Khenchen Namdrol Tsering Rinpoche (Tib. མཁན་ཆེན་རྣམ་གྲོལ་ཚེ་རིང་, Wyl. mkhan chen rnam grol tshe ring) was born in 1953 in Samar, in Derge, Kham, Eastern Tibet. At the age of seven, in 1959, he fled Tibet together with His Holiness Penor Rinpoche and reached Bylakuppe in South India. He became a monk at the age of thirteen and learned reading and writing directly from Penor Rinpoche.
In 1968 he completed the five hundred thousand accumulations of the preliminary practices (ngöndro). He began his studies with the great Dzogchen master Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, receiving the Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattvas, the Vishesha-stava (Praise of the Distinctive Qualities of the Buddha), and Mipham Rinpoche's Roar of the Lion. From Khenpo Khedrub he received many of Mipham Rinpoche's works, including commentaries on the Abhidharmakosha, the Madhyamakalankara, and Chandrakirti's Madhyamakavatara. He went on to study the Bodhicharyavatara, Nagarjuna's Collection of Middle Way Reasoning under Khenpo Palden Sherab, and then spent five years in Sikkim studying Prajnaparamita, Madhyamaka, Pramana and other subjects with Khenpo Tsöndrü.
In 1978 he returned to Namdroling Monastery together with Khenpo Tsöndrü, and the two of them established the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, where Khenchen has played a central role in teaching and administration ever since. In 1983 His Holiness Penor Rinpoche conferred upon him the title of Khenpo.
In 1988, and again in 1992, he traveled to Serta in Kham to receive teachings from Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok, including three major commentaries on the Guhyagarbha Tantra, the Chetsün Nyingtik, and profound Dzogchen instructions. He became one of Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok's foremost disciples and accompanied him on his 1993 tour of Europe and America.
In 1998, under the guidance of Penor Rinpoche, he established the Palyul Retreat Centre, Samten Ösal Ling, in Pharping, Nepal, where he spends much of his time when not teaching at the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute or abroad. Universally regarded as one of the foremost living authorities on the Guhyagarbha Tantra, he is one of the three most senior khenpos of Namdroling Monastery. In June 2012 he concluded a series of teachings on Longchenpa's Treasury of Word and Meaning in California, describing it as the most significant achievement of his life.