At the request of Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, he moved to the USA with three other monks (Sharpa Tulku, Khamlung Tulku and Lama Kunga) that same year to learn English and to study American culture.
[3] In 1967, Sopa was invited by Richard Robinson to join the faculty of the pioneer Buddhist Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
[1] Holding various positions through the years, when he retired in 1997, he became Emeritus Professor in the Department of South Asian Studies.
[1] During that time, Sopa trained many of the first generation of respected Buddhist scholars and translators in the USA, including Jeffrey Hopkins, José Cabezón, John Makransky, Edward W. Bastian, and Zorba Paster.
Sopa died of natural causes at Deer Park Buddhist Center in August 2014, age 92.