The lamas arriving at Maroochydore Airport at the beginning of their Australian tour, September 1974. Others in the photo include Paul Bourke, Ven. Yeshe Khadro, Ven. Ann McNeil, Pete Northend, Lindsay & Elli Pratt, & Tom & Kathy Vichta. Photo retouched and courtesy of LYWA.

What begins as a box of old photographs can quietly become something much more — a living record of how the Dharma took root, spread, and touched countless lives.

When Chenrezig Institute began preparing for its 50th Anniversary celebrations in September 2024, Ven. Pende Hawter saw an opportunity. Tucked away in boxes and shelves in the library were decades of photographs — some more than 50 years old — documenting the full sweep of the Institute’s history. He began the patient work of scanning, editing, and cataloguing them, with the simple wish to make them accessible and easy to share.

Four years on, he is still at it — and the project has grown far beyond what he first imagined. What he originally expected would amount to around 2,000 photos has become a collection of more than 15,000, and the number keeps growing. Each image requires careful attention: checking for spots, blemishes, stains, and color, and a single photo can take 30 minutes or more to edit. Ven. Pende describes himself as very much still in the learning phase — though the fruits of that learning are already beautiful to see. You can glimpse a sample of the collection here.

After some research, he settled on Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud as his tool of choice — a cloud-based platform that makes cataloguing and editing manageable even for a collection of this scale.

In his own words:

“Now that most of the photos are catalogued, I am slowly increasing my skills on the editing side, and it is enjoyable seeing old photos in not-so-good condition being freshened up and brought back to life.”

This work matters deeply — not just as an archiving project, but as an act of gratitude and responsibility toward those who came before us. From the very beginning, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche carried an extraordinary vision: to bring the Dharma to the West and make it accessible to generations of students who had never encountered it before. The early years of FPMT centers around the world were filled with remarkable effort, creativity, and devotion — students giving their time, energy, and heart to build something that had never existed before in their countries. Much of that history lives in photographs, quietly sitting in boxes, waiting to be found.

To let those images fade or be lost would be to lose something precious — not just images, but living proof of what is possible when people come together in the spirit of the Dharma. It is now to the present generation of students and practitioners to honor that inheritance and carry it forward. Preserving these records is itself an act of gratitude — a way to rejoice in the merit of those who built what we now enjoy and to ensure that future students will know where they come from.

Ven. Pende hopes that this project at Chenrezig Institute might encourage other FPMT centers to review what they have stored away and begin their own preservation journey. “This is such a valuable asset to the center, which can be accessed and built on long into the future. If any of the centers need advice about how to go about this, I am happy to help!”

If your FPMT center has a library of old photos waiting to be brought back to life, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Ven. Pende directly — he is genuinely happy to share what he has learned and support you in getting started.

A precious photo resource is also available to all: The LYWA Image Gallery offers an extensive collection of archival images of Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and their students, organized by year beginning in 1967 through 2014. Browse through the albums or search for particular content then watch a slideshow or download the image for your personal use. You might like to start with browsing the Hidden Gems gallery or portraits of Lama and Rinpoche.  

Please explore all of the resources we have compiled related to FPMT history. We are currently collecting stories from students and centers that help document the incredibly rich history of the FPMT organization. 

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service. 

Chenrezig Institute was founded in 1974 on Eudlo land — 160 acres donated by devoted students of Lama Yeshe: Nick Ribush, Yeshe Khadro, and Tom and Kathy Vichta. With the approval of Trijang Rinpoche, who confirmed that the land was most auspicious, it became the first FPMT center and Tibetan Buddhist center in Australia.

This inspiring story has now been brought to the screen with the documentary The Origin of Tibetan Buddhism in Australia, made by independent filmmaker Małgorzata Ola Dobrowolska — known as Malgo.

For Malgo, the film was a way of giving back what she had received during her four years at the Institute. Originally from Poland, she arrived in Australia in 2019 to travel and make documentary films. When she landed at Chenrezig Institute, what was meant to be a few-month stay became a four-year journey that deeply transformed both her life and her work.

