The Tibetan term "tulku" refers to an "incarnation of a great practitioner, bodhisattva, or buddha who intentionally takes rebirth to lead others to enlightenment." Gochen Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche, the 6th Gochen Tulku, is an incarnation of Gyalwa Chokyang, one of the Nine-Heart Children of Padmasambhava, the enlightened founder of Buddhism in Tibet. Gochen Tulku Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual head of all the Ewam Centers.

When Rinpoche was three years old his family and a large group of other people were harvesting hay in a field and left him sitting on a boulder at the foot of a cliff, where he as a child left a very clear footprint in the rock as though in soft clay. After his recognition as the tulku of Gochen Monastery, he was thoroughly trained in all aspects of the Dharma and the teachings of the Nyingma school in particular.

During the Cultural Revolution, the communists imprisoned Rinpoche for nine years for practicing dharma. Although conditions in prison were unbearably difficult, the communists had inadvertently presented him with an amazing opportunity.

"In prison I met my root guru, Tulku Orygen Chemchok, as well as other teachers with whom I studied and from whom I received commentaries in secret. A number of us actually received in sequential stages all of the teachings and were able to put them into practice without any external sign that it was even occurring. Since the mind is invisible, our practice was a self-contained secret."