Geshe Dadul Namgyal

Family, friends, colleagues, and students worldwide mourn the loss of Tibetan Buddhist monk,

scholar, and teacher, Geshe Dadul Namgyal. His body was discovered January 3, 2024 after he

had gone missing in November 2023.

Born in 1959, Geshe Dadul's family had fled to India from Tibet in the face of the Chinese

Communist invasion.

Geshe Dadul was educated in a Tibetan refugee school, where his intelligence shone brightly. At

age 17, he received monk's ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After 17 years of study

at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics and Drepung Loseling Monastery in south India, in 1993

he attained the prestigious Geshe Lharampa degree (equivalent to a PhD).

Geshe Dadul's inquisitive mind, devotion to Buddhist philosophy, innate kindness, and gift with

languages shaped his life. He was a brilliant and inspiring teacher, and served in that capacity at

Drepung Loseling Monastery, the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi India,

and at Buddhist centers in the U.S..

He emigrated to the U.S. in the 1990s, working on many projects at Emory University's Center

for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics in Atlanta. (Read his full bio at: https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/geshe-dadul-namgyal/ )

Having visited and taught at Sravasti Abbey over the years, in 2022, Geshe Dadul joined the

Buddhist monastery in Newport, WA, where his humility, compassion, and humor, not to

mention his wisdom, stimulated eager students.

Geshe Dadul's life was rich with meaning, focused on benefiting others. Generous, insightful,

and deeply spiritual, he is missed by many. He will continue to leave an enormous positive

imprint on the world for a long time.