People

The teacher whose awakening and path of ethical conduct, meditation and wisdom form the shared foundation of Buddhist traditions. Early discourses preserve teachings attributed to him; later biographies also contain devotional and legendary material.

Remembered as the Buddha’s attendant and a key reciter of discourses in traditional accounts of the first council. Those accounts are later transmitted narratives.

Early Buddhist accounts describe her as the Buddha’s foster mother and the first ordained Buddhist nun. These transmitted narratives are central to the history and self-understanding of women’s monastic communities.

Presented in early Buddhist texts as one of the Buddha’s two chief male disciples, especially associated with wisdom and the careful explanation of the Dhamma. Many discourses depict him teaching both monastics and laypeople.

Presented in early Buddhist texts as one of the Buddha’s chief female disciples, especially associated with wisdom. Discourses and verses attributed to her preserve teachings associated with women in the early Buddhist community.

A senior disciple associated with austere practice and care for the early monastic community. Vinaya accounts place him at the head of the council held after the Buddha’s death, where the teachings and discipline were recited. Later Chan and Zen lineages honor him as the first Indian patriarch. These accounts belong to different textual periods; the later transmission stories are not contemporary biographies.

Also known as Maudgalyāyana, he and Sāriputta are presented in early texts as the Buddha’s two chief male disciples. Accounts emphasize his meditative abilities and extraordinary powers, understood within Buddhist religious tradition. Later East Asian stories about rescuing his mother helped shape practices of offering and dedication for deceased relatives. His significance spans early meditation teaching and later devotional life.

Early Buddhist accounts present Upāli as a former barber who became a monk and a leading authority on the Vinaya, the community’s discipline. Council narratives assign him the recitation of its rules after the Buddha’s death. His story links the preservation of monastic practice with the principle that standing in the community rests on training and ordination, rather than inherited social rank.

Mauryan ruler whose patronage supported Buddhism. His inscriptions and later Buddhist stories offer different kinds of evidence about his role.

A monk remembered in Sri Lankan chronicles as the son of Aśoka and brother of Saṅghamittā. They describe his arrival during the reign of Devānampiya Tissa and his role in establishing Buddhist teaching and monastic life on the island. Sri Lanka became a major center for preserving Pāli texts and transmitting Theravāda. The surviving chronicles were written centuries after the events they narrate.

An elder remembered in Theravāda chronicles as Aśoka’s adviser, Mahinda’s preceptor and the leader of the Third Council. The tradition associates him with the Kathāvatthu, a collection of doctrinal debates. These roles come from later transmitted accounts and should not be treated as contemporary documentation.

Remembered in Sri Lankan chronicles as Aśoka’s daughter, a nun who brought a branch of the Bodhi tree to Sri Lanka and helped establish the nuns’ order. The surviving narratives were written centuries after her lifetime.

The monk who answers King Milinda’s questions in the Milindapañha, a Buddhist dialogue compiled around the beginning of the Common Era. His explanations use analogies to explore identity, wisdom and practice. The literary setting should be distinguished from a securely established biography; the text’s authorship is unknown.

A poet and dramatist whose Buddhacarita tells the life of the Buddha in Sanskrit verse, while the Saundarananda follows Nanda’s transformation through Buddhist training. His literary work helped communicate the path through character, emotion and narrative. His precise dates and school affiliation remain uncertain. The Awakening of Faith is traditionally attributed to him, but that authorship is disputed and should not be treated as established.

An influential Madhyamaka philosopher. His reasoning examines emptiness: the lack of independent, inherent existence. Known for the Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way.

Author of the Four Hundred Verses, which connects Buddhist practice with criticism of fixed views. Traditional biographies identify him as a disciple of Nāgārjuna; Candrakīrti later commented on his work. His life is sparsely documented, and he should be distinguished from later tantric authors bearing the same name.

A Chinese monk who set out in 399 to seek Buddhist scriptures, especially more complete texts of monastic discipline. He traveled through Central Asia, India and Sri Lanka before returning by sea, then worked on translation. His Record of Buddhist Kingdoms preserves observations of monasteries, pilgrimage sites and practice. Together, the texts he brought back and his travel account helped connect Chinese Buddhism with its wider Asian world.

A monk and translator whose Chinese versions of works such as the Lotus Sūtra and Madhyamaka treatises helped shape East Asian Buddhism. His translation teams made Indian Buddhist thought accessible in influential Chinese formulations.

