Wangyal, Geshe
| English Phonetics | Geshe Wangyal |
|---|---|
| Sort Name | Wangyal, Ngawang |
| Birth: | 1901/10/15 |
|---|---|
| Death: | 1983/01/30 |
| Place of birth: | Astrakhan province, Russia |
Tibetan calendar dates
Biographical Information
Ngawang Wangyal (Tibetan: ངག་དབང་དབང་རྒྱལ་, Wylie: Ngag-dbang Dbang-rgyal), aka Sogpo (Mongolian) Wangyal, popularly known as "Geshe Wangyal" and "America's first lama," was a Buddhist lama and scholar of Kalmyk origin who was born in the Astrakhan province in southeast Russia sometime in 1901. He developed the code for the CIA that aided the Dalai Lam's escape from Tibet, spearheaded a two decade long undertaking to lift political proscriptions on US visits by the Dalai Lama, opened the first Tibetan Buddhist dharma center in the West, and trained the first generation of Tibetan Buddhist scholars in America. He is considered a "founding figure" of Buddhism in the West.
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Names[edit]
Wylie: Dge bshes dbang rgyal
Thub bstan dbang rgyal
Other Transliterations in use:
Geshe Wangyal
Thupten Wangyal
Wangyal, Thupten
Dates[edit]
birth 1902
death 1983
Affiliation[edit]
Geluk
Bka'-gdams-pa
Dga'-ldan-pa