Ewam International Teachers
Namchag Khen Rinpoche Ngawang Gelek
Namchag Khen Rinpoche Ngawang Gelek was born in 1966, the fire horse year of the sixteenth sexagenary cycle, to his father Lama Namchak Tashi and his mother Peya. From an early age he too showed a propensity for virtuous activities, and showed interest only in the sacred dharma. Their noble father taught him to read and write, and to perform the majority of our liturgies and rituals. He also memorized the four tantras of the medical tradition and other texts and became proficient at identifying medicinal plants and preparing them. In addition, he learned the chants, melodies, and music for our own Namchak tradition from Tashi, the chief chant master of Ngangzo Monastery.
During the winter, Khen Rinpoche stays in Nepal and India at Ewam in Asia and leads nuns and others through practices during retreat. During the spring, summer and fall, he spends his time at the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas teaching western students Buddhist philosophy, preliminary Tibetan Buddhist practices and leading retreats. Sang-ngag Rinpoche and Khen Rinpoche are the founders of the Ewam Buddhist Institute whose classes and landmark summer shedra are held at the garden.
Jetsunma Jamyang Yeshe Palmo
Jetsünma has spent nine years in a shedra program and seven years in a retreat center, listening to teachings, contemplating them, and meditating on a continuous basis. In such ways she provides an exceptionally praiseworthy and inspirational model for women nowadays. It was for this reason that Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche offered her the honored title of Jetsünma, as director of the study and practice centers of Turquoise Leaf Nunnery and Kusum Khandro Ling. To those in the study center she taught the tantra Magical Web: Heart Essence of Secrets, The Detailed Explanation of the Eight Commands (Kagyed Namshey), The Trilogy of Genuine Mind (Nyuksem Korsum), The Treasury of Enlightened Qualities (Yönten Dzöd), and other texts. In the three-year retreat program she has given personal teachings on everything from the preliminaries through the stage of development, the stage of completion including tsalung and the six advanced yogas, and the Dzogchen approaches of trekchö and tögal including the teaching manual Yeshe Lama and other texts. She has given explanatory teachings to the general community of nuns on mental training (lojong), as well as monthly seminars to benefit others. For her own benefit, she upholds an ongoing practice. From any point of view she is seen to be excellent, and it is Rinpoche’s hope that she will prove to be uniquely qualified to be entrusted with upholding this dharma lineage in the future.