I was born in 1939 in Kham province in Dhargye village, Tibet. I was a single child but had many cousins. My parents had a farm, growing barley, beans and wheat. We had about 5 cows, 2 yaks for working in the fields and many goats.

I became ordained as a monk in the Dhargye monastery at age 7. One of my uncles, Geshe Konchog (my mother’s brother), was in that monastery. He looked after me and taught me to read and write, but my very first teacher who taught me the alphabet was Ven. Rinchen Thondrup. We had to study scriptures, read the text and recite the texts in the monastery. I didn’t think I wanted to be a Geshe when I was a young monk, I only played around!

I stayed at Dhargye monastery until age 17, then I went to Sera Monastery in Lhasa. It was there that I met my spiritual teacher Khensur Rinpoche. By then I knew that I wanted to become a Geshe and my uncle Geshe Khonchog had said “do not come back until you become a Geshe!”. In Sera I studied the Geshe curriculum (such as the basis of logic) under Khensur Rinpoche and Geshe Kunsul for about 3 years. The Chinese had been in occupation from when I arrived in Lhasa but the heavy conflict started in 1959. When the civil war started the Dalai Lama left, and many thousands of people fled from Tibet. I was 20 years old when I also escaped to India.

The journey to India took about two months, walking from village to village. It was a very hard trip with many big Himalayan mountains to cross, and very cold with a lot of snow. There was not enough food and we were often hungry. However, even though there were these harsh conditions, generally speaking my mind was very happy. Many people were singing and chanting along the way. We eventually arrived in Arunachal Pradesh province, near Gauhati, in India.

We stayed near the border about a month. Then he went to a refugee camp at Buxar, which is on the border of Bhutan and India. There were about 1500 monks at this camp. His Holiness was not there because it was too dangerous, he went to Mysore and later to Dharamsala. Khensur Rinpoche had left Tibet before me and we met up in Buxar, and he graduated as a Geshe there.

I stayed in Buxar for about 10 years. Many people were falling sick and dying and food was scarce so we had to move. We were transferred to Mysore in Southern India. We worked there for about 3 years in the fields, clearing the forest and building houses. After we finished that we started studying Dharma again. I was 33 years old when I started studying for my Geshe degree again (in 1972). My teachers were Khensur Rinpoche and Geshe Thorche. In 1980, I finally got my Geshe degree (highest level Geshe Lharampa degree). Geshe Thubten Jinpa (his Holiness the Dalai Lama’s translator) also got his degree at the same time.

My uncle Geshe Khonchog didn’t go to India, he stayed in Kham. In 1982 there was a brief period when the Chinese allowed exiled Tibetans to return home and I went back to my village. Most of the people I knew had died. My parents had already died, as had my uncle and teachers, only one of my aunts and cousin was alive. It was very sad to go back and strange. Everybody looked sad because there was no good food to eat, no good clothes to wear and no good things to do. There were a lot of bad things going on at the time. All over China there was this problem with Tibetans and non-Tibetans alike. The Chinese were trying to homogenize the agriculture and they were very unsuccessful at that. That was the last time I was in Tibet, nowadays it is much better.

After I got my Geshe degree I went to Gyume monastery and studied tantra for one year and then went back to Sera for about another 3 years. While there Lama Lhundrup asked me to go to Kopan Monastery in Nepal to teach. At first I had no interest in going and said “I do not want to go”. He insisted saying “just come for a holiday, Nepal is a very nice place, good mountains etc”. When I arrived there they said “please stay and teach the monks here!”. I stayed for one year and then went back to Sera, where I taught students. When was in Kopan I met Lama Zopa Rinpoche who asked me to go to Taiwan to teach. I liked the idea and agreed to go, but wasn’t granted a visa. At around that time in 1999, Khensur Rinpoche had wrote me a letter which said “if you want to go to Taiwan you will get gifted a lot of money but if you come to Buddha House in Adelaide you will be able to benefit more people there”. I agreed to go and after Khensur Rinpoche and Lama Zopa conferred we started to organize a visa.

In September 2001, I left Sera to come to Adelaide. When I was flying from Bangalore to Singapore they were showing the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the plane, then in the Singapore airport, and then on the plane to Adelaide again!

Now I am is 68 years old and so far this life has turned out very good. I got to study Dharma, travel and didn’t engage in too many negativities.