Tyler Dewar: Rinpoche, thank you for speaking with Bodhi magazine. First, could you tell us a little bit about your gurus and principal teachers? How did they impact you as a practitioner and as a scholar?

DhongThog rinpoche: My frst root guru was the 73rd Khenpo of Ngor Ewam Chöden, a Sakya Monastery in Central Tibet. His name was Ngawang Khyentse Thupten Nyingpo. From him I received the Lamdre Tsokshe teachings, or the “teachings to the assembly on the path and result.” I was thirteen years old when I entered the monastery in the Ngor Region in Central Tibet. I was born in eastern Tibet. At the time, we had to travel by horseback two and half months. There was no road.