Iván Densho Quintero

Iván Denshō Quintero (b. 1961 in Bogotá, Colombia) is a Colombian Sōtō Zen monk and the founding abbot of Daishinji ("Templo Zen Mente Magnánima"), the principal Sōtōshū-recognised Zen temple in South America^[1][2]. He began studying and practising Sōtō Zen in 1984 and travelled to Europe later that decade to train within the Association Zen Internationale founded by Taisen Deshimaru^[3].

He received his first monastic ordination in Paris in 1987 under the AZI, taking the religious name **Tendō**^[3]. After settling back in Colombia, in 1989 he founded the meditation centre in Bogotá that would become the Comunidad Soto Zen de Colombia^[2][4]. In October 2001 he was formally re-ordained as a Sōtō monk at Antaiji in Japan by abbot Shinyū Miyaura, receiving the religious name **Denshō** (伝照, "transmitted light"); during these years he also studied with Dokushō Villalba in Spain and stayed at the San Francisco Zen Center founded by Shunryu Suzuki^[3].

In March 2009 he received Dharma transmission (shihō) from **Shōhaku Okumura Rōshi**, abbot of the Sanshin Zen Community in Bloomington, Indiana, becoming one of Okumura's small group of dharma-heirs^[2][5]. He was officially recognised as a Sōtōshū teacher in 2009 and named *kokusai fukyōshi* — international missionary priest of the Japanese Sōtō school — in 2013^[1]. On 12 February 2023 the Sōtōshū formally proclaimed his temple **Daishinji** in Bogotá the first Sōtō Zen temple of South America under the school's official register^[1].

Beyond Bogotá he serves as abbot of the **Dokan Group in Caracas, Venezuela**, extending the Sōtō presence into the Andean and Caribbean regions^[2]. He is the author of *El despertar Zen: el camino de un monje colombiano* (Editorial Kairós), *Conciencia Zen: reflexiones para la vida cotidiana*, and *ZEN, un camino de transformación*^[6].