Property:Bio
From Tsadra Commons
This is a property of type Text.
G
At the age of 13, he joined Shugding Monastery in Tibet and memorized prayers and ritual texts. When he was 20, he joined Sera Monastery in Lhasa and learned language and logic. At 23, he left Tibet and arrived at Sera Monastery in India to pursue education in Buddhist studies. He stood 3rd in his exams on the Middle Way and Perfection Studies and carried out research on logic and epistemology as part of his Lharam Geshe training and sat the exams for it. He also stood 3rd in the examination in tantric studies. In 2020, he sat in the final defense for the Lharam Geshe degree. In addition to his regular academic achievements, he also won the first prize in a literary competition in Tibet, was the sole prize winner for literary composition during the international commemoration of Tsongkhapa, and also received many other prizes for literary writings. He served as the 11th President of the Khampa Literary Society and has authored many works including a commentary on ''Pramāṇasiddhi'' and two books of poetry entitled ''Sweets of the Mute.'' He is currently a researcher. +
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (Tibetan: བཀལ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ།, Wylie: bskal bzang rgya mtsho) (b. 1931) is a Buddhist monk, meditation teacher, scholar, and author. He is the founder and former spiritual director of the New Kadampa Tradition-International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT-IKBU), an "entirely independent" modern Buddhist order that presents itself to be a tradition based on the teachings of the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, which has grown to become a worldwide Buddhist organization which claims to have 1,300 centers around the world, most study and meditation centers, with some retreat centers. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelsang_Gyatso Source Accessed Mar 3, 2021]) +
Geshe Langri Tangpa (Tib. དགེ་བཤེས་གླང་རི་ཐང་པ་, Wyl. dge bshes glang ri thang pa) (1054-1123 ), aka. Langthangpa Dorje Senge (གླང་ཐང་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སེངྒེ་glang thang pa rdo rje seng+ge) — a famous Kadampa master and disciple of Potowa Rinchen Sal, who is best known for composing the ''Eight Verses of Training the Mind''. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Geshe_Langri_Tangpa Source Accessed Nov 8, 2024]) +
Venerable Geshe Lhakdor is the Director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala. Geshe La was born in western Tibet and came to India, completing advanced degrees at the University of Delhi and Punjab and continuing on to complete a full Geshe degree at Drepung Loseling Monastic University in south India. He has held many posts in support of the Dharma, as well as translating many texts, some from Tibetan to English, and some from English to Tibetan including:
*Shantideva's Compendium of Precepts (Shikshasamucchaya)
*The Three Essential Meanings (Nyingpo Donsum)
*Tsongkhapa's Three Principal Aspects of Path
*Words of Manjushri by the Fifth Dalai lama (into English)
*Versified Lamrim by Dvagpo Ngawang Drakpa (Into English)
*Universe in a Single Atom (into Tibetan)
**Co-translator, co-editor, co-producer (partial list)
***The Way to Freedom, by HH Dalai Lama, HarperCollins (USA)
***The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace by HH Dalai Lama, HarperCollins
***Awakening the Mind and Lightening the Heart by HH Dalai Lama, HarperCollins
***Stages of Meditation by HH Dalai Lama, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca NY, USA
***His Holiness's Commentary of Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom (into Tibetan)
***Kindness, Clarity and Insight by HH Dalai Lama (into Tibetan)
***His Holiness's Commentary on Nagarjuna's Letter to the Friend (into Tibetan)
***His Holiness's Extensive Commentary on Thogme Zangpo's 37 Bodhisattava Practices. +
Born in the Tsang region of Tibet in 1923, Geshe Lhundub Sopa was both a spiritual master and a respected academic. He rose from a humble background to complete his geshe studies at Sera Je Monastic University in Lhasa with highest honors and was privileged to serve as a debate opponent for the Dalai Lama’s own geshe examination in 1959. He moved to New Jersey in the United States in 1963 and in 1967 began teaching in the Buddhist Studies Program at University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he professor emeritus. In 1975, he founded the Deer Park Buddhist Center in Oregon, Wisconsin, site of the Dalai Lama’s first Kalachakra initiation granted in the West. He is the author of several books in English, including the five-volume comprehensive teaching, ''Steps on the Path to Enlightenment''. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/geshe-lhundub-sopa/ Source Accessed April 10, 2020]) +
