Yeshe Losal

In 1990 Kay Morris came to Samye Ling with a strange request. She was the owner of Holy Isle a small island near the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde. She wished to sell the Island and had had a vision of Mary, the mother of Jesus who asked her to approach the Buddhists at Samye Ling. Lama Yeshe visited the island in December and felt an immediate affinity for the rugged landscape, reminiscent of his homeland. Looking out over the lights of Lamlash bay, he was reminded of a vision he had while practising dream yoga on retreat. He had experienced flying over a beautiful island surrounded by lights. In April 1992 the Holy Isle was bought by the Rokpa Trust. Since then Lama Yeshe has been instrumental in establishing the Centre for World Peace and Health, an environmentally designed residential venue for courses, conferences and retreats on Holy Island, and a monastery on the southern end of the Island for nuns on three year retreats.

Akong Rinpoche requested that Lama Yeshe move to Purelands, a purpose-built retreat centre at Samye Ling, and in time he became the retreat master in 1988. At Akong Rinpoche's request, in 1995 Lama Yeshe was confirmed as abbot of Samye Ling by the Tai Situpa.

This turned the heart of the young rebel back to the Buddha Dharma. He heard that the Karmapa was going to the United States at the invitation of Chögyam Trungpa, and requested that he be allowed to join him on a tour of the United States and Canada. On the tour a Chinese benefactor donated a large tract of land for a Buddhist centre in New York. Jamdrak was appointed secretary and treasurer. With many visiting lamas, Jamdrak had the opportunity to establish the preliminary practises of the four foundations. Wishing to take his practise further he became a monk in 1980, and was ordained by the 16th Karmapa, and named Yeshe Losal.

Meeting young American Peace Corps volunteers, Jamdrak became curious about the West. With the help of Chögyam Trungpa and Akong Rinpoche he obtained a visa and plane ticket to travel to Samye Ling in Scotland in 1969.

He did indeed briefly take up this post before leaving in 1967 to serve as private secretary to the 16th Karmapa at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim. Although still a layperson he had a privileged position receiving teachings from high lamas.

His arrival in 1960s Britain coincided with the peak of the hippie movement. Jamdrak mixed with the young, rich and famous people flocking to Samye Ling, and he shared their hedonistic lifestyle with enthusiasm. His brother, busy running the monastery, tolerated his excesses hoping that he would grow out of them eventually.

Born in 1943 into a farming family in Kham, East Tibet, he was given the name Jamphel Drakpa, or Jamdrak for short. He spent his early childhood close to nature helping with the family sheep and yaks and playing with the other children in the village; the children received no education as such. This changed when at 12 years old he was selected to go with his elder brother Choje Akong Rinpoche—who had been recognised as a tulku by the 16th Karmapa—to the Dolma Lhakang Monastery where he was to receive an education. Although Akong was only three years older than Jamdrak, it was the tradition that where a tulku is the abbot of a monastery one of his brothers goes to assist him. It is claimed that many auspicious signs had been seen when Jamdrak was born and he had also been recognised as a tulku, but not officially confirmed due to the political turbulence of the time. At Dolma Lhakang Jamdrak was a reluctant but diligent scholar under a succession of lamas, but his studies were interrupted by the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959.