His Eminence Choden Rinpoche was born in eastern Tibet on the fifteenth day of Saka Dawa in 1930 and was recognized as a young boy as the reincarnation of the previous Choden Rinpoche. When he was fifteen, he enrolled at Sera Je monastic college, where he excelled; he completed all the study necessary for the highest degree of geshe lharampa and was chosen as a debate partner for the Fourteenth Dalai Lama when His Holiness was taking his geshe exams. After the Chinese takeover of Tibet, Rinpoche entered solitary retreat, in which he stayed for nineteen years. In 1985 the Dalai Lama asked him to leave Tibet to teach in India and Nepal. He taught students in the geshe program at Sera Je for many years, as well as offering teachings all over the world. He passed away in 2015.