[1] Dhardo Rinpoche was educated in the traditional Tibetan monastic style, taking his Geshe Degree and graduating at the Lharmapa level at Drepung Monastery, and doing further study at Gyud-med Tantric College.

In 1951 he was appointed abbot of the Tibetan monastery at Bodh Gaya, and from 1954 onwards combined this with a few months per year stay in Kalimpong near the India-Tibet border.

Dhardo Rinpoche founded the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Cultural Institute (ITBCI),[2] in 1952 which then opened an orphanage and school for Tibetan refugees.

In the 1980s the FWBO's charity Aid For India (now known as the Karuna Trust (UK))[3] undertook to provide funding for the ITBCI School.

The thirteenth in the line of Tulkus, Tenzin Legshad Wangdi, was born in 1991 and still goes by the name of Dhardo Tulku.