A major systematizer of Yogācāra, examining experience, consciousness and the bodhisattva path. The Mahāyānasaṃgraha is among his influential works; some textual attributions are debated.

An influential philosopher associated with the Abhidharmakośa and works on cognition and experience. His writings connect Abhidharma debates with the development of Yogācāra; the chronology of his life and works is debated.

Theravāda commentator associated with Sri Lanka. His Visuddhimagga organizes practice around ethics, concentration and wisdom.

Dignāga asked how we can distinguish reliable knowledge from mistaken thinking. His work systematized perception and inference as ways of knowing and examined how concepts and language organize experience. His Compendium of Valid Cognition became a foundation for later Buddhist logic, especially Dharmakīrti’s work. These arguments shaped debate with other Indian philosophical schools as well as later Tibetan scholastic training.

A foundational ancestor in Chan tradition. His life is partly legendary; the familiar lineage story took shape through later accounts.

A Madhyamaka philosopher who used formal inference to defend the emptiness of inherent nature. His interpretation of Nāgārjuna became a focus of later debate with Candrakīrti. The designation Svātantrika belongs to later Tibetan classifications, rather than a school he named himself.

A central Tiantai thinker who integrated meditation, the Lotus Sūtra and the classification of Buddhist teachings.

Building on Dignāga, Dharmakīrti examined what makes a perception or inference trustworthy. His Commentary on Valid Cognition and other works connect arguments about knowledge with Buddhist concerns such as impermanence, suffering and liberation. He became a central author for Tibetan debate and study, while also influencing non-Buddhist Indian philosophers. His chronology and the interpretation of his philosophical positions remain subjects of scholarship.

A Madhyamaka author known for the Clear Words commentary on Nāgārjuna and the Introduction to the Middle Way. He examines the consequences of taking things to exist independently and explains how emptiness relates to ordinary experience and the bodhisattva path. His influence grew especially in later Tibetan traditions. The label Prāsaṅgika reflects a later Tibetan classification, rather than a school he formally founded.

A pilgrim and scholar who traveled from China to India, studied at Nālandā and returned with Buddhist texts. His translations and travel account shaped Chinese Buddhist learning and preserve valuable evidence about seventh-century Asia.

An influential Pure Land teacher and commentator on the Contemplation Sūtra. He emphasized reliance on Amitābha’s vows and the practice of reciting the Buddha’s name, while also teaching other devotional practices. His writings became especially important to Hōnen and Shinran in Japan. Pure Land traditions interpret his legacy in different ways, but his work is a shared reference point across them.

A Korean monk and prolific writer who sought to reconcile competing Buddhist interpretations. His commentaries and efforts to share practice beyond elite monastic settings deeply influenced Korean Buddhism.

A scholar and abbot of Nālandā who taught Yogācāra to the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang. Their teacher–student relationship helped carry Indian Buddhist learning into the Chinese translation tradition. Accounts of Śīlabhadra also contain religious legends, and his exact lifespan is uncertain.

A seventh-century ruler whose expansion helped establish the Tibetan Empire. Tibetan Buddhist tradition remembers him as an early royal patron of Buddhism and an emanation of Avalokiteśvara. Later accounts combine imperial history with religious narratives.

A Chinese monk, traveler and translator who studied at Nālandā for about a decade and also worked in Srivijaya, on Sumatra. His writings describe Buddhist monastic rules and daily life, preserving valuable evidence about Indian and Southeast Asian Buddhist communities. He translated Buddhist texts into Chinese after his travels.

Remembered as Chan’s sixth patriarch and associated with the Platform Sūtra. The text and his biography developed through later editorial and lineage histories.

A scholar and teacher traditionally counted as Huayan’s third patriarch. His explanations of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra developed a vision of the mutual dependence and interpenetration of phenomena. The Essay on the Golden Lion uses a crafted object and its material to explore the relation between particular things and their underlying nature. His writing and teaching helped establish Huayan as a distinctive East Asian Buddhist tradition.

Indian Mahāyāna author of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, often translated as The Way of the Bodhisattva. It explores generosity, patience, compassion and wisdom.

An Indian scholar and abbot whose work brought Madhyamaka reasoning into conversation with Yogācāra and Buddhist theories of knowledge. Invited to Tibet, he played a foundational role in establishing Samye monastery and its ordination community. Tibetan tradition remembers his collaboration with Padmasambhava in this early transmission. His philosophical synthesis became an important resource for later Tibetan thinkers, even where they disagreed with it.

