Naropa University's founder, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, was born in Tibet in 1940, a lineage holder of both the Kagyü and Nyingma Buddhist traditions. In 1959, after the Chinese invasion, he escaped Tibet through the Himalayas to northern India. Like the Dalai Lama and other exiled Tibetan teachers, he continued to teach and transmit the wisdom of the Buddhist dharma. In 1963, he received a Spaulding sponsorship to study comparative religion, philosophy and the fine arts at Oxford University, where he became fluent in English and familiar with the particular needs and interests of Western students.