Khenchen Nyima Gyaltsen (Director VTP)

Khenchen Nyima Gyaltsen was born in 1976. He studied both at the Drikung Kagyu Jangchubling monastery in Dehradun and at the Dzongsar Shedra monastic college in Bir, India. In 2002 he was appointed Khenpo by H.H. the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang and has been a teacher at the Kagyu College ever since.
From 2005 onwards, Buddhist texts have been translated into foreign languages under his guidance for four to five months every winter. In addition, in 2008 he started to teach in Dharma centers in the East and West during his annual holidays. In 2013, he was appointed the second Khenchen of the main seat of Drikung Kagyu in India by H.H. the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang. Directed by H.H., he is leading the Vikramashila translation project, giving teachings and translation instructions in the Milarepa Center in Germany for three months every year.

Khenpo Konchok Tamphel (Director RTP)

Khenpo Konchok Tamphel was born in Ladakh, India. In 1997, he received Acharya (Master’s degree) in Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan Literature from Drikung Kagyu Institute, Dehradun, India. He has been working as interpreter for H.H Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang and H.E Garchen Rinpoche since 2001. In 2004, he received the Khenpo degree (Doctorate) in Buddhist philosophy from D.K.I.
Since 2012, he has been heading the Ratnasri Translation Group for 84000 Dharma Translation. Since 2013, he has been teaching and assisting on research projects at the University of Vienna.

Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin (Advisor)

Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin became a monk at the age of 13 under the guidance of his respected yogi uncle Chime Gyatso.  After meeting His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche, out of spontaneous devotion he requested to join the monastery at Drikung Kagyu Institute in Jangchubling, where he became a Khenpo.  Now he serves as the spiritual director of the Tibetan Meditation Center in Frederick, MD.  Khenpo Tsultrim is the author of several books.  When he is not traveling in service of the Dharma and the lineage, he regularly teaches at the TMC and works on a number of ongoing book projects. Khenpo Tsultrim is a member of the International Drikung Kagyu Council and routinely travels around the world teaching and administrating projects.

Dr. Hun Lye (Advisor)

Dr. Hun Lye is the founder and spiritual director of Urban Dharma in Asheville, North Carolina, USA. His Buddhist education is both religious and academic, traditional and modern: he studied with various Buddhist teachers in his birth-country Malaysia and elsewhere and subsequently also earned his doctoral degree in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. Although he has received the kindness of many Drikung Kagyu lamas, his main teacher is Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche. In 2013, H. H. Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche bestowed the position of “Dorje Lopön” upon Dr. Lye and directed him to increase his Dharma-activities in Asia and the Americas. Dorlop Dr. Lye is also the Administrator of Drikung Kagyu Foundation, USA – a non-profit founded to support the activities of His Holiness and our Lineage.

Dr. Jan-Ulrich Sobisch (Advisor)

Jan-Ulrich Sobisch has studied and taught Tibetology at the University of Hamburg, Munich, and Copenhagen, where he has been an associated professor until 2016. He worked on Tibetan tradition of mantra teachings in the context of the Three Vows (sdom pa gsum)  and the transmission of Indian tantric systems within Tibet. Since many years now he also focusses on the Drikungpa's Single Intention (dGongs gcig), a text that had a great impact on the formation of the Kagyüpas from the 13th c. onwards. In 2017 he received the Humboldt Research Award in recognition of his entire acievements. He is presently a researcher and teacher at the Ruhr-University, Bochum.

For a biography of His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang click here.