Khenpo Tsering Samdup began his Buddhist training at the Shri Karma Nalanda Institute at Rumtek in Sikkim, a college of higher Buddhist studies founded by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. After completing 9 years of study there, he received the degree of Acharya (Master of Philosophy) in 1990. Khenpo then continued on as a teacher at Nalanda for one year before being sent by Shamar Rinpoche to teach at the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute in New Delhi. Over the next 6 years, Khenpo's time was spent teaching at KIBI and throughout Europe, Southeast Asia and America. In 2002, Shamar Rinpoche appointed him Headmaster of Shri Diwakar Vihara Buddhist Institute in Kalimpong, where he served until early 2005 before moving to the US to teach at the BodhiPath Buddhist Centers.