Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso

Geshe Yungdrung Gyatso is the resident lama of Ligmincha Poland. He lives in the Chamma Ling Poland center in Wilga, near Warsaw. He also teaches throughout Europe.

Geshe Gyatso was born in 1980 in Bicher village, in the Dolpo region of Nepal. This is also the home of the Samling Monastery, the oldest and most important Bön monastery in the region. Geshe Gyatso spent his childhood summers taking care of sheep and yaks. The winters he spent mostly with his father in a monastery, where he learned Tibetan reading and writing, recited mantras and sometimes helped his father prepare tsok offerings.

At age 9, he and his father traveled to Kathmandu, where he became one of the first monks to begin study at Triten Norbutse Monastery. He received teachings from His Eminence Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. Following the consecration of a new, large temple at the monastery, Geshe Gyatso joined the dialectic school along with about 100 other monks. He began studying for his geshe degree at Triten Norbutse Monastery in 1994 and received his degree in 2009. He then did a 100-day retreat where he practiced tsa lung and trul khor (which work with breath, channels, chakras and movement).

During his studies at Triten Norbutse, he twice visited Europe when the monastery sent a cham dance group to perform. After receiving his geshe degree, he was again invited to visit several countries in Europe, where he gave public talks and teachings. During his third visit to Europe in 2013, he spent one month in Vienna, Austria, making Bönpo tormas and conducting rituals and a cham dance.

In 2010 and 2011, while he was a member of the board of Triten Norbutse Monastery, Geshe Gyatso came to know Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche well because Rinpoche visited regularly. During his third visit to Europe, he met Rinpoche in Berlin. In 2013 Tenzin Rinpoche asked Geshe Gyatso if he wanted to stay in Poland and teach in the Polish sangha, and other European sanghas. Geshe Gyatso came to Chamma Ling Poland In January 2015 and officially became resident lama in March 2015.

Since that time, retreats have been held in Wilga, along with teachings and practices in different cities in Poland. The sangha has morning and evening practices, which anyone can attend. People also invite Geshe Gyatso to conduct special rituals and visit their homes.