Learning Tibetan in Kathmandu: Konchok Lhakyab on Shedra Classes, Street Dogs and Studying Part-Time at RYI

Konchok Lhakyab is from Peru and has lived in Kathmandu for several years. He is writing his MA thesis at Rangjung Yeshe Institute (RYI), translates Tibetan texts, tutors an online shedra, guides Buddhist pilgrims and hosts the Buddhist View podcast. We talked about how he learned Tibetan, how he pays for his studies, and what he'd tell someone thinking of doing the same. The conversation has been lightly edited.

▶️ Watch the full conversation on YouTube (about 35 minutes).

What are you working on now?

I'm doing my MA at Rangjung Yeshe, and I've just started writing my thesis on Lama Zhang, an early Kagyu master. I'm looking at his approach to Mahāmudrā and the role it plays in early Kagyu Mahāmudrā. It differs a little from what later Kagyupas, like the Ninth Karmapa, wrote in their meditation manuals. Those manuals were partly responding to Sakya Paṇḍita's criticisms. The early approach seems less structured, and in a way closer to the Indian mahāsiddhas. Lama Zhang is a very interesting case study, and a little controversial, so I'm enjoying the research.

Alongside that, I'm translating a long biography of Kyobpa Jigten Sumgön, the founder of the Drikung lineage, written by the previous retreat master of Lapchi. I'm working on it with Khenpo Tashi and our editor, who found a sponsor, so we can cover some costs and a little support for ourselves. It's the most challenging text I've ever worked on.

How did you first come to Buddhism, and to Nepal?

To be honest, I didn't plan any of it thoroughly. I met the Dharma at the Garchen Institute in Arizona and took refuge with Garchen Rinpoche. Later I thought I understood enough and went off to practise on my own, and realised I didn't know anything. In America it was very hard to practise, because I had to work and had no time for anything else. So I saved some money and came to Nepal to do retreat.

I stayed at a retreat centre in Pharping for about three months. There was a big event at Rinpoche's monastery in Siliguri, so the place was empty: just me and an old ani. She only spoke Tibetan, I only spoke English, and we couldn't communicate. Then Rinpoche came and taught in Tibetan, and I couldn't understand anything. That's when I realised I needed to learn Tibetan.

How did you learn it?

I taught myself to read and bought some colloquial books. Then I had the chance to stay at a monastery on the other side of the Kathmandu Valley for five months, sitting in the shedra classes. Some were translated, some weren't, and I just listened to Tibetan for five months. After that I began to understand.

I went back to Boudha and joined RYI, but a few months into my first semester COVID started and classes became really messy. Then I met a Tibetan woman who fed the street dogs. I carried the food for her while she fed them, and she taught me Tibetan every day for two or three hours. We did that for about a year, and my Tibetan really improved.

How did you pay for your studies?

At that time the Tsadra Foundation was offering scholarships that covered tuition and even living expenses. I thought, if I study, it's almost like having a job! I applied, got it, and joined the MA prep programme. But after one semester we got a message: the scholarship was being discontinued. You had to reapply every year, and I knew people who had done their whole MA that way, but from the next semester there was no more funding.

So I stopped studying. I still had a five-year visa, and I didn't want to leave Nepal, because I felt I'd lose the language I was cultivating. I taught myself some online skills: graphic design, web design, digital marketing. I'd worked in tourism back in Peru, and one day someone asked me to guide a friend around Kathmandu. She recommended me to someone else, and suddenly I was guiding.

For a digital marketing course I had to build a website about something I loved, so I made it about Buddhism: Buddhist View. I added the tours and began organising Buddhist pilgrimages in Nepal, using what I'd learned in RYI courses on the history and anthropology of Nepalese Buddhism. One thing led to another: I did the website, online teachings and retreats for a Bhutanese teacher, Lama Karma; translation jobs; and now I'm the tutor for Dolpo Tulku Rinpoche's online shedra, a four-year programme. Through that I met people working with Tibetan medicine, and now I'm considering translating a small book on Tibetan medicine for a Tibetan doctor (amchi) in Boudha. He says I should study medicine so my translations improve!

