About Gelong Thubten

Gelong Thubten is a Buddhist monk, meditation teacher and author from the UK. ‘Gelong’ means ‘senior monk’. Thubten was educated at Oxford University, and then became an actor in London and New York. At the age of 21, severe burnout led him to join a monastery. He ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk in 1993 at Kagyu Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Monastery. He has trained there under some of the world's most accomplished teachers of meditation, and has spent six years in intensive meditation retreats, the longest of which was 4 years.

Thubten specialises in teaching mindfulness meditation internationally, in a diverse range of settings that include businesses, hospitals, schools, universities, prisons and addiction counselling centres. He gives keynote speeches at major events around the world. He has been teaching for over 20 years and is a world pioneer in the mindfulness movement, as he was teaching in these areas many years before the current trend.

He works with major clients such as: Google, LinkedIn, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, Siemens, Accenture and Clifford Chance. He has lectured at Facebook’s London offices, Morrisons and McCain head offices, Linklaters and many other global companies.

Thubten has designed and delivered 12-week mindfulness programmes for 4th year medical students at the National University of Ireland, as part of their degree. He has also lectured at the Universities of Oxford, Cardiff and Helsinki, as well as for the United Nations.

His work is often featured in the media, and he is well known for bringing mindfulness into the workplace, teaching people how to integrate it into their busy lives. He has done numerous TV, radio and print interviews.

Thubten has spoken at many large events such as: Wisdom 2.0 Europe, Me-Convention (Mercedes Benz), which was Europe’s first SXSW Festival, LinkedIn’s Talent Connect event in Los Angeles, Fifteen Seconds Festival (Austria and US), WOMAD Festival, Oxford Literary Festival, Gibraltar Literary Festival, Hay Literary Festival and Tech Open Air, Berlin.

He is an author for Mindvalley, a major online learning platform, and he has spoken for them at large events in Jamaica, Barcelona and Estonia.

He was the meditation consultant on the set of Marvel's movie, Dr. Strange, where he trained Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton in meditation techniques while they were filming.

Thubten is Director of Kagyu Samye Dzong Scarborough, Yorkshire. He is a Trustee of ROKPA International, an international humanitarian aid organisation with medical, education and cultural projects in some of the world's poorest regions. He is also a Director of Samye Foundation Wales, a mindfulness and wellbeing charity.

Thubten collaborated with Ruby Wax and Ash Ranpura on the best-selling book “How to be Human”. His own book, “A Monk’s Guide to Happiness”, published in June 2019 by Hodder & Stoughton, became a Sunday Times top ten bestseller in the UK and is now in more than 12 countries worldwide. His latest book, “Handbook for Hard Times”, was published in 2023.