An Indian philosopher and student of Śāntarakṣita whose Stages of Meditation treatises explain a path combining compassion, calm abiding and insight. He commented on his teacher’s philosophical works. Tibetan narratives associate him with the debate at Samye; the competing accounts should not be read as a settled transcript of one decisive encounter.

Central to Nyingma accounts of the establishment of tantric Buddhism in Tibet. Remembered as Guru Rinpoche; devotional biographies contain extensive legendary material.

After studying in China, Saichō developed the Tendai tradition in Japan around Mount Hiei and Enryakuji. He brought together Lotus Sūtra teaching, meditation, precepts and ritual, and advocated ordination based on bodhisattva precepts. Mount Hiei subsequently became a formative training environment for founders of Japanese Pure Land, Zen and Nichiren traditions. He is also known by the title Dengyō Daishi.

Japanese monk who studied esoteric Buddhism in China and developed Shingon. Associated with mantra, mandala and awakening in this very body.

A major female teacher and awakened exemplar in Nyingma tradition, closely associated with Padmasambhava. Her biographies combine religious teaching, memory and legend. The surviving life stories are much later, and her historical life is difficult to reconstruct.

An Indian scholar and translator associated with Tibet’s early Buddhist transmission. Early catalogues support his authorship of Prajñāpāramitā commentaries; his central place in Nyingtik Dzogchen rests on later traditions, and many textual attributions remain disputed.

Known in Japan as Tōzan Ryōkai, Dongshan is remembered as a founding teacher of the Caodong lineage. Teachings associated with him explore the relationship between ordinary distinctions and a less divided understanding of experience. Later collections of his sayings and lineage poetry shaped Chan practice and its Sōtō transmission. These materials developed over time, so their traditional attribution does not always establish direct authorship.

A Chan teacher remembered for direct exchanges that challenge dependence on fixed ideas and external authority. The Record of Linji preserves teachings and encounter stories compiled and transmitted by later generations. Lineages bearing his name became influential in China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan. The dramatic dialogues should be read as a developed teaching literature, rather than a verbatim record of every historical encounter.

A tantric poet associated with dohā songs that became influential in Tibetan Mahāmudrā. His historical identity, dates and the authorship of works attributed to him are uncertain; later Tibetan biographies combine teaching narratives with legend.

A Buddhist teacher of bodhicitta remembered in Tibetan tradition as Serlingpa, the master from the Golden Isles. Atiśa studied with him for twelve years according to traditional biographies, and carried this inheritance into the transmission that later developed as Kadam mind training. He is also known as Dharmakīrtiśrī or Suvarṇadvīpa Dharmakīrti, and is distinct from the earlier Indian philosopher Dharmakīrti. Many accounts locate him in Sumatra; research by Iain Sinclair argues for Kedah on the Malay Peninsula within the wider Śrīvijaya world. His precise dates and location remain subjects of historical research.

A Buddhist monk and scholar from Bengal whose work in Tibet helped shape the Kadam tradition. His Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment organized Buddhist practice into a graduated path and influenced later lamrim literature. Traditional biographies recount twelve years of training in bodhicitta with Serlingpa, Dharmakīrtiśrī of Suvarṇadvīpa, before his return to India and later journey to Tibet. His teachings emphasize refuge, ethical discipline, compassion and the resolve to awaken for the benefit of all beings.

Indian tantric adept remembered in Kagyu lineage accounts as Nāropa’s teacher and a source of Mahāmudrā instruction. Teachings attributed to him include the Six Words of Advice, also known as the Six Nails. His transmission reached Tibet through Nāropa and Marpa. Traditional biographies include visionary and legendary episodes.

Tibetan translator and householder whose journeys to India and Nepal helped bring tantric teachings into Tibet. Kagyu accounts identify Nāropa and Maitripa among his principal teachers and Milarepa among his students. His translations and teaching transmission form a central part of the inheritance developed by later Kagyu lineages.

Indian Buddhist scholar and tantric adept associated with the Six Dharmas, also called the Six Yogas of Nāropa. Kagyu lineage accounts describe him as a student of Tilopa and a principal teacher of the Tibetan translator Marpa, through whom his transmission reached Milarepa. His influence extends across Tibetan tantric traditions. Traditional biographies combine lineage history with visionary and legendary episodes.

