Kagyu Dharma

Group of centers founded in the United States by the late Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, concerned with the teaching and practice of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Rinpoche studied at the Palpung Monastery and was a teacher of the Kargyupa—one of several primary sects of Tibetan Buddhism— which is revered as the most esoteric of all of the branches of Buddhism. It absorbed Hindu tantric emphases.

In 1957 Rinpoche established a monastery in Bhutan and later founded his own center, Samdup Tarjeyling Monastery, at Sonada, Darjeeling, India. He trained monks to establish centers in the West and during the 1970s founded centers in Europe and the United States (New York, California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska). There is also a center in British Columbia, Canada. North American headquarters is 247 Sheafe Rd., Wappingers Falls, NY 12590. Website: http://www.kagyu.com/.