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ABOUT THIS TREK

Join Ven. Katy Cole for our sixth edition of a fifteen-day Himalayan adventure in Autumn 2025, October 6 to 21, from Kopan, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s monastery in the Kathmandu valley, to his cave in Solukhumbu in the mountains of Nepal. The US$2,585 package includes a US$500 donation to Lawudo, internal flights, teachings, food and accommodation.

Our three treks so far have offered some $91,000 to Lawudo, half of it for ongoing expenses and the other half for Rinpoche’s amazing plan to build a replica of Guru Rinpoche’s Pure Land at Lawudo.

WHEN

October 6–21 , 2025

WHERE

From Kopan Monastery to Lawudo Gompa and back.

COST

US$2,585

The cost of US$2,585 includes:

  • US$500 donation to Lawudo. This is based on a minimum of 16 participants. If there are less than 16 trekkers, the donation to Lawudo will be less.
  • Airport transfers
  • Internal flights
  • Daily teachings and meditation with Ven Katy
  • Daily movement/ mobility/ qigong/ yoga practice with Kristina 
  • Food: all meals except on Day 15, when you can buy your own lunch
  • Double room, with attached bathroom, at Kopan
  • Double room, with shared bathroom, during the trek 
  • Two- or four- person rooms, with shared toilet, at Lawudo
  • Double room, with attached bathroom, at the Hyatt Regency

An extra US$360 for a single room includes:

  • Single room, with attached bathroom, at Kopan Monastery or Kopan Nunnery
  • Single room, with shared bathroom, at the lodges during the trek. First come, first served. It may be possible to upgrade to a room with an attached bathroom in-person, depending on availability. 
  • Single room, with attached bathroom, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kathmandu
  • Read more about accommodation here

The cost does not include:

  • Passport
  • Visa. Read more about visas here
  • Roundtrip airfare from your country to Kathmandu
  • Emergency medical and evacuation insurance is compulsory. Please send us a copy of your insurance policy no later than one month prior to the trek starting date. Read more about travel insurance here
  • Lunch on Day 5 and Day 15
  • Helicopter flight1

REGISTER

Register for your place on the trek here.

KYABJE LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE (1945-2023)

Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche was born in Thami, near the Everest Region of Nepal, in 1945. At the age of three he was recognised as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, Kunsang Yeshe. From 1956 to 1959 he studied at Domo Monastery in Tibet. He then fled Chinese oppression and continued his study and practice in Tibetan refugee camps in India. There Rinpoche met  Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935–1984).

They met their first Western students in the late 1960s and Lama eventually established what is now Kopan Monastery in the Kathmandu valley. The annual November Lam Rim courses attracted students from all the over the world.

In 1974 the lamas accepted the invitation of their students to teach in Australia, the USA, and Europe, and a year later Lama Yeshe named his burgeoning network of centres the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.

Rinpoche is now the Spiritual Director of the FPMT, overseeing more than 160 centres and related activities in 30 countries.

Read more at:

CHAROK LAMA, Special Guest (2025)

Charok Lama (Ngawang Rigdzin Gyatso Rinpoche) is the recognised reincarnation of the previous Charok Lama, Kushi Mangde, a famous mountain yogi and a good friend of the Lawudo Lama, Kunsang Yeshe, the previous incarnation of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. He was born in 1995 and at the age of three was recognised as an incarnate Lama. Charok Lama studied at Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu and Sera Je Monastery in South India. He was very close to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and remains very connected to FMPT. Rinpoche speaks fluent English.

VEN. KATY COLE, Trek Leader (2025)

Originally from Perth, Western Australia, Ven. Katy Cole (Tenzin Zomkyi) has been a Buddhist nun for over 18 years. She was ordained with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in 2004.

Ven. Katy has served in a variety of positions within Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s FPMT. In 2008, she did a one-year retreat at FPMT’s De-Tong Ling Retreat Center on the western side of Kangaroo Island, just off the coast of South Australia.