A woman teacher whose attributed Six Yogas and Mahāmudrā instructions form a foundation of Shangpa Kagyu. Later accounts place her in Kashmir and describe Khyungpo Naljor as her student; little about her life can be established independently.

Tibetan yogi and poet central to Kagyu memory. His songs and life story make transformation through sustained practice a vivid teaching theme. The best-known biography was compiled centuries after his lifetime; its religious narratives do not establish every event as historical fact.

A Tibetan woman teacher central to the development of Chöd, a practice that works with fear and attachment to self through generosity and wisdom. Her lineage became influential across several Tibetan schools.

Tibetan monk and a principal student of Milarepa who brought the Kadam gradual path together with the Mahāmudrā and tantric teachings of Milarepa’s lineage. His Jewel Ornament of Liberation presents an integrated guide to the Buddhist path. His teaching community and disciples shaped the Dagpo Kagyu traditions and their later branches.

A principal disciple of Milarepa, alongside Gampopa, Rechungpa was a cotton-clad yogi known for contemplative practice and oral transmission. He traveled to India for tantric teachings that enriched Tibetan transmission, including Amitāyus teachings associated with Siddharājñī. The Rechung aural lineage preserves his name. Accounts of his encounters with Milarepa combine lineage history with teaching stories and miraculous episodes; they are not straightforward modern biographies.

An Indian woman tantric teacher remembered as a mahāsiddha, an accomplished adept. The translator introduction published by 84000 identifies her as a teacher of Rechungpa and attributes five Amitāyus-related works in the Tengyur to her. Through Rechungpa, her longevity-practice transmission entered Tibet and circulated within Kagyu and other Tibetan traditions. Biographical detail is limited, and sources differ in their dating; the teaching lineage is better documented than her life story.

A twelfth-century Kadam teacher associated with the Seven Points of Mind Training, a compact presentation of lojong in the tradition transmitted by Atiśa. The teaching brings the cultivation of bodhicitta into meditation, everyday conduct and the encounter with adversity. Its seven divisions address preparation, the main practice, transforming difficulties, lifelong application, signs of progress, commitments and practical guidance. Chekhawa founded Chekha monastery in central Tibet; his name is associated with that institution. Different transmitted versions of the root text vary in their arrangement and annotations.

A student of Gampopa who also received teachings from Rechungpa, Düsum Khyenpa established centers including Tsurphu. He is remembered as the first Karmapa and a foundational figure of Karma Kagyu. The succession of recognized Karmapa incarnations became one of Tibet’s most influential religious institutions. Traditional biographies also recount prophecies and extraordinary abilities; those elements express the lineage’s religious understanding of his life.

Japanese Pure Land teacher who made nembutsu—the recitation of Amida Buddha’s name—the center of an accessible path. His teaching became the foundation of Jōdo-shū.

A reformer of Korean Seon who joined meditation with scriptural study. His account of sudden awakening followed by gradual cultivation became a major reference point for Korean Buddhist practice.

A student of Hōnen who emphasized entrusting to Amida Buddha’s vow. His writings and the communities that followed him became the foundation of Jōdo Shinshū, a major Japanese Pure Land tradition.

Kunga Gyeltsen, widely known as Sakya Paṇḍita, was a major scholar in the Sakya tradition. His work on reasoning and the three sets of vows became influential in Tibetan education and practice. His meeting with the Mongol prince Köden also marked an important stage in Sakya political and religious relations with the Mongol world. He was a leading inheritor of Sakya, not its original founder.

Japanese Zen teacher whose writings explore the unity of practice and realization. Known for wholehearted sitting and the Shōbōgenzō.

Japanese teacher who put devotion to the Lotus Sūtra at the center of practice and argued for its significance in society.

The Third Karmapa, a scholar and meditation teacher whose works address Mahāmudrā, mind and tantric practice. He trained in Kagyu and Nyingma transmissions and wrote the influential treatise Profound Inner Meaning.

Born in Dolpo, Dölpopa studied within Sakya before becoming a leading teacher at Jonang. His Mountain Doctrine presents an influential account of buddha-nature and other-emptiness, or shentong. He also taught Kālacakra and oversaw construction of the great Jonang stupa. His interpretation became central to Jonang and a subject of sustained debate among Tibetan Buddhist thinkers.

