Dechen Chöling Council

Ivan Tröscher

Ivan is currently the Director of Shambhala Europe.

He emigrated to Germany from the United States in 2002, where he began his involvement in the Shambhala community. He has worked intensively with the International Shambhala Process Team since its inception. Currently he is active on the Cologne Center Council, the Dechen Chöling Council and since 2018 he has been a teacher in the Shambhala community.

He is married, has two children and also serves in the volunteer fire department in his hometown of Bad Honnef in Germany.

Adrienne Chang

Adrienne Chang has studied in the tradition of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche for fifteen years, helping lead Buddhist study and meditation retreats and courses in Europe, North America, Asia, and online. Adrienne is currently a member of the Milinda program, a ten-year shedra-styled Buddhist teacher training program under the guidance of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

Adrienne is currently researching and writing on Buddhist philosophy and history, previously teaching and publishing in the fields of gerontology, meditation, and aging and spirituality with an American university program in Luxembourg, where she currently resides.

Originally from the United States, Adrienne was a management consultant for US and international government agencies, specializing in organizational design and business transformation.

Laura Puts

Director of Dechen Chöling since the spring of 2024, Laura grew up in a Shambhala Buddhist household in Germany and was familiarized with meditation practice and the Shambhala world from an early age. She graduated from the Shambhala School in Halifax and went on to study languages and international humanitarian action. Her career has included work in (post-) disaster and conflict zones such as Haiti, Iraq and Ukraine for 15 years, specialising in project management and coordination.

Dominique Pagès

French national, 77 years, mother of 3 daughters, lives in the South of France near Uzès.

Spanish studies and MBA – long career in the corporate world as a consultant in finance, management, occupational training, and executive in industry and training corps.

Involved in the Paris Shambhala centre since 1987, both as staff and teaching Shambhala programs, attended Seminary in 1994 and almost completed the Shambhala curriculum.

Spent 15 years in Auroville, South India, fully engaged in a community life and spiritual search. Came back to France alone in 2020, reconnected with Shambhala and Dechen Chöling, and joined the DCL Council.

Dominique was invited to join the DCL Council 2 years ago, and is inspired to work for its revival and development as an opportunity to manifest the vision of our legacy rooted into ground realities.

Achim Schlage

Achim joined the Shambhala Community in his mid-twenties and has since walked the paths of Karma Kagyü and Shambhala with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and until 2020 with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. He also enjoyed practicing kyudo (zen archery). He has served the Munich and Hamburg Shambhala Centers as well as Shambhala Europe in various positions, often related to finances. Since 1997 he hardly missed a summer in DCL. Achim has been teaching in Shambhala for almost 20 years and lives with his wife near Hamburg, Germany.

Birgit Krause

Birgit Krause discovered the Shambhala community in 2010 and Dechen Chöling in 2011, and fell in love with the place right away. Over the years, she has been actively involved in the Berlin Shambhala community in