Ato Rinpoche was born to Ato Pai Hu and Tashi Tsomo, née Dilgo, in 1933 and was recognised by the 11th Tai Situ as the eighth incarnation of the Tenzin Tulku of Nezang, a Kagyudpa Monastery in Ato, Kham. There he received the education usual for a Lama and completed a three-year meditation retreat. He also studied under the Second Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche and his Uncles Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and the Ninth Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche and was qualified to teach both Mahamudra and Maha Ati. 

In 1957 Ato Rinpoche broadened his studies, spending some time at Thargye Gonpa, a Sakyapa monastery near his home, then travelling to Lhasa, where he studied at Sera Monastery and also at Tsurphu Monastery. There he became an attendant to His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa. 

In 1959 he left Tibet for India, where he was asked by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa to become the Kagyudpa Representative in the Religious Office of H. H. the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala. Later, he was placed in charge of the Young Lamas' Home School in Dalhousie, which provided both a general education and also appropriate teaching for Tulkus from all four lineages of Tibetan Buddhism.

In 1967 he married and moved to Cambridge, England, where he lived with his wife and daughter. He worked as a nurse at Fulbourn Psychiatric Hospital, until his early retirement, due to injury, in 1981.

Ato Rinpoche divided his time between teaching Buddhism and Meditation in the West and re-establishing Nezang Monastery in Kham, which has involved both re-building the fabric and giving teachings and initiations to the next generation of monks at Nezang and other monasteries. 

For many years Ato Rinpoche ran a monthly meditation class that was open to all and often taught at Centres abroad.

Rinpoche passed away on Guru Rinpoche day, 18th May 2024 in the month of Saka Dawa, peacefully at home, as he had wished.