This image of Guru Rinpoche in the temple at Lerab Ling is modelled on the famous 'Looks Like Me' image that stood in the monastery of Samyé, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet.

Padmasambhava or ‘Guru Rinpoche’, the ‘Precious Master’, as he is affectionately known by the Tibetan people, is the great master and saint who brought the teaching of Buddha to Tibet in the eighth century.

Guru Rinpoche established the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet at Samyé, and infused his blessing into the whole landscape of Tibet and the Himalayas. He is considered by Tibetans to be the ‘Second Buddha'.

It is to his compassion, his blessing and his all-encompassing vision that Tibetan Buddhism owes its dynamism, vitality and success. For the people of Tibet, the teaching of Buddha pervades the very fabric of their existence, every facet of their everyday life and culture, almost like the very air they breathe.

Therein lies the strength of the Buddhist tradition of Tibet, and also the reason why Tibet has for so long held a place in popular imagination as the spiritual ‘heartland’ of the planet.

“There have been many incredible and incomparable masters from the noble land of India and from Tibet, the land of snows, yet of them all, the one who has the greatest compassion and blessing toward beings in this difficult age is Padmasambhava, who embodies the compassion and wisdom of all the buddhas.”

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche