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ADVISORY BOARD

"In establishing the abbey, I wished to have a group of trusted and experienced teachers and friends to whom I could ask questions and advic. In this way, Sravasti Abbey's advisory board came into exisitance in 2003"

- Venerable Thubten Chodron


Tsenzhap Serkong Rinpoche

Ganden Monastery

The present Tsenzhap Serkong Rinpoche is nineteen years old and is studying at Gaden Jangtse Monastery in South India to receive his geshe degree. The previous Tsenzhap Serkong Rinpoche was one of Ven. Chodron's root teachers.

Current Serkong Rinpoche
Previous Serkong Rinpoche

Khensur Jampa Tegchog
Sera Monastery

Born in 1930, Khensur Jampa Tegchog became a monk at the age of eight. He studied the major Buddhist treatises at Sera-je Monastic University in Tibet for fourteen years before fleeing in 1959 following the abortive uprising of the Tibetans against the Chinese communist occupation of their country.

After staying in the refuge camp at Buxa, India, he went to Varanasi where he obtained his Acharya (Master) Degree and taught for seven years. He then began teaching in the West—three years in England and ten years at Nalanda Monastery in France.

In 1993, His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed him abbot of Sera-je Monastic University in India, a position he held for six years. As a respected former abbot (Khensur), he continues to teach at Sera-je. His book, Transforming the Heart: The Buddhist Way to Joy and Courage, is a commentary on “The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas” and describes the bodhisattva path.

Khensur Jampa Techok

Geshe Sonam Rinchen
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives

Born in Eastern Tibet, Geshe Sonam Rinchen began his religious studies at age 12 at Dargye monastery, the largest local monastery in Kham Dhargye. He pursued his studies there for the next seven years and completed the basic studies in logic.

At 19, he made a two and a half month journey on foot to Central Tibet to enter Sera Monastery, where he continued his studies until 1959, when he fled to India as a refugee. In India he completed his studies for the degree of Geshe Lharampa, which he received in 1980.

He also holds an Acharya degree from the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Saranath, Varanasi. He has taught classes at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives since 1978 and has also taught in Japan, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland and Switzerland. Several books of his teachings have been published and are available from Snow Lion Publications.

Geshe Sonam Rinchen

Geshe Kalsang Damdul
(c) Jan van Raay Drepung Monastery

After his escape from Tibet, Ven. Geshe Kalsang Damdul studied at the Central School for Tibetans in Mussoorie, India. In 1973 he continued his education at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala where he studied all the major Buddhist texts. He received his Master of Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom Sutra) degree and was also awarded the Master of Mahyamika degree.

Since 1987, Geshe-la has served as Assistant Director for the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics under the direct administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 1995, he received his geshe degree from Drepung Loseling Monastery in South India. Spiritual advisor of the Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association and resident teacher at the Center for Tibetan Buddhism in PORT 71,92,113,25,132,136 sel Ling Nunnery in Tashi Jong, India, where she now lives. Her life is the subject of the book Cave in the Snow.

Bhikshuni Tenzin Palmo

Dongyu Gatsel Ling Nunnery

Born in Britain, Ven. Tenzin Palmo met her teacher, the eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche, in India in 1964. She was one of the first Westerners ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. After studying with her teacher for six years, she went to a small monastery in Lahaul, India, where she practiced more intensely. Seeking better conditions for meditation, she lived in a cave in the mountains in Lahaul for twelve years, after which, in 1988, she went to Italy.

She has taught Dharma internationally and is the founder of Dongyu Gatsel Ling Nunnery in Tashi Jong, India, where she now lives. Her life is the subject of the book Cave in the Snow.

Ajahn Sundara
Abhayagiri Monastery

French by birth, Ajahn Sundara ordained in the Theravada tradition as an eight-precept nun at Chithurst Monastery in U.K. in 1979. In 1983 she received the ten-precept ordination as a siladhara. Having lived at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in U.K. and Abhayagiri Monastery in CA, she now travels and teaches internationally.

Ajahn Sundara

Rev. Master Eko
Shasta Abbey

Rev. Eko Little was ordained into the Buddhist priesthood in 1971 by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett. He later received Dharma Transmission from Rev. Kennett and was certified by her to teach in the Soto Zen tradition. Rev. Little served as one of Rev. Kennett's personal attendants for 19 years. In the early 1980's, he became the vice-abbot of Shasta Abbey and remained so until Rev. Kennett's death in 1996. In November of 1996, he was elected abbot of Shasta Abbey by its community.

Rev. Master Eko

 
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