[1] This changed when at 12 years old he was selected to go with his elder brother Choje Akong Rinpoche—who had been recognised as a tulku by the 16th Karmapa—to the Dolma Lhakang Monastery where he was to receive an education.

It is claimed that many auspicious signs had been seen when Jamdrak was born and he had also been recognised as a tulku, but not officially confirmed due to the political turbulence of the time.

At Dolma Lhakang Jamdrak was a reluctant but diligent scholar under a succession of lamas, but his studies were interrupted by the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959.

As the Chinese occupied Lhasa the party was forced to take an alternative route which involved a perilous journey across the Himalaya mountains.

[2] He continued his education at the Young Lamas Home School in Dalhousie, where he was groomed for a well paid post as an administrator of a large Tibetan settlement in India.

With the help of Chögyam Trungpa and Akong Rinpoche he obtained a visa and plane ticket to travel to Samye Ling in Scotland in 1969.

Jamdrak mixed with the young, rich and famous people flocking to Samye Ling, and he shared their hedonistic lifestyle with enthusiasm.

Akong Rinpoche was deeply sad at seeing this picture—killing is against all the tenets of Buddhism—and lamented how he had promised their parents he would look after his younger brother and felt that he had failed.

Soon the tranquility was shattered by building work on a nearby shrine room and it became increasingly uncomfortable as electricity, water and sanitation were disconnected.

Moreover, beavers built a nest beneath his retreat house while raccoons and skunks fighting over territory left stinking reminders of their presence.

She wished to sell the Island and had had a vision of Mary, the mother of Jesus who asked her to approach the Buddhists at Samye Ling.