 Rinpoche entered Ngor Monastery at eight and was ordained as a monk at sixteen.In 1959, he was Vice-Abbot of Ngor Monastery, in the Sakya Tradition, but fled Western Tibet following the Dalai Lama during the 1959 Tibetan uprising.In 1972 Lama Kunga Rinpoche came to the United States and established the Ewam Choden Tibetan Buddhist Center in Kensington, California.