Matthieu Ricard

Matthieu Ricard, born February 15, 1946 in Aix-les-Bains (France), is a French essayist and photographer. After obtaining a PH.D in genetics, he became a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He resides mainly at Shechen Monastery in Nepal. He is a translator from Tibetan into French and English, and since 1989 he has been the French interpreter of the Dalai Lama. In 2000, he founded the humanitarian association Karuna-Shechen. Since that same year, he has been part of the Mind and Life Institute, an association which facilitates encounters between science and Buddhism.