| Dr. Akong Rinpoche founded ROPKA back in the | | | | three hundred in his party that fled for India only |
| 1990s in response to the poor conditions of the | | | | thirteen arrived. There are many anecdotal tales of |
| masses in both Tibet and Nepal as well as across | | | | the hardships of the journey including eating soup |
| Europe. Dr. Rinpoche (born in 1939) was discovered | | | | made from boiled shoe leather to stay alive. |
| by a search party seeking the first Akong who had | | | | He was sponsored by Mrs. Freda Bedi to come to |
| been the Abbott of the Dolma Lhakang monastery in | | | | Oxford to learn English in 1963. He spent the next |
| Kham. The search party had been given precise | | | | twenty five years introducing the Western World to |
| instructions as to where to find the boy by the 16th | | | | ancient Tibetan traditions and medicinal treatments. |
| Gyalma Karmapa. Gyarma Karmapa is the title of the | | | | He established the Kagyu Samye Ling Tibetan Centre |
| top leader of the Kamstang tradition in Buddhism. | | | | in Scotland and made it a place of solitude and |
| By the time he was four young Akong Rinpoche was | | | | reflection for people of all faiths. Since the |
| taken to the monastery to receive a formal | | | | establishment of this place of meditation and solitude |
| education and training to become the new Abbot | | | | Dr. Rinpoche has worked to create soup kitchens for |
| upon completion of his studies. He was also taught all | | | | the hungry in major cities across Europe and now |
| of the traditional Tibetan medical knowledge at the | | | | into both Tibet (mostly the eastern portion) and |
| time. In 1959 at the age of twenty Rinpoche fled | | | | Nepal. He has brought over 100 projects to |
| Tibet after the Chinese takeover and the resulting | | | | completion including schools, medical facilities and the |
| purge of traditional Tibetan religious orders. Of the | | | | soup kitchens. |