Acharya Lhakpa Tshering was born on the 14th of March 1974, the
Year of the Wood Tiger, in the Goshi village in the Dagana Valley
of Southern Bhutan. He went to Goshi Junior High School and, at the
age of twelve, left the school to enter the Drukpa Kagyu monastery
known as Tsirang Namgay Choeling Rabdey in Southern Bhutan. He
spent seven years learning the monastic arts: torma making, ritual
music, lama dance, and chanting.
In 1993 he enrolled in the Karma Shri Nalanda Institute, at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, India.
Three years later he received the vows of Gelong (bikshu), a fully
ordained monk, from His Eminence Gyaltshab Rinpoche. Since then he
has received many teachings from Rinpoche, as well as from Sangay
Nyenpa Rinpoche and Khenpo Ugyen Tenzin.
After completing his studies in 2002, he received an Acharya
degree from Karma Shri Nalanda Institute and Sampurnanand Sanskrit
University. After graduation he served as co-librarian with Dilyak Drupon Rinpoche, and as a
teacher in the Karma Shri Nalanda Institute, also working as an
editor for Nitartha
Publications in Kathmandu, Nepal.
In 2006 Acharya Lhakpa moved to Nalanda West in Seattle, Washington where
he supported the center and its students while becoming familiar
with Western culture. In February 2010, Acharya Lhakpa moved to New
York to begin his residency with the Northeast Nalandabodhi
Consortium. As resident teacher, Acharya Lhakpa spends eight months
a year with Nalandabodhi New York and the rest of the year
with the Connecticut and Philadelphia sanghas.