Wangchuk Rapten Lama

Wangchuk Rapten Lama was born in Chhekampar, a village in the Tsum Valley of northern Gorkha, the third of six children. He was ordained as a Buddhist monk at the age of seven and grew up at a monastery in Kathmandu as a student of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche.

Alongside his monastic studies he qualified as a healthcare assistant, and he has spent years working as a paramedic and outreach health worker in the mountains he comes from, where there was little or no healthcare. He built a health clinic in his home village, and after the April 2015 earthquake he organised 33 helicopter rescue missions.

In 2020 he founded Kyimolung Foundation Nepal, which he leads as president. The foundation runs free health camps and has set up birthing centres across northern Gorkha, and during the COVID-19 pandemic he worked with Elevate Nepal to get protective equipment to front-line health workers.