The late Geshe Lobsang Dargyay was trained at Drepung Monastery in Tibet. He got his doctorate in Buddhist and Tibetan Studies from the Ludwig Maximilians Universität and held teaching and research positions in Vienna, Hamburg, and Calgary. Geshe-la was the first Tibetan to receive a doctorate from a Western university. He passed away in 1994. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/geshe-lobsang-dargyay/ Source Accessed Sept 23, 2020])
For a more complete biography, see [https://books.google.com/books?id=Xzc6AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT11&lpg=PT11&dq=Freedom+From+Extremes/In+Memoriam:+Geshe+Lobsang+Dargyay+(1935-94)by+Eva+Neumaier&source=bl&ots=a2vMqwcDeb&sig=ACfU3U1uAhLezrS11HGmbnKtWcEX30VAsQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4m_PKy4jnAhUJGc0KHXxeDagQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Freedom%20From%20Extremes%2FIn%20Memoriam%3A%20Geshe%20Lobsang%20Dargyay%20(1935-94)by%20Eva%20Neumaier&f=false "In Memoriam: Geshe Lobsang Dargyay (1935–94)"] by Eva Neumaier, in ''Freedom from Extremes: Gorampa's "Distinguishing the Views" and the Polemics of Emptiness'' (Wisdom Publications, 2007), xi–xiv. +
Geshe Dawa was born in Mexico City. He was a Buddhist monk for 15 years receiving full monastic vows (Gelong vows) from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Geshe Dawa learned Tibetan language in the College for Higher Tibetan Studies SARAH in Dharamsala India and later traveled to South India to join Drepung Loseling Monastic University where after more than a decade of advanced studies, he graduated as the first Hispanic Geshe ever. During H.H. Dalai Lama´s visit to Mexico in 2013, Geshe Dawa collaborated as his assistant translator. ([https://compassion.emory.edu/cbct-compassion-training/certified-teachers/international.html Source Accessed Apr 14, 2022]) +
Born in 1979 in Sogshod in Kham, as a young boy he went to a local school and learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. After joining Sog Tsenden Monastery and learning prayers and rituals, he moved to India in 1997 and joined Sera Je Monastery to undertake the program of Buddhist Studies, including the five great treatises, for 18 years. Throughout his education, he ranked at the top in his cohort during the examinations, including those for the certificates of the Middle Way and Perfection Studies. He also learned grammar and poetry and published various writings in magazines and newspapers and taught grammar to many students. In the course of his study, he was also selected for the special occasion of prestigious debates called Rigchung Tshoklang, Tshenphud Damcha, Rigchen Tsoklang, and Kartro Tsoglang. In 2009, he sat for his examinations on the Middle Way in the presence of H.H. the Dalai Lama, and between 2015 and 2020, he sat for the Grand Geluk Examinations and attained first position among the Lharam Geshes during the exams. In 2021, he undertook tantric studies at Gyume Tantric College and passed his exams in first position. He received numerous teachings from various lamas, including H.H. the Dalai Lama, and participated in many learned conferences and seminars. Since 2009, he has been serving as a lecturer at Sera Je Monastery. +
Geshe Lobsang Jordhen is a graduate of the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Dharamsala. Since 1989 he has been religious assistant and personal translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. (Source: ''Stages of Meditation: The Buddhist Classic on Training the Mind'', viii) +
Geshe Tengye was born in Lhatse, Tibet, in 1927. He went to the local monastery at the age of six. He followed a traditional path of in-depth monastic Buddhist study until the 1959 Chinese takeover of Tibet. He went into exile in India and continued his geshe studies at Buxa Chogar, the camp for refugee monks in Buxa Duar, West Bengal, India. Despite illness and hardship, Geshe Tengye received the lharampa geshe degree in 1969.
In 1980, at the request of FPMT co-founder Lama Thubten Yeshe, Geshe Tengye became the resident teacher at Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY), the newly established FPMT center located in the south of France near Toulouse. Due to Geshe Tengye’s infinite patience, wisdom, and compassion, IVY has grown into a large and flourishing Dharma center. ([https://fpmt.org/fpmt-community-news/geshe-losang-tengye-passes-away-at-institut-vajra-yogini/ Source Accessed Apr 6, 2021]) +
Geshe Namgyal Wangchen was born in Tibet in 1934 and educated at Drepung Monastary. In 1959, along with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and 100,000 other Tibetans, he fled the Chinese occupation of his homeland. During the 1980’s he began teaching Western students in London, England. He now lives and teaches in the reestablished Drepung Monastery in India. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/geshe-namgyal-wangchen/ Wisdom Publications]) +
Geshe Nawang L. Nornang (Nor nang Ngag dbang blo mthun) was born on 9 December, 1924, the wood-rat year, to Rdo rje rgyal po and Dbyangs can of the aristocratic Nor nang family, the sixth of their nine children, at a time when his father was commissioner of Sku rnam Rdzong in Dwags po.
