8th Arjia Rinpoche
Lobsang Tubten Jigme Gyatso (བློ་བཟང་ཐུབ་བསྟན་འཇིགས་མེད་རྒྱ་མཚོ་), officially the 8th Arjia Hotogtu (ཨ་ཀྱཱ་ཧོ་ཐོག་ཐུ།), born 1950 in Haiyan County, Qinghai) is one of the most prominent Buddhist teachers and lamas to have left Tibet.Following the Cultural Revolution, Rinpoche continued serving as Abbot of Kumbum—overseeing the renovations in the monastery and reestablishing monastic studies.In 1998, due to the strained political climate in Tibet, Arjia Rinpoche went into exile claiming he would not compromise his spiritual beliefs and practices.He has given classes in Buddhist Art and Sutra throughout the United States, Canada, Taiwan, India and Guatemala.In the 1980s, after Buddhism began to revive in Tibet and in China, Arjia Rinpoche reestablished monastic life and traditional studies at Kumbum.