“As a filmmaker, I have always been guided by a strong inner conviction that lasting world peace can only arise through profound spiritual transformation,” Malgo reflects. “Shortly after arriving at Chenrezig Institute, I felt a clear inner calling to create a documentary about the origins of the center. The project gradually became not only a documentary but also a personal journey of connecting more deeply with the meaning of Dharma in the modern world.”

The documentary features stories from community members involved with the Institute from its very beginning, archival images of founders Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and a portrait of their vision for the Institute. Alongside this historical material, Malgo weaves in her own more recent footage, skilfully capturing the many qualities that make Chenrezig Institute what it is today.

Please watch the trailer of the film:

Screenings That Bring the Community Together

On February 1, 2026, the documentary premiered at Chenrezig Institute to an audience of over 70 people, creating a warm and joyful atmosphere. A second screening followed at Buddha House in Adelaide on February 7, 2026, welcoming more than 50 participants.

The response at both premieres was heartfelt and enthusiastic. The documentary offered a sense of continuity across generations of students and created meaningful points of connection for newer members of the community. Many expressed gratitude for the opportunity to reconnect with the Institute’s history, while others said the film helped them better understand FPMT’s roots and feel more connected to the broader community. As one attendee put it: “It was very moving to see the documentary in the heart of the place it is based on.”

These screenings have naturally become more than film events — they have turned into spaces for community connection, reflection, and shared appreciation of the center’s history and lineage.

“I am grateful that what began as a personal calling has grown into something that can serve the community,” Malgo shares. “It is my hope that similar events may continue to support connection, reflection, and rejoicing within the wider FPMT network.”

To learn more about the film and to arrange a screening at your center, please visit the film’s website.

The Community Support Fund proudly offered a grant toward the completion of this project. 

About the Filmmaker

Małgorzata Ola Dobrowolska (Malgo) is an independent documentary filmmaker from Warsaw, Poland, whose work is rooted in her own spiritual journey. Her award-winning feature-length documentary Bhikkhuni – Buddhism, Sri Lanka, Revolution explores the revival of women’s ordination in Theravada Buddhism. She holds a Master’s degree in Intercultural Psychology and a postgraduate degree in Multimedia.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Thubten Gyatso at Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, Bendigo, Australia, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

As the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) reached its 50th anniversary in December 2025, we are celebrating this important milestone by sharing the inspiring stories of the students and centers who helped FPMT grow around the world.

Through their dedication, our beloved founders, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, established centers, projects, services, and study groups across many countries. What began with a small group of students has grown naturally and organically far beyond the West and continues to benefit living beings everywhere.

“We should recognize our Western Sangha as a resource for the establishment of the Dharma in the West,” shared Lama Yeshe in 1983, the year before showing the aspect of passing, during a CPMT meeting in Italy.

Founded in 1981 by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nalanda Monastery became the first Western Buddhist monastery of FPMT, following the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

One of the most treasured voices in this living history belongs to Ven. Thubten Gyatso (born 1943, Dr. Adrian Feldmann), who was the very first monk to arrive at Nalanda—and its first director, serving from 1981 to 1985. He trained and worked as a medical doctor, and since 1975 he has been a Buddhist monk. He has also written an autobiography about his early Buddhist and ordained years, published as A Leaf in the Wind.

In this video filmed during Nalanda’s 40th Anniversary in a series of talks called “Honoring our Former Generations,” Ven. Gyatso shares a remarkable journey: from his medical school years in Melbourne in the 1960s, through a restless spiritual search that led him across Asia, to his ordination at Kopan Monastery in November 1975. He then joined the community of monks and nuns at Kopan for the next three to four years. Later, Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested that he serve as the SPC in Melbourne, where he worked for more than a year.

Please watch Ven. Gyatso’s inspiring story:

At the end of 1980, unexpected news changed his life plans. While he was doing prostrations under the bodhi tree, someone delivered a letter from Lama Yeshe saying, “I want you to go to France and set up a new monastery. Come and see me in Dharamsala.” He later met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in a small room in Dharamsala, where Lama told him plainly: “Elizabeth has bought this place in France, and I want it to be a monastery for my monks and nuns—you go there and set it up.” (You can watch Ven. Elisabeth Drukier’s interview here). 

