Career
Sopa became a novice monk and entered Gaden Chokor Monastery in 1932. In 1941, he joined Sera Monastery in Lhasa. He was chosen as one of the Dalai Lama"s debate examiners during the annual Prayer Festival in 1959.
Geshe Sopa went in exile in India following the 1959 Tibetan uprising.
In 1962, he was awarded the degree of Lharampa Geshe. At the request of Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, he moved to the United States of America with three other monks (Sharpa Tulku, Khamlung Tulku and Lama Kunga) that same year to learn English and to study American culture.
Sopa was the first Tibetan to be tenured at an American university. Holding various positions through the years, when he retired in 1997, he became Emeritus Professor in the Department of South Asian Studies.
Sopa was a trustee on the International Committee for Peace Council.
In August 2014, Sopa died of natural causes at age 92. Teachings from Tibet: Guidance from Great Lamas, co-authored
Like a Waking Dream: the Autobiography of Geshe Lhundrub Sopa
The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems: A Tibetan Study of Asian Religious Thought.
