Drikung Rinchen Choling (DRC) is H.E. the 8th Garchen Rinpoche's main Dharma Center in southern California. It provides a place for students to practice daily and for short term retreats under the guidance of H.E. Garchen Rinpoche and Ven. Lama Thupten Nima. H.E. Garchen Rinpoche is one of the most revered guru in the Drikung Kagyu tradition. He is famous for his vast realization, attainment, and great compassion.Ven. Lama Thupten Nima is the current resident abbot of DRC. He served as the Disciplinarian, Chant Master, and Retreat Master in the Gar Monastery in Tibet and Garchen Buddhist Institute in Arizona

直貢寶法林由 噶千仁波切賜名, 2009年成立於加州天普市, 2013年遷入亞凱迪亞市現址。 寺院在上師 噶千仁波切與 阿闍黎圖登尼瑪喇嘛帶領指導之下, 以正信佛教, 藏傳直貢噶舉傳承來宣揚佛陀法教。 它是 噶千仁波切在南加州的主要弘法道場, 除平日共修與法會外亦提供僧團信眾短期閉關。 第八世 噶千仁波切是直貢噶舉最崇高的轉世上師之一, 他以修證境界廣大及大慈悲心著稱於世。 阿闍黎圖登尼瑪 (噶貝) 喇嘛具備完整的佛學訓練, 發願弘揚極樂淨土, 目前是寶法林住持上師, 曾任噶爾寺與噶千佛學院的戒律師、領誦師與閉關指導上師, 著有文殊閻魔敵閉關手冊。

His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche

His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche is one of two heads of the Drikung Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism. Born in 1946 in Lhasa, Tibet, he was recognized at the age of four as the reincarnation of the previous Drikung Kyabgon and formally enthroned and educated at Drikung Thil, the main monastery of the Drikung Kagyu order in central Tibet. During the Tibetan exodus in the late 1950s, his parents fled to India while he remained at Drikung Thil. In 1959, Communist China closed the monastery, and His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche was adopted by his former tutor, His Eminence Gyabra Rinpoche. After completing his elementary and middle school education in Lhasa, in 1969 he was assigned to a countryside farm, working fifteen hours a day doing hard physical labor.

In 1975, His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche crossed the Himalayan border separating Tibet from Nepal on foot and all alone except for fortuitous help from two strangers at one impassable point. He traveled to Dharamsala, India, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, where he was received by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and formally enthroned once again.

Then, after eighteen years of separation, His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche was reunited with his family in the United States. He stayed for several years, completing courses in English and adult education and working after school at McDonald to practice his English.

In 1978, he returned to India, taking up rigorous Buddhist practice, retreats, and instruction from many of the greatest living masters of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1985, in Dehra Dun, India, he founded the Drikung Kagyu Institute, Jang Chub Ling, which provides traditional monastic and modern education to c. 450 monks and nuns; a meditation retreat center; and a project to collect and preserve all the Drikung Kagyu texts, as well as document the ways of life, philosophy, and religious traditions of the peoples of the Himalayas.