History
Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche and the History of Bon : Bon is the ancient autochthonous pre-Buddhist religious tradition of Tibet, still practiced today by many Tibetans in Tibet and in India. The founder of the Bon religion in the human world is Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche.

According to traditional biographical account, in a previous age Shenrab was called Salwa and studied the Bon doctrines with his two brothers Dagpa and Shepa in the Sidpa Yesang heaven under guidance of the Bon sage Bumtri Logi Cesan. After finishing their studies, the three brothers visited the God of Compassion, Shenlha Okar, to ask him how they could alleviate the suffering of sentient beings. Shenlha Okar advised them to act as guides to mankind in three successive world ages. Dagpa taught in the past world age; Salwa manifested as Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche and is the teacher and guide of the present world age; the youngest brother, Shepa, will come to teach in the next world age.

Tonpa Shenrab descended from the heavenly realms and manifested at the foot of Mount Meru with two of his closest disciples, Malo and Yulo. Then he took birth as a prince, the son of King Gyal Tokar and Queen Zanga Ringum, in a luminous garden full of marvelous flowers in a palace south of Mount Yungdrung Gutseg, at dawn on the eighth day of the first month of the first wood male mouse year (1857 B.C.). He married while young and had children. At the age of thirty-one he renounced his worldly life and started to practice austerity and teach the Bon doctrine. Throughout his life his efforts to propagate the Bon teachings were obstructed by the demon Khyabpa Lagring, who fought to destroy Shenrab’s work; eventually he was converted and became Shenrab’s disciple. Once, Khyabpa stole Shenrab’s horses and Shenrab pursued him through Zhang Zhung into southern Tibet. Shen-rab entered Tibet by crossing Mount Kongpo.

This was Shenrab’s only visit to Tibet. At that time the Tibetans practiced ritual sacrifices. Shenrab quelled the local demons and imparted instructions on the performance of rituals using offering.

Eighteen hundred years after the passing of Tonpa Shenrab, Mucho Demdug came from heaven to Olmo Lung Ring as the speech emanation of Tonpa Shenrab. Mucho Demdug turned the wheel of Bon so that all the teachings of Tonpa Shenrab would be organized and classified. He taught many students, the best known of which are refered to as the Six Great Scholars or the Six Ornaments of the World. They translated the Bon teachings into their own languages and spread them throughout their native lands. The Six Great master are Mutsa Tahe, Tritok Partsa, and Huli Paryag from Tagzig; Lhadag Ngagdo from India; Legtang Mangpo from China; and Sertok Chejam from Trom. Later, in the eleventh century, the great treasure reaver Tentron Chepo, also known as Shen Chen Luga (A.D. 969-1035) and others recovered many of these hidden treausures of Bon. Shenchen Luga and many disciples, but three of them (Dru Je Yungdrung, Zhu Ye Legpo and Paton Palchok Zangpo) are considered his many successors. The first is Dru Je Yungdrung Lam, who established the Yeru Wensa Kha monastery in A.D. 1012 in the Tsang province of Tibet. Yeru Wensa Kha became a center of Bon education. Unfortunately Yeru Wensa Kha Monastery was destroyed by flood and landslide. Inorder to preserve the Bon traditions for the benefit of all sentient beings, Nyamed Sherab Gyaltsen (1356-1415) in 1405 to established a new monastery, known as Tashi Menri Ling, in Tobgyal village of Tsang Province. Since then, Menri monastery has become known as the “Mother Monastery” of all Bonpos.

When the Chinese annexed Tibet in 1959, many bonpo monks and laypersons went into exile in India and Nepal.

In 1967 H.E. Yongzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche established the “New Tobgyal Bonpo Settlement “of Dolanji, in Himachal Pradesh in India. And H.H. the 33rd Menri Trizin Rinpoche build the Bonpo monastery at Dolanji.

In 1978 the Bon Dialectic School, which offers the full traditional training of Yeru Wensa Kha and Menri, was established at Menri Monastery. His Holiness the 33rd Menri Trizin takes care of the requirements for the young monks and monks graduate from Bon Dialectic School at Menri, receiving Geshe Degree.

The Bonpo-department at Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (CIHTS) was established in 1990 under the guidance and supervision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in order to preserve the Tibetan indigenous religion. Initially we started this department with only one teacher i.e. Geshe Goring Tenzin Chogden and four students, Drugse Tenzin, Kalsang Norbu, Tsewang Gyalpo and Tsewang Paljor. Currently we have almost 35 students and five teachers in our Bonpo department and many students had already graduated from here and are engaged in social welfare in different part of the societies.