Geshe Rabten
The Venerable Geshe Rabten, one of the outstanding Tibetan Buddhist Masters of our time and pioneer of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, was born in eastern Tibet in 1920. After having accomplished his Geshe Lharampa degree, he served His Holiness the Dalai Lama as philosophical assistant in India, until His Holiness asked him to teach Buddhism to western disciples in India and in Europe. Thus Geshe came to Switzerland in 1974, where he lived until his passing away in 1986.
Gonsar Rinpotsche
Gonsar Rinpoche lived with Geshe Rabten Rinpoche for thirty-three years, from the age of five on. He is Geshe’s closest disciple and spiritual son, and served as Geshe’s English interpreter until the end of Geshe’s life. At present Gonsar Rinpoche is the spiritual director of Tharpa Choeling (renamed later into Rabten Choeling in memory of Geshe Rinpoche) as well as of Tashi Rabten and Deleg Rabten in Austria, Püntsok Rabten in Munich, Germany and the Rabten Foundation in Switzerland.