Khenpo Sodargye was born in Tibet in 1962 in what is today the Sichuan province of China. He spent his early years herding yaks, and after attending Garze Normal School, he entered Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Serthar, becoming a monk under the great Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche. He is now one of the leading scholars of that institute, the fastest-growing Buddhist monastery in China today. He has been especially effective at popularizing Tibetan Buddhism among Han Chinese students, with numerous bestselling books, and he regularly speaks at universities in Asia and the West.