A Personal Account of the Upbringing of Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche II

In May 1990, I returned to Dharamsala from an extended international tour organizing and managing several projects for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I had spent nine years with the previous Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche as a close disciple, interpreter and English secretary. Being with him nearly every day, I had become part of his household. When I met the five-year-old tulku and Ngawang asked him, “Do you recognize who this is?” Rinpoche said, “Don’t be stupid, of course I know who this is.” Instantly, he was affectionate with me and has remained similarly close with me ever since. 

Rinpoche demonstrated other indications of previous life instincts. For example, when I brought him to visit Ling Rinpoche, now four years old, he refused to sit on the same wooden lounge or on the same level as Ling Rinpoche but insisted on sitting on the floor and was very reverential toward him. He has remained like that up to this day. 

The next month, Ngawang brought Rinpoche to Mundgod, Karnataka, South India, where he joined his old monastery, Ganden Jangtse, and returned to his old house. Four monks were there to take care of him, including two who were around 20 years of age, along with Rinpoche’s present attendants, Gendun Samdup, 32 at the time, and Thupten Sherap, 30 at the time. When each had been around ten years old, Rinpoche’s predecessor had chosen them to be his future attendants, as he had done many years before with Ngawang and as he had done with me.

Soon after Rinpoche’s move to the monastery, he started the traditional training for a high incarnate lama. He memorized prayers for two hours in the mornings, reviewed them at night and, in the afternoons, practiced both English and Tibetan handwriting with Geshe Sonam. Although Rinpoche never required close supervision and was always self-motivated and self-disciplined, he was also totally unstimulated and bored. His official tutor, the Ganden Jangtse Abbot, Khen Rinpoche Sonam Gonpa, had been following the traditional policy that he would only start debate classes with him at age 13. Rinpoche was only six when he arrived at the monastery.

Rinpoche could not go to the monastery’s primary school since the boys were considered too rough and dirty. This also meant that except for other young tulkus coming occasionally to visit him, he had no one his own age to play with, although he did have two rabbits. 

When His Holiness visited the monastery in December 1992, instead of going first to the main temple where everyone was lined up to meet him, he went straight to Rinpoche's house. This clearly showed the esteem and concern he has always had for him. Throughout Rinpoche’s life, His Holiness has personally overseen his studies and, seeing the situation at the time, he instructed the household that Rinpoche should now start studying English, Tibetan grammar and the beginning stages of debate. 

When I visited Rinpoche at Ganden Jangtse a few months later, in February 1993, I was amazed at how strong a relationship Rinpoche demonstrated toward me. I had last seen him almost three years ago and had only spent about one month with him. But the attendants told me that he had been excitedly waiting for me to come. While there, he treated me almost like a father. I have never had a small child, not even my own relatives, show such closeness to me.  

All four monks in Rinpoche's household had been in the monastery since age ten and none had more than a fourth-grade modern education. Although they were very well-intentioned, they lacked worldly experience, self-confidence and assertiveness in devising plans for putting His Holiness’s instructions into action. Thus, they turned to me to help out and to guide them, and so I found myself suddenly thrust into the position of organizing and supervising Rinpoche’s situation there. Having organized large projects for His Holiness, I felt confident to take on the responsibility for straightening out Rinpoche’s situation and so I happily took on this new role. Actually, it felt quite natural. 

Together with Gendun Samdup and Thupten Sherap, we found a 40-year-old Tibetan English teacher who was teaching at the lay children's school at the Tibetan settlement camp in Mundgod. He agreed to come an hour each afternoon and also 20 minutes each morning for review sessions. We also found a 57-year-old Tibetan grammar teacher from the same school, who would give Rinpoche an hour-long lesson each day. After speaking with the Abbot, he agreed to teach Rinpoche debate one hour a day, and we found another little monk to study and debate with Rinpoche. 

