Kagyu Samye Ling, Scotland

Samye Ling, founded in 1967 in the hills of southern Scotland, was the first Tibetan Buddhist centre in the West and is one of the great monasteries of the Kagyu lineage outside Tibet. That lineage, known as the lineage of oral transmission, descends directly from Marpa the Translator and his disciple Milarepa, whose songs and life of retreat in Himalayan caves remain the model of Kagyu practice. The centre offers meditation courses, teachings by masters of the tradition and retreats, along with a Tibetan-style temple and a monastic community that keeps up daily practice.