In 1933, Geshela entered the G.yul sgang private school in Lhasa where he studied reading and writing until 1937. Thereafter he spent a year under the tutelage of his maternal uncle, Thub bstan kun mkhyen, one of the chief secretaries (drung yig che mo) of the Ecclesiastic Office (Yig tshang).
In 1938, he took his novice vows in the presence of the Stag brag Regent, and he was enrolled in Dwags po Bshad sgrub rnam rgyal ba’i gling, a monastery noted for its strict devotion to scholarship and discipline. There he was tutored by Dge bshes Blo bzang dbyigs bsnyen in logic, philosophy and ritual, following a standard Dge-lugs-pa curriculum which included the Abhisamayālaṃkāra and other Prajñāpāramitā works, the Abhidharmakośa and its commentaries, the Madhyamakāvatāra and the major works of Tsong kha pa on Madhyamaka, works by the 19thgdan rab of Dwags po, Rje byams pa chos mchog and on logic by Phur bu lcog yongs ‘dzin. As a chos mdzad, a monk whose family makes a substantial contribution to the monastery and is thereby excused from the obligatory labor of a young monk, he was also allowed to visit his family in Lhasa for three months a year.
In 1946, Geshela took his vows as fully ordained monk and served as a tutor at Bshad sgrub gling. In 1948, he served for two years as monastic treasurer (phyag mdzod). In 1950, monastic stores were almost depleted due to the over-enrolment of monks, and the monastery petitioned the government for a permit to solicit funds and supplies. Geshela was in charge of this mission and travelled extensively throughout Central Tibet in order to do so. He also visited India twice on wool-trading trips in 1953 and 1956, when he also completed the pilgrimage at Bodh Gaya during the 2500th anniversary of the parinirvāṇa of the Buddha. He also continued his studies toward the geshe degree which he completed just before the 1959 revolt in Tibet. Unfortunately the political turmoil of that year prevented the formal conferral of the degree.
From 1954 on, as the representative for his monastery, he also went annually to Lhasa for the “Great Prayer Festival” (Smon lam chen mo), when the government would honor a request to supply monasteries with fiscal help.
At the time of the revolt in 1959, he was in Lhasa for the Great Prayer Festival. After the Dalai Lama fled, he returned to his monastery, but Chinese military movements in the area forced him to flee south through E, Gnyal, Bya yul, Klo yul and the Northeast Frontier Area of India. After two months at Misamari refugee camp he took up residence in Kalimpong with relatives and lived there until 1960, when he and his niece, Lhadon Karsip (Rnam rgyal lha sgron Skyar srib), were brought to the University of Washington by Professor Turrell V. Wylie as Tibetan language instructors in the University’s newly-established Tibet Studies Program, the first of its kind in the United States.
At this time, the Far Eastern Languages Department at the University of Washington had also contracted with the US Office of Education under the National Defense Education Act to produce the first systematic study and teaching materials of the Lhasa dialect of Tibetan. His work with the linguists Chang Kun and Betty Shefts Chang over the next three years resulted in their Manual of Spoken Tibetan (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964), as well as material that Chang & Shefts published later (Spoken Tibetan Texts, Taipei:Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 1978-1980). After the NDEA contract expired in 1963, Geshela was hired by the Department of Asian Languages and Literature as Tibetan language instructor, where he remained until his retirement in 1985.
During this time he also coauthored with Melvyn C. Goldstein Modern Spoken Tibetan: Lhasa Dialect (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1970). It would be no exaggeration to say that, through these works, particularly the latter, Geshela became the primary teacher of Lhasa Tibetan to a generation of scholars. In addition to his language teaching duties, Geshela worked tirelessly for his students and colleagues at the University of Washington, giving generously of his time and knowledge to help students and scholars with their projects, whether they involved translations from Tibetan, questions in Buddhist philosophy or other social and cultural subjects. His influence and assistance, acknowledged or otherwise, is found in many works of students who passed through the Tibetan program at the University of Washington and elsewhere for more than a quarter of a century and even well beyond the time he retired. He was always available to help many new Tibetans settle in when they came to live in the Seattle area, and he volunteered to teach Tibetan to Tibetan children for more than twelve years. ([https://asian.washington.edu/news/2014/11/24/memory-geshe-nornang-1924-2014 Source Accessed Oct 31, 2023])
Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey was born on the 13th of the fifth Tibetan month in the year of the Iron-Bird (1921) in the town of Yätsak (or Ya Chak) in the Trehor district of Tibet's eastern province Kham. He was soon enrolled in the large local Dhargyey Monastery of the Gelug tradition, where he took pre-novice ordination vows. Although he was enrolled there he studied mainly in the village Sakya monastery, Lona Gonpa where he received instruction in reading, writing, grammar etc, and learned numerous texts and practices by heart. His teachers there included two of his uncles, as well as Kushu Gonpä Rinpoche, who was a master of all the five major fields of learning.
