Born in Lhasa, Tibet, in 1939, Kyabje Gelek Rinpoche was recognized as an incarnate lama at the age of four. Carefully tutored from an early age by some of Tibets greatest living masters, Rinpoche gained renown for his powers of memory, intellectual judgment and penetrating insight. As a small child, living in a monks cell in a country with no electricity or running water, and little news of the outside world, he scoured the pictures of torn copies of Life Magazine for anything he could gather about America.

Now Rinpoche brings his life experience and wisdom to both the east and the west.  Among the last generation of Lamas educated in Drepung Monastery before the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet, Gelek Rinpoche was forced to flee to India in 1959. He later edited and printed over 170 volumes of rare Tibetan manuscripts that would have otherwise been lost to humanity. Rinpoche was also instrumental in forming organizations that would share the great wisdom of Tibet with the outside world. In this and other ways, he has played a crucial role in the survival of Tibetan Buddhism.

He was director of Tibet House in Delhi, India and a radio host at All India Radio. He conducted over 1000 interviews in compiling an oral history of the fall of Tibet to the Communist Chinese. In the late 1970s Rinpoche was directed to teach Western students by his teachers, the Senior and Junior Masters to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since that time he has taught Buddhist practitioners around the world.

Rinpoche is particularly distinguished for his thorough familiarity with modern culture, and special effectiveness as a teacher of Western practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. Recognizing the unique opportunity for the interface of spiritual and material concerns in today's world, Rinpoche has also opened a dialogue with science, psychology, medicine, metaphysics, politics, and the arts.

In 1988, Rinpoche founded Jewel Heart, a Tibetan Buddhist Center. His Collected Works now include over 32 transcripts of his teachings, numerous articles as well as the national bestselling books. Rinpoche is a U.S. citizen and lives in Michigan.

Source: Jewel Heart