Thupten Jinpa was born in Tibet in 1958 and trained as a monk at Zongkar Chode Monastery in southern India. He later joined the monastic university at Shartse College of Ganden and taught Buddhist epistemology, metaphysics, Middle Way philosophy and psychology. Jinpa also holds at Bachelor's Degree in Western Philosophy and a PhD in Religious Studies from Cambridge University.
Since 1985 he has been the principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and has traveled extensively with him. Jinpa has translated and edited more than 10 books by the Dalai Lama.
From 1996 to 1999, Jinpa was the Margaret Smith Research Fellow in Eastern Religion at Girton College, Cambridge University. He currently is president of the Institute of Tibetan Classics in Montreal, Canada, and the editor-in-chief of the translation project The Library of Tibetan Classics, being developed by the institute.
Jinpa is also on the advisory board of various educational and cultural organizations, such as the Mind and Life Institute, the Orient Foundation, the Meridien Trust, Global Ethics and Religion and the Manjushri Buddhist Online Community. He is currently an adjunct professor at McGill University. Thupten Jinpa lives in Montreal with his wife and two young daughters.
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