"When the iron bird flies, horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered
like ants accross the face of the earth and the way of the Siddha will come to the West."
- Padmasambhava

By 1950's China overtook Tibetan and in three decades killed over 1.2 million people (number according to the central Tibetan government) especially focusing on the large-skill murdering of monks, destruction of countless religious artifacts and texts and torment of anyone who was discovered as a follower Buddhism and the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama and a massive exodus of teachers and practitioners from all schools of Buddhism fled Tibet into exile all over the world. This spread the Buddhist teachings and Vajrayana (though it was primarily the Monastic version). By the 1960's and 70's spirituality of India and Tibet reach the fertile "New-Age" marketplace of the West.

In 1970, a great MahaSiddha, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, came to North America. From 1970- 1987, he single-handedly established Buddhism in the West and made the unprecedented move of bringing Westerners into the heart of the tradition. His lifestyle, books and teachings brought the ethos of the MahaSiddhas to a wide audience. To many, he was a controversial figure, yet his teachings were undeniably immaculate and established Buddhism in the English language.

By and large the Buddhist and even Indian spiritual teachings that exist today are primarily renunciate, continuing the trend that has existed in the East for the past 1000 years. The non-monastic tradition, though still on the fringes, has began to take root in the West through various small schools primarily from the Nyingma and Kagyu tradition. Most of these expressions are in terms of the outer tantras and it is very rare to see the direct, essential practice style of the MahaSiddhas appearing. Unfortunately this means the most widely known practices of Buddhism in the West are the ones most incapatible with Western lifestyle- the celibate and quite elaborate path.

Embodying and sharing the MahaSiddha Tradition is the purpose of our school where it continues as a living energy and as a way of being. Beginning in 1997, I received transmission to carry the MahaSiddha Tradition and shortly therafter founded MahaSiddha Dharma in order to share this extraordinary path. The original spirit of non-sexist, non-elaborate, non-dual dharma continues.

Kali Ma Troma Rigtsal Khandro