It was in that same meeting that Lama Yeshe gave the monastery its name: Nalanda—chosen in the spirit of the great ancient center of Dharma study whose ruins Ven. Gyatso had visited just weeks earlier and which had inspired him to vow to help establish monastic communities in the West.

Ven. Gyatso arrived to find a stripped, empty three-story building, about 200 years old, with no furniture and no fittings—and on his very first night, a thunderstorm of spectacular intensity. Undeterred, he spent the following weeks scrubbing every floor and wall by hand, building the dining room table and benches himself, and planting gardens. For the first few weeks, he worked alone, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monks and nuns began to arrive gradually—first Mike King from Manjushri Institute in England, then others—and the community slowly and joyfully took shape.

Ven. Gyatso’s account is a beautiful testimony to what determination and wholehearted willingness to serve can achieve. From a lone monk closing shutters in a thunderstorm to a flourishing monastic community embodying the vision of our Lamas—this is the story of how Nalanda began and such a fine example of the type of courage demonstrated by the early students of FPMT. 

Please also read an interview with Ven. Gyatso from 2009 ,after he completed a three-year retreat at De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre on Kangaroo Island off the South Australian coast.

Dr. Adrian Feldmann (Ven Thubten Gyatso) treating a young monk at the People’s Clinic, Kopan Monastery, 1979. Photo courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

This and other inspiring moments in the history of Nalanda Monastery has been preserved in video interviews, creating a virtual time capsule that captures the monastery’s story and its beginnings in the 1970s under the guidance of our Lamas. These recordings honor the contributions of the founding generation and make their legacy available to all who come after them. The interviews feature a message from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and memories from Ven. Roger Kunsang, Ven. Gyaltsen, Ven. Tendar, Henri Charpentier, Stephan (Pende) Wormland, Ven. Elisabeth Drukier, Ven. Thubten Gyatso, Geshe Losang Jamphel,  Ven. Steve Carlier and John Feuille  with a special bonus recording of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching offered to celebrate Nalanda.

Join us in celebrating this remarkable journey. Share your story using the hashtag #50YearsFPMT and help inspire the next generation. Your memories and experiences are part of this living history. We would love to hear from you.

Please explore all of the resources we have compiled related to FPMT history. We look forward to all of your creative ideas on how to bring this year-long celebration to your own local activities and personal practices! Please use the hashtag #50YearsFPMT in your social media posts so we can all be connected in this way. 

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service. 

Medicine Buddha puja during the Healing and Reconciliation event at Abhayagiriya Temple led by Kopan geshes, with disabled Army personnel and families in attendance. Photo by Capucine Redon.

Lama Namgyal Rinpoche and five Kopan geshes were welcomed to Sri Lanka for the first extended tour by Tibetan Buddhist monks in the country to fully consecrate Sri Lanka’s first Medicine Buddha statue. The tour was organized by the Tara Lanka Study Group, led by Ven. Tenzin Lekdron and carries profound historical and interfaith significance.

After three years of dedicated effort, the Tara Lanka Study Group has completed a 5-foot/ 1.5-meter Medicine Buddha prototype statue. It was formally offered and installed in the heart of Colombo in October 2025. This marks an important step towards fulfilling Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wish to build a five-story (approximately 50 feet/ 15 meters) Medicine Buddha statue in Sri Lanka.

Consecration of the prototype of Medecine Budha Statu at Gangaramaya temple on October 29, 2025. Photo by Capucine Redon.

This was the first time an image of the Medicine Buddha had been enshrined for public worship and ritual at a major temple in Sri Lanka. This is a remarkable moment that advances Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vision of reconciliation between the Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist traditions.

The Kopan geshes arrived in the capital, Colombo, on October 26. The following day, they gathered with the Tara Lanka community. During this meeting, Lama Namgyal Rinpoche offered a clear and accessible introduction to Mahayana Buddhism. Students’ questions were encouraged and translated into Sinhala by Hirushan Fernando.

