Venerable Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche was born in the Dhoshul region of Kham in eastern Tibet on June 10, 1950. On that summer day in the family tent, Rinpoche's birth caused his mother no pain. The next day, his mother, Perna Lhadze, moved the bed where she had given birth. Beneath it she found growing a beautiful and fragrant flower which she plucked and offered to Chenrezig on the family altar.

Soon after his birth three head lamas from Jadchag Monastery came to his home and recognized him as the reincarnation of Khenpo Sherab Khyentse. Khenpo Sherab Khyentse, who had been the former head abbot lama at Gochen Monastery, was a renowned scholar and practitioner who spent much of his life in retreat.

Rinpoche's first dharma teacher was his father, Lama Chimed Namgyal Rinpoche. Beginning his schooling at the age of five, he entered Gochen Monastery. His studies were interrupted by the Chinese invasion and his family's escape to India. In India his father and brother continued his education until he entered the Nyingmapa Monastic School of northern India, where he studied until 1967. He then entered the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, which was then a part of Sanskrit University in Varanasi, where he received his B.A. degree in 1975. He also attended Nyingmapa University in West Bengal, where he received another B.A. and an M.A. in 1977.

In 1978, Rinpoche was enthroned as the abbot of the Wish-Fulfilling Nyingmapa Institute in Boudanath, Nepal, by H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, where he taught poetry, grammar, and philosophy. In 1981, H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche appointed Rinpoche as the abbot of the Dorje Nyingpo center in Paris, France. In 1982 he was asked to work with H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche at the Yeshe Nyingpo center in New York. During the 1980s, until H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche's mahaparinirvana in 1987, Rinpoche continued working closely with H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, often traveling with him as his translator and attendant.

Khenpo Tsewang Rinpoche is the author of Light of Fearless Indestructible Wisdom: The Life and Legacy of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, published in both Tibetan and English. He has also authored a book of poetry on the life of Guru Rinpoche entitled Praise to the Lotus Born: A Verse Garland of Waves of Devotion, and a unique two-volume cultural and religious history of Tibet entitled The Six Sublime Pillars of the Nyingma School, which details the historical bases of the dharma in Tibet from the sixth through ninth centuries. At present, this is one of the only books that conveys the dharma activities of this historical period in such depth, and was even encouraged by H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche to be completed as an important contribution to the history of the kama lineage.

The two brothers, Venerable Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Venerable Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, were born into a family that had practiced Vajrayana Buddhism for generations; among their ancestors were many great scholars and practitioners.

They maintain active travel and teaching schedules that include annual visits to their centers where they give talks, teachings, and individual meditation instruction to their devoted sangha (community) of students. Their dynamic teachings, skillful insights, vibrant personalities and humorous wit make the simplest to the most complex teachings of Buddhism applicable to every aspect of our busy Western lives.

The Rinpoches are fully versed in the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Schools, and are considered masters of Dzogchen. The Khenpo Rinpoches hold the transmissions of the Nyingma Kama, and Terma Lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, and have received many honors, appointments, and recognition from His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and other Tibetan spiritual leaders.