Our Chief Patron: His Holiness the Dalai Lama Spiritual Leader of Tibetan Buddhism

Our Resident Teacher

Geshe Ngawang Singey was born in the Kham region of Tibet in 1965. At the age of seventeen he left Tibet to study at the Sera Jey Monastery, one of Tibet’s great monastic institutions reestablished in India following the 1959 Chinese invasion of Tibet.

He received his novice and ordination vows directly from His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, and after twenty years of rigorous instruction in philosophy, psychology and other Buddhist Studies at Sera Jey, including teachings from many of the greatest living Tibetan scholar and practitioners, he attained the Geshe degree (roughly equivalent to a Western doctorate.)

Geshe Ngawang taught dialectics (debate) at Sera Jey in south India for eight years, moving in 2003 to the U.S., where he founded Thosum Gephelling Institute in Williamsville, Vermont. He teaches Tibetan Buddhism there; at Kurukulla Center, Boston, MA; and at Jampel Nyingpo Ling, Amherst, MA. Geshe Ngawang currently serves as a Smith College Community Advisor and also teaches a 1-credit course on “Tibetan Debating Style” also at Smith College, where he has served as Community Religious Adviser Since 2014.