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Venerable Choeze Lortsel Gyamtso

(Geshe Lobsang Tsultrim)

 

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet (c) receives Geshe Lobsang Tsultrim (r)

Dharamsala, India 2009

 

 

Welcome to Puremind.org, the website of Geshe Lobsang Tsultrim (aka Lortsel Gyamtso).  Venerable Geshe Lobsang Tsultrim is a Tibetan Buddhist monk of the Gelupa order born near Amdo the eastern region of Tibet.
Geshela hast trained in philosohpy and sacred art at the historic Gaden Shartse Monastic University in southern
India and for 10 years served as sand mandala master for the Sacred Arts of Tibet tours, visiting over 50 countries. Geshela is currently the director of Thubten Dhargye Ling, Tibetan Buddhist
Center in Long Beach, California.

 

More About Geshe Lobsang Tsultrim

 

On July 7, 1966, Choeze Lortsel Gyamtso was born in Upper Ngawa in the Amdo region of Eastern Tibet.  Choeze Lortsel came from a family of farmers which grew barley and wheat and raised yaks.

 

Choeze Lortsel has two sisters and one brother and he is the youngest child in the family.  When he was six years old, Choeze's  parents decided that he would be a monk.  In the Tibetan tradition, if there are two sons in a family, one of those sons typically is chosen to be a monk.

 

Choeze remembers how his family often did not have enough to eat when he was young. He remembers many times when his mother would ask people in surrounding villages for tsampa (the Tibetan staple food made of roasted barley).  Because of the cultural revolution, many Tibetans in the region did not have enough to eat during that time. 

 

For a few years when he was young, Choeze went to the local school operated by the Chinese. When he was a teenager, Choeze felt very strongly that he wanted to continue his education.  The only real choice to do that would be to go to a Chinese boarding school fifty miles away. His parents did not want him to go away to school; they wanted him to go to the monastery that had recently been reconstructed.  Even though his parents and his monastery did not want him to go away to school, Choeze felt too strongly that he must have an education. 

 

Finally, when Choeze Lortsel was around 15 years old, he gathered up around ten pounds of barley flour, two pounds of butter, one book, and five 5 Chinese yuan and he walked 18 miles to a town where he was able to get a ride to the Chinese high school about fifty miles from his home. Out of the seven villages in the area of his home, he was the only child to get t a high school education.

 

When Choeze was around 17 years old, his mother was very ill and she was in the hospital for about a year. During that year, Choeze stayed with his mother at the hospital and took care of her, sleeping on the floor next to her bed.  Choeze feels this experience was a very meaningful point in his life.  He feels he was very fortunate to have had this opportunity to serve his mother who had shown him so much love and kindness. 

 

Choeze attended one more year of school at the Chinese boarding school after his mother died. He stopped going to the Chinese high school because of pressure from his family and his monastery to return home.  Choeze Lortsel went on to Gaden Shartse Monastery where he received his Certificate of Pramana Vidya (Buddhist logic and epistemology), his Certificate of Prajnaparamita (Mahayana Buddhist Studies of six perfections), his Certificate of Madhyamika (Middle way Buddhist philosophy), his Certificate of Abhidharma (Buddhist psychology and phenomenology), and his Certificate of Vinaya (Monastic discipline).

 

Choeze always had a strong interest in painting, even when he was a young child.  He learned some painting from a teacher for a short time and then he went on to teach himself.  In the monastery Choeze also learned sand painting in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.  He has taught sand painting to many young monks in the monastery who have gone on to create sand mandalas around the world.

 

On October 16, 2000, Choeze Lortsel arrived in the United States for the first time.  He was granted asylum by the United States in 2002 and since has traveled throughout the United States giving talks, creating sand mandalas, painting thangkas, and giving thangka painting workshops. These activities have allowed Choeze Lortsel to provide help to his monastery back in Tibet.  Choeze Lortsel is now living in Auburn California, working on a project to build a school in Tibet.

 

 

 

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