Geshe Jinpa Sonam was the resident teacher and spiritual director of the Indiana Buddhist Center for nearly twenty years before his passing away on November 4, 2022. He was a Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy Scholar, and held the prestigious Lharampa degree, the highest available in the Gelug school of Buddhism, from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in south India.
Geshe-la was born in 1955 in Ladakh Zanskar, Tibet (now in Indian territory). His father Ngawang Rabgay and mother Dolma Palzom had five children including him. In 1967, he became a monk at a local monastery in Ladakh called Thak-Ri-Mo Monastery, which follows the Kagyu tradition. (In Tibetan Buddhism there are four major sects: Kargyu, Nyingma, Gelug and Sakya). He studied at this monastery for six years.
Then in 1973 as a novice monk, he joined the Drepung Gomang Monastery, which follows the Gelug tradition, and is located near the town of Mundgod in southern India. At Drepung Gomang, he spent sixteen years studying all of the five different levels of intensive Buddhist texts and philosophy.
From 1993 to 1996, he worked as the chanzoe (administrator) of the monastery. After finishing his responsibility as chanzoe, he continued study of required texts and philosophy for his Lharampa preparations. In 1999 he passed the Gelugpa Board Examination and was honored with the Geshe Lharampa Degree, often compared to a Doctorate of Philosophy.
In the same year, he was appointed, along with three other monks, to travel to the United States and take residence at the Tibetan Culture Centre (TCC), in Bloomington, Indiana (now known as TMBCC). There, he taught Buddhism to people in the area before returning to India.
Through the infinite kindness of Hee-Soon Blanchet and George Soister, he returned to the United States where he became a resident teacher at the Gomang Meditation and Dharma Center of Independence, Kentucky, before coming to Indiana to found the Indiana Buddhist Center in 2003.
For nearly twenty years, Geshe-la was devoted to the Dharma and to his students. His charisma in and out of the teaching room attracted many students to the center and inspired them to practice the Dharma and serve other sentient beings with love and compassion. In August of 2022, it was discovered that he had a rare form of liver cancer. He traveled back to India and was treated at Delek Hospital, where he passed away peacefully while reading and quietly reciting prayers.
Geshe Jinpa Sonam
Our Founding
Spiritual Director
