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Geshe Jinpa Sonam

Geshe Lharampa Jinpa Sonam is a Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy Scholar and who was educated primarily at the Drepung Gomang Monastery in south India. He is one of only a handful of Geshe Lharamapas living in the United States.

"Geshe-la", as his students call him, was born in 1955 in Zanskar valley, Ladakh, in the Republic of India. In 1967 (at the age of 12), he became a monk at the Takrimo Gompa, a Drukpa Kagyu monastery in Ladakh near Padum. He studied at this monastery for six years. Then in 1973, he joined the Drepung Gomang Monastery, a Gelugpa monastery in Mundgod, Karnataka India as a novice monk. At this monastery, he studied all the five different levels of intensive Buddhist text and philosophy for 16 years. From 1993 to 1996, he worked as a Chanzoe (director) of the monastery and was responsible for financial matters related to business interests in Nepal. During this time he also served for ten years as the treasurer of the Himalayan Cultural Association, a group dedicated to educating monks in the Himalayan region. In addition, Geshe Jinpa’s teacher, Geshe Lobsang Samten, served as Abbot of Drepung Monastery after being personally picked by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

After he finished his responsibility as a Chanzoe for three years of the monastery, he again studied the texts and philosophy of Buddhism. In 1999, after a series of tests and debates in front of high lamas (including the His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama) he passed the Gelupa Board Examination. He was honored with the highest degree available in the monasteries, the Lharampa Geshe Degree (which is the equivalent to a Ph.D.). That same year he was deputed to Tibetan Cultural Center (TCC), in Bloomington, Indiana, with three other monks in order to teach Buddhist Dharma. As senior monk, he was responsible for the teaching and sharing of Buddhism in the center of Takster Rinpoche, Thubten Jigme Norbu (the brother of the Dalai Lama.) He then returned to India for a brief period of time.

Through the infinite kindness of Hee-Soon Blanchet and George Soister, he was brought back to the United States to serve as a resident teacher at the Gomang Meditation and Dharma Center in Independence, Kentucky prior to coming back to Indiana to found the Indiana Buddhist Center.

Geshe Lharampa Jinpa Sonam has been teaching at and serving as the Spiritual Director for the Indiana Buddhist Center in Indiana since 2002. He has taught numerous texts; participated in several interfaith dialogs; conducted various retreats; and regularly travels to teach in Ohio, Illinois, and California to teach. He has also been responsible for coordinating visits from monks from various monasteries in India; high lamas from Bhutan; as well as American monks and nuns.

Some notable Geshes of the Lharampa rank who have influenced Buddhism in the U.S. include Geshe Sopa in Madison, WI (Lama Zopa’s teacher); the late Khen Rinpoche Lobsang Tharchin; the late Geshe Wangyal (Jeffery Hopkins and Robert Thurman’s teacher); and Geshe Thubten Jinpa (currently the main translator for the Dalai Lama when in the U.S. and Canada.)