Our Founders

Lama Thubten Yeshe

The Maitreya Project was the compassionate heart wish of the late Tibetan Buddhist master Lama Thubten Yeshe, who, through his wisdom, warmth, kindness and joy, touched the hearts of thousands of people.

Lama Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935, not far from the town of Tolung Dechen. Two hours away by horse was the Ci-me Lung Gompa, home to about 100 nuns of the Gelug tradition. Some years after their learned abbess had passed away, Nenung Pawo Rinpoche, a Kagy Lama widely famed for his psychic powers, came by their nunnery. They approached him and asked where their abbess was now. He answered that in a nearby village there was a boy born at such and such a time, and that if they investigated they would discover that he was their reincarnated abbess. Following his advice, they found the young Lama Yeshe to whom they brought many offerings and gave the name, Thondrub Dorje.

Afterwards, the nuns would often take the young boy back to their nunnery to attend the various ceremonies and other religious functions held there. During these visits, which could last for days at a time, he often stayed in the shrine room and attended services with them. The nuns would also frequently visit his parents' home where he was taught the alphabet, grammar and reading by his uncle, Ngawang Norbu, who was a student geshe from Sera Monastery.

Even though the young boy loved his parents very much, he felt that their life was full of suffering and did not want to live as they did. From a very early age he expressed a desire to lead a religious life. Whenever a monk would visit their home, he would beg to leave with him and to join a monastery. Finally, when he was six years old, he received his parent's permission to join Sera Je College in one of the great monastic centres of Lhasa, Tibet.

He was taken there by his uncle, who promised the young boy's mother that he would take good care of him. The nuns offered him robes and the other necessities of life that he would require at Sera, while his uncle supervised him strictly and made him study very hard.

At the age of eight, he was ordained as a novice monk by Ven. Purchog Jampa Rinpoche. During all of his training, one of Lama Yeshe's recurring prayers was to be able one day to bring the peaceful benefits of spiritual practice to those who had not met the teachings.

He stayed at Sera until he was twenty-five years old. There he received spiritual instruction based on the educational traditions brought from India to Tibet over a thousand years ago. This phase of his education came to an end in 1959. As Lama Yeshe said, "In that year China kindly told us that it was time to leave Tibet and to meet the outside world." Escaping through Bhutan, he eventually reached northeast India where he met up with many other Tibetan refugees. At the Tibetan settlement of Buxadaur, he continued his studies.

One of Lama Yeshe's teachers in both Tibet and Buxadaur was Geshe Rabten, a highly learned practitioner famous for his single-pointed concentration and powers of logic. This compassionate lama had a disciple named Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, and at his suggestion Zopa Rinpoche began to receive additional instruction from Lama Yeshe. They were together for the remainder of Lama Yeshe's life.

Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa met their first Western student in Darjeeling in 1965. Later they traveled to Nepal where they lived at Boudhanath near Kathmandu. There they began to meet many more Western students and established Kopan Monastery from which grew the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. Today, there are more than 115 centres around the world.

Lama Yeshe passed away on March 3, 1984 after a serious four-month period of illness. Two valves in his heart were faulty, and his heart had enlarged to twice its normal size. Lama Yeshe had said of his condition, which was known as early as 1974, that he was alive only through the power of spiritual practice.

After his passing, his reincarnation was found in the form of young Spanish boy, Tenzin Osel who has been officially recognized by His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama of Tibet.

Lama Yeshe's activities were vast and through his efforts, Buddhism has flourished around the world.