Lama Choedak Rinpoche was born in the yak hair tent of a nomad family on the Tibetan plateau in 1954. His family fled the Chinese Red Army invasion of their homeland to eventually re-establish their lives as refugees in Pokhara, Nepal, where they have remained for the last fifty years. Rinpoche took ordination as a monk while still attending high school and became the first Tibetan refugee to attain a Nepalese secondary education certificate.

As a novice monk Lama Choedak was accepted by the great Tibetan master His Eminence Choegye Trichen (1920-2007), one of a handful of monks helping to establish His Eminence�s new seat in exile, at the birthplace of the Buddha, in Lumbini, Nepal. Rinpoche proved to be a particularly bright student and was close to His Eminence, acting as his personal attendant for six years. He completed twelve years of rigorous monastic training under Choegye Trichen's guidance, including a traditional three-and-a-half year solitary meditation retreat, which was sponsored by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.