Shedra Director – Adam Pearcey

Adam began studying Tibetan Buddhism at the age of 17. He went to Darjeeling shortly after leaving school, and stayed in two monasteries near Ghoom, where he began to learn Tibetan. He then studied Tibetan and Sanskrit at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies and met Sogyal Rinpoche in 1995. After graduating from university in 1997, he began to work full time for Rigpa Translations and to travel widely, studying with Tibetan masters all over the world. He spent four years at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal, where he also taught Tibetan and served as interpreter. In 2004, he began Lotsawa House, an online library of Tibetan Buddhist translations.

Senior Translator and Instructor – Gyurme Avertin

Gyurmé (Guillaume Avertin) embarked on the long journey of learning the Tibetan language in 1997. After receiving a degree in Tropical Ecology from Université Paris VI, and meeting the one who would completely change his life, Sogyal Rinpoche, he spent two years following the Tibetan program at Langues’O University. He then went to Nepal in 1999 to study at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute. He then went to Bir, near Dharamsala, in India to study at the Dzongsar shedra, while perfecting his colloquial Tibetan. He is now working as an interpreter for Rigpa in general and the Rigpa Shedra.

Shedra Manager – Davide Piai

Davide was born in Italy and studied literature and the history of religions at the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. He won a European scholarship to study sound engineering at the department of new technologies of the prestigious “Scuola di Alto Perfezzionamento Musicale” in Saluzzo, near Turin. He worked for 10 years as a music producer, sound engineer and musician in Germany. Shortly after joining Rigpa Germany in 1997, he was invested with the nationwide responsibility for its audio visual department. In 2002, he became head of Audio production of ZAM, the multi media production arm of Rigpa International, which brought him to move to the vicinity of Lerab Ling, Rigpa’s main international retreat centre in the south of France. He has been studying at the Rigpa Shedra since its creation and is still committed to improving his knowledge of the dharma and the Tibetan language assiduously following the Shedra East programme.

Senior Tibetan Teacher – Stefan Eckel

Stefan Eckel was born and raised in East Berlin, where he completed an apprenticeship as a ‘specialized worker for industrial measuring and process regulating electronic systems.’ After the wall came down, he travelled around East Asia and Australia, before he met Sogyal Rinpoche in 1994, and then spent four years studying Tibetology and Indian history at Humboldt University. He also studied for a year in Kathmandu at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute, and in Bir and Dharamsala in northern India. He has travelled three times to Tibet, most recently spending nine months in Meshö near Dzongsar monastery learning the local dialect.