Geshe Wangyal: America's First Lama

David Urubshurow and Joel McCleary speak to Tricycle associate editor Alex Caring-Lobel about their teacher Geshe Wangyal, America's first lama. Politicized at a young age in Soviet Russia, Geshe Wangyal immigrated to New Jersey to develop the telecode for the CIA that would aid the Dalai Lama's escape from Tibet, work to lift political proscriptions on US visits by the Dalai Lama, and train the first generation of Tibetan Buddhist scholars in America.

Reviews

I needed to know this.

Fascinating. Thank you for keeping this piece of history alive.

Keep the real history alive. This was very important for me to hear. He was right about the Chinese. They are cleaver and we are naive

Fascinating- thank you for sharing