Faculty, Staff, and Board of Directors

Faculty of Namgyal Ithaca

Venerable Tenzin Gephel was born in exile in Northern India after his parents escaped from Tibet in 1959. He received his primary education at a Tibetan school in Dharamsala, India, and at the age of 13, he became a monk at Namgyal Monastery in India, the personal Monastery of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. There he studied the liturgy of meditation deities, and the Buddhist sciences, including epistemology, philosophy, ethics, and the esoteric tantric systems. He also trained in the traditional Tibetan sacred arts such as ritual music, sand mandala construction, and the making of tormas (butter sculptures.) In 1992, after completing the thirteen-year Namgyal Tantric College curriculum, he earned the degree of "Master of Buddhist Sutra and Tantra."

Venerable Gephel has been a resident monk of Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies in Ithaca, NY since 1997, where he teaches a variety of courses on subjects in Tibetan Buddhism. He engages the local community in activities through Namgyal Institute, serves as a volunteer for Hospice, and has created sand mandalas at many museums and universities, as well as for the yearly ritual ceremonies at Namgyal Monastery, India. In the fall of 2000 Ven. Gephel was appointed as the first Buddhist Chaplain at Cornell United Religious Works at Cornell University; he spends half his time serving as the chaplain and half his time working at Namgyal Monastery. His duties as Cornell University Chaplain include leading a regularly scheduled Buddhist meditation group, teaching not-for-credit courses through CURW, providing counseling for students and staff as needed, and participating in interfaith activities in the CURW community. In his free time, Venerable Gephel writes on different topics relating to Tibetan culture and religion. He enjoys improving his English, and taking long walks around the city of Ithaca.

Venerable Tenzin Thutop was born in India in 1968, and entered the Dalai Lama's personal monastery in Dharamsala when he was 13 years-old. He earned the title of novice monk at 18, and at 27 became fully ordained as a monk and obtained the degree of "Master Of Buddhist Sutra and Tantra." Ven. Thutop has lived at several of the Namgyal Monastery branches, including those at Kushinagar and Bodhgaya, India. He served in the entourage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the Kalachakra teachings in Barcelona, Spain, and Mongolia, and on other occasions throughout His Holiness's travels in India. Ven. Thutop has participated in exhibitions of the Kalachakra Mandala in Italy, Finland and other countries, and his interest in comparative religion lead to time spent at a Catholic Monastery in Missouri in 1996.

Venerable Tenzin Thutop arrived at the Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies in Ithaca, NY in May of 1999, where he currently resides and teaches classes in Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan language. He is a wonderful teacher, and during his time in Ithaca, NY, he has given several presentations about Buddhism at churches, synagogues, schools, and universities, and in the summer of 2002 he taught a month-long course on mandala studies at Cornell University. Ven. Thutop has many highly specialized skills in the traditional tantric monastic practices, such as Mandala construction, butter sculpture, and ritual performances. He continues to travel throughout the world creating sand Mandalas and sharing his knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism with its rich history of traditional ritual arts and practices.

Venerable Tenzin Wangchuk was born in Tibet and escaped to India when he was a child. He completed his primary education at the Tibetan Children's Village school in Dharamsala, India, and in 1987 joined Namgyal Monastery where he studied the memorization of different meditation deity texts on Kalachakra, Guyasamaja, Chakrasamvara, Yamantaka, and various protection rituals. For five years, he learned the sacred Tibetan arts of butter sculpture, mandala drawing, ritual instruments, and ritual dances. Venerable Wangchuk has served in the ritual offering activities of many empowerments given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, including several Kalachakra empowerments. He has traveled throughout Europe and the United States to perform ritual dances and sand mandalas, and participated in the Smithsonian Institution's Folk Life Festival in Washington, DC. He was appointed and served for several years as the Vajrakilaya ritual offering master, and in 2004 he completed his thirteen-year philosophical studies, earning the degree of Master of Buddhist Sutra and Tantra. He was then elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the parent Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, India, and held the position of treasurer during his first year of service on the Board. In 2006, he served as manager of the Namgyal Monastery branch, Gaden Phelgay Ling, located in Bodhgaya, India. Venerable Wangchuk was then appointed to serve as the first Board member from the parent Monastery to simultaneously serve as a member of the Board of Directors at the Namgyal, Ithaca branch, where he also currently teaches courses offered at the institute.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Palden Choedek Oshoe was educated at an early age at the Tibetan Children's Village (TCV) in Dharamsala, India, under the direction of Jetsuen Pema la, the younger sister of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After completing the 10th grade, Palden took vows as a monk at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, where he remained and studied for seven years under the spiritual direction of the late Venerable Lobsang Gyatso and Geshe Damchoe Gyaltsen la. He left the institute in 1991 to study thangka painting from his brothers, and also to assist them in their projects. Palden was then asked by the Administrative Committee of Namgyal Monastery in India to go to Ithaca to become the official translator for Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies. Palden arrived in Ithaca in 1994, and since that time he has been the formal translator for the resident Namgyal monks and visiting Tibetan Lamas and scholars. He is also the primary instructor of Tibetan Language and Tibetan Traditional Art Classes at the Namgyal Institute. Palden is a wonderful teacher who offers an understanding of western philosophical sciences, and great insight into the Buddhist teachings.

Adjunct Faculty

The adjunct faculty consists of scholars located at University's and other institutions throughout the United States who periodically visit Namgyal to teach or offer weekend intensive teachings and seminars.

Robert Thurman

Professor, Department of Religion, Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University

Anne Klein

Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Rice University, Houston Texas

Daniel Cozart

Professor in the Department of Religion, Dickinson College

Daniel Perdue

Instructor, Department of Religion, University of North Carolina

Sidney Piburn

Scholar in Tibetan Buddhism, co-founder of Snow Lion Publications and the North American Branch of Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, NY

Alex Berzin

Harvard PhD in Far Eastern languages and Indian Studies, renowned translator, author, and world-wide lecturer

Thubten Chodron

American born Tibetan nun and resident teacher at Dharma Friendship Center in Seattle Washington

Venerable Tenzin Legphel Priyadarshi

Buddhist Chaplain and research student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Visiting Scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Research Assistant, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University

Craig Preston

Author, translator and founder of the Nagarjuna Language Institute in Ithaca, NY

Staff

• Jeanine Rose Mollica, Administrator
• Ngawang Dhondup, Assistant Administrator

Board of Directors

• Cornelia Tobey, President
• Ven. Tenzin Wangchuk, Vice-President
• Ven. Tenzin Gephel
• Ven. Tenzin Thutop
• Prof. David Holmberg
• Urgyen Khetsatsang
• M. Sue Crowley
• Inez Alfors