On October 28, one of the four major events of the tour took place at Kelaniya Temple, where the Naga Puja was performed. It was led by Lama Namgyal Rinpoche together with the geshes. At this temple, which is believed to have been visited by the Buddha himself, a small group of students received the rare and precious opportunity to take the Bodhisattva vows. Tara Lanka students Hirushan Fernando and Dilini Wijesekara, representing the local community, made this request to Lama Namgyal Rinpoche, who kindly agreed.

Naga puja at Kelaniya temple of Colombo, October 28, 2025. Photo by Capucine Redon.

On October 29, at Gangarama Temple, Lama Namgyal Rinpoche, with the geshes, consecrated the Medicine Buddha prototype statue in a private ceremony performed exactly according to Tibetan tradition.

On October 30, the Kopan monks travelled to Anuradhapura to meet the Atamasthana Adhipathi, who holds the highest authority over the eight sacred Buddhist sites in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.

October 31 marked the Healing and Reconciliation event at Abhayagiriya Temple for disabled former army personnel. The event was attended by 300 participants, including wounded soldiers and widows. The Kopan geshes conducted a Medicine Buddha puja while participants meditated in silence and reflection. Lunch was offered by the army to all participants. This act of shared devotion stood as a powerful symbol of mutual respect, unity, and healing.

On November 1 at Abhayagiriya Temple, a prominent Theravada site, the Kopan geshes led a Guru Bumtsog puja attended by nearly 100 people. The atmosphere was palpably sincere.

In the days following the ceremonies, the monks journeyed across the island. On November 2, they visited the Ruwanwelisaya and Jethavana temples. The following day, they returned to Abhayagiriya to see 400 hectares of Mahayana archaeological ruins and then travelled to Kandy. There, the geshes visited the Sacred Tooth Relic, which left a deep impression on them. They were honored to be granted a rare audience with the Most Venerable Mahanayaka Thero of the Asgiriya Chapter. This marked a historic event that will be remembered in the Buddhist annals of Sri Lanka.

Rare audience with the head of Asgiriya Chapter which is the most powerful religious title in Sri Lanka.

The Ambassador of Nepal formally acknowledged the geshes and their contribution to the people of Sri Lanka by hosting an official reception at the Nepalese Embassy. The event honored the first official group of Tibetan Buddhist monks from Nepal to undertake an extended tour of Sri Lanka and marked the gifting of the Medicine Buddha statue.

On November 5th, the geshes returned to Kopan Monastery. Throughout the journey, they were welcomed everywhere with genuine warmth. Their presence, prayers, and humility touched all those they encountered.

The entire project was led through the dedicated effort and devotion of Ven. Lekdron, who shared: “The wheel of Mahayana is turning in Sri Lanka. Tara Lanka has done 10 years of purification practices and created the foundation for change.”

With grateful thanks to Ven. Tenzin Lekdron for sharing news of this inspiring development!  We welcome the submission of news stories from those within the FPMT community. This can be a story about something you have personally completed or accomplished, about someone else who has done so, or about the FPMT center, project, or service of which you are a part. Ideal submissions will give readers reasons to rejoice, share ideas, and create connections between those in the international community. Have something to share? Please let us know!

Please learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization to have hundreds of thousands of holy objects around the world: fpmt.org/fpmt/vast-vision/#hobjects

Lama Tsongkhapa with his two main disciples.

During the Fifteen Days of Miracles, many Tibetan monasteries hold a Great Prayer Festival, which originates from Lama Tsongkhapa.  Kopan Monastery has continued to host the Great Prayer Festival on behalf of the FPMT annually since 1998. The Monlam is regarded as one of the “four great activities” of Lama Tsongkhapa’s life. 

According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wish, Nalanda Monastery in France will host its third annual Gelug Monlam from February 28 to March 4. All of these sessions will be available online, which is a wonderful opportunity for all interested to participate! 

