Bodhi Path Teachers

Bodhi Path centers were founded by Shamarpa, the 14th Shamar Rinpoche, and are guided by resident and visiting teachers of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Bodhi Path offers a mix of lay and monastic teachers from around the world, including Asia, Europe, and North America.

Jewon Jigme Rinpoche

Lama Jigme Rinpoche is an author and teacher in the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Born in 1949 in Kham, Tibet into the family of Rangjung Rigpa Dorje, the 16th Karmapa, he is the brother of the late 14th Shamar Rinpoche, Mipham Chokyi Lodro.

Karma Trinlay Rinpoche

Karma Trinlay Rinpoche is a highly accomplished Buddhist teacher born in 1975 to an American mother and a French father. His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa recognized the 13-month-old Rinpoche as the reincarnation of an important Buddhist master.

Shenyen Lama Jampa

Shenyen Lama Jampa completed a traditional 3-year retreat in Tibet at the Yangpochen Monastery in 1994. At the request of the 14th Shamarpa, he has since taught in Asia, Europe, North America, and Latin America, and in recent years applied his rare skills in preparing reliquaries and stupas worldwide.

Dharma Mitra (Khenpo Tsering)

Dharma Mitra, known familiarly by students as Khenpo Tsering, received his education from several different Karma Kagyu masters and scholars, including Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche, Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje, Professor Sempa Dorje and Khenpo Chodrak Tenphel Rinpoche.

Acharya Tenzing Wangpo

Born to a Buddhist family in India, Acharya Tenzing Wangpo was enrolled in a monastery at an early age. He graduated from the Diwikar Buddhist Academy in Kalimpong as an Acharya, and has since been teaching philosophy to its young Buddhist monks, as well as traveling to teach in Europe and the US.

Dawa Tarchin Phillips

Dawa is the resident teacher of Bodhi Path Santa Barbara. Born in NYC, he grew up in a multicultural family and speaks English, German and French fluently. Dawa studied and trained as an ordained monk with the late Tibetan Buddhist meditation master Gendun Rinpoche and completed two 3-year meditation retreats at Dhagpo Kundreul Ling Hermitage.

Delphine Forget

Delphine Forget has been a Buddhist since 1984, and completed one traditional three-year retreat under the guidance of the great meditation master Gendun Rinpoche. Since 1990, Delphine has been a resident at Dhagpo Kagyu Ling in France, directed by Jigme Rinpoche, where she tends to Dharma activity including projects established by the late Shamar Rinpoche.

Julia Tenzin

Julia Tenzin combines traditional Tibetan and western academic approaches to Buddhism. She began at age 21 as a disciple of the late master Gendun Rinpoche, doing three consecutive three-year retreats at his monastic hermitage, Dhagpo Kundrol Ling, as well as having earned her PhD at McGill University in related studies.

Jungne

Jungne met Shamar Rinpoche, Jigme Rinpoche and Gendün Rinpoche in 1994 and, inspired by the teachings of these Tibetan meditators, moved to the Kagyu Ling retreat center in the Auvergne region, Kundröl Ling. From 1998 to 2004, she completed two traditional three-year retreats.

Khaydroup Zangmo

Khaydroup is the resident teacher of Bodhi Path Pasadena. In 1990, while in India, many auspicious events led Khaydroup to the monastic community of the late Gendun Rinpoche in France. She subsequently had the good fortune to be guided in two consecutive traditional Three Year retreats by this highly respected meditation master.

Lara Braitstein

Lara Braitstein is a professor of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism at McGill University in Montreal. She specializes in Mahayana & Vajrayana Buddhist Philosophy, Buddhist Hagiography, and Tibetan/Himalayan Buddhist literature and historiography. As a translator for his book, The Path to Awakening, she worked closely with the 14th Shamarpa.

Bart Mendel

Bart became a student of the 14th Shamarpa in 1995 and two years later, he and his wife Suzan Garner accepted Shamarpa’s invitation to establish a Bodhi Path Center in Santa Barbara, where Bart served as resident teacher for ten years.

Pamela

A Buddhist practitioner since the mid-80s, Pamela spent several years working in parks and gardens before meeting—and being swept away by—the late great meditation master Gendun Rinpoche. She did two 3-year retreats under Rinpoche’s guidance at Dhagpo Kundreul Ling in Auvergne, France. She is one of the Bodhi Path and Dhagpo mandala translator/interpreters.

Rachel Parrish

Rachel is the resident teacher of Bodhi Path Chicago, and also teaches in other centers in the US and Canada. Rachel discovered the Dharma at Dhagpo Kagyu Ling in France. She completed two traditional three-year retreats in Kundreul Ling, which was established by the great meditation master Gendun Rinpoche, followed by a one-year solitary retreat.

Tina Draszczyk

Dr. Draszczyk has been practicing for more than 40 years in the Karma Kagyu tradition. She completed her profound Buddhist studies with both a PhD degree from Vienna University and Acharya degree from the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute (K.I.B.I.) in New Delhi. Tina worked closely with the 14th Shamarpa on many of his book titles.

Tsering Ngodup

Following the advice of Shamarpa, since 2000 Tsering has been in the USA translating and teaching Dharma. Based on Tsering’s experiences and knowledge accumulated through his service to the Dharma, the late Shamarpa authorized him to teach and share his knowledge and experiences in Bodhi Path Centers.

Tsony

Tsony is the resident teacher of Bodhi Path Natural Bridge retreat center. He has been teaching at Bodhi Path since 1999, many of those years under the spiritual guidance of the late 14th Shamarpa. In 2005 he began transferring formal responsibilities at the Kundreul Ling community, to nurture growing Bodhi Path projects in the EU/US.

Yeshe Drolma

Shortly after meeting H.H. the 14th Shamarpa in Germany in 1986, Yeshe Drolma dedicated her life to Buddhist practice and study. From 1989 until 2000 she was in retreat, including the traditional 3-year retreat under the late Gendun Rinpoche.