18 · The people

Who actually did this

11 of them, and the short version of what each one did, so that a name on a poster stops being just a name. With their books, where they have them.

This page is about teachers rather than deities. For the figures in the paintings, see Buddhas and deities; for the Dalai Lamas, all fourteen are on their own page.

7 of the 11 have no photograph here, and that is deliberate. They are living or recently deceased teachers whose pictures are all under copyright. This site does not publish a photograph it has no right to publish, so where there is no freely licensed image there is a plain card instead. It is a gap, and it is better than a stolen picture.

The principal figures of this school

Not the people who happen to be famous in the West, but the ones whose standing inside the tradition is formal: the throne at the head of the school, the man who ran the Dalai Lama's own monastery, and the holder of the line of his senior tutor. All three are Geluk, all three are alive or very recently dead, and two of the four events below happened at Sera Jey.

The Ganden Tripa

the office, since 1409

Holder of Tsongkhapa's throne and formal head of the Geluk school

The head of this school is not the Dalai Lama. It is the Ganden Tripa, who sits on Tsongkhapa's own throne as his regent, and the office is not a reincarnation line at all: it is reached by scholarship and seniority, held for a term of seven years, and alternates between the two chairs below it, Jangtse Choje and Sharpa Choje. The 105th is Sharpa Choje Jetsun Lobsang Dorjee Pelsangpo, given the office by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on 2 November 2024 and enthroned at Gaden Lachi on the 26th of that month. The 104th was Kyabje Jetsun Lobsang Tenzin Palsangpo, 1934 to 2025, appointed on 24 June 2017. He stepped down in 2024, and on 26 September 2025 he showed the aspect of passing away at his residence here at Sera Jey. The head of the whole school died in this monastery, a year ago.

This is an office and not a person, which is why it has no dates and no photograph. Titles and ranks explains where it sits among the rest.

What the Geshe degree it is reached through involves The monastery he died in

Kyabje Jhado Rinpoche

b. 1954

Sixth Jhado Tulku; abbot of Namgyal Monastery 1997 to 2004

Recognised at three as the sixth incarnation of the abbot of Jhado Monastery, out of Tibet at five, and given novice ordination by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at ten. He then did the long thing: eighteen years at Sera Jey, from 1972 to 1990, then Gyutö Tantric College, then the Geshe Lharampa examination in 1991. In 1992 he began teaching at Namgyal, which is the Dalai Lama's own monastery, and from 1997 to 2004 he was its abbot, responsible for the state rituals performed there. He now teaches across India, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, including at FPMT centres in Europe.

His birthplace is given two ways. An FPMT centre says a nomad family near Namtso Lake, north of Lhasa; a monastery he teaches at says Kongpo, with Jhado Monastery itself in Chamdo. Both are cited below and this page does not pick between them.

Namgyal Monastery Where he studied

His Eminence the Seventh Ling Rinpoche

b. 1985

Holder of the line of the Dalai Lama's Senior Tutor

The sixth Ling Rinpoche, who died in 1983, was Senior Tutor to the present Dalai Lama. The seventh was born in India on 18 November 1985 and found at the Tibetan Children's Village in Dharamsala at eighteen months old, when he recognised a member of the search party; he was enthroned in October 1987. He entered Drepung Loseling at five, began formal study at ten, took his Geshe degree in November 2016 and went on to Gyutö. He teaches in Asia, Europe, the Americas, Australia, Israel, Mongolia and Russia.

His office and teaching schedule Who the Dalai Lamas are

The two who started it

Everything in this part of the tradition outside Tibet, the centres, the translations, the monasteries in France and Australia, runs back to two monks who met Westerners on a hill above Kathmandu and did not send them away.

Lama Thubten Yeshe

1935 to 1984

Co-founder of FPMT

Born in Tibet, educated at Sera Je Monastic University, in exile from 1959. With his student Lama Zopa Rinpoche he began teaching Westerners at Kopan in 1971 and founded the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition in 1975. He was blunt, funny and impatient with solemnity, and he is the reason the tradition was presented to Westerners as something to test rather than to adopt.

The photograph is a still from a recorded teaching, which is the only freely licensed image of him that exists.

