Olivier Reigen Wang-Genh

Olivier Reigen Wang-Genh (born 17 April 1955 in Molsheim, Alsace) is a French Sōtō Zen monk in the Deshimaru lineage and the founding abbot of the temple Taikōsan Ryūmon-ji at Weiterswiller in northern Alsace (per fr.wikipedia, Association Zen Internationale, l'Alsace). He encountered Sōtō Zen in March 1973 and was ordained as a monk in 1977 by Taisen Deshimaru, whose teaching he followed until Deshimaru's death in 1982^[1].

From 1973 onward he developed the Strasbourg dōjō and took over its direction in 1986. Beginning in 1987, with the support of the German and French sanghas, he founded dōjōs across Baden-Württemberg, Alsace, and Basel — establishing the trans-Rhenan AZI network that today links French and German-speaking practitioners. In 1999 he founded Taikōsan Ryūmon-ji (太古山龍門寺, "Temple of the Dragon Gate of the Primordial Mountain") in Weiterswiller; he became its official abbot in 2010. In 2001 he received dharma transmission (shihō) from the Japanese master Dōshō Saikawa, and in 2004 was appointed kyōshi (教師, missionary monk) of the Sōtō school^[2].

His institutional record is unusually broad: he served as president of the Union Bouddhiste de France (2007–2012, 2015–2017) and délégué president since 2021, vice-president (2012–2015, 2017–2019), and co-president (2019–2020); he has been president of the Association Zen Internationale since 2015 and of the Communauté bouddhiste d'Alsace since 2010. As UBF president he represents Buddhism in the Conférence des Responsables de Culte en France. He was named Knight of the Order of National Merit in 2016^[3].

His books include Shushōgi: commentaires et enseignements (Éd. Ryumon Ji, 2006), C'est encore loin l'Éveil (Le Relié, 2020), and Six Paramita (Ryumon Ji)^[4].