Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche

Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche Born in 1943 into a farming family in Kham, East Tibet, he was given the name Jamphel Drakpa, or Jamdrak for short. He spent his early childhood close to nature helping with the family sheep and yaks and playing with the other children in the village; the children received no education as such. This changed when at 12 years old he was selected to go with his elder brother Choje Akong Rinpoche—who had been recognised as a tulku by the 16th Karmapa—to the Dolma Lhakang Monastery where he was to receive an education. Although Akong was only three years older than Jamdrak, it was the tradition that where a tulku is the abbot of a monastery one of his brothers goes to assist him. It is claimed that many auspicious signs had been seen when Jamdrak was born and he had also been recognised as a tulku, but not officially confirmed due to the political turbulence of the time. At Dolma Lhakang Jamdrak was a reluctant but diligent scholar under a succession of lamas, but his studies were interrupted by the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959