I also instituted an hour’s walk each evening, since Rinpoche had been getting no exercise at all. He loved it and mostly ran. We would practice English during the walks whenever I was there. Unfortunately, none of the attendants knew English. Also, while there, I took Rinpoche to the dentist for some fillings he needed and bought badly needed kitchenware and new bedding. I tried to straighten out their financial situation and sent out appeals for sponsorship to former students of Rinpoche’s predecessor. 

Foreseeing that Rinpoche would need to be able to relate to the people in Spiti, I wanted to help him be prepared. So, when I returned to Dharamsala, I sent down the textbooks for English, math, Hindi, Tibetan and science: the standard English-media ones used in Indian schools, as well as the Tibetan-media ones. A few months later, Gendun Samdup wrote me that Rinpoche really loved his new lessons and was blossoming. 

In January that winter, 1994, Rinpoche attended His Holiness’s teachings for a month at Lower Tantric College in Hunsur, Karnataka. His Holiness had suggested that he spend the South Indian hot season in Dharamsala each year and continue his studies there. He was making fast progress and was already up to the grade three English textbooks. 

After Hunsur, Rinpoche came up to Dharamsala to attend His Holiness’s annual spring teachings. I met him in Delhi, where I took him for a full medical examination. Aside from some intestinal worms and enlarged tonsils, his health was excellent. 

Rinpoche had become very strong for his age and had developed a great sense of humor, very much like that of his predecessor. In March, at just nine years of age, Rinpoche gave his first public teaching – the oral transmission of Lama Chopa, the Guru Puja, at Tushita Meditation Center in Dharamsala to a group of Westerners and a few Tibetans. He then led the entire puja ritual himself. I was really proud at how well he did. He had now begun his formal activities as a lama.

That October 1994, Gendun Samdup received his Geshe Lharampa degree after twenty years of monastic study. He was among the first in his class, which reflected very well on Rinpoche's household. 

The Tibetan custom is that, after passing a debate exam before the entire assembly of monks and receiving any of the monastic degrees, the degree candidate presents a kata scarf and a certain amount of Indian rupees to each of the thousand or more monks of their monastery and offers them a meal. This can be extremely expensive, especially when it involves someone from a high lama’s household like Rinpoche’s. Again, they turned to me to help raise the funds.

The father of Rinpoche’s predecessor, the First Serkong Dorjechang, was one of the greatest yogis of the nineteenth century and a Kalachakra lineage holder. Rinpoche’s predecessor himself was an expert on Kalachakra and had given many teachings on it to His Holiness. For example, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche held the rare oral transmission of the Laghu Kalachakra Tantra, the large commentary by Kalachakrapada the Younger on the Kalachakra Tantra. He was too humble to offer it to His Holiness and so he had transmitted it to Rinpoche’s predecessor who would be the more appropriate person to offer it to His Holiness. 

The oral transmission required quite a number of sessions, and although Rinpoche’s predecessor was able to offer the first part of the transmission to His Holiness, there was no opportunity to offer the rest before he passed away. One of his last acts, in fact, was to invite His Holiness to confer the Kalachakra initiation in Tabo Monastery in Spiti, which His Holiness did in August 1983, just a few weeks before his predecessor passed away.

I had the privilege to attend this initiation to translate for His Holiness. The day after the final ceremony, I asked Rinpoche’s predecessor a question about the ritual. He said, “Figure it out with logic,” and we worked it out together. This was the last teaching I received from him. It’s wonderful to see that now, when his young tulku has grown up and become a great teacher once more, he continues to emphasize the importance of logic and reasoning as the basis for understanding the Dharma. But I suppose this is no wonder – after all, his predecessor was one of the Master Debate Partners of His Holiness.

In January 1995, His Holiness came to Mundgod to confer the Kalachakra initiation. When he first arrived, he went to the main temple of Ganden Monastery to make a tsog offering to Palden Lhamo and then went straight to Rinpoche’s house before Rinpoche could get back there. Rinpoche had difficulty getting past security, but when he finally got home, he found his Holiness waiting for him. His Holiness had come there perhaps because of his close connection between Rinpoche’s predecessor, Kalachakra, and himself. Thus, at the age of ten, Rinpoche renewed his connection with Kalachakra.

