Lob Chi

senior teacher, or principal, is called Lob Chi. The title Lob Chi has traditionally referred to the principal of the shedra. If Lob Chi refers to the highest teacher of the shedra, as it has, and the titles of Khenpo simply referred to those who had achieved the highest degree of study, then Khenpo would be below the Lob Chi. At the time when the king of Tibet invited Shantarakshita to give monk's vows to the first 7 monks in Tibet, Guru Padmasambhava was a tantric teacher there. At that point, Shantarakshita was referred to as Khenpo because he was the giver of monk's vows, and Padmasambhava was referred to as Dorje Lobpon, not Khenpo, because he had two consorts and therefore was not a keeper of the full vinaya vows.