Thubten Yeshe

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Thubten Yeshe
Personal
Born	1935 Tolung Dechen, Tibet
Died	March 3, 1984 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Religion	Tibetan Buddhism
School	Gelugpa
Education	Sera Monastery
Senior posting
Based in	Kopan Monastery Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition

Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984) was a Tibetan lama who, while exiled in Nepal, co-founded Kopan Monastery (1969) and the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (1975). He followed the Gelug tradition, and was considered ^{[by whom?]} unconventional in his teaching style.^{[citation needed]}

Lama Yeshe was born near the Tibetan town of Tolung Dechen, and was sent to Sera Monastery in Lhasa at the age of six. He received full ordination at the age of 28 from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche. Jeffrey Paine reports that Lama Yeshe deliberately refused to complete his geshe degree, despite having studied for it:

Many years later, when pressed why he had shunned this prestigious degree, he would laugh: "And be Geshe Yeshe?"^[1]