The next year, Rinpoche received the Kalachakra initiation from His Holiness two more times. The first was in June in Tabo, Spiti in celebration of the 1000th-year anniversary of the founding of Tabo Monastery. The second was in December in Salugara, West Bengal. 

Over the next years, Rinpoche continued his studies with his additional tutors, the former Abbot of Gyume Lower Tantric College, Gyume Khenzur Rinpoche Losang Ngawang, and Geshe Tenzin Zangpo, as well as with his Tibetan lay teachers. During this period, Geshe Gendun Samdup and Thupten Sherap gradually learned how to run the household themselves. 

I strongly stressed to the two of them the importance of not letting former Western students spoil Rinpoche by either inviting him to the West or showering him with toys and games. I had seen the adverse effects of such experiences on other young tulkus and had even been a member of the committee His Holiness’s Private Office had convened to deal with the issue. I wanted very much to spare Rinpoche the cultural conflict upon returning to India that other young tulkus had experienced. There would be time enough later for Rinpoche to visit the West, when he would be mature enough to handle the temptations. 

The two attendants followed my counsel, and I think the result was excellent. Rinpoche turned out to be very comfortable in his society and can relate very well to the Tibetan and Indian communities and to the people of Spiti.

Now and then, between foreign tours and organizing and supervising further projects for His Holiness, I would visit Rinpoche. I would often quiz him on his studies during our evening walks, especially math. Rinpoche’s predecessor had confessed to me that he was terrible at mathematical calculations and so had never studied the Kalachakra astrological system for calculating the positions of the planets and the calendar, though he insisted I learn it, which I did. Nevertheless, he was extremely interested and learned all the measurements for the construction of the two-dimensional powder mandalas and three-dimensional mandala palaces of a wide assortment of deity systems, not only Kalachakra. He never tired of teaching them to me and together, we figured out the math of how all the architectural pieces could fit together. 

Even though Rinpoche was also terrible at math, I thought that I could spark his interest at least in basic arithmetic so that in the future he could apply it to mandala construction once more. But, although Rinpoche could easily memorize many pages of Tibetan texts, he had difficulty remembering simple addition tables. Although he undoubtedly found my questioning annoying, he never once got angry with me. This was similar to how I had never gotten angry with his predecessor, who also incessantly quizzed me to train my memory.  

Rinpoche also had a mischievous side as a teenager. He asked me, once, to bring him a monster mask. I was able to find two professional ones that fit the entire head. They were very real-looking. Rinpoche delighted in scaring members of his household in their beds at night and some of his classmates who lived nearby, who were afraid of demons.

His Holiness advised Rinpoche that he needed to serve his community in Spiti. In keeping with His Holiness’s wishes, Rinpoche took on the role of spiritual head of Tabo Monastery. Each year, he spends at least a month in Spiti giving Dharma teachings. In 1999, he founded the Serkong School in Tabo for primary and secondary education up to the tenth grade. For eleventh and twelfth grades, the students transfer to a school in Dharamsala. While they are there, Rinpoche looks after their welfare and, whenever he is in Dharamsala, he gives them Buddhist teachings. 

In September 2001, Rinpoche took his “Tsoklang” exam, which only tulkus take at the end of their study of the bodhichitta section of their Pranjnaparamita class. “Tsoklang” means “stand before the assembly.” The teenage tulkus must stand before the entire assembly of monks from both Jangtse and Shartse colleges in the main Ganden temple and debate on the topic of bodhichitta. I had moved out of India in 1998 and resettled in Berlin, but I returned to India with Alan Turner to attend the exam and following celebration. I was very proud at how well Rinpoche did in the debate.

Alan was a very serious practitioner from England to whom Rinpoche’s predecessor had given many private teachings, which I had always translated for him. During this visit, Rinpoche gave a short private teaching to Alan with me translating. Rinpoche remarked that this was of course what we should be doing together, just like we did before.

