Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935-1984) was born in Tibet and educated at the great Sera Monastic University. He fled the Chinese oppression in 1959 and in the late 1960s, with his chief disciple, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, began teaching Buddhism to Westerners at their Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal. In 1975 they founded the international Buddhist organization, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), which now has more than 160 centers, projects and services worldwide.
Jonathan Landaw was born in New Jersey and has traveled the world since 1970. He spent six years living in northern India studying Tibetan Buddhism and is the editor and author of a number of Buddhist books, including Wisdom Energy, Introduction to Tantra, and Buddhism for Dummies. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.