During the first Gelug Monlam festival at Nalanda in 2024, the monastery filmed interviews with special guests and geshes. Please watch this short video to learn more about the history and significance of this event’s arrival in the West.  You can also watch five episodes of “The Seed of Gelug Monlam in the West,” which are more extensive interviews filmed during this period. In the first episode,  Ven. Roger Kunsang discusses Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wishes for this event to take place at Nalanda. Two months after the first Gelug Monlam at Nalanda, Ven. Roger had an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and reported, “His Holiness was very moved to hear about the first Monlamd putting his hands together in the mudra of prayer above his head when I explained, and recited some prayers for some time silently.”

Watch Ven. Roger’s moving interview:

Please read all the details about the very special guests participating in the event, the schedule, registration, and how you can join and support this powerful Gelug Monlam festival. 

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Welcome to this month’s e-newsletter!

We at FPMT International Office wish all of our dear friends and supporters a most happy and healthy Tibetan New Year of the Fire Horse! We have entered an incredibly powerful period through March 3, 2026. 

In this month’s e-newsletter, in addition to advice from our lamas; and news on FPMT activities, opportunities, resources, and changes around the world; you will find practice advice and resources for making the most of these Fifteen Days of Miracles. You will also be invited to read a new Update from the FPMT Inc. Board of Directors discussing their progress on developing the Strategic Plan, appointing a new Executive Director, recruiting new Board members, and their 5-day face-to-face Board meeting in December 2025 at Kopan Monastery. 

Please continue to read this month’s e-news in its entirety! 

Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page.

Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email inbox.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe, Chenrezig Institute, Australia, 1975. Photo by Nick Ribush, restoration by David Zinn, courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Losar Tashi Delek!

Happy Tibetan New Year to all our dear friends!

With love from everyone at FPMT International Office

The Great Prayer Festival during the Fifteen Days of Miracles—from the first day of the Tibetan new year, Losar, (February 18, 2026) until the fifteenth, Chotrul Duchen (March 3, 2026)—commemorates the special time when Guru Shakyamuni Buddha showed miraculous powers to subdue six tirthikas, or non-Buddhist teachers, who lacked faith in him, and to inspire more faith in his followers. It culminates on the full moon, the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar. Please read all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice for this meritorious period, opportunities to join the worldwide community in praying strongly for Rinpoche’s swift return, as well as advice for observing the anniversary of Lama Yeshe’s passing away on Losar, 1984.

One precious opportunity that is available for all to join is once again being organized by Root Institute. Powerful prayers will be recited for the return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the seat of enlightenment under the bodhi tree at the Mahabodhi Stupa, Bodhgaya.

Everyone is encouraged to join these prayers by downloading the free prayer book, From the Seat of Enlightenment. Root Institute will be livestreaming the event every day, and all are welcome to join and follow along. Still, please know that joining in, at any time you are able, is so incredibly powerful during these next fourteen days. Updates and news will also be posted on Root Institute’s Facebook page. The prayers are part of Root Institutes’ Festival of Lights and Merits, with extensive offerings of lights, flowers, and various pujas and practices available for sponsorship. This year, they are also hosting a 100,000 water bowl offering retreat at the stupa. 

Please explore all of the resources and opportunities available to make the very most of these powerful fifteen days of miracles, and please join us in rejoicing in all the meritorious activities happening within the FPMT organization and around the world on this auspicious merit-multiplying period!

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2017, with Geshe Sherab, Gen Don Handrick and Rowena Mayer, former director of Thubten Norbu Ling. Photo courtesy of Thubten Norbu Ling.

For the majority of Thubten Norbu Ling’s twenty-five year history in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, Geshe Thubten Sherab has served as joint-resident teacher. After a world teaching tour, Geshe Sherab will enter  three year retreat at the beginning of 2027. Here we share a short biography of Geshe Sherab, and some words of thanks and praise from the team at Thubten Norbu Ling:

Geshe Thubten Sherab was born in 1967 in a small village in the Manang province of western Nepal. His parents, hoping to bring merit to their family and all sentient beings, encouraged him to become a monk. He was welcomed to Kopan Monastery by Lama Yeshe, where his formal training began.

