Our Founders

Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche is the current Spiritual Director of the Maitreya Project. He was born in 1946 in the village of Thami in the Solo Khumbu region of Nepal, near Mount Everest. From the house where he was born, he could look up the mountain side and see Lawudo, where the cave of the late Lawudo Lama was situated.

The Lawudo Lama had been a great master of the complete teachings of the Nyingma tradition. During the last twenty years of his life, Lawudo Lama had lived in a cave attended by his wife and two children. He spent all of his time either meditating or giving teachings and spiritual advice to the people of Solo Khumbu and the neighbouring regions. His energy on behalf of all beings was inexhaustible, and it is said that in his later years he passed completely beyond the need of sleep.

From the time he was able to crawl, young Zopa Rinpoche spent much of his time trying to climb the steep path leading to the cave of the deceased Lawudo Lama. Time and time again his family would have to retrieve him forcefully from the precarious route he was intent on traveling. Finally, when he was old enough to speak, he declared that the cave was his and that he was the incarnation of the Lawudo Lama.

When he was five years old, his claim to be an incarnate lama was subjected to public examination by a Nyingma meditation master who lived nearby. The young boy was repeatedly able to identify objects belonging to the Lawudo Lama and pass other rigorous tests, and was thus declared the incarnation of the Lawudo Lama.

Young Zopa Rinpoche began his education in Solo Khumbu and was later taken on his uncle's back for a pilgrimage to Tibet. When he arrived north of Sikkim at the monastery of Domo Geshe Rinpoche, he startled his uncle by declaring that he had no intention of returning home. Rather, he wanted to stay at the monastery and devote his life to studying and practicing the Buddhist teachings. The uncle was very upset because the young Rinpoche was his responsibility, but when the commissioner of the area decided that the child's wishes should be honoured, there was nothing left for him to do but to return to Nepal empty-handed.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche's education was to have continued at Sera Je Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet, however in 1959 Zopa Rinpoche found his way to Buxadaur in northern India where he became a student of Lama Thubten Yeshe.

Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa met their first Western student in Darjeeling in 1965. Later they traveled together to Nepal, where they lived at Boudhanath near Kathmandu. There, they began to meet many more Western students and established Kopan Monastery. From this, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition began to grow. There are now over 115 centres around the world.

Today, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the Spiritual Director of these centres and spends his life traveling the world to give teachings, and to spread the Dharma of wisdom, love, compassion and universal responsibility.