Gesar

By the mid-1980s, students from abroad who had attended classes at the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley had formed study groups in several countries. At first these groups mostly invited teachers from the Institute, but gradually they became interested in establishing their own centers and training their own teachers.

Starting in 1989, Rinpoche took an active role in directing the growth of the four groups— two in Brazil and one each in Germany and Holland—who had demonstrated the greatest interest. He gave Nyingma Centers responsibility for guiding their development, following guidelines that he established. This process unfolded at different speed at each of the four new centers, but during the 1990s each was officially authorized by the Head Lama.

The reports here start with Nyingma Centers, which contains to have primary responsibility for directing the four international centers, and then goes on to present a brief overview of what is happening at each center. A fifth study group that started in Argentina in the 1990s was officially recognized as a center at the beginning of 2013. The Argentine center has been very active in teaching, art projects, and publishing, but until now it has not been fully integrated into the mandala structure, so it is not included in this report.