Gen Rinpoche left his home country to further his spiritual education at Sera Monastery, the great monastic university in Lhasa. There he underwent extensive training in all the five divisions of Buddhist philosophical study: Logic, Perfection of Wisdom, the Middle View, Metaphysics, and Ethical Discipline. This was interspersed with periods of intensive retreat at some of the many hermitages near Sera. By the time he was nineteen he had already mastered his studies sufficiently to become a scriptural teacher, and he began to have many students of his own. At the age of 21, he took full ordination vows of a Bhikshu from the widely renowned Purchog Jamgön Rinpoche. He also received numerous teachings, initiations and commentaries from the great Lamas of that time such as Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang (His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Tutor), Bakri Dorje Chang, Lhatsün Dorje Chang, Gönsar Dorje Chang and others. His monastic teachers were the great scholar-practitioners Gen Sherab Wangchuk, Gen Chöntse, and the now Gyume Kensur Ugyän Tseten.
He studied in Sera in Tibet for twenty years until, in 1959, Chinese oppression forced him to leave Tibet. Two years earlier he had been appointed tutor to two high incarnate lamas, Lhagön Rinpoche and Thupten Rinpoche. The three escaped from Chinese occupied Tibet together taking a long and dangerous journey of nine months under Chinese gunfire and snowstorms until they reached the Mustang region of Nepal. From Mustang it was a comparatively easy journey to India, where they joined His Holiness the Dalai Lama and some of Gen Rinpoche's other teachers.
In India, after a brief pilgrimage to the sacred Buddhist sites, he took up his studies once again, and for several continued tutoring the tulkus (incarnate lamas). In the mid 1960s, he was chosen along with fifty-five other scholars to attend an Acarya course at Mussourie (north of Delhi). During his year in Mussourie, he and the other scholars wrote textbooks for the Tibetan refugee schools being established in India at that time. He then returned to Dalhousie where, over various periods, he continued to teach another seven incarnate lamas. He also finished his Geshe studies and, in oral examinations held at the Buxador refugee camp in Assam in eastern India (the seat of Sera monastery at that time) he gained the highest grade (First Class) Lharampa Geshe.
In 1971 he was asked by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to start a teaching program for westerners at the newly constructed Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, northern India. Two of his incarnate lama disciples, Sharpa Rinpoche and Kamlung Rinpoche, acted as translators. He stayed there, teaching very extensively to thousands of Westerners, until 1984. During this time he himself received extensive and often exclusive teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and from both of the tutors, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche.
In 1982 he travelled to the West for the first time to take up a one-semester visiting professorship for at the University of Washington in Seattle. This was followed by a year-long extensive tour of Buddhist teaching centres all over North America, Europe and Australasia.
He spent six weeks in New Zealand during this tour, and at the end of the visit he was requested to establish a Buddhist centre here. In 1985 His Holiness advised Gen Rinpoche to come to New Zealand, initially for one and a half years, to establish a centre. After a six month tour of Australia, he arrived in Dunedin in mid 1985. Due to the success of the Buddhist centre he remained here, occasionally travelling to other parts of New Zealand and to Australia on teaching tours.
Gen Rinpoche gave his last formal teaching in February 1995 in Dunedin. Gen Rinpoche entered into the death process on the 11th August 1995 (the 16th of the 6th Tibetan month) remaining in meditation for of three days.
His body was cremated with full traditional Tibetan funerary rites at Portobello, near Dunedin on 17th August (22nd of the 6th Tibetan month). Kushu Lhagön Rinpoche, one of Gen Rinpoche's tulku disciples, presided over the Great Offering to His Holy Body Ceremony at a specially built cremation stupa. ([https://dbc.dharmakara.net/GNDBiography.html Adapted from Source Feb 24, 2023])
Geshe Ngawang Sonam received his novice monk’s vows in 1996 from the late Kyabje Dhakpa Rinpoche and his full ordination as a Bikshu from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in 1997. In 2008, after placing first in his examinations in his last year of Madhyamika Philosophy, he was selected to become one of the English translators for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since 2008, he has travelled extensively with His Holiness to nine countries around the world. In 2009, Sera Mey Monastery conferred upon him the Rigchung Degree.