Like his predecessor, Rinpoche was very fond of animals and always had a pet dog. I was amazed at the dog he had at that time. There were many wild monkeys in the jungles around the monastery. All other dogs I had seen in India would bark and chase the monkeys away if they came too close. But Rinpoche’s dog played with the monkeys that came to the yard. To Rinpoche, that was perfectly normal, but neither Alan nor I had ever seen anything like that. 

By now, Geshe Gendun Samdup had become very skilled in many areas beyond his monastic studies. Without formal architectural training, he designed the new Ganden Jangtse prayer hall, following His Holiness’s wishes that the inside décor should not be ornate. Thupten Sherap supervised its construction. Years later, the two of them used these skills for the construction of Rinpoche’s new house in Dharamsala and the adjacent Serkong Hotel. 

The prayer hall had just been completed when Alan and I were there. A few months later, in December, His Holiness traveled to Mundgod and conducted the dedication ceremony. Once again, His Holiness visited Rinpoche in his home.

Rinpoche made his first visit to Europe in October 2002, accompanied by Thupten Sherap, to attend the Kalachakra initiation conferred by His Holiness in Graz, Austria. Rinpoche was 18. I came from Berlin to attend, to deal with the press for His Holiness and to assist Rinpoche and Thupten Sherap, especially with German. 

Rinpoche, Thupten Sherap and I had all arrived in Graz two days before His Holiness, so I took advantage of the free time to take the two of them to Vienna, two hours away by train, to show them this beautiful city. We took a sightseeing bus tour around the city and, afterwards, I asked Rinpoche if there were any of the sights that he would like to go back to and have a closer look. He said no and uttered what I came to regard as his trademark, “nothing special,” and so we went right back to Graz. 

During the ten-days of rituals that began after His Holiness’s arrival, Rinpoche participated in the Kalachakra self-initiation each morning from five to ten with His Holiness and the Namgyal monks. It was wonderful to see that he was now able to do that.

During a long retreat in a mountain cave, the First Serkong Dorjechang  had a vision of Tsongkhapa, who conferred upon him a special transmission of his text on the interpretable and definitive meanings of voidness (emptiness), Drang-nge Legshe Nyingpo. Dorjechang, in turn, passed on the oral transmission to Serkong Rinpoche’s predecessor, who was very young at the time. His Holiness had requested Rinpoche’s predecessor to pass on the oral transmission to him. However, despite his preparations, he never had the opportunity to do so. 

Back in 1982, during the second foreign tour that Rinpoche’s predecessor had made, accompanied by Ngawang, Chondzela and myself, we were invited to visit my old Harvard classmate, Robert Thurman, in his home in Woodstock, New York. Thurman had translated part of the text for his doctorate thesis and, while we were there, he requested Rinpoche’s predecessor to give the transmission to him and me. The text runs to 300 pages in a Western book-style edition, and Rinpoche’s predecessor recited it from memory every day as part of his daily practice — in about two hours. It is considered Tsongkhapa’s most advanced and difficult explanation of voidness in the tenet systems.

The old Serkong Rinpoche consented and gave us the transmission in the classic manner of reciting the text from memory. It was so fast, my eyes could not keep up as I tried to follow in the text. He had Ngawang check to make sure he did not make any mistakes, and in the end, there had been only three very minor ones. 

Rinpoche wanted to receive this extremely rare transmission and specifically from me, so he requested that I confer it back on him. I had never even studied the text and felt totally unqualified. So, I asked His Holiness what to do and His Holiness said that, by all means, I should give the transmission since I had, in fact, received it just by virtue of having attentively heard it from the source. 

For the next months, I practiced reading the text out loud so that I would not stumble and it would not take unbearably long. Once I was ready, I traveled to India in August 2003, went straight to Mundgod and gave Rinpoche the oral transmission. It took two long morning sessions. In the years that followed, Rinpoche has conferred it, in turn, to many others.