From 1987 to 2000, Geshe Sherab studied Buddhist philosophy at Sera Je Monastery, eventually earning his Geshe degree. During this time, he was deeply influenced by his teachers, including Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who taught him as much through their daily example as through formal instruction.

After completing his studies and spending a year studying tantra at Gyume Tantric College, Geshe Sherab came to the United States. He spent two and a half years supporting FPMT International Office and teaching in Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Geshe-la returned to Kopan Monastery to serve as headmaster and acting abbot, but came back to Santa Fe in 2014 as our resident teacher, where he’s been teaching the community ever since. For a good part of Thubten Norbu Ling’s 25-year history in Santa Fe, Geshe Sherab has been a pillar of our community and alongside Gen Don Handrick, a source of Dharma and inspiration in Santa Fe and around the world. Geshe-la’s teachings have touched thousands of lives, not because of eloquent words, but because of who Geshe-la is. There’s his ever-present smile, his humor, the way he treats everyone—students, animals, even insects—with an open heart and ever-present compassion.

Geshe Sherab with Thubten Norbu Ling SPC, Ven. Losang Dondrub, during Geshe-la’s farewell at Thubten Norbu Ling. Photo courtesy of TNL.

Don Handrick shares,“I will miss Geshe-la’s presence in the community and our occasional lunches together, but I am so happy that he finally has the chance to do the long retreat that he has wanted to do for so many years. I wish him all the best for his time in retreat, as well as for the teaching tour to FPMT centers that will precede that. Thank you, Geshe-la, for all your contributions to the Dharma at TNL and around the world. And thank you very much for your precious friendship over more than twenty years that I value so much!”

Yes, Geshe la’s teachings and philosophical depth has changed how we understand and practice Buddhism. But what truly inspired us was watching him live it. Geshe la’s unwavering compassion, wisdom and ethical discipline aren’t a practice – they are who Geshe la is. Anyone fortunate enough to know Geshe-la, carries his example with them. We try, every day, to live the way he showed us how.

Now, the next chapter in Geshe Sherab’s Dharma journey is beginning. Geshe-la has embarked on a world teaching tour to share the Dharma with students across the globe, after which he’ll fulfill a long-held dream of entering extended retreat at the beginning of 2027.

While we are deeply sad to lose Geshe-la’s kindness, and presence, we’re also genuinely thrilled for him. If you would like to learn how to support Geshe Thubten Sherab’s three year retreat, Thubten Norbu Ling has more information. 

With grateful thanks to Thubten Norbu Ling for providing us with this moving tribute to Geshe Sherab. 

Please watch this sweet video of Geshe Sherab and his brother Geshe Palden sharing stories from their time growing up in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. They both entered the monastic system as children and spent their formative years studying, debating, and practicing within these communities:

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Ven. Elisabeth Drukier addressing the CPMT Summit group about the early years of FPMT, April 7, 2025. Photo by Capucine T. Dekyong.

As FPMT has reached 50 years as an organization, we are taking the opportunity to celebrate the stories and contributions of all who have helped Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche establish centers, projects, services, and study groups around the world, reaching far beyond the Western scope. 

In 2021 Nalanda Monastery, located near Lavaur, France, celebrated its 40 years of existence from humble beginnings as an old farmhouse in 1981 to a leading Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West, home to around 30 monks, as well as a growing lay community dedicated to the study and practice of the Dharma. As part of this celebration, and to preserve their rich history, Nalanda organized special talks  and Q&As via Zoom of all former directors and others who played an important role in Nalanda’s history. These talks offer such an intimate look into the very special history of the FPMT organization, told from those who were there and helped establish centers at the very beginning. 

