Late Khensur Kyabje Lati Rinpoche

Kyabje Lati Rinpoche (1922 – 12 April 2010) Born in the Kham region of Eastern Tibet in 1922, Lati Rinpoche was identified as the reincarnation of a great practitioner by Gongkar Rinpoche and entered monastic life at the age of 10. At the age of fifteen, he entered Gaden Shartse monastery. 

In 1949 at the age of 27 he took his final Geshe examinations and became a top Lharampa Geshe. The following year, 1950, he entered Gyuto Tantric college in Lhasa. In 1959 Lati Rinpoche was one of the Lharampa Geshes who debated to  His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama during his final Lharampa Geshe Examinations. 

Lati Rinpoche escaped to India in 1959 following His Holiness The Dalai Lama, and remained in the Baxa Refugee camp in Northern India for 3 years until 1962.  

In 1962 he moved to Dharamsala following His Holiness The Dalai Lama. In Dharamsala he was Chosen by and served His Holiness The Dalai Lama as a Tsenshap (debate assistant) and as a teacher of Namgyal monastery (His Holiness private monastery).

In 1976 Rinpoche was sent to the United States to give teachings in a University and remained there until 1978. In 1977 while he was in the United States, Rinpoche was appointed as the Abbott of Gaden Shartse monastery in South India, by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, and remained abbot for two tenures until 1985.

From 1985 Rinpoche divided his time mostly between the monastery and Dharamsala. He would give teachings and Tantric empowerment. He was invited again and again to give teachings abroad in different Dharma centres around the world. Despite his growing fame he always remained very humble and his warmth and kindness could be felt by everyone in his vicinity.

Rinpoche passed away in meditation in April 10 2010 at the age of 89 in his room in Namgyal monastery in Dharamsala.