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 Geshe Tashi Namgyal |
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Geshe Tashi Namgyal died at home in Victoria, September 7, 2008, aged 85. Known respectfully to his many students and friends as 'Geshe-la', he was born in Tibet, became a monk at age 7, attained the Rabjampa Geshe degree, the highest of all possible Buddhist academic credentials, and in 1957 became Abbot of the Jashong monastery in Sakya, Tibet. In 1959, following jail under the Chinese occupation of his country, he escaped to India. In 1974 he was sent by the Dalai Lama as one of four Tibetan lamas to the west. He founded the Victoria Buddhist Dharma Society in 1974, and remained its president and resident teacher until his passing, one of the world's very few remaining highly accomplished lamas traditionally trained in Tibet. He founded a dharma centre in Anchorage Alaska, and from his extensive teachings, gained students in many US states and Canadian provinces. His accessibility, his disarming insight, wisdom, highly jovial personality and influentially beneficial presence will be deeply missed by many. |
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Sakya Thubten Kunga Chöling |