Rinpoche’s predecessor had told Khyongla Rinpoche that my role in the future would be to serve as the bridge between himself and his next incarnation. Rinpoche and I have taken this seriously, and over the years, I has been sharing with Rinpoche accounts of what he did and what he said in his past life and unique, uncommon interpretations of texts that his predecessor privately shared with me. This has been and continues to be an enormous privilege to be able to be part of the Serkong lineage.

Rinpoche’s next visit to the West was to the United States in December 2004, for a month, again with me and this time with both Thupten Sherap and Geshe Gendun Samdup joining. Rinpoche had been invited by Cate Hunter, a former student of his predecessor, for a vacation from his studies. She took us to visit several Tibetan families that had been close with his predecessor and to the main tourist attractions on the East and West coasts – Disneyland, the Statue of Liberty and so on. Rinpoche was not interested in any of them or in the shopping malls and enormous stores that Cate showed him, nor in the gambling casinos that some of the Tibetans brought us to. His response to all of them was, “nothing special.”  

I insisted that Rinpoche be given the opportunity to enjoy what any 20-year-old would like, so finally he was taken to go horseback riding in California and ice skating at Rockefeller Center in New York. I tried teaching him how to swim one day but was completely unsuccessful — Rinpoche still doesn’t know how to swim. Even taking him on a whale-watching boat was a bit disastrous. Although we managed to spot not only a whale but also a school of porpoises, Rinpoche was too seasick to enjoy the rare sight.

Like other young people his age, Rinpoche had now developed a love of playing video games, which he still has. When I saw how violent some of them were, I couldn’t help myself: like an over-concerned parent, I warned him about the negative influence that finding it fun to shoot and kill an enemy could have. I don’t think he appreciated my warning.

At the end of the month, when I saw them off at the airport, Rinpoche told me that the highlight of the trip was his visit to the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. It gave him a great opportunity to meditate on compassion for both the victims and their torturers and killers. This more than offset the video games.

In September 2007, I went with Alan back to Mundgod to visit Rinpoche. By now, Rinpoche had a computer and cell phone and had become quite adept at using both. He was putting the computer to good use by preparing outlines and study materials on it to help his classmates. Also noticeable was how Rinpoche was now starting to exhibit the same down-to earth sense of practicality his predecessor had been noted for. He offered me some very helpful advice. He also has started to enjoy cooking, especially pancakes for breakfast.

While at Ganden, I took the opportunity to ask technical Dharma questions about karma, time and negation phenomena to Rinpoche’s main tutor, Geshe Tenzin Zangpo. He was considered the best debater in all three major Gelug monasteries. He was later appointed abbot of Gyume Lower Tantric College and now, as ex-abbot, is in line to become the Ganden Tripa, the head of the Gelug school. His answers were spoken so quickly and in such formal debate language that I couldn’t follow. So, we recorded them and, after the lessons, Rinpoche and I would listen to the tapes and transcribe them in Tibetan so that I could understand the answers. I could then ask Rinpoche for further clarification, which he happily provided.    

In 2008, Rinpoche decided to disrobe and to continue serving His Holiness and the people of Spiti as a layman. His Holiness instructed him to move to Dharamsala and to continue his studies at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. He had completed the Prajnaparamita classes at Ganden using the Jetsunpa textbooks. At the Institute, he would begin Madhyamaka studies using the Panchen texts. As a result, Rinpoche has learned both textbook traditions. 

Geshe Gendun Samdup and Thupten Sherap moved to Dharamsala with Rinpoche and, shortly later, Rinpoche’s brother, Losang Ngawang, joined the household as a third attendant. 

In May 2009, Alan suddenly passed away from a heart attack at the age of 54. A very strong Yamantaka practitioner, he had always identified himself with this forceful Buddha-figure. Taking this too literally, he foolishly felt that, like Yamantaka feasting on the flesh of harmful demons, he could thrive on fatty meat and even chunks of pure fat. This proved his demise. 

