Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (Tibetan: དགེ་བཤེས་བཀལ་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ།, Wylie: dge bshes bskal bzang rgya mtsho) (b. 1931) is a Buddhist monk, meditation teacher, scholar, and author. He is the founder and former spiritual director of the New Kadampa Tradition-International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT-IKBU), an "entirely independent" Modern Buddhist order that claims to be a tradition based on the teachings of the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism , although they follow only the interpretations of this text by their guru [1], which has grown to become a global Buddhist organisation and currently claims to have 1200 centers and branches in 40 countries around the world.

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso is known among students of Buddhism for establishing the NKT and for his books which outline what he sees as key aspects of the Gelugpa tradition. More recently he has become known amongst Tibetans for his promotion of the practice of the deity Dorje Shugden. Kelsang's advocacy of this practice has led to criticism from the Central Tibetan Administration and the Tibetan religious hierarchy, including the 14th Dalai Lama, who have advised Tibetan Buddhists to stop worshipping Shugden because they view this deity as a harmful spirit that has become a symbol of sectarianism.

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso was born in 1931 on the 4th day of the 6th month of the Tibetan lunar calendar), in Yangcho Tang, Tibet and named Lobsang Chuponpa. At the age of eight he joined Ngamring Jampa Ling Monastery where he was ordained as a novice monk and given the monastic name "Kelsang Gyatso" meaning "Ocean of Good Fortune".

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