Venerable Lama Lodru Rinpoche (1939–present) has been the Director and Resident Teacher at Kagyu Droden Kunchab Dharma Center in San Francisco since 1976. At the age of eight, Lama Lodru, a Tibetan born in Sikkim in 1939, entered Rumtek Monastery, the seat of His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. There he studied the traditional subjects of the Karma Kagyu lineage. Lama Lodru was a close disciple of His Eminence Kalu Rinpoche, the late great meditation master and head of the Shangpa Kagyu lineage.
For more than thirty years Lama Lodru has taught the Buddhadharma to Western students. During that time he established numerous centers for the study and practice of Buddhism, and has been the guide and retreat master for two three-year cloistered retreats for his American students. He is the author of Bardo Teachings, The Quintessence of the Animate and Inanimate, and Garden of All Joy.