He was cremated in England, and in December, after helping his wife Irene dismantle his meditation room, I went with two wooden urns of his ashes to India. There, I joined Rinpoche, Gendun Samdup, Thupten Sherap and Losang Ngawang, and together we made a pilgrimage with the urns to Bodh Gaya and Sarnath. In accord with Tibetan customs, Rinpoche and I distributed the ashes from one urn in the Ganges River, and Thupten Sherap brought the other urn back to Dharamsala to distribute the ashes near a mountaintop in Spiti.   

Rinpoche received the Master of Madhyamaka Philosophy degree from the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in 2011. His Holiness instructed him that there was no need to go on at the Institute to study Abhidharma or to make the rounds to the monasteries of the other Tibetan traditions to experience their non-Gelug styles of debate. He should continue his studies privately with Geshe Tenzin Gyurmyi, who would teach him primarily Madhyamaka, but later also tantra, from both the Gelug and Nyingma points of view. Rinpoche’s predecessor had been learned in all four Tibetan traditions, especially Gelug and Nyingma. 

Despite all his subsequent formal studies being private, Rinpoche has maintained close friendships with his fellow classmates at both Ganden Jangtse and the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. Although often high lamas only associate with other tulkus, Rinpoche has never allowed his title to distance himself from others.

In 2013, His Holiness instructed Rinpoche to go to Canada and enroll in a course at a university there to improve his English. Rinpoche went to Calgary, where he studied English as a foreign language for three semesters at Mount Royal University. After successfully completing his program, he returned to Dharamsala in 2014 to continue his private studies with Geshe Tenzin Gyurmyi.  

By 2016, Rinpoche was ready to begin teaching outside of India. As was the case with his predecessor, the first place he went was to Pomaia, Italy and the Lama Tsong Khapa Institute. Like his predecessor, he now loves Italian food. Since then, he has taught in about ten countries of Europe, as well as North America, Israel, Vietnam and Singapore. 

Rinpoche has accepted very seriously the role of continuing the work of his predecessor. He has said that he doesn’t know if he really is the reincarnation of the former Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, but having been recognized as such, he has had golden opportunities during his life – personal guidance from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the best education with the best teachers, and a wonderful household that has taken care of him. He would be foolish not to take advantage of all this by serving His Holiness and furthering the work of the former Serkong Rinpoche. As part of his decision to do that, he has made a special effort to meet former students of his predecessor and to re-establish that connection. 

Rinpoche’s predecessor had prepared an autobiography that was incomplete and Thupten Sherap had been gathering information to complete it. One important piece was missing, which was regarding his relationship with His Holiness as not only one of his Master Debate Partners, but also as his so-called “lieutenant” for making sure that the monasteries carried out His Holiness’s policies. In fact, he had been one of the founders of the Council for Religious Affairs that His Holiness had appointed for the preservation of the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and culture almost immediately when they arrived in exile in India.

Rinpoche was too shy to conduct the needed interview with His Holiness, so His Holiness asked for me to come and conduct it alongside him. I therefore returned once more to Dharamsala, where Rinpoche and I prepared a set of questions. In October 2017, we had a private audience, and I was able to ask them.   

As part of Rinpoche’s 2019 European teaching tour, he stayed with me in Berlin, together with Geshe Gendun Samdup and Thupten Sherap, for almost a month in March and April. While they were here, Matt Linden, the video director for our Study Buddhism project, came from his home in Finland and joined us. Rinpoche had agreed to be the spiritual advisor of the project and to have Study Buddhism be the platform for making his teachings available to the world in multiple languages. Together, we worked with him on short articles and videos for the website and its YouTube channel. 

Study Buddhism is a project of Berzin Archives e.V., a German non-profit that I had founded in 2005. It is the digital vehicle for preserving the teachings of the Serkong lineage – Rinpoche’s predecessor, myself, and Rinpoche. In this capacity, the Berzin Archives serves as the repository for the recordings of Rinpoche’s ongoing teachings. We have them transcribed, translated from Tibetan, edited and published on our Study Buddhism website. 

