The renowned Tibetan translator, also proficient in medicine, was born in the Earth Horse year of the first Rabjung cycle, corresponding to 958 AD, in Chanyang Wangla of the Ngari Guge region. His father was named Yeshe Woe. Rin-chen bzang-po was exceptionally intelligent from a young age and went to India to study at the age of seventeen, staying there for ten years. He studied under scholars such as Naropa, greatly enhancing his knowledge. He mastered various Buddhist teachings, including the skills of exposition, debate, composition, and translation, becoming highly proficient in all areas of knowledge. Upon returning to Tibet, he engaged in translation work. Initially, he primarily translated various Buddhist scriptures, becoming one of the few great translators of the later spread of Tibetan Buddhism.

At that time, encouraged by the scholar Lhasang, he translated the famous Indian treatise Ashtanga Hridaya by the renowned scholar Asvaghosha (Sanskrit name Ashvaghosha) and the commentaries on this text by the Kashmiri scholar Panchen Dawa Gyalwa, namely Ashtanga Hridaya Tikka and Padartha Chandrika (abbreviated as Chandrika), two significant medical texts, into Tibetan, which had a profound impact.