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The Official Homepage for Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Life & Vision | Teachings & Advice | Support
If you have compassion in your everyday life, you collect the most extensive merit and purify much negative karma in a very short time. Many lifetimes, many eons of negative karma get purified. That helps you realize emptiness.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was a Tibetan Buddhist scholar and meditator who, for 39 years, oversaw the spiritual activities of the extensive worldwide network of centers, projects and services that form the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), which he founded with Lama Thubten Yeshe.
Rinpoche has set in motion a host of Vast Visions for the FPMT organization that will span generations to accomplish. These include the proliferation of many charitable projects and beneficial activities. Among many projects dear to Rinpoche’s heart are the two Maitreya Projects: under Rinpoche’s guidance, FPMT plans to build two large statues of the future Buddha, Maitreya, in Bodhgaya and Kushinagar in India; The Sera Je Food Fund, which offered three vegetarian meals a day to all 2,500 monks studying at Sera Je Monastery in south India for twenty-six years, culminating into a large endowment fund, which now covers all the cost of food for all the monks for as long as the endowment fund remains; Animal Liberation events around the world, at which creatures, big and small, are freed from immediate harm or blessed every year– with hundreds of millions of animals liberated to date (by Lama Zopa Rinpoche or those inspired by him), and counting! Rinpoche was also utterly dedicated to fulfilling the wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama wherever and whenever possible and held this to be an utmost priority for FPMT.
More details of Rinpoche’s past philanthropy and future projects inspired by Rinpoche’s wishes can be followed through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund.
Rinpoche’s Life and Vision
Read a short biography, some of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s life accomplishments and Vast Visions for the FPMT organization.
We also share a moving obituary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in English, with translations in French and Spanish.
Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the steps of Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 1970. Photo courtesy Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
Born in the Mount Everest region of Thami in 1945, Rinpoche was recognized soon afterwards by His Holiness Trulshik Rinpoche and five other lamas as the reincarnation of the great yogi Kunsang Yeshe. Rinpoche was taken under the care of FPMT’s founder Lama Thubten Yeshe, soon after leaving Tibet, in Buxa Duar, India, in the early 1960’s. Rinpoche was with Lama Yeshe until 1984 when Lama Yeshe passed away and Lama Zopa Rinpoche took over as spiritual director of FPMT.
At the age of ten, Rinpoche went to Tibet and studied and meditated at Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s monastery near Pagri, until the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 forced him to forsake Tibet for the safety of Bhutan.
Rinpoche then went to the Tibetan refugee camp at Buxa Duar, West Bengal, India, where he met Lama Yeshe, who became his closest teacher. The Lamas met their first Western student, Zina Rachevsky in 1967, then traveled with her to Nepal in 1968 where they began teaching more Westerners.
Over the next few years they built Kopan and Lawudo monasteries. In 1971 Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the first of his famous annual lamrim retreat courses, which continue at Kopan to this day.
FPMT was established at the end of 1975. Lama Yeshe served as the organization’s spiritual director until he passed away in 1984, at which time Rinpoche took over. From that time until 2023, under 39 years of his peerless guidance, FPMT continued to flourish.
Further Information and Biographies
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s life accomplishments and contributions to the world served as an incredible testament to Rinpoche’s tremendous compassion for others.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the students of Shree Sangka Decholing Gonpa School, March 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In 1970 Rinpoche founded, sponsored and built Kopan Monastery and Nunnery in Nepal. There are now approximately 400 monks and 400 nuns residing and studying there. In addition to starting Kopan Monastery and Nunnery, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taken on the responsibility for sponsorship and development of Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, Eastern Nepal and in Tsum (the border region of Nepal and Tibet), Mu Monastery and Ranchen Nunnery.
Rinpoche established Maitreya School, Bodhgaya, which offers free education to over 306 children. In addition through the Social Services Fund annual grants are provided to support schools for Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal. Kopan Monastery and Nunnery also offers Western education for the sangha (up to year 9).
In 1999, Lama Zopa Rinpoche sponsored the building of Idgaa Choizinling Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. This is a Mongolian branch of Sera Je Monastery. Rinpoche also established the very first nunnery in Mongolia and continues to take tremendous effort to bring Dharma to Mongolia.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Taplejung March 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In 2010, Lama Zopa Rinpoche received the prestigious Polar Star certificate from the Mongolian president in recognition of Rinpoche’s contribution in reestablishing the Dharma in Mongolia as well as for social projects.
Rinpoche had incredibly vast visions for FPMT, reaching far into the future, such as building 100,000 stupas and prayer wheels around the world so we can easily purify and create merit and in this way contribute to world peace. Rinpoche sponsored the creation of many holy objects around the world, such as 11 large prayer wheels, 48 large stupas, 15 statues of Padmasambhava, as well as creating large thangkas for different centers around the world to display and make offerings to on special occasions, and writing the Prajnaparamita Sutra in gold to be placed in heart of the Maitreya Buddha statue in India.
Causing no harm to any sentient being was a high priority of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Rinpoche propagated vegetarianism in his Dharma talks. He also sponsored regular animal liberations and blessing, as well as sponsoring pujas during times when there are many animals killed (for instance on Thanksgiving and Darshain holidays).
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Mahamudra the dog, Adelaide, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT fall into four categories:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 25, 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Although it is difficult to convey the extraordinariness of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s life, we share an incredibly moving eulogy so we can rejoice from our hearts in Rinpoche’s myriad accomplishments, teachings, blessings, and activities and be inspired to follow in his footsteps. This eulogy also includes a gallery of 300+ photos of various stages in Rinpoche’s profound life.
The eulogy is available in the original English, with translations in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
Teachings & Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
See these archives of past advice, video teachings and where to find books by Rinpoche.
Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche: The Purpose of an FPMT Center
FPMT.org offers a collection of practical advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. You can also find Rinpoche's advice on a wide range of topics in the form of short talks and letters at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s highest priorities was responding to students’ inquiries on daily practice and preliminary practice advice from him. For 25+ years, Rinpoche refined this advice, referring to it as “Life Practices.” We created a page of Rinpoche’s most essential life practice advice, based off thousands of letters Rinpoche offered to students for nearly three decades. Read more »
We have compiled an extensive and growing catalogue of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s works, including books, online materials, videos, audio, and art, with particular emphasis on key teachings that Rinpoche especially wanted his students to take note of and put into practice. Explore »
Support
See below for ways to support Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vision.
- By creating a life size statue of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, that will be used as a basis to create smaller statues. The artwork for the main statue is ongoing.
- By creating the statue that will encase the precious kudung (holy body relic) of Lama Zopa Rinpoche after the embalming process is completed.
- By sponsoring pujas and prayers as advised for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
- By providing all the support needed for the care and education of the future incarnation.
The FPMT is an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha and based on that experience spreading the Dharma to sentient beings.
Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught to us by our late founders and spiritual directors Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Learn about ways to support the many FPMT Charitable Projects and the activities of FPMT International Office.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) from 1984-2023.
Every second of this human life is more precious than skies of wish-granting jewels.
