Ringu Tulku Rinpoche

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche is a Buddhist teacher of great warmth, eloquence, and learning. He was born in the Kham region of eastern Tibet and was recognized as a Tulku, a reincarnate lama, as a toddler. In the late 1950s his family escaped ahead of the invading Chinese army and eventually settled in Sikkim, India. Rinpoche has studied under such great masters as Dilgo Khyenste Rinpoche of the Nyingma school and His Holiness the 16th Karmapa of the Kagyu school. Rinpoche attended the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology in Sikkim and later the Sampurnananda Sanskrit University in Varanasi, India. His doctorate thesis documented the significance of the non-sectarian Ri-me movement within Tibetan Buddhism. Subsequently, Rinpoche served as a Professor of Tibetan Studies in Sikkim for 25 years. After ‘retiring’ Rinpoche began teaching in the West and has established Buddhist centers on every continent, except Antarctica, under the auspices of Bodhicharya. He is the author of over 25 books including several children’s books. In 2005 Ringu Tulku Rinpoche returned to his home in Rigul, Tibet for the first time and formed the charity Rigul Trust to fund local needs including a school, a health clinic, and a shedra for monks.