Center for Healthy Minds

Telo Tulku Rinpoche was born in Philadelphia to the family of Kalmyk Mongol immigrants. At the age of seven his parents sent him to India by the recommendation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to study at Drepung Gomang Monastery in South India. He is a key figure behind the establishment of connections between the Russian scientific community and His Holiness, and is a main organizer of a series of dialogues between leading Russian scientists and Buddhist scholars, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama under the general title “Fundamental Knowledge: Dialogue between Russian and Buddhist Scholars” (“Nature of Consciousness,” 2017, Delhi, India; “Understanding the World,” 2018, Dharamsala, India), as well as the first international forum “Animal Consciousness” (2023, Dharamsala, India) supervised by full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Prof. Konstantin Anokhin. Telo Rinpoche has played a pivotal role in bringing together Tibetan Buddhist monasteries of India and Nepal and the Russian Meditation and Tukdam Research Project team ensuring mutual understanding and long-term cooperation between them since 2019 up to present. He has served as the Director of the Russian Meditation and Tukdam Research Project led by Svyatoslav Medvedev, which the Russian research team started independently in 2018 before His Holiness requested CHM and the Russian team to collaborate on the Joint Tukdam Research Project starting in 2020. In 2024, he took on the role of Administrative Project Director for the Joint Tukdam Research Project and currently serves in that capacity. From 1992 to 2023, Telo Rinpoche served as the Shadjin Lama (Supreme Lama) of Kalmykia. He supervised the construction of over 37 Buddhist temples and 120 stupas, including the main temple in the capital city, the Golden Abode of Buddha Shakyamuni. He successfully restored the pure tradition of Vinaya (Monks Discipline) in Kalmykia. Since 2014, he has been serving as His Holiness the Dalai Lama's representative to Russia, Mongolia and CIS countries. Telo Rinpoche is a Board Member of Social, Emotional and Ethical (SEE) Learning Mongolia, and serves as the CEO/Chairman of Dilova Hutught Foundation in Mongolia, where he is responsible for introducing the SEE Learning program developed by Emory University to the Ministry of Education of Mongolia and its successful implementation in public schools.