• Spiritual Teachers
• Don Handrick - Resident Teacher
• Visiting Teachers

Spiritual Teachers

Ven. Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche - Spiritual Director of FPMT

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born in 1946 in Thami, in the Mount Everest region of Nepal, not far from the Lawudo cave where his predecessor had meditated for the last 20 years of his life. Lama Zopa Rinpoche is now the Spiritual Director of the Foundation and oversees all of its activities.

Ven. Lama Thubten Yeshe - Founder of FPMT

1935-1984

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 Yeshe died in 1984, his reincarnation Lama Tenzin Ösel Rinpoche was born to Spanish parents in 1985.

Under the Auspices of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

His Holiness the 14th the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, is the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He was born Lhamo Dhondrub on 6 July 1935, in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet. Born to a peasant family, His Holiness was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama, and thus an incarnation Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion.

Tenzin Ösel Rinpoche

In 1984, Lama Yeshe passed away on the first day of The Tibetan New Year. In 1985, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche assumed leadership of the FPMT organization and began a search for Lama's reincarnation. A western child was born on 12 February 1985 in Bubion, Spain at O.Sel.Ling Dharma Center in the beautiful mountains of Granada. In 1986, after a series of tests and divinations, young Osel Hita, was recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to be the reincarnation of Lama Thubten Yeshe. He was then named Tenzin Osel.