Jack Hody Johnson is an American singer-songwriter, primarily in the soft rock and acoustic pop genres. Johnson has reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart with his albums Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George in 2006, Sleep Through the Static in 2008, To the Sea in 2010 and From Here to Now to You in 2013. His album In Between Dreams peaked at number two on the chart in 2005 and again in 2013.
A tulku is a distinctive and significant aspect of Tibetan Buddhism, embodying the concept of enlightened beings taking corporeal forms to continue the lineage of specific teachings. The term "tulku" has its origins in the Tibetan word "sprul sku", which originally referred to an emperor or ruler taking human form on Earth, signifying a divine incarnation. Over time, this term evolved within Tibetan Buddhism to denote the corporeal existence of highly accomplished Buddhist masters whose purpose is to ensure the preservation and transmission of a particular lineage.
Kyabje Nawang Gehlek Rimpoche was a Tibetan Buddhist lama born in Lhasa, Tibet on October 26, 1939. His personal name was Gelek; kyabje and rimpoche are titles meaning "teacher" and "precious," respectively; he is known to Tibetans as Nyakre Khentrul Rinpoche. According to Thupten Jinpa, principal English translator to the Dalai Lama, he is considered
"an important link to the great lineages of Tibet’s great masters, especially of the Geluk school. Known more famously for the Tibetans as Nyakre Khentrul Rinpoche, Rinpoche had been instrumental in reprinting many of the Geluk texts in the 1970s, and also remained an important object of affection for both Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche. Of course, his emergence as one of the great Tibetan teachers in the West has also been a source of inspiration for many.”
There are currently two, separately enthroned 17th Gyalwang Karmapas: Ogyen Trinley Dorje and Trinley Thaye Dorje. The Karmapa is the spiritual leader of the nine-hundred-year-old Karma Kagyu lineage of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Anoushka Hemangini Shankar is a British-American sitar player and musician of Indian descent, as well as occasional writer and actor. She performs across multiple genres and styles—classical and contemporary, acoustic and electronic. In addition to releasing seven solo studio albums beginning with Anoushka (1998), she has also worked alongside a wide variety of musicians, including Karsh Kale on the full-length collaboration Breathing Under Water (2007) and her father Ravi Shankar. She has received nine Grammy Awards nominations and was the first musician of Indian origin to perform live and to serve as a presenter at the ceremony. She was the youngest and first woman to receive a British House of Commons Shield.
Tenzin Ösel Hita y Torres is a Spanish Tibetan Buddhist tulku and spiritual teacher. Born Ösel Hita Torres to María Torres and Francisco Hita, he was designated soon after his birth as the tulku or reincarnation of Thubten Yeshe — making him one of only a handful of Western tulkus — and renamed Tenzin Ösel.(Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་འོད་གསལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།)
Sogyal Rinpoche was a Tibetan Dzogchen lama. He was recognized as the incarnation of a Tibetan master and visionary saint of the 19th century, Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa. Sogyal Rinpoche was the founder and former spiritual director of Rigpa — an international network of over 100 Buddhist centres and groups in 23 countries around the world — and the author of the best-selling book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, which has been printed in 30 languages and 56 countries. Before his retirement, in the wake of abuse allegations in 2017, he had been teaching for 40 years in Europe, America, Asia and Australia.
Ngawang Wangyal, aka Sogpo (Mongolian) Wangyal, popularly known as Geshe Wangyal and "America's first lama," was a Buddhist lama and scholar of Kalmyk origin. He was born in the Astrakhan province in southeast Russia sometime in 1901 and died in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1983. He came to the United States from Tibet in 1955 and was the spiritual leader of the Kalmuk Buddhist community in Freewood Acres, New Jersey at the Rashi Gempil-Ling Buddhist Temple. He is considered a "founding figure" of Buddhism in the West.
Geshe Ngawang Tashi Bapu a.k.a. Lama Tashi is former Principal Chant Master of Drepung Loseling Monastery, one of the largest monasteries of the Dalai Lama. In 2006, Lama Tashi was nominated for the Grammy Award for his album "Tibetan Master Chants" in the "Best Traditional World Music". Through this achievement, he has created the record of the first Buddhist Monk for Grammy Nomination in solo performance, and the first North-East Indian to be nominated for the prestigious Grammy Award the highest honour of Music in the world. Lama Tashi led Long Life Puja Chanting for the 14th Dalai Lama, the HE 99th and 100th Gaden Tripa Rinpoches and many more highly revered masters. The Long Life Puja is a very popular traditional healing ceremony that involves a multiphonic chant performance to heal the listeners and increase their life span. Lama Tashi also led the chanting performance of the Traditional Great Prayer Festival at Bodh Gaya presided over by the 14th Dalai Lama in 2002. Lama Tashi served as the Principal and the Director of the Central Institute of Himalayan Culture Studies, Dahung, India from 2003 to 2012 and 2012-2018 respectively. While at the institute, he taught Buddhist Philosophy at University level students.
Monlam, also known as The Great Prayer Festival, falls on the 4th to 11th day of the 1st Tibetan month in Tibetan Buddhism.
GyutoTantric University is one of the great monastic institutions of the Gelug Order.
Deva Premal is a singer known for introducing Sanskrit mantras into the mainstream. Her music is composed and produced with Prabhu Music. Her album Deva (2018) received a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Age Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.
Peter Kater is a German-born American pianist, composer and Grammy Award winner.
Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, 1894–1977, known also as Negi Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, Tenzin Gyaltsen, and various other names like Kunu Rinpoche, Kunu Lama and Negi Lama, was born in 1894 in the village of Sunam which lies in the Kinnaur district of India in the western Himalayas. He passed away at the age of 82 at Shashur Monastery in the Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachel Pradesh on February 23, 1977, while teaching the final page of Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation. Khunu Rinpoche was not officially recognized as a tulku, nor was he an ordained Buddhist monk, but a layman who had taken lay practitioner's vows before becoming a Tibetan Buddhist master.
Kyabje Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche is the current tulku of the third Trijang Rinpoche, and succeeded Trijang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso. Rinpoche is the current principal throne holder of Shar Gaden Monastic University in South India, Karnataka, and the spiritual director of the Trijang Buddhist Institute in Northfield, Vermont.
The 14th Dalai Lama is, as the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. By the adherents of Tibetan Buddhism, he is considered a living Bodhisattva; specifically, an emanation of Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit, and Chenrezig in Tibetan. He is also the leader and a monk of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, formally headed by the Ganden Tripa. The central government of Tibet at the time of his selection, the Ganden Phodrang, invested the Dalai Lama with temporal duties until his exile in 1959.
Rato Dratsang, also known as Rato Monastery, Rato Dratsang is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" order. For many centuries, Rato Dratsang was an important monastic center of Buddhist studies in Central Tibet.
Dr. Sarika Singh is perhaps the first Indian female master painter and teacher in the Buddhist tradition of Thangka Painting. Born on 13 August 1976, in New Delhi, she began her studies in the art of Thangka painting, in 1996, at the prestigious Norbulingka Institute in Dharamshala, Northern India under the tutelage of her master, Tempa Choephel. In the year 2015, she completed her Master’s degree in ‘Buddhist and Tibetan Studies’ from Punjab University, and ‘PhD’ from Central University of Himachal Pradesh in the year 2021.
Khyongla Rato, pronounced "Chungla," was also known as Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Rato Khyongla Rinpoche, Khyongla Rinpoche, Ngawang Lobsang Shedrub Tenpai Dronme, and Nawang Losang, his monk's name. Born in Dagyab county in Kham province in southeastern Tibet, he was recognized as an incarnate lama at an early age. He spent over 30 years receiving teachings and studying as a highly trained monk in the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries of Tibet. A respected scholar, he was a debate partner of the 14th Dalai Lama at his Geshe examination in Lhasa, Tibet. He founded the Tibet Center in New York City. The center co-sponsored many of the Dalai Lama's teachings in New York City.
Tibet House US (THUS) is a Tibetan cultural preservation and education 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1987 in New York City by a group of Westerners after the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, expressed his wish to establish a cultural institution to build awareness of Tibetan culture.
