The Pema Ts'al School of Tibetan Buddhist Studies of New York has been founded under the auspices of the Head of the Sakya Order, His Holiness the Sakya Trizin. The school is under the direction of the Vikramasila Foundation, led by the Venerable Lama Pema Wangdak. The purpose of the school is to present the teachings of the Buddha and the living traditions of study, reflection, and meditation of Buddhism as embodied in the Sakya Order, the second oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism and a lineage which goes back over one thousand years.

Teachings concentrate primarily upon the accrued insights and wisdom, and the methodologies, of the spiritual disciplines of the great scholars, adepts, and masters of the Sakya lineage. Pema Ts'al represents a unique effort in the West to meet the needs of the growing number of more advanced Western students, who, while living in a secular environment, would benefit from a rigorous, academically structured, monastic-based program of Buddhist study and practice.

The school's curriculum follows that of the Sakya College in Dehra Dun, India, the leading monastic university of the Sakya Order. The school provides a Buddhist education founded upon traditional monastic training and study, conforming to the Western university teaching format and academic conventions, making it readily accessible and familiar to both Western students and scholars. The academic curriculum includes the study of Buddhist philosophy, practices, and views, and the Tibetan language, the container for its religion, philosophy and culture.

Pema Ts'al has been established to serve both renunciates and lay students who, while remaining in the everyday world of North America, would benefit profoundly from a long-term, focused experience of monastic Buddhist life of wisdom and practice. The courses are taught by and under the spiritual guidance of Lama Pema Wangdak, who has been leading Western students in their exploration of the Dharma for the past eighteen years.

Note: If you would like to help the New York school be successful by helping us out financially, please email sangye@aol.com.

The first graduates from Pema Ts'al New York with His Holiness the Sakya Trizin (August 2003)

The second class of new Pema Ts'al students with His Holiness Sakya Trizin (August 2003)