Samye Ling, Scotland First Tibetan Centre in the West

Trungpa Tulku and Akong Tulku

The Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1959 crushed Buddhism in Tibet but at the same time drove Tibetan Buddhism into exile in the world at large. Until then, only a handful of Westerners who had travelled to Tibet had had any experience of it.
Among the refugees were two lamas of the Kagyu tradition Chogyam Trungpa tulku , Abbot of Surmang, and Dr Akong Tulku, Abbot of Dolma Lhakang. They soon became responsible for the Young Lamas Home School, set up in Dalhousie, North India, to care for young Tibetan prodigies, considered reincarnations of its great lamas. In 1963 the two lamas accepted an invitation to come to the UK, to study English at Oxford. Interest soon grew in them and their religion. This resulted in the founding, in 1967, of Samye Ling Tibetan Centre, the first monastic Buddhist centre of the Tibetan tradition in the West. More details of this can be found in the biography of Dr AkongTulku, in these pages.