Who We Are

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA) is the collected works of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Kyabje Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. The Archive was founded in 1996 by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, its spiritual director, to make available in various ways the teachings it contains. Even though the Archive contains teachings from both Lamas, Rinpoche chose the name Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in honor of his teacher.

Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche began teaching at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in 1970. Since then, their teachings have been recorded and transcribed. At present we have well over 12,000 hours of digital audio and some 90,000 pages of raw transcript. Many recordings, mostly teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, remain to be transcribed, and as Rinpoche continues to teach, the number of recordings in the Archive increases accordingly. Most of our transcripts have been neither checked nor edited.

Here at the LYWA we are making every effort to organize the transcription of that which has not yet been transcribed, to edit that which has not yet been edited, and generally do the many other tasks outlined here.

See our brochure for an overview of our work. You can also view our Organizational Chart here.

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive is an affiliate of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. (Please note that LYWA is a separate organization, with its own programs and finances.) LYWA is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible, non-profit corporation dedicated to the welfare of all sentient beings and totally dependent upon your donations for our continued existence. See our Privacy Policy here.

Read more about ways to support the work of LYWA here.

Read more about what we do here.