International Mahayana Institute Sangha, Nalanda Monastery, Lavaur, France, 1983. Foreground left side: Francesco Prevosti.
Photo (L to R): Dieter Kratzer, Murray Wright, Adrian Feldmann/Gyatso, Jean-Marie, Jimi Neale, David Marks, Geshe Tegchok, Pierro Siriani (rear), Steve Carlier, Martin Willson, Thuben Sherab Sherpa (rear), Lama Thubten Yeshe, Elisabeth Drukier, Joseph Fontaine, Merry Colony (middle), Martine Darrou (rear), Father Bastiani (a local priest, in blue), Sangye Khadro (middle), Thubten Chodron, Anne-Marie, Beppe Molinari, Celia Smith. Photo courtesy Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Today we are sharing the story of Ven. Elisabeth Drukier. Ven. Elisabeth is the director of Kalachakra Centre, Paris, and an early student of the Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche who came to Kopan Monastery in 1974 and stayed for the next five years, ordaining in 1976. Ven. Elisabeth was instrumental in establishing Institut Vajra Yogini, Nalanda Monastery, and Kalachakra Centre. 

Please watch Ven. Elisabeth share her story:

At the CPMT Summit at Kopan Monastery in 2025, Ven. Elisabeth also shared stories about Kopan and Kathmandu in the early days of the FPMT organization. “Lama Yeshe had a talent for picking up people and giving them responsibilities. You didn’t know really you were capable of doing what he asked, but he knew. He knew.”

Are you an early student of FPMT who was there at the beginning? Do you have a story to share about how you met Lama Yeshe or Lama Zopa Rinpoche or the impact they have had on your life? Have you personally achieved or actualized a request, advice, practice accomplishment, or project given to you by Lama Yeshe or Lama Zopa Rinpoche? We want to hear from you!

Please explore all of the resources we have compiled related to FPMT history. We look forward to all of your creative ideas on how to bring this year-long celebration to your own local activities and personal practices! Please use the hashtag #50YearsFPMT in your social media posts so we can all be connected in this way. 

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Losar, 2021, Kopan Monastery, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

We are delighted to share the January 2026 e-news with you. We share many causes for rejoicing including:

• Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• ILTK’s Remembering Lama Yeshe project
• His Holiness the Dalai Lama attends Winter Debate at Drepung Monastery
• Tara Institute students attend long life puja for His Holiness
• FPMT celebrates 50 years!
• FPMT Charitable Projects Grant application is now open
• Resources for your study and practice
• Requests for submissions

and much more! 

Please read this month’s e-news in its entirety.

Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page.

Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email inbox.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service. 

Kopan Monastery’s 8th Meditation Course group photo with Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nepal, 1975. Photo by Jon Landaw.

December 2025 marked 50 years since Lama Yeshe famously said, “We need an organization to keep this together.” Lama was reflecting on the success of a recent eight-and-a-half month tour of nine countries, the most extensive Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche would ever make. Lama asked nine of his senior students to discuss how to coordinate the rapidly growing collection of centers and students what would soon be known as the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT).

Please watch Lama Yeshe offering a talk in 1982 on “How FPMT Centers Began”:

What an unbelievable achievement the last 50 years have been for everyone who has served the FPMT organization in any way. We invite all of our friends in the FPMT Mandala–old students, new students, centers, projects, services, study groups, donors, teachers, board members, volunteers, and anyone who has benefited from FPMT in any way or offered their very kind service–to please join us over the next year to truly rejoice in what has been accomplished from the most humble beginnings. We have compiled extensive resources for celebrating this achievement, along with invitations to please share your story!

We look forward to all of your creative ideas on how to bring this year-long celebration to your own local activities and personal practices! Please use the hashtag #50YearsFPMT in your social media posts so we can all be connected in this way. 

Please explore resources for celebrating and learning about the rich history of FPMT, or to share your story:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/fpmt-50-year-anniversary/

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service. 

His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the long life puja offered at Drepung Monastery, Mundgod, India, December 24, 2025. Photo by Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL; courtesy of dalailama.com.

On Christmas Eve 2025, a long-life puja was offered to His Holiness at Drepung Monastery in Mundgod, India, this year’s host of the Annual Winter Debate. Several thousand (mostly monks) attended this event. Cynthia Karena of Tara Institute (TI), Melbourne, was in attendance with Resident Teacher Geshe Doga and others from TI, and shared details and reflections from those there:

It was only for a day’s event, a long life puja, but there was no hesitation to do the long eight-hour drive – on Indian roads – to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We five students from Tara Institute in Melbourne were staying at Sera Je monastery in South India with our dear teacher Venerable Geshe Doga.