Since 2013, and until the pandemic, Katy visited Lawudo Gompa annually for retreat, study, and to help Rinpoche’s sister with offerings in Rinpoche’s cave and main gompa, helping the tourists who come to stay, and baby cow care.  Prior to meeting her teachers, Katy studied Vipassana meditation with practitioners from Myanmar.

Katy has a BA Hons in Theatre Arts from Dartington College of Arts, U.K., a BA Hons in Psychology from Murdoch University, W.A, and a MA in clinical psychology from the University of Western Australia. She worked as a psychologist prior to moving to California to work for Liberation Prison Project.

Katy is currently living north of San Francisco, leading meditations and pujas online over Zoom, studying, and Leading Meditations, Pujas and various Buddhist programs online.

Apart from the warmth and the kindness and the family that exists at Lawudo, my mind feels free when I'm there.

Venerable Katy Cole

AMBER TAMANG, Guide

Amber Tamang is from a small village in the Solukhumbu region of Nepal. He became a porter in 1992, to put himself though high school and college; he graduated as a lawyer. Amber is the Managing Director of Three Jewels Adventures, a trekking business. He is an advocate of better working conditions for trekking staff.

Amber has worked as the local guide for Dharma Journeys pilgrimages with Ven Robina since 2001. Those who’ve traveled with him praise his patience and kindness. He is very knowledgeable about local customs of the Himalaya and its people. Amber and his family live in Kathmandu.

KRISTINA MAH, Trek Organiser

Based in Sydney, Australia, I have been a student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche since 2014 when I attended the November Course at Kopan Monastery. It was during this course that I first heard about Lawudo from my tutor, Ven. Thubten Gyatso (Adrian Feldman). 

Since then, I have tried to maintain a strong connection with my teachers and the FPMT community. I met Ven. Robina in early 2016 at a weekend workshop at Vajrayana Institute in Sydney, and the Lawudo Trek grew from there. I have run five Lawudo Treks (2017-2019, 2022, 2025). 

The idea of this trek is quite simply to travel with a group of open-minded an inspired people to Rinpoche’s cave and raise money for Lawudo Gompa and projects at Lawudo, its carers and its community. I am not a travel agent, and the trek is not run through a company; it is the result of the hard work of a few people who have generously offered their time and services to make it happen. 

Thank you Venerable Robina Courtin, Lawudo Gompa and Retreat Centre, Amber Tamang, the Love Lawudo group, and all the FPMT centres and groups who share our information with their communities. 

I’m so grateful for the opportunity to organise this trek. It’s my wish that this trek is fulfilling and beneficial for all. I dedicate any positive energy generated through the trek to the swift rebirth of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the long and stable lives of my teachers, and anyone connected with the trek, to the realising of the vision of all virtuous projects to be realised, especially the Zangdok Palri at Lawudo, for an end to war, for peace to prevail in the world. 

Looking forward to meeting you, 

Kristina 

2022 Lawudo Trek Slideshow

This video tells the story our fourth Lawudo Trek, on October 3 – 19, 2022. 

2019 Lawudo Trek Slideshow

This video tells the story our third Lawudo Trek, from March 21 to April 4, 2019. 

LAWUDO TREK SANGHA FUND

Sponsor a Sangha Member:

We are delighted to launch the Lawudo Trek Sangha Fund to support ordained members of the Sangha to attend the Lawudo Trek. 

As a sponsor, your name will be presented to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven Robina. 

You can make your secure donation to the LT Sangha Fund by making your offering here, to the right. All the donations collected through this portal will be offered to sangha to assist with the cost of the trek. If you would like to make a donation using an alternate method. Please email hello@lawudo-trek.org so we can make arrangements.

Donate to sponsor a member of the sangha here.

Monks and nuns are welcome to apply for a special discount as we have funds available. Send an email with your expression of interest to hello@lawudo-trek.org.  

Ven Chödrön and Ven Robina at breakfast in Monjo. Ven. Chödrön led meditation at Lawudo Gompa and shared her experience of being part of the Sangha with the group.