Rato Dratsang Foundation
The Rato Dratsang Foundation was created by the Reverend Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, a lama and scholar who studied at the original monastery, the Venerable Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland, an American student of Rinpoche's and an ordained Buddhist monk and member of Rato Dratsang, Anthony Portago, Alexander Vreeland, Anthony Spina and their friends and colleagues. The goals of the Rato Dratsang Foundation are to generate financial support for the monastery, establish scholarly affiliations with Western centers of higher education, provide for the translation and publication of important writings currently unavailable to English and Chinese speaking people, and establish a sister monastic college in the west.
The mission of Rato Dratsang Foundation (RDF) is to generate financial support for the monastery; to preserve its traditional presentation of logical analysis and to establish a dialogue with Western centers of learning.
How You Can Help
There are four ways to support the foundation:
Wire money (Electronic Funds Transfer) to Rato Dratsang Foundation; BIC# or Swift Code CHASUS33; Chase Routing No. 021202337 Account No. 537789011. For wire transfers, we humbly request you to send us an e-mail with contact information so we can acknowledge your donation.
Send a check by mail to:
Rato Dratsang Foundation
P.O. Box 1873
New York, NY 10156
Tel: 718-222-0007
Rato Dratsang Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization under IRS regulations. Your contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Venerable Khensur Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland
ex-Abbot RATO DRATSANG
Venerable Khensur Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland is Abbot of Rato Monastery. Rinpoche was appointed Abbot of Rato Dratsang by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in April 2012. This was an historic moment; the first time that a Westerner had been appointed as abbot of an important Tibetan Buddhist monastery. On making the appointment, The Dalai Lama stated, “Your special duty (is) to bridge Tibetan tradition and Western world.”
Khensur Rinpoche earned a Ser Tri Geshe Degree from Rato, where he studied for 15 years.
Rinpoche is also the Director The Tibet Center, New York and editor of His Holiness’, ‘An Open Heart’ and ‘A Profound Mind’.
An exhibition of Khensur Rinpoche’s photos, Photos for Rato, toured major cities around the world from 2009 to 2011, and raised most of the funds , for the much needed expansion of Rato, when that project had almost had been abandoned due financial hardship. The expansion was necessary to address overcrowded conditions at Rato. Rato Monastery’s new campus and temple, was inaugurated by the His Holiness the Dalai Lama on January 31, 2011.
Click here to view his more recent project - Return to the Roof of the World - on exhibition at the Leica Gallery NYC, NY.
Anthony Spina
Vice President RDF
Anthony Spina has studied with Rinpoche since the late 1970’s and has been the Vice President of the Rato Dratsang Foundation since 1986. Tony is also is an Officer and the Treasurer of The Tibet Center, NYC.
Anthony hosts The Tibet Center’s Monday and Wednesday night podcasts, via Facebook livestream, offering discussion and commentary on Tibetan Buddhist texts and Khyongla Rato Rinpoche and Khen Rinpoche’s teachings. He also hosts White Tara Meditation every other Saturday of the month. You can watch him on TTC’s podcasts here: https://www.facebook.com/TheTibetCenter/live/
Khyongla Rato Rinpoche
Founder RDF
Khyongla Rato Rinpoche was a reincarnate lama and scholar of the Gelugpa order of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in 1923 in the southeastern Tibet in the region called Kham. In 1928, senior Gelugpa monks divined that a five-year old boy living in this remote part of Tibet was the reincarnation of the ninth Khyongla of Tibet.
On his sixth birthday, monks on horseback took him from his parents’ home to a monastery some distance away where he was installed as its spiritual head. For over three decades he lived the sober life of a monk, studying at the most famous monasteries in Tibet and earning the Lharampa Geshe degree. In 1959, along with thousands of monks, as well as the Dalai Lama, he fled on foot over the Himalayas to safety and to a radically different life in India, and eventually the United States.
In 1975, he founded The Tibet Center, the oldest Tibetan Buddhist Center in New York City. The Center offers classes in Buddhist practice and theory on a weekly schedule. Ancient Indian and Tibetan texts are taught together with methods for integrating them into daily meditation and practice.
In 1986, Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland and other friends founded the Rato Dratsang Foundation to fund the re-established Rato monastery in Mundgod, State of Karnataka, India.
Reverend Khyongla Rato Rinpoche passed away May 22, 2022 in Dharamsala. The Rato Dratsang Foundation continues Rinpoche’s mission of Wisdom and Merit and Peace Through Loving Kindness.
Rato Dratsang Foundation (RDF) has been deemed an International Validated Organization by Charities Aid Foundation America
Organizations that have been validated by CAF International have completed an extensive application and due diligence process with one of CAF International’s Global Offices. The CAF International Validated Organization Badge is awarded to organizations that are structured and operated as nonprofit entities. This is confirmed by a validation process that goes far beyond a simple reliance on a foreign government database. The CAF International validation process includes a review of an organization’s key operational elements such as their governance structure, registration status, annual financial statements, online and media presence, and their board members and senior staff. This validation process ensures that all funds sent to the organization will be used charitably, and it allows CAF International and their donors to mitigate the risk of fraud, money laundering, and other criminal activities.
ISSUED ON
January 22, 2024
EXPIRES ON
January 22, 2027
