H. E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche (1930-2002) belongs to the last generation of teachers to have been fully trained in Tibet in the vast wealth of Vajrayana teachings and methods. He held superb teaching lineages, primarily in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Vajrayana, which he taught unceasingly throughout his life. The main emphasis in whatever he taught was pure motivation.

After the Communist conquest of Tibet in 1959, Rinpoche went into exile in India and Nepal. During the next twenty years, in various refugee camps and settlements, Rinpoche served as lama who administered to the refugees’ spiritual needs, as a camp leader who organized work projects, and as a physician Tibetan medicine.

Rinpoche traveled to the United States in 1979. The combination of his warm personality, his depth of knowledge, and his meditative realization magnetized thousands of students. His tireless teachings led him to Europe, Russia, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, and South America.

He resettled in Brazil in 1995 after successfully establishing numerous centers and meditation groups in the United States and other places. In order to maintain his lineage teachings, he ordained a number of his Western students as teachers and gave them specific authorizations to teach. Since Rinpoche's Parinirvana on November 17, 2002, the extensive Brazilian network of centers—many with their own resident lamas—and meditation groups have been under the spiritual direction of Chagdud Khadro, Rinpoche's wife, whom he ordained as a lama in 1997.

Rinpoche’s work is maintained by Chagdud Gonpa Foundation in North America, by Chagdud Gonpa Brasil, and by Chagdud Gonpa Hispanoamerica in Spanish-speaking Latin America. The Mahakaruna Foundation administers support for Chagdud Gonpa and associated monasteries in Tibet and Nepal..