birth_place nationality birth_date known_for article_title name
edinburgh , scotland scottish 1950 buddhist founding director of transhimalaya scholar , historian , translator , traveller and gyurme dorje
 gyyurme dorje
gyurme dorje

gyurme dorje was born in 1950 in edinburgh , where he studied classics -lrb- latin and greek -rrb- at george watson 's college , and developed an early interest in buddhist philosophy .
he holds a phd in tibetan literature -lrb- soas -rrb- and an ma in sanskrit with oriental studies studies -lrb- edinburgh -rrb- .
in the 1970s he spent a decade living in tibetan communities in india and nepal where he received extensive teachings from kangyur rinpoche , dudjom rinpoche , chatral rinpoche , and dilgo khyentse rinpoche .
in 1971 dudjom rinpoche encouraged him to begin translating his recently completed `` history of the nyigma school '' -rcb- and in 1980 his `` fundamentals of the nyingma school '' - together this was an undertaking that was to take twenty years , only reaching completion in 1991 .
in the 1980s gyurme returned to the uk and in 1987 completed his 3 volume doctoral dissertation on the guhyagarbhatantra and lonchenpa 's commentary on this text at the school of oriental and african studies -lrb- soas -rrb- at the university of london .
from 1991 to 1996 gyurme held research fellowships at london university , where he worked with alak zenkar rinpoche on translating -lrb- with corrections -rrb- the content of the great sanskrit tibetan chinese dictionary to create the three volume encyclopaedic tibetan-english dictionary .
he has written , edited , translated and contributed to numerous important books on tibetan religion and culture including the nyingma school of tibetan buddhism : its fundamentals and history -lrb- 2 vol . -rrb-
-lrb- wisdom , 1991 -rrb- , tibetan medical paintings 2 vol .
-lrb- serindia , 1992 -rrb- , the tibet handbook -lrb- footprint , 1996 -rrb- , the first complete translation of the tibetan book of the dead , and a handbook of tibetan culture -lrb- shambhala , 1994 -rrb- .