Books

Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe

His teachings, many free to read The Kopan story

Kyabje Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche

1945 to 2023

Spiritual director of FPMT for 39 years

Born in the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal and recognised as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama. After Lama Yeshe died in 1984 he led FPMT for the rest of his life, through its growth from a handful of centres to well over a hundred. His online advice book runs to thousands of answers to individual students.

Books

Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Online Advice Book, free

His page at FPMT What he said about blessing cords

Tenzin Ösel Hita

b. 1985

Recognised as the reincarnation of Lama Yeshe

Recognised as a child and raised in the monastic system, he left it as a young man, studied film in Madrid, and has spoken publicly and without bitterness about the difference between being given a role and choosing one. He remains involved with FPMT on his own terms.

His page at FPMT

The geshes who taught the West in English

A geshe degree takes about twenty years. These three did that first, and then did something the tradition had never had to do before: explain it in a second language, to people with no background at all. Three of the four trained at Sera, which is the monastery this site is written from.

Geshe Lhundub Sopa

1923 to 2014

Sera Je geshe, professor at Wisconsin, founder of Deer Park

Born in Tsang, he completed his geshe studies at Sera Je in Lhasa with highest honours, then became a professor at the University of Wisconsin, one of the first Tibetan monks to hold a full academic post in the West. He founded Deer Park Buddhist Center, where His Holiness gave the first Kalachakra initiation in the United States.

Books

Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, a five-volume commentary on Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo

Volume 1
Volume 2: Karma
Volumes 3 to 5

Deer Park Buddhist Center

Geshe Tashi Tsering

b. 1958

Sera Mey geshe; resident teacher at Jamyang London 1994 to 2018

Geshe Lharampa from Sera Mey in 1987. At Jamyang London for twenty-four years he built the Foundation of Buddhist Thought, a two-year course that became one of the most used introductions to Geluk philosophy in English, and then the six books that came out of it.

Books

The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, in order

The course Jamyang London

Geshe Namgyal Wangchen

First resident teacher at Jamyang London, 1982 to 1992

Jamyang's first resident teacher, for a decade from 1982, when the centre was still a semi-detached house in Finsbury Park. His book is a plain manual: how to prepare for a meditation session, what to do during it, and how to finish.

Books

Awakening the Mind of Enlightenment: Meditations on the Buddhist Path (Wisdom Publications, 1988)

Jamyang London

A Westerner who ordained and stayed

Ordaining is easy compared with remaining ordained for forty years in a culture with no structure for it.

Venerable Thubten Gyatso

b. 1943

Adrian Feldmann. Doctor, then monk

A Melbourne medical graduate who practised in Australia and England, travelled overland through Afghanistan and Pakistan, and was ordained by Lama Yeshe in the 1970s, among the first Westerners to become a Geluk monk. He was the first monk to arrive at Nalanda Monastery in France and its first director from 1981 to 1985, ran a free medical clinic in Nepal, and founded a monastery at Bendigo in Victoria. In 1999 Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked him to go to Mongolia and help build a centre there, which is why his name appears on our page about what happened to Mongolian Buddhism.

Books

His own account, in FPMT's 50th anniversary series Mongolia, and what had to be rebuilt

One more, and a note about what is not discussed

There are people in this tradition whose standing rests on something other than a degree. The tradition is careful about them, and so is this page: what follows is what published sources say, and nothing more.

Khandro Kunga Bhuma Rinpoche

Female Tenma oracle to His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

Known as Khandro-la. She is described by her publishers as a realised practitioner and as the female Tenma oracle to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and she has served for years as an advisor to Mingyur Rinpoche. Lama Zopa Rinpoche introduced her to the Maitripa College community in 2012, where she gave one of her first teachings in the West. She writes and teaches on emptiness without nihilism.

An oracle is an office, not a personality, and the tradition does not advertise what the people who hold it can do. Neither does this page. What is written above is what her publishers state.

Her writing at Tricycle

Titles like Geshe, Lama and Rinpoche are not ranks on one ladder. What each actually means is on Titles and Ranks. To find a teacher near you, Find a Centre lists 138 of them, and what happens at a teaching covers the rest.

Sources

References

These are living or recently deceased people, so nothing above is characterised beyond what a named source supports. Where a claim rests on a publisher’s own description rather than an independent one, the page says so.

