PEMA DORJEE BHUTIA
Geshe Pema Dorjee was born in 1951 into a nomadic family in Tibet. After he escaped Tibet with his family, he attended Tibetan schools in India, including the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics founded in Dharamsala by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. There, from 1973 to 1981, he completed the equivalent of two Masters Degrees, one in Prajnaparamita Philosophy (The Perfection of Wisdom) and the other in Madhyamika Philosophy (The Middle Way).
He then dedicated himself to the Tibetan Children's Village School located in Dharamsala. For nine years, he taught Tibetan Buddhism, language, and culture. In 1990 he was appointed Principal of the school, and from 1993 to 1997 he was its Director.
Throughout his career, he continued advanced studies in Buddhist philosophy, and in 1995 he earned the Geshe degree from Drepung Loseling monastery. In Tibetan Buddhist education, Geshe is the highest degree that can be earned. It is roughly equivalent to a Ph.D. plus post-doctoral studies as a scholar. Geshe Pema Dorjee is one of the few Buddhists with a Geshe degree who is fluent in English.
He was then appointed Principal of the Tibetan Teachers Training Center, and two years laterhe became the first Principal of the College for Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarah. He remained in charge of the College for Higher Tibetan Studies from 1997 to 2002.
Recognizing that an important branch of Tibetan Buddhism had fallen into desuetude, His Holiness the Dalai Lama asked Geshe Pema Dorjee to lead a revival of the Bodong tradition. Accordingly, in 2003, Geshe Pema Dorjee founded and became Director of the Bodong Research and Publication Center in Dharamsala. His work in that capacity has included unearthing, translating, and publishing the lost writings of that tradition as well as founding and directing a Bodong monastery and school in Kathmandu.
The Tibetan government-in-exile has honored Geshe Pema Dorjee by asking him to undertake various tasks. The Cabinet appointed him to the Higher Level Textbook Review Committee. His Holiness appointed him as a member of the Public Service Commission. The Department of Health appointed him as spiritual counselor to former political prisoners who had been tortured.
Geshe Pema Dorjee lives the compassionate life that he teaches. He personally ventures to impoverished and remote areas in Himalayan India and Nepal where, after a thorough analysis, he creates and directs the projects that are the most urgent. These include creating schools, arranging medical care for the sick and injured, educating villagers to protect them from human trafficking, and building bridges and introducing toilets to these isolated villages. He is also working to bring safe and more efficient stoves to regions where the traditional, unvented, open stove in the family hut is causing eye and lung damage. One of his ongoing projects involves bringing experts from Israel, Norway, and Sweden to teach modern agricultural techniques. He organizes, directs, and raises funds for other charitable projects such as creating a safe house for street children in Kathmandu.
Since 1997, he has lectured and taught in countries around the world, including Sweden, England, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Norway, France, Estonia, and Israel.
Geshe Pema Dorjee visited the United States in 2009 and 2010. During those visits he gave talks in New York, Washington D.C., Boston, Portland, and Minneapolis. His teachings were at venues such as the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, The Tibet House, Long Island University (Hutton House Lectures and Clinical Psychology Doctoral Department), the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, the Erikson Institute for Education and Research at the Austen Riggs Center, the Tibetan Museum, the Namgyal Institute of Buddhist Studies in Ithaca, and the Rubin Museum.
Geshe Pema Dorjee will be returning to the United States in 2011. During his stay he is scheduled to teach in San Francisco, Portland, Boston, and New York.
Contact in U.S.A.:
Dr. Carol Mackauf
compassion808@gmail.com
www.buddhistcharity.org