About Kunzang Palyul Choling

Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) is a center for Buddhist study and practice in the Nyingma tradition that is located in Poolesville, Maryland. Founded as the Center for Discovery and New Life in 1985, and then given to His Holiness Penor Rinpoche and renamed by him in 1987, KPC was Penor Rinpoche's first Dharma Center in the US.
The Dalai Lama with US President Barack Obama at the White House

Tibetan Buddhism in the United States at a glance

1
Jun
2022
Dharma
The first Tibetan Buddhist lama to have American students was Geshe Ngawang Wangyal, a Kalmyk-Mongolian of the Gelug lineage, who came to the United States in 1955 and founded the "Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America" in New Jersey in 1958. Among his students were the future western scholars Robert Thurman, Jeffrey Hopkins, Alexander Berzin and Anne C. Klein. Other early arrivals included Dezhung Rinpoche, a Sakya lama who settled in Seattle, in 1960, and Tarthang .
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