1
Tibetan Parliamentarians Attend Enthronement Ceremony of 105th Gaden TripaCentral Tibetan Administration
That Sharpa Choje Jetsun Lobsang Dorjee Pelsangpo was given the office on 2 November 2024 and enthroned at Gaden Lachi on 26 November 2024, as regent of Tsongkhapa, and that the term is seven years.
2
His Holiness the Dalai Lama Appoints the 104th Gaden TripaCentral Tibetan Administration
His appointment on 24 June 2017, and that the office is conferred by the Dalai Lama.
3
The Passing of His Eminence the 104th Ganden Trisur Rinpoche Jetsun Lobsang TenzinFPMT
That the 104th Ganden Tripa, the formal head of the Geluk school, “showed the aspect of passing away on September 26, 2025 at his residence at Sera Je Monastery, Bylakkupe, India”.
4
In Memory of His Holiness Ganden Trisur Rinpoche Jetsun Lobsang Tenzin Palsangpo (1934-2025)Jamyang London Buddhist Centre
His dates, and the London centre’s own account of him as a visiting teacher.
5
Kyabje Khensur Jhado Chogtrul RinpocheLand of Medicine Buddha, FPMT
Born 1954 to a nomadic family near Namtso Lake north of Lhasa; recognised at three as the sixth Jhado Tulku; novice ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1964; Sera Jey from 1972 to 1990 and then Gyutö Tantric College; Geshe Lharampa in 1991; teacher at Namgyal Monastery from 1992 and its abbot from 1997 to 2004.
6
Brief Biography of His Eminence Jhado RinpocheSed Gyued Monastery
The same life told by a monastery he teaches at, which gives his birthplace as Kongpo and Jhado Monastery as being in Chamdo. The two accounts of where he was born do not agree and this page gives both.
7
BiographyOffice of His Eminence the Seventh Ling Rinpoche
Born in India on 18 November 1985; found at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala at eighteen months, when he recognised a member of the search party; enthroned in October 1987; entered Drepung Loseling in 1990 at five and began formal study at ten; Geshe degree in November 2016; Gyutö Tantric College from April 2017 to February 2018.
8
Thubten Gyatso (Australian monk)Wikipedia
Adrian Feldmann's dates, his medical degree at the University of Melbourne, his ordination by Lama Yeshe, and his role as the first monk and first director of Nalanda Monastery.
9
50 Years of FPMT: Ven. Thubten Gyatso's StoryFPMT
His own account of the years from ordination onwards, in FPMT's fiftieth anniversary series.
10
How Doctor Adrian Feldmann became Buddhist monk Thubten GyatsoABC News, Australia
The doctor-to-monk account, and the free medical clinic in Nepal, reported independently.
11
Venerable Adrian Feldmann, author pageSmashwords
His three books: The World and Ourselves, A Leaf in the Wind, and The Perfect Mirror.
12
Khandro Kunga Bhuma RinpocheTricycle: The Buddhist Review
That she is a female Tenma oracle to His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and has served as an advisor to Mingyur Rinpoche.
13
Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama YesheLama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
The authorised biography of Lama Yeshe, published by the archive that holds his teachings.
14
Lama Thubten YesheFPMT
Born 1935, entered Sera at six, studied until 1959, the first Western students in 1967, Kopan, the teaching tours, and the recognition of his reincarnation.
15
Lama Zopa RinpocheFPMT
Born 1945 at Thami, recognised as the Lawudo Lama, Buxa Duar, Kopan, and thirty-nine years as spiritual director.
16
Tenzin Ösel HitaFPMT
Born 1985 in Bubión, recognised in 1986, educated at Sera, and his later life and work.
17
The Foundation of Buddhist ThoughtGeshe Tashi Tsering, Wisdom Publications
The six-volume course from a Sera Mey geshe, and the programme behind it at Jamyang London.
18
Deer Park Buddhist CenterDeer Park
Founded in 1976 by Geshe Lhundub Sopa, a Sera Je geshe, in Oregon, Wisconsin.
19
Lama Yeshe Wisdom ArchiveLYWA
The collected teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, much of it free to read.
20
Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Foundation
The source of every photograph and portrait on this site, all freely licensed.

Every factual claim on this page rests on one of the sources above. Links open in a new tab. The full list for the whole site, and the standard this site holds itself to, is on the sources page.