A major Nyingma author who synthesized Dzogchen teachings. His Seven Treasuries remain an influential body of contemplative and philosophical writing.

Teacher whose synthesis of ethics, philosophical reasoning and tantra became the Gelug inheritance. Known for the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path.

A Japanese Zen monk, poet and calligrapher associated with Daitokuji. His writing and later reputation challenge religious pretension and explore the tensions between monastic ideals and ordinary human desire. Many popular stories about his unconventional life are later legends, rather than reliable records of particular events.

A Sakya philosopher and monastic teacher whose Distinguishing the View compared competing interpretations of Madhyamaka. His arguments challenged both Tsongkhapa and Dolpopa, and his writings became influential in Sakya philosophical education.

A Japanese Zen teacher known for teaching the Unborn Buddha-mind in plain language to monks and laypeople. His recorded sermons address everyday difficulties and habits, emphasizing recognition of awareness without turning it into another object of striving. Modern translations draw on records preserved by his community.

A major renewer of Japanese Rinzai Zen, remembered for vigorous kōan training, teaching and brush paintings. His influence helped shape the practice systems of later Rinzai lineages.

A Nyingma writer and meditation teacher who transmitted the Longchen Nyingtik cycle and composed the Treasury of Precious Qualities. His autobiography describes the cycle’s visionary revelation and encounters with Longchenpa; these belong to the tradition’s religious account.

A Nyingma teacher and author of The Words of My Perfect Teacher, a guide to preliminary practice. He taught Śāntideva’s Way of the Bodhisattva extensively and helped transmit Longchen Nyingtik teachings through a wide circle of students.

A scholar, compiler and practitioner whose Five Treasuries gathered teachings on knowledge, practice and transmission. Working with figures including Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, he helped sustain teachings from several Tibetan traditions during the nineteenth-century Rimé movement. This approach valued distinct lineages and their methods rather than merging them into one school. His Treasury of Knowledge remains an important encyclopedic resource.

A scholar and teacher associated with Sakya and Nyingma who sought transmissions from a wide range of masters. Together with Jamgön Kongtrul and other collaborators, he helped preserve practices and texts across school boundaries. Nyingma tradition also honors him as a treasure revealer. His legacy lies in sustaining the distinct richness of several transmissions, and in the communities that continued them.

A Burmese scholar-monk whose manuals connected detailed doctrinal study with meditation and everyday practice. His use of Burmese helped bring teachings beyond specialist monastic audiences. He was an important influence on the modern expansion of lay insight meditation. His student Saya Thetgyi later taught U Ba Khin, whose students carried this approach into international teaching networks.

A Nyingma scholar whose commentaries connect Buddhist philosophy, reasoning and Dzogchen. He studied with Patrul Rinpoche and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and engaged other Tibetan schools while maintaining a distinct Nyingma interpretation.

A Sri Lankan activist and teacher who founded the Maha Bodhi Society in 1891. His campaigning brought renewed attention to Buddhist sacred sites in India, especially Bodh Gaya, while his publications and travels helped build international Buddhist networks. His work also belonged to the religious and political tensions of colonial Sri Lanka; recognizing his influence does not require endorsing every aspect of his rhetoric.

Writer and translator influential in presenting Zen to international audiences. His presentation is one influential modern interpretation, not a summary of all Zen life.

A wandering forest monk whose training emphasized the Vinaya, simplicity and sustained meditation. Together with his teacher Ajahn Sao, he shaped a forest-practice lineage that spread widely through his students. Few teachings were written down during his life; much of his influence passed through the people who practiced with him. Later biographies combine recollections of his training with devotional accounts.

The 13th Dalai Lama combined Buddhist teaching with political leadership during a period of foreign intervention and Tibetan reform. He supported changes in education, administration and medicine and was the immediate predecessor of the 14th Dalai Lama.

A Chinese monk who advocated reform of Buddhist communities and a more active role for Buddhism in modern society. His account of Buddhism for human life helped shape later Humanistic Buddhism. His proposals responded to the political and social upheavals of twentieth-century China.

Indian jurist and anti-caste leader whose Buddhist interpretation connected personal and social emancipation. Known for The Buddha and His Dhamma.

A Burmese civil servant and lay meditation teacher who studied with Saya Thetgyi and founded the International Meditation Centre in Yangon in 1952. His teaching emphasized ethical conduct, concentration and experiential understanding of impermanence. Students including S. N. Goenka and Mother Sayamagyi developed international teaching networks. His life offered an influential example of intensive practice alongside household and professional responsibilities.

