The list of Per Kvaerne (Acta Orientalia 1971, on Himalayan Art Resources) places Lungtok Tenpai Nyima as 34th, with several gaps (25, 28, 30, 31). Menri and the Bön community call him the 33rd and the present holder the 34th. The English Wikipedia page on Bon also gives him as 34th. The full list here follows Kvaerne, with notes on the Menri count.
• The names of holders 25 to 32 have no consistent source. Menri calls the 30th Tenpa Lodro and the 31st Nyima Wangyal (1910 to 1954, some sources give death in 1958). The Kvaerne list gives the 32nd as Tenpai Nyima and the 33rd as Tenpai Gyaltsen (1912 to 1969). The list at ravencypresswood.com differs again. The Tibetan text Hagiographies of the Successive Abbots of Menri is needed to settle this.
• Succession dispute after 2017: the sources consulted (ybmcs.org, Ligmincha, Buddhistdoor, Tibetan Review, Himalayan Bon Foundation) all record the choice of Dawa Dhargye by Tagdril on 1/1/2018 without naming a rival claimant. No public source on an opposing candidate was found. If the Teacher has a separate source on a dispute, it should be added.
• The enthronement date of the 34th Menri Trizin varies: ybmcs.org gives the throne sitting as 20/2/2018, Buddhistdoor and Ligmincha give the enthronement as 6/9/2018. These may be two different ceremonies.
• The original Menri in Tsang, Tibet was partly rebuilt after 1980 and has its own abbot. The name of the present abbot there could not be verified.
• Nyame Sherab Gyaltsen and Shenchen Luga are marked sacred because they are venerated as saints and their images appear in Bön shrines. This is a cautious choice.
• Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak died on 12/6/2025 according to Wikipedia.
• No free image of the 34th Menri Trizin was found on Commons.
• No organised Bön community was found in Vietnam, so no Vietnam line is included.

VIIISources

?Quick Questions

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