Dorje Pamo Monastery is affiliated with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). The FPMT organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsong Khapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founders, Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.
Always under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, our organization is committed to promoting human values such as compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, enthusiasm, self-discipline, harmony, understanding among the world’s major religious traditions and the commitment to work to preserve Tibet´s Buddhist culture, a culture of peace and non-violence.
His Holiness the Dalaï Lama
Limitless inspiration
Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalaï Lama, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He was born as Lhamo Dhondrub on July 6th, 1935, to a peasant family in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet. In accordance with the Tibetan tradition, His Holiness was recognized at an early age (two years) as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama, and thus as the incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of compassion.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a man of peace. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet. He has consistently advocated policies of non-violence, even in the face of extreme aggression. He also became the first Nobel Laureate to be recognized for his concern for global environmental problems.
His Holiness has held discussions with heads of different religions and participated in many events promoting inter-religious harmony and understanding.
Since the mid 1980s, His Holiness has engaged in a dialogue with modern scientists, mainly in the fields of psychology, neuro-biology, quantum physics and cosmology.
As His Holiness describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk, he is a role model and the perfect example particularly for all the monks and nuns ordained in Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Lama Thubten Yeshe
Founder of the FPMT
Lama Thubten Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935. At the age of six, he entered Sera Monastic University in Tibet where he studied until 1959, when as Lama Yeshe himself has said, “In that year the Chinese kindly told us that it was time to leave Tibet and meet the outside world.”
Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, together as teacher and disciple since their exile in India, met their first Western students in 1965. By 1971 they settled at Kopan, a small hamlet near Kathmandu in Nepal.
In 1974, the Lamas began touring and teaching in the West, which would eventually result in The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. Lama Thubten Yeshe died in 1984. His reincarnation Ösel Hita Torres was born to Spanish parents in 1985.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Founder and Spiritual Director of the FPMT
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, FPMT’s spiritual director, is the reincarnation of the Sherpa Nyingma yogi Kunsang Yeshe, also known as the Lawudo Lama. Rinpoche was born in 1946 in Thami, not far from the Lawudo cave, in the Mount Everest region of Nepal, where his predecessor meditated for the last twenty years of his life.
Rinpoche 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 they built Kopan and Lawudo Monasteries. In 1974, with Lama Yeshe, Rinpoche began traveling the world to teach and establish Dharma centers. When Lama Yeshe passed away in 1984, Rinpoche took over as spiritual director of the FPMT which has continued to flourish under his peerless leadership.
On April 13, 2023, at 9:30 a.m. Nepal time, Lama Zopa Rinpoche entered his final meditation.
Geshe Tenzin Loden
Abbot of Dorje Pamo Monastery
Geshe Tenzin Loden was born in Bylakuppe, South India, in 1961. At the age of 9 he entered the monastery of Sera Je. He studied for the title of Geshe, which he obtained in 1994, and subsequently spent over six years in strict retreat. From 2003 to 2006, he held the position of chant master (umze) in his monastery. At the end of 2007 he left Sera Je, to succeed Geshe Tenzin Dorje as the principal resident teacher of the Vajra Yogini Institute. In 2021 he consented to become the abbot of Dorje Pamo Monastery, and in 2023 he also became the abbot of Detong Ling Nunnery in Spain.