On Christmas Eve 2025, we attended the long life puja offered to His Holiness by Drepung Monastery in Mundgod, India, along with several thousand others (mostly monks ) seated in the courtyard.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama waving to monastics gathered for the long life puja for His Holiness at Drepung Monastery, Mundgod, India, December 24, 2025. Photo by Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL; courtesy of dalailama.com.

We stayed a few days, and on the day before the puja we were lucky enough to receive a personal blessing from His Holiness, along with around 300 others, including Mongolians, Chinese and people from various Russian republics. We were assigned a group number for the five of us and after a security check we went into a waiting area. We each had an all too brief moment with him, but it affected us greatly.

“The Tibetan official called for the Aussies to join the line up to see His Holiness. This seemed to amuse him greatly,” says Damien Busby, a former director of Tara Institute. “We were all shuffled past His Holiness quite quickly, but still to gaze up into His Holiness’s face and for him to put his hand on my hands and to touch my head was a moment of real contact. The immediate feeling was just joy.” 

His Holiness the Dalai Lama blessing Tara Institute resident teacher Geshe Doga at Drepung Monastery, December 24, 2025. Photo is a still shot of a clip from video taken by the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

“There was a lot of excitement and anticipation before the blessing, so I was a little nervous,” says Mary-Lou Considine, a long time member of Tara Institute’s Publishing Group (which publishes books and weekly teachings). “As the queue advanced, I followed the organizers’ instruction to look up and move on quickly. When I looked up, His Holiness was right there in front of me – it was like a dream. And then it was over. Looking at our photos later, everyone looked radiant. I felt blessed and very grateful that my connection with Geshe Doga and Tara Institute had brought me to that moment.”

The next day was the long life puja. As His Holiness arrived in the golf cart horns played and monks chanted the Migtsema (Praise to Je Tsongkhapa). “So many thousands of Tibetans squeezed into the large courtyard outside the gompa – many families had obviously arrived early, sitting patiently on cold paving stones, picnic blankets and camping chairs,” says Mary-Lou..

The crowd watching His Holiness the Dalai Lama leave Drepung Monastery following the long life puja, December 24, 2025. Photo by Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL; courtesy of dalailama.com

Even though most of the group were seated toward the rear, the energy was palpable.

“All the colos, sights and sounds of the long life puja for His Holiness immediately transported my mind to a different way of thinking,” says Jenny Molloy, long time Geshe Care organizer and Dharma Club for children teacher. “The lingering impression for me was at the end of proceedings when His Holiness was leaving the temple and the prayers were finished. From behind me in the crowd, the Tibetans started their prayers to His Holiness. In repetition of the prayer, their song grew in strength. The wave of sound continued on and the sound of devotion rose in my heart.”

At the end of the puja as the crowd left, I spotted the Nechung oracle, and His Eminence Ling Rinpoche with His Holinesses’ sister. As he left, His Holiness smiled and waved at the hundreds of people who lined the road. We were also lucky enough to have an audience with H.E. Ling Rinpoche, who spent some time chatting with Geshe Doga.

Geshe Doga with students from Tara Institute and monks from Sera Je Monastery with His Eminence Ling Rinpoche. Cynthia Karena

So the single event turned into three wonderful events – personal blessings from His Holiness, his long life puja, and spending time with H.E. Ling Rinpoche. We seemed to fly the eight-hour drive back to Sera.

Please read about His Holiness attending the Winter Jang Debate held at Drepung Monastery in January. 

With grateful thanks to Cynthia Karena for providing this story. We welcome the submission of news stories from those within the FPMT community. This can be a story about something you have personally completed or accomplished, about someone else who has done so, or about the FPMT center, project, or service of which you are a part. Ideal submissions will give readers reasons to rejoice, share ideas, and create connections between those in the international community. Have something to share? Please let us know!

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.