Marpa Network

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, a scholar, artist, and meditation master, is acknowledged as one of his generation’s foremost teachers. A prolific tech savvy author, he is fluent in English and at home in Western culture. Ponlop Rinpoche is the founder and president of Nalandabodhi and Nitartha International.

Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen shares leadership and teaching responsibility with Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche at Nitartha Institute and teaches regularly at the Nalandabodhi centers in America and Asia.

He is a professor of Buddhist studies and Tibetan language at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

Practice the dharma at a beautiful hilltop meditation center and be in Italy too? What could be better! Casa Garuda is located half-way between Rome and Florence in the Tuscan hills.

Diane Denis is a Buddhist teacher, an artist, a scholar, a translator, and a socially concerned individual. She has been studying with Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche since 1992.

She created the Sahle O Project, and presently works as an Assistant Professor at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Katmandhu University while continuing to teach the Dharma in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Drupon Khenpo Lodro Namgyal completed the 9-year Acharya program at Nalanda Institute, Rumtek Monastery. He studied under the guidance of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche. After his graduation, he was appointed one of the Khenpos of Nalanda Institute where he taught for two years. Following that, he entered three-year retreat at Pullahari Monastery under Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche.

Elizabeth Callahan is a senior student of Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, translator and teacher. Elizabeth began studying Buddha dharma with Kalu Rinpoche and other lamas in 1977 and with Khenpo Rinpoche during the period of her two three-year retreats. She served as Khenpo Rinpoche’s interpreter for many years, as well as interpreting for other Kagyu and Nyingma teachers.

Gloria Sherab Drolma (Han Wen Chiang 江涵芠/翰雯譯師 ), Director and principal teacher of Karma Ösel Phuntsok Chöling Institute of Triyana Studies, Headquarter Taiwan; also a renown Chinese interpreter/translator and dharma singer.

When Venerable Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche first arrived in Europe in 1977, Jane Pathan Friedewald happened—by fortunate coincidence—to be studying Tibetan at the University of Hamburg. She joined Khen Rinpoche’s first Tibetan language classes in Copenhagen as well as his teachings throughout Europe during the tour accompanying His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje.

Jim Scott's life has, from its earliest years, been dedicated to the pursuit of the contemplative life, originally as a Christian monk at a Trappist monastery, then as a student of philosophy at St. John's College, and finally as a student and practitioner of the Kagyu lineage following Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche around the globe of this earth for some thirty years.

Khenpo Chokey Gyaltsen graduated from Nalanda Institute in Rumtek, Sikkim, in 1991. After his graduation, he was appointed a Khenpo at the Institute along with Drupon Khenpo Lodro Namgial and seven others from the same graduating class that year. He taught in Nalanda Insitute for one and a half years and joined Pullahari Monastery in 1992 to serve the projects and activities of H.E. Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche at Pullahari.

Lama Shenpen Hookham is the Spiritual Director and principal teacher of the Awakened Heart Sangha.

In the 1970s, on the advice of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, she went to India where she lived among the Tibetans as a nun for six years. There she studied and meditated in retreat under the guidance of Tibetan teachers such as Karma Thinley Rinpoche, Bokar Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche. In 1978 His Holiness, the 16th Karmapa, head of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, instructed her to return to the West to teach Mahamudra.

Lama Tashi Lhamo has studied with Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche since 1983, and  completed the traditional three-year retreat in 1987 at Kagyu Ling monastery in France under the guidance of Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche. She was given the title lama by Bokar Tulku Rinpoche and Khenpo Rinpoche. For many years she has centered her work on two areas: teaching and translation.

Following the guidelines of her teacher Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and in connection with Marpa Foundation, Lama Tashi Lhamo translates Tibetan Buddhist texts into Spanish.

Marpa Foundation is a US nonprofit religious corporation (501c3) established in 1994 under the spiritual direction of Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche.

The Foundation’s purpose is to support the study, practice, and transmission of Buddhism in both the East and the West.

Dr. Karl Brunnhölzl is a Mitra, an authorized senior teacher of Nalandabodhi who is deeply involved in the curriculum development and teaching of both the Nalandabodhi and the Nitartha Institute curricula.  Mitra Karl, a physician, received his training in higher Buddhist philosophy at Kamalashila Institute, Germany, and with Khenpo Rinpoche at the Marpa Institute for Translators. Since 1989 he has served as an interpreter, translator and teacher worldwide.

The Sahle O Project, a charitable organization devoted to the activities and teachings of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, is creating a bridge between Eastern and Western ways of thinking, by using contemplative arts, philosophy, meditation and social action.

Penang Zabsang Shedrup was founded under the direction of Khenpo Rinpoche in year 2004. Khenpo Rinpoche gave the group its name and appointed Michelle to teach the group.

Zabsang Shedrub Teachers Committee consists of seven teachers; Eric, Gary, Jade, Kevin, Rachel, Steve, and Wendy.  In 2006, we were all assigned a position to lead and teach Zabsang Shedrub students by Khenpo Rinpoche.