People & places associated with the FPMT foundation

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The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) was founded in 1975 by Lamas Thubten Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, who began teaching Buddhism to Western students in Nepal.

The FPMT has grown to encompass over 160 Dharma centers, projects, and services in 37 countries.

Since the death of Lama Yeshe in 1984, the FPMT’s spiritual director has been Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

FPMT maintains a number of charitable projects, including funds to build holy objects; translate Tibetan texts; support monks and nuns (both Tibetan and non-Tibetan); offer medical care, food and other assistance in impoverished regions of Asia; re-establish Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia; and protect animals.

Thubten Zopa Rinpoche

Thubten Zopa Rinpoche is a Nepali lama from Khumbu, the entryway to Mount Everest.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a Gelugpa lineage holder, having received teachings from many of the great Gelugpa masters.

His Root Guru is HH Trijang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso since he was a young boy studying in Buxa, India.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a devoted student of the 14th Dalai Lama and has outlined that offering service to the Dalai Lama as much as possible and to be able to fulfill his wishes is the highest priority for the FPMT organization.

Kopan Monastery

Kopan Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery near Boudhanath, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal. It is a member of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an international network of Gelugpa dharma centers, and once served as its headquarters.

Robina Courtin

Robina Courtin is a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa tradition and lineage of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

In 1978 Courtin ordained at Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala.

She was Editorial Director of Wisdom Publications until 1987 and Editor of Mandala until 2000.

In 1996 she founded the Liberation Prison Project, which she ran until 2009.

She left Mandala to teach and to develop Liberation Prison Project.

Thubten Yeshe

Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984) was a Tibetan lama who, while exiled in Nepal, co-founded Kopan Monastery (1969) and the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (1975). He followed the Gelug tradition, and was considered unconventional in his teaching style.

Tenzin Ösel Hita

Tenzin Ösel Hita is a Tibetan Buddhist tulku and an aspiring filmmaker from Spain.

Maitreya Project

The Maitreya Project is an international organisation, operating since 1990, which intends to construct statues of Maitreya Buddha in India and perhaps elsewhere. Initial plans were for a 152-metre (500 ft) colossal statue, to be built in either Kushinagar or Bodhgaya. These plans have since changed, and the Maitreya Project now intends to construct relatively modest statues in both towns. The project was initiated by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, an organisation within the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Maitripa College

Maitripa College, founded in 2005 as Maitripa Institute, is a Tibetan Buddhist college located in Portland, Oregon. It is an affiliated member of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an international network of Gelugpa dharma centers.

Tushita Meditation Centre

Tushita is a centre for the study and practice of Buddhism from the Tibetan Mahayana tradition in Himachal Pradesh in northern India. It is located in the forested hills above the town of McLeod Ganj in village Dharamkot. The centre offers Introduction to Buddhism Courses and intermediate level courses for those who have already taken one of these introduction courses besides conducting Group Practice Retreats for practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism.

Jan Willis

Janice Dean Willis, or Jan Willis is Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University, where she has taught since 1977; and the author of books on Tibetan Buddhism. She has been called influential by Time Magazine, Newsweek, and Ebony Magazine. Aetna Inc.’s 2011 African American History Calendar features professor Willis as one of thirteen distinguished leaders of faith-based health initiatives in the United States.

Nalanda Monastery (France)

Nalanda Monastery is the first Western monastery of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an international network of Gelugpa dharma centers. Named for Nalanda Monastery in ancient India, the French institution is located near Lavaur, about forty kilometers from Toulouse, and not far from another FPMT center, the Institut Vajra Yogini.

Zina Rachewski

Zina Rachevsky, also Zenaïde Rachewski or Zina Rachewsky was a Russian-born French-American socialite, film actress, and Gelug Tibetan Buddhist nun.

Her Buddhist name is Thubten Changchub Palmo.

Daja Wangchuk Meston

Daja Meston was an author and Tibet activist, an American citizen who was raised as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. In 2007 he published his memoir, Comes the Peace: My Journey to Forgiveness.

Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa

The Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (ILTK) in Pomaia, a village in Tuscany, in Italy is a branch of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an international network of Gelugpa dharma centers. It is named for Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelugpa monastic order of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama has taught there on several occasions.

Lillian Too

Lillian Too is an author, television personality and feng shui practitioner from Malaysia. She has written over 200 books on the subject of feng shui, which have been translated into more than 30 languages. Her books have sold more 6 million copies around the globe.

Tara Institute

Tara Institute is a Tibetan Buddhist center located in the suburb of East Brighton in Melbourne which provides Buddhist teachings throughout the year. As of March 2010 the lama, Venerable Geshe Doga has been the resident teacher at the centre since 1984. The Center is a member of the FPMT.