The Tibet Center

The dharma name of the center is Kunkhyab Thardo Ling (translation: Land Pervaded with Seekers of Liberation), a name given to the center by the 6th Ling Rinpoche, who was the 97th Gaden Tripa, and like many of the previous Ling Rinpoches, was the senior tutor of the Dalai Lama.

The Tibet Center has three main teachers: the founder Venerable Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, a Tibetan incarnate lama, Venerable Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, and Anthony Spina, another long time student of Khyongla Rinpoche.

Many other Tibetan Buddhist teachers have taught at The Tibet Center, including "Venerable Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, the Senior Tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Venerable Tsenshab Serkong Rinpoche, who served as the official debating partner of H. H. the Dalai Lama, Sakya Trizin Rinpoche, the hereditary head of the Sakya order of Tibetan Buddhism, Venerable Trulshik Rinpoche of the Nyingma tradition, and Venerable Tenga Rinpoche of the Kagyu tradition."[2]

Buddhist teachers from the Chan, Theravadan and Zen traditions have also taught at The Tibet Center. In addition, teachers from the Jain, Hindu and Christian religions, as well as scientists and philosophers, have taught there.[3]

Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, Khen Rinpoche

Main article: Nicholas Vreeland

Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland in front of the temple at Rato Dratsang, January 2015

Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, Khen Rinpoche, the current director of The Tibet Center, is the first westerner to be made abbot of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, Rato Dratsang, which was re-established in Karnataka, India. Khen Rinpoche holds a Ser Tri Geshe Degree from Rato Monastery. He is a fully ordained monk and a photographer. He is the grandson of Diana Vreeland, and is the subject of the biographical documentary film, Monk with a Camera.[6][7]

Since 1979, the Tibet Center, primarily in partnership with the Gere Foundation, has been instrumental in inviting and hosting the 14th Dalai Lama for seven teaching events in New York City:[3]

• 1979 - One day teaching at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
• 1991 - The Kalachakra Initiation at the Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden, 2 weeks in total
• 1999 - Teaching on Kamalashila's Middle Length Stages of Meditation, and Togmay Sangpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas at the Beacon Theatre, also a public talk to 200,000 people in Central Park. The talks were later published as Open Heart: Practising Compassion in Everyday Life (2002).[8][9][10]
• 2003 - Four-day teaching of Root Verses on Indian Philosophies by the 17th-century Tibetan scholar Jamyang Shepa, and The Seven-Point Mind Training by the 12th-century Geshe Chekawa at the Beacon Theatre, as well as a public talk in Central Park on The Bodhisattva's Jewel Garland by Atisha
• 2007 - Teachings on the Diamond Cutter Sutra, by Shakyamuni Buddha, and Seventy Verses on Emptiness, by Nagarjuna, as well as a public talk on "Peace and Prosperity", at Radio City Music Hall
• 2010 - Four-day teaching on Commentary on Bodhicitta by Nagarjuna, and A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, by Shantideva, followed by a public talk entitled "Awakening the Heart of Selflessness", at Radio City Music Hall
• 2013 - Teachings on the Heart Sutra, The Sutra of the Recollection of the Three Jewels, and the ninth chapter of The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, by Shantideva. Also an initiation into "The Buddha Establishing the Three Pledges", and a public talk on "The Virtue of Nonviolence", at the Beacon Theatre[11]

Since 2014 The Tibet Center meets Monday at 7 pm at the University Settlement @ Houston Street Center, on the Bowery in Manhattan, just south of Houston Street. The Tibet Center also offers a White Tara session and other teaching events, at the Kunkhyab Thardo Ling Retreat Home, in South Orange, New Jersey on Saturdays.

• My Life and Lives, the autobiography of Khyongla Rato Rinpoche.

• Official The Tibet Center site
• The Tibet Center Prayer book
• Video of some of The Tibet Center lectures: three by Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, one by Ven. Dagpo Rinpoche, one by Jigme Neal, and one by Thubten Tsering Lingsang