After Covid, Rinpoche resumed his visits to me in Berlin, this time by himself, and came again in December 2022 and then July 2024 for more video recording together with Matt. During the last visit, we started shooting 40-minute-long informal chats between Rinpoche, Matt and myself on topics such as overthinking and procrastination. We also started an AMA (Ask Me Anything) feature with Rinpoche, requesting questions from our social media followers. During the shooting, I explained to Rinpoche how to improve the answers he was giving so that they better conveyed his meaning. When I listened to recordings of question sessions he held during his lecture tour the following year, I was extremely impressed. It was clear that he had more than mastered the skill. 

The visits in Berlin are informal, where Rinpoche can enjoy being treated as a human being, rather than as a “holy Rinpoche,” and can freely indulge in his passion for watching football (American soccer). During the 2024 visit, he went with Matt to watch the final match of the UEFA European Football Championship with tens of thousands of others at the Brandenburg Gate. 

Starting in Austria in September 2024 and continuing in California and at Sravasti Abbey in Washington in August 2025, I have been joining Rinpoche and his English translator, Simon Houlton, when Rinpoche has been teaching advanced texts on voidness (emptiness). I have assisted them by conducting the review and question-and-answer sessions and occasionally clarifying a point during the teachings when it seemed that most people in the audience did not understand. It is an incredible honor to once more to be of assistance in bringing Serkong Rinpoche’s teachings to his students.   

His Holiness teaches that, unless we have strong Dharma instincts from past lives like Milarepa had, we need to rely on the texts of the Nalanda masters of India in order to make progress on the path. To be best able to follow this Nalanda tradition, we need to study logic and debate. In keeping with His Holiness’s advice, which perfectly matched Rinpoche’s predecessor’s advice, Rinpoche founded the Serkong Institute for Buddhist Studies in 2024, first in Dharamsala and then in Bir. It offers a four-year program, three months each year, for intensive study of Buddhist philosophy through the traditional dialectic method of debate. In addition to Rinpoche, the classes are taught by Geshe Tenzin Gyurmyi, Geshe Kelsang Wangmo and Dr. Atisha Mathur. In 2025, the institute became a project of the Serkong Foundation, an Indian non-profit, and in June 2026 a branch institute will open in Italy. 

Rinpoche has grown to become an excellent teacher, able to explain the Dharma clearly to students of all levels – beginner, intermediate and advanced. He can make the most complicated topics accessible and relatable. He is totally unpretentious and teaches with humor and down-to-earth examples. As a layman, he can explain from his own experience in a way that young people can relate to. I am so proud of how wonderful a teacher he has become.

Rinpoche, together with His Holiness, will always be my root gurus. But, in some mundane areas, Rinpoche’s and my roles have reversed. Now that I am over 80, instead of me helping Rinpoche’s predecessor physically – for instance, with getting in and out of the car, Rinpoche has been helping me whenever we have traveled together. 

Actually, we both continue to look after each other. Rinpoche joined me in Berlin so that we could fly together to California for his 2025 teachings. In case there were any difficulties with his entering the United States, I would be there to help if I could. Although I can still walk short distances perfectly well, I have started getting wheelchair assistance when flying. Going together through the special line for passengers needing special assistance, we had no problem with immigration control. In fact, it was helpful that Rinpoche was in the queue with me — he was able to translate for an elderly Punjabi gentleman in the wheelchair before us, who spoke no English. It was a lovely way to start this leg of Rinpoche’s tour.

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been close to Serkong Rinpoche in two lifetimes and to have been able to help with his upbringing in this life and perhaps contributed to his becoming once more an outstanding great lama. Lama Zopa Rinpoche once said about Rinpoche’s predecessor that if you wanted an example of a lama who was the authentic “real thing,” it was Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche. I would add that if you wanted an example of a tulku who was the authentic “real thing,” it is his reincarnation, the Second Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche.