In 1968 Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche came to America.

He arrived as a refugee with no homeland and just a few dollars in his pocket, knowing very little English and not much about American culture and history.

He chose America because of its long tradition of freedom, for America embraces the important freedoms of religion, speech, and assembly.

Here he could do his important humanitarian work.

Within the opportunities provided in America, he could teach a more fundamental freedom — the freedom of the mind, which offers complete and perfect liberation from suffering.

In Old Tibet, a long line of realized masters kept the knowledge of this inner freedom alive and sustained it for over twelve hundred years.

Rinpoche brought this rich tradition to the West.

Over the past 50 years he has worked to preserve, protect, support, and pass on this precious body of knowledge.

He has planted the roots, helped them to grow by finding new cultural forms and new languages suited to this time and place.

He has reached new minds with unsurpassed dedication and devotion.

A lifetime of work for the sake of all of us and for those yet unborn.