Gelug scholar and teacher who served as junior tutor to the 14th Dalai Lama. A principal student of Pabongkha Rinpoche, he transmitted lamrim, lojong and tantric teachings to many teachers who later taught internationally.

Burmese Theravāda teacher associated with intensive insight practice and systematic noting. His network helped shape modern lay meditation.

Japanese Sōtō teacher who helped establish San Francisco Zen Center. Known for Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind; distinct from D. T. Suzuki.

Nyingma teacher, editor and historian who served as a head of the school in exile. His writings include a large account of Nyingma history and doctrine, and his revealed teachings belong to the Dudjom Tersar tradition. This is Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, distinct from Dudjom Lingpa and later teachers who bear the Dudjom title.

Tibetan teacher who helped transmit Shangpa and Karma Kagyu practice through international centers and long retreats. This profile concerns Karma Rangjung Kunkhyab, not the later Kalu Rinpoche born in 1990. His legacy also includes June Campbell’s published account that he subjected her to a secret sexual relationship she came to understand as exploitation; she described unequal power, secrecy and threats.

Founder of Suan Mokkh, a Thai monastery and center for study and practice. His teachings emphasized freedom from clinging, a fresh examination of Buddhist texts and dialogue across religious traditions.

Nyingma teacher, writer and advocate of preserving distinct Tibetan lineages across school boundaries. After leaving Tibet, he taught in Bhutan and internationally, supported the preservation and publication of texts, and established Shechen Monastery in Nepal. His students included the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

A lay meditation teacher who brought intensive insight practice into ordinary family life. Her students included influential teachers in the Western insight movement, among them Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg.

A Gelug lama and regent of Tibet during the childhood of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. He helped direct the search that identified Tenzin Gyatso and became one of his early teachers. His life also belongs to the politically contested history of the Tibetan regency. Reting Rinpoche is the title of a succession of teachers associated with Reting Monastery, not the name of one person; this entry concerns the fifth incarnation. The first was Ngawang Chokden (1677–1751).

American Zen teacher and author who trained in Japan, including with Hakuun Yasutani, and founded Rochester Zen Center in 1966. His book The Three Pillars of Zen brought together teachings, practice guidance and accounts of awakening for English-language readers. His later teaching helped establish a lasting Zen community in the United States.

Thai Forest teacher known for direct, practical instruction in letting go. His monastic communities and students helped carry this inheritance internationally.

Tibetan meditation teacher known for concise, experiential instruction in Dzogchen and Mahāmudrā. After leaving Tibet, he settled at Nagi Gompa above Kathmandu and helped establish monasteries and retreat centers in Nepal, including Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling. He taught internationally and welcomed students from varied backgrounds. His teachings are preserved in books including As It Is and Rainbow Painting.

A German-born Buddhist nun who taught meditation internationally and established practice centers, including Buddha-Haus in Germany. Her books explain concentration, insight and the practical application of Buddhist teaching. In 1987 she helped organize the international Buddhist women’s gathering from which Sakyadhita emerged. Her work connected accessible meditation instruction with efforts to improve women’s opportunities for training and community leadership.

Lay teacher in U Ba Khin’s Burmese insight lineage. His organization spread a standardized ten-day meditation course internationally. This is one modern vipassanā approach among several.

Vietnamese Thiền teacher and peace activist who founded the Plum Village community. Known for everyday mindfulness, interbeing and engaged Buddhism.

Gelug-trained Tibetan teacher and author who founded the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) in 1991. He developed books and structured study programs for an international network of meditation centres. This modern organization is distinct from the historical Kadam school. His advocacy of Dorje Shugden practice and opposition to the Dalai Lama’s stance on it became a major source of controversy.

Nyingma scholar and teacher who founded Larung Gar, which developed into a major center of Buddhist education. His teaching and the subsequent work of his students helped revive Buddhist study and practice in Tibet and China after the Cultural Revolution.

Tibetan Buddhist teacher trained in the Gelug tradition, known for compassion, ethics and dialogue with science. Recognized as the successor to the 13th Dalai Lama, he studied with senior tutor Ling Rinpoche and junior tutor Trijang Rinpoche. In 2011 he transferred his political authority to elected Tibetan leadership.