What was hardest about studying at RYI?

Honestly, the money. It's not cheap, even in Nepal. But the other thing is the pace. With the scholarship we had to study full-time, and I felt it was too much: no time to practise. The tradition talks about hearing, contemplation and meditation, and full-time study can become only study, study, study. That's the main complaint I hear from many students: it's too much at once.

When I came back paying out of pocket, I chose to take fewer classes. Being enrolled is also how I get my visa, so I'm in no rush to finish. Now, even writing my thesis, I read every book thoroughly and take the time to digest it.

My advice: take fewer classes, and enjoy them.

Any tips for learning Tibetan?

Have methods. I watched videos by Steve Kaufmann, who speaks around twenty languages and learned half of them after sixty. His advice, in a nutshell: bombard your brain with input, listening and reading. You don't need to understand everything; trust that your subconscious is getting something. So I unfollowed everything on Facebook that wasn't in Tibetan and listened to Tibetan news, people talking, songs. It works, but it takes time. After a couple of years I could understand the subtleties of what was being said.

I didn't use flashcards much. I keep a little notebook open next to my computer with the words I'm memorising, so I see them all the time. And Tibetan is helpful here: it's built from one-syllable roots, and once you know the basic ones, compound words are just those roots combined. You can even read a Tibetan dictionary and make sense of it.

For memorising, I use free association: the more ridiculous the image, the easier it is to remember. For one word meaning "to confirm", the sound reminded me of ri bong rwa, the "horns of a rabbit", the classic example of something that doesn't exist. So I imagine confirming something by stabbing it with a horn! (Many of my associations are too embarrassing to share.)

I also go through phases of obsession. For a few weeks I'll only want Tibetan, or Yogācāra, or Madhyamaka. Early on I decided to think only in Tibetan, which shows you very quickly what you don't know, like the word for "fart"!

How do you keep your Tibetan going outside Kathmandu?

Now I have a strong foundation, so I'm less worried. When I visited my mum in Peru, I kept listening. There's so much more content now than when I started: Tibetan teachers on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. You can find full teachings by khenpos on Shantideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra, the Madhyamakāvatāra and much more, for free.

And in Nepal, actually, I need Nepali to buy vegetables! For me Tibetan is a Dharma language: for the shedra, for talking with my teacher, for practice. I do all my practices in Tibetan.

What does it cost to live in Kathmandu?

My room is 8,000 rupees a month, about 50 euros. My landlords are Sherpa, and I live near my teacher; often I eat at his house, otherwise I cook for very little. I don't have hot water: in winter I heat a bucket, and in summer the cold water is refreshing. You have to gauge your own level of comfort, but it can be done affordably.

What would you say to someone starting out?

Shantideva defines diligence as delight in virtue. Whatever we enjoy, we'll do. The beginning is hard, but when you can understand the teachings directly, there's a real delight: "Wow, I can understand this text." Rest in that joy.

And Kathmandu, chaotic and dusty as it is, has a kind of magic. People are relaxed, there are stūpas everywhere, the tea is delicious, and the Dharma culture is alive: pujas, teachings, shedra debates, people doing kora around the stūpa. Get into that vibe.

Some people take the academic path and want to be professors, and that's valid. I like doing many things and I'm OK with uncertainty. It depends on what you want.

Listen to Konchok's podcast, Buddhist View on YouTube, for conversations on Buddhist philosophy, including a recent one on Mahāmudrā with Professor Mathes.

More for Tibetan learners

• Rangjung Yeshe Institute on the Study Map
• How to become a Tibetan translator
• Learn Buddhist languages: summer schools and online courses
• Traditional study vs academic Buddhist Studies
• Funding for scholarships and grants

Have a story like Konchok's? Share your experience.