About Us

Spiritual Head

Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche is Chairman of Rokpa Trust, Abbot of Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Director of the internationally acclaimed Holy Island Project. He is Meditation Master to thousands of students from around the world. He is a much loved and respected teacher whose wisdom, compassion, warmth and humour reveal him as a living example of the Buddha’s teaching.

With his profound insight, acquired through many years of meditation in solitary retreat, and his personal experience of a broad spectrum of people from both the East and West, Lama Yeshe Rinpoche is able to demystify and illuminate the Buddha’s teachings in a simple yet inspiring way. His humour and direct, down to earth approach crosses continents and cultures enabling him to give both personal advice and meditation instruction that goes straight to the heart. It is these unique qualities that make him a Lama of and for our time.

Born in 1943 in Kham, East Tibet, Lama Yeshe spent his formative years in education at Dolma Lhakang Monastery where his brother, Akong Tulku Rinpoche, was Abbot. After a harrowing six month journey escaping from Tibet as a teenager in 1959, Lama Yeshe arrived in India along with Akong Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and a handful of other exhausted refugees. On leaving the Tibetan Refugee Camp he attended the Young Lamas Home School in Dalhousie and left in 1967 to serve as Private Secretary to His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim.

In 1969 Lama Yeshe joined Akong Tulku Rinpoche and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Scotland where they had founded Kagyu Samye Ling, the first Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Europe, Five years later, having tasted and become disillusioned with modern Western culture, he was reunited with H.H. Karmapa and accompanied him on a tour of the United States. Lama Yeshe and his friend Lama Tenzin Chonyi established and managed the Karma Triyana Dharmacakra Centre in Woodstock New York.

In 1980 he took full ordination as a Gelong monk from His Holiness Karmapa, on the auspicious date of the anniversary of Lord Buddha's Nirvana and Parinirvana, at a ceremony attended by the most eminent Tibetan Lamas of the time.

In 1985, at the request of his brother Akong Tulku Rinpoche, Lama Yeshe returned to Scotland to continue his retreat at Samye Ling Purelands Retreat Centre and in 1989 became Retreat Master with responsibility for the western practitioners in the cloistered four year retreat. In 1991 Lama Yeshe took responsibility for the running of Samye Ling and also to oversee the newly acquired The Holy Island Project.

In August 2003, Akong Tulku Rinpoche honoured Lama Yeshe as 'Rinpoche' in recognition of his strong commitment to establishing a strong ordained Sangha in the West, and in recognition of his achievements as Abbot and his inspiring example to many thousands of friends and students around the world.

As Chairman of Rokpa Trust Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche has responsibility for Kagyu Samye Ling, The Holy Island Project and Kagyu Samye Dzong Centres worldwide. He is also involved in the Trust's charitable projects both at home and overseas. His energy and inspiration fuel the Trusts far reaching activities which benefit so many people in so many ways.

Director

Gelong Thubten is a fully ordained monk from Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Monastery (www.samyeling.org). He took ordination in 1993 and spent many years as personal assistant to Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche. In his early years as a monk he completed 216 pairs of the Nyungne fasting practice. He has spent six years in intensive meditation retreats, the longest of which was 4 years.

Thubten teaches meditation and Buddhist philosophy at Samye Dzong centres worldwide, as well as pioneering work with hospitals, schools, companies and prisons. He has lectured at Oxford University and for large organisations such as Google and The United Nations. He designed and delivered 12-week meditation programmes for medical students at the National University of Ireland. His work helps to raise funds for our centre as well as for other charitable projects.

Thubten is a Trustee of ROKPA INTERNATIONAL (www.rokpa.org), a humanitarian aid organisation with medical, education and cultural projects in some of the world's poorest regions, and he is a Director of Samye Foundation Wales, a mindfulness and wellbeing charity.

Thubten collaborated with Ruby Wax and neuroscientist Ash Ranpura on the book “How to be Human”. He has written two books of his own, the Sunday Times bestseller “A Monk’s Guide to Happiness” and “Handbook for Hard Times”.