Tibetan · Kathmandu, Nepal
FPMT monastery in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Offers intensive Tibetan Buddhist study courses and month-long courses for practitioners seeking deep grounding in the Gelugpa tradition. A foundational center for Tibetan Buddhist teacher development globally.
Dharma Study and Teacher Development is run by Kopan Monastery. It trains practitioners to teach inside Tibetan Buddhism, with its four major schools (Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Gelug) and a teacher-training process built on long study, ngondro preliminaries, and authorization from a qualified lama. The program is delivered in a residential, in-person format, runs over a multi-month arc, and covers the contact hours typical for this format. FPMT monastery in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Offers intensive Tibetan Buddhist study courses and month-long courses for practitioners seeking deep grounding in the Gelugpa tradition. A foundational center for Tibetan Buddhist teacher development globally. The teaching grounds itself in ngondro (the foundational 100,000-repetition preliminary practices), shamatha and vipashyana, lojong mind training, lamrim (the graduated path), and, depending on the lineage, deity yoga and Dzogchen or Mahamudra pointing-out instructions. Trainees do not just learn the content. They sit through it, teach it back to peers, and have their delivery reviewed against the standards the field uses to assess teachers. The program does not carry external mindfulness-field accreditation; authorization is internal to the organization or its lineage. Tuition sits at USD 200-400 per course (Nov/Dec lamrim), putting it inside the normal price band for programs of this scope. Programs in this lane vary on rigor, lineage, and the population they prepare you to serve. This one identifies clearly with Tibetan and trains for that lane rather than blending traditions loosely. OMP lists Dharma Study and Teacher Development because it represents a path inside Tibetan that a serious applicant can investigate. The page below pulls together what the program actually asks of you, how it teaches, who it suits, and where it sits next to its siblings. The residential, in-person form is the older shape of this work. It puts the trainee inside the practice for stretches at a time, with the teacher in the same room. Most lineage paths still default to this because the teaching skills the program is trying to grow are read in person, not on a screen. Anyone weighing this program against another in the same lane should compare them on three things: the lineage or accreditation behind the certificate, the supervised teaching hours built into the schedule, and what the program does (or does not do) in silence.
Curriculum for Dharma Study and Teacher Development centers on ngondro (the foundational 100,000-repetition preliminary practices), shamatha and vipashyana, lojong mind training, lamrim (the graduated path), and, depending on the lineage, deity yoga and Dzogchen or Mahamudra pointing-out instructions. Across the full program, trainees move from foundational practice into supervised facilitation. Reading lists usually include the canonical texts of the tradition and the research literature where one exists. Written assignments check that trainees can articulate the practice clearly to a beginner without losing the ethical and contextual grounding the tradition assumes. By the second half of the program, the work shifts from learning the content to teaching it back, with peers and senior teachers reviewing inquiry skills, pacing, and the handling of difficult emotion in a group.
Delivery uses a residential, in-person format. The structural backbone is study under a qualified lama, formal retreats (often three-year traditional retreats in some lineages), oral transmission, empowerments where appropriate, and the slow accumulation of practice and study hours. Cohort size is kept small enough that every trainee gets observed teaching feedback rather than a generic pass. Most programs in this lane build in a silent practice segment because facilitating from notes alone tends to fail under pressure in a real group.
no external academic accreditation; authorization comes from the lama and the lineage. Authorized teachers can transmit specific practices, run programs, and, in some cases, take ordination or hold lineage roles. Graduates commonly go on to run weekly groups, eight-week courses, retreats, or one-to-one mentorship, depending on the lineage's scope of practice.
Substantial Tibetan Buddhist practice, often including completed or in-progress ngondro and sustained study under a qualified lama. The teacher path inside this lineage is not open to beginners.
Tibetan teacher pathways differ sharply by school and by lineage. FPMT (Gelug), Rigpa (Nyingma), Shambhala/Open Heart Project, Sakya, and the various Kagyu shedras each have their own curriculum and authorization process. These programs are not interchangeable; a teacher trained in one lineage usually cannot teach the practices of another.
| Location | Kathmandu, Nepal |
| Country | Nepal |
| Tradition | Tibetan |
| Format | In-person |
| Estimated cost | USD 200–400 per course (Nov/Dec lamrim) |