Losang Samten

Losang Samten is a Tibetan-American scholar, sand mandala artist, former Buddhist monk, and Spiritual Director of the Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia. He is one of only an estimated 30 people worldwide who are qualified to teach the traditional art of Tibetan sandpainting. In 2004, he was granted a Pew Fellowship in Folk and Traditional Arts.

Early life Born into a Buddhist family in Chung Ribuce (Ü-Tsang, Tibet) in 1953, Samten spent two months crossing the Himalayas with his family to Nepal in 1959.

Career After fleeing central Tibet as a child refugee in 1959, Samten studied, debated, and practiced for more than two decades in exile at Namgyal Monastery: since its establishment (in either 1564 or 1565) by the 3rd Dalai Lama, the personal monastery of all the Dalai Lamas. In 1975, Samten began the intensive three-year program Samten then served the 14th Dalai Lama as his personal attendant from 1985–1988, after which, he moved to the US. Moving to Philadelphia in 1989, he joined Kelsang Monlam (from Drepung Gomang Monastic College, d. 2012, age 87), and eventually became the spiritual director of the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia. Samten left monastic life in 1995. Columbia University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009, New York University, Rhode Island School of Design, Smith College, Massachusetts, State University of Louisiana at Shreveport, Temple University, Trinity College of Hartford, Connecticut, University of California, Santa Barbara, University of Columbus, Ohio, University of Delaware, Pennsylvania, University of Texas at El Paso in 1997 and 2012, University of Nevada, Reno, University of Pennsylvania, University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and University of Arizona, Tucson. In 2004, he was granted a Pew Fellowship in Folk and Traditional Arts.