In 1969 Ole Nydahl and his wife Hannah became the first Western students of H.H. the Karmapa, the head of the Kagyu tradition in Tibetan Buddhism. After their years of practice in the Himalayas, he authorized them to teach and start centers in his name.
Over the past thirty years Lama Ole Nydahl has spread Diamond Way Buddhism worldwide. He provides practical guidance to more than six hundred meditation centers that are under the spiritual authority of the 17th Karmapa, Thaye Dorje.