His
Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is both the head of state and the
spiritual leader of Tibet.
He was born on 6 July 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in
Taktser, Amdo, northeastern Tibet.
At the age of two the child, who was named Lhamo Dhondup at that time was
recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. The
Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig,
the Bodhisattva of Compassion and patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are enlightened
beings who have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth in order
to serve humanity. For more information, visit Dalai Lama
Lama Thubten
Yeshe, Founder, Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition
Lama Thubten Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935.
At the age of six, he entered the great SeraMonasticUniversity,
Lhasa, where he studied until 1959, when the
Chinese invasion of Tibet
forced him into exile in India.
Lama Yeshe continued to study and meditate in India
until 1967, when, with his chief disciple, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, he went
to Nepal.
Two years later he established Kopan Monastery, near Kathmandu,
in order to teach Buddhism to Westerners. In 1974, the Lamas began making
annual teaching tours to the West, and as a result of these travels a worldwide
network of Buddhist teaching and meditation centers—the Foundation for the
Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition—began to develop. In 1984, after an
intense decade of imparting a wide variety of incredible teachings and
establishing one FPMT activity after another, at the age of forty-nine, Lama
Yeshe passed away. For more information, visit Lama Yeshe
Lama Thubten
Zopa Rinpoche, Spiritual Director, Foundation for the Preservation of the
Mahyana Tradition
Rinpoche was
born in Thami, Nepal, in 1946. At the age of three
he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, who had lived nearby
at Lawudo, within sight of Rinpoche’s Thami home. Rinpoche’s own description of
his early years may be found in his book, The Door to
Satisfaction (Wisdom Publications). At the age of ten, Rinpoche went to Tibet and studied and meditated at Domo Geshe
Rinpoche’s monastery near Pagri, until the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 forced him to forsake Tibet for the safety of Bhutan.
Rinpoche then went to the Tibetan refugee camp at Buxa Duar, West Bengal,
India, where he met Lama Yeshe, who became his closest teacher. The Lamas went
to Nepal
in 1967, and over the next few years built Kopan and Lawudo Monasteries. In
1971 Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the first of his famous annual lam-rim retreat
courses, which continue at Kopan to this day. In 1974, with Lama Yeshe,
Rinpoche began traveling the world to teach and establish centers of Dharma.
When Lama Yeshe passed away in 1984, Rinpoche took over as spiritual head of
the FPMT, which has
continued to flourish under his peerless leadership. For more information, visit Lama Zopa
Geshe Ngawang
Samten
Geshe la was
born at Panchamari, MP, India.
At the age of nine, he entered the Sera Monastic Institute and took the vows of
monk ordination with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 1998 and 1999 he sat for
the Geshe Lharampa (Doctorate in Buddhist Philosophy) exam, and in 1998 he was
selected as a lecturer in the Gelug tradition at the Central Institute of
Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath. For more information, visit Geshe Samten
Wai Cheong Kok
Wai Cheong has
completed the first 7 year FPMT Masters program at Lama Tsong Khapa Institute
in Italy followed by a four month retreat in New Zealand and so is fully versed
in Buddhist philosophy, both sutra and tantra. For more information, visit Wai Cheong Kok
Venerable
Margaret McAndrews
Venerable Margaret is affectionately known as Ani Marg and is part
of the Chenrezig Nuns Community in Queensland.
Presently Ani Marg is the most senior nun at Chenrezig Institute and is well respected by all for her even
mindedness, approachability and care she portrays towards all in the community as if she was
their mother. Ani Marg was one of the original Foundation for the Preservation of
the Mahayana Tradition(FPMT) and Chenrezig nuns, she took ordination with Trijang
Rinpoche in 1976,having had taken Rabjung vows the previous year.Ani Marg has taught at FPMT
Centres both in Australia
and Internationally.