In 2011, he travelled to several Tibetan camps in South India and gave extensive talks on Buddhism. He joined the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2016 and simultaneously completed his two final years of Gelugpa University Examinations. He became a Geshe Lharampa, [equivalent of Doctor of Divinity] in January 2019. Geshe Ngawang Sonam has been a speaker at conferences with scientists on many occasions, including two panels on Quantum Physics and Buddhism last fall. He has taught in India at various Buddhist communities and given lectures at Tibetan schools and college hostels. ([https://drikungdharmasurya.org/2022/01/venerable-geshe-ngawang-sonam/ Source Accessed Apr 7, 2025]) +
Geshe Tenley is the Resident Teacher at Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies in Boston. He was born in the Kham region of Tibet and attended Sera Jey Monastic University in India. He received his geshe degree (equivalent to a Western doctorate) from Sera Jey in 2008. He is very approachable and personable, and people often comment on his kindness and warm-heartedness.
In addition to teaching classes and leading pujas several times a week at Kurukulla Center, Geshe-la is involved in an amazing array of activities to bring benefit to people in the Boston area, including teachings and pujas for the local Tibetan community, interfaith celebrations with religious leaders of other faith traditions, events at other local Buddhist organizations, and serving as a chaplain for Boston-area hospitals. ([https://namdrol-ling.com/geshe-ngawang-tenley/ Source Accessed Oct 29, 2021]) +
Born in Gayul in Kham in 1974, he joined Labda Ganden Monastery in 1988 and learned prayers and rituals. In 1994, he arrived in India and joined Sera Je Monastery and started his study of Buddhist literature, including the five great treatises. In 1998, he received full monastic ordination from H.H. the Dalai Lama and finished training in the Middle Way and Perfection Studies in 2002 and 2006 respectively. In 2012, 2014, and 2016, he sat for the Grand Geluk Examinations and received the certificates of Karam, Lopen, and Lharam Geshe respectively. Following this, in 2017, he undertook tantric studies at Gyume College and was awarded first place. He presented a paper at the conference on Abhidharma among Buddhist and Bön and organized the conference on the Middle Way view at Sera Monastery and the conference on reality in Pramāṇa literature at Ganden Monastery. Since 2006, he has also been teaching Buddhism and Tibetan language to youth and regularly writes and speaks in newspapers, radio, online forums on Tibetan religion and culture, and gives classes and lectures. Currently, he is about to complete his research on the Middle Way views of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and is undertaking an in-depth study of Middle Way literature while also teaching at Sera Je. +
Born in 1979 in Khyungpo Tengchen, he became a monk at the age of eight under Lamrim Lama Pema Dorje and joined Dilgo Samtenling Monastery, where he studied reading, writing, prayers, and rituals. In 1996, he arrived in India and joined Ganden Shartse College. He finished his study of the five great treatises and in 2012 sat for the series of Grand Geluk Examinations. In 2018, he finished the course with the final defense for Lharam Geshe at the Grand Prayer Festival. After this, he undertook tantric studies at Gyuto Monastery and in 2019 he served on the Academic Council of Ganden Shartse. He currently teaches at Ganden Shartse and is also undertaking research on the Middle Way under the International Geluk Commission. +
Geshe Pema Dorjee is an internationally recognized authority, scholar, and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. His fluent English, keen intellect, clear and practical explanations, warm-hearted nature, and infectious sense of humor enrich his talks and discussions with meaning and inspiration.
He was born into a nomadic family in Tibet in 1951. They escaped from the invading Chinese, and he settled in Dharamsala, India, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile and the home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
From 1973 to 1981 at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics founded by H.H. the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, he completed an undergraduate degree and two Masters degrees in Buddhist Philosophy, one in Prajnaparamita (the Perfection of Wisdom) and one in Madhyamika (the Middle Way).
For the next 16 years, he dedicated himself to the Tibetan Children’s Village School located in Dharamsala. For nine of those years, he taught Tibetan Buddhism, language, and culture. In 1990, he was appointed Principal of the school, and from 1993 to 1997 he was its Director.
In 1995, he earned his Geshe degree at the Drepung Loseling Monastery.
