Background
Gyeltsen was born Jamphel Yeshe in 1923, in Kham, an eastern ethno-cultural Tibet.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Geshe Gyeltsen
Edit ProfileCareer
He traveled to the Gaden Monastery near Lhasa when he was sixteen years old. Gyeltsen remained as a student at the monastery for the next twenty years. India and United Kingdom
Gyeltsen and fifty other Tibetan monks fled to India following the 14th Dalai Lama during the 1959 Tibetan uprising.
His group, which included fifty monks, travelled for a month over the Himalaya Mountains.
United States
Gyeltsen immigrated to the United States from the United Kingdom in 1976. Gyeltsen then reinstated his vows as a monk and began teaching Tibetan language, meditation and religious studies as a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of California, Los Los Angeles
Gyeltsen hosted the Dalai Lama on visits to Los Angeles on six separate occasions. The most recent visit by the Dalai Lama was in 2006.
Gyeltsen wrote the books Mirror of Wisdom and Compassion: The Key to Great Awakening.
Gyeltsen cremation ceremony was held in southern India. His relics were then returned to the center.
Membership
He served as a member of the board of directors of the International Campaign for Tibet, an independence group founded by actor Richard Gere.
