The Tibet Center

Founded by Venerable Khyongla Rato Rinpoche in 1975, it is one of the oldest Tibetan Buddhist centers in New York City.

[2] Since 1991 TTC has invited and hosted the 14th Dalai Lama for teaching events in New York in partnership with the Gere Foundation.

Teachers from the Buddhist Chan, Theravadan and Zen traditions, and from the Jain, Hindu and Christian religions, as well as scientists and philosophers, have also taught at TTC.

[5] Geshe Nicholas Vreeland, Khen Rinpoche, current director of The Tibet Center, is the first westerner to be made abbot of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, Rato Dratsang, which was re-established in Karnataka, India.

[6][7] Since 1979, the Tibet Center, primarily in partnership with the Gere Foundation, and with Tibet House US, has been instrumental in inviting and hosting the 14th Dalai Lama for seven teaching events in New York City:[3] Since 2014 TTC meets Monday at 7:00 pm at the University Settlement at Houston Street Center, on Bowery in Manhattan just south of Houston Street, and offers a regular Saturday White Tara session and other teaching events at the Kunkhyab Thardo Ling Retreat Home in South Orange, New Jersey.

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche teaching at The Tibet Center in September 2014 with translator, Tenzin Gelek, on the right.
Tibet Center meeting with Khyongla Rato Rinpoche teaching
Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland in front of the temple at Rato Dratsang, January 2015