Geshe Pema Dorjee served for two years as the Principal of the Tibetan Teachers Training Center. He was then named the first Principal of the College for Higher Tibetan Studies, and he remained in charge of that College from 1997 to 2002.
The Tibetan government-in-exile asked him to undertake various tasks. The Cabinet, for example, appointed him to the Higher Level Textbook Review Committee. His Holiness appointed him as a member of the Public Service Commission. The Department of Health appointed him as spiritual counselor to former political prisoners who had been tortured.
In 2001, H. H. the Dalai Lama asked Geshe Pema Dorjee to revive an important part of Tibetan Buddhism that had fallen into desuetude, the Bodong tradition. Fulfilling this task required him to establish both a scholarly project and a very practical one. To find the lost writings of that ancient tradition, to study them, translate them, and publish them, he founded in 2003 and continues to direct the [[Bodong Research and Publication Center]] in Dharamsala. To educate new monks in the Bodong tradition, he founded and continues to direct the Bodong monastery and school known as Porong Pelmo Choeding in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Although he insists that he is only a simple monk, Geshe Pema Dorjee lives the compassionate life about which he preaches. He travels to the most remote and impoverished regions of Himalayan India and Nepal. After a thorough analysis of what is most needed, he creates, organizes, directs, and raises funds for numerous humanitarian projects.
These projects include establishing schools, arranging medical care for the sick and injured, providing care for the elderly, creating an orphanage, supporting a drug rehabilitation center, educating villagers to protect them from human trafficking, creating a safe house for street girls, helping young people in Tibetan refugee camps, introducing new agricultural techniques, and providing safe water, toilets, and smokeless cookstoves.
Since 1997, he has donated much of his time to teaching and lecturing about Buddhist philosophy in countries around the world, including Sweden, England, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Norway, France, Estonia, India, Nepal, and Israel.
Since 2009, Geshe Pema Dorjee has lectured and taught in cities across the United States, including New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Miami, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston and Cambridge. (Source: [https://tibethouse.us/presenter/geshe-pema-dorjee/ Tibet House US])
Geshe Rabten (1921–1986) was a Tibetan Geshe born in Tibet in 1921.
He was a student at Sera Monastery in Lhasa, and achieved Geshe status before leaving Tibet in 1959. He became known as a debater, scholar, and meditation master.
Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche were guided by him in their early days outside of Tibet.
In the mid 1960s Geshe Rabten was a religious assistant to the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama asked him to teach Dharma to Westerners in Dharamshala in 1969.
He went to teach in Switzerland in 1974.
He was the founder of the Rabten Choeling Centre (which was originally named Tharpa Choeling) in Switzerland in 1979. He remained there till his death in 1986.
Other centres that he founded in Europe included the Tibetan centre in Hamburg, Tashi Rabten at the Letzehof, Puntsog Rabten in Munich and Gephel Ling in Milan. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geshe_Rabten Source Accessed Feb 23, 2023]) +
Geshe Sonam Ngodrup, was born in 1968 in the Ganze region of Kham, Tibet and left at the age of 13 to study Buddhism in India. He was ordained as a novice monk at Sera Jey Monastery that year, and at the age of 21 received full ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Over the years he regularly attended many of His Holiness’ teachings in India. At Sera Jey, he studied the philosophical texts primarily with Khensur Rinpoche Dorje Tashi, Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Delek, and Geshe Karma Sonam.
Geshe la graduated as a Geshe Lharampa from Sera Jey Monastery in first position in 2003, and in 2004 completed a year of tantric studies at Gyumed Monastery in Hunsur. He was one of the most popular petri geygan (official scripture teachers) at Sera Jey with several hundred students, teaching complex topics of the monastic curriculum. He also served in various capacities at the monastery including as khangtsen gen at Tehor Khangtsen. In addition, Geshe la taught sutra studies at Dzongkhar Choede and Gyumed monasteries where his classes were in high demand. In 2011, Geshe la came to the West, teaching the topics of the Basic Program first at Nalanda Monastery in France and then at Maitreya Institute in the Netherlands, in addition to courses on introductory Buddhism throughout Europe. While in Europe he received teachings and empowerments from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche in particular.
In 2019, Geshe la settled in Canada. He is a well-loved teacher whose vast scriptural knowledge is tempered by a naturally humble nature and profound non-sectarian approach to the study of the teachings. ([https://lamayesheling.org/teachers-and-facilitators/ Source Accessed Nov 24, 2025]) +
