Wangdak, Pema

PersonType	Category:Tibetan Buddhist Teachers Category:Khenpos
MainNamePhon	Khenpo Pema Wangdak
nametitlepre	Khenpo
bio	Khenpo Pema became a monk at the age of seven and later attended the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Benares, receiving his Acharya degree from Sanskrit University in 1980. In 1982 he was sent by His Holiness Sakya Trizin to teach in New York City, becoming the first of the younger generation of Tibetan teachers from the Sakya School to settle in the United States. He founded the Vikramasila Foundation in 1989 to support educational initiatives both in the United States and abroad. The foundation now encompasses the Palden Sakya Centers for Tibetan Buddhist studies and mediation in New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Maine, and Ohio; the Pema Ts'al School in Mundgod, India, for Tibetan lay children; Pema Ts’al Sakya Monastic Institute in Pokhara, Nepal; and Pema Ts'al School in New York City, whose curriculum is modeled on that of Sakya College in India. In addition to these institutional projects, Khenpo Pema has a special interest in Tibetan language pedagogy and is the creator of a form of Tibetan Braille known as Bur Yig. He received the title of Khenpo from His Holiness Sakya Trizin in 2007. In recognition of his humanitarian work around the world, Khenpo Pema was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2009. He is the first Tibetan to receive this honor.
associatedwebsite	https://www.vikramasila.org
affiliation	Vikramaśila Foundation
religiousaffiliation	Sakya
education	Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Benares; Acharya degree from Sanskrit University in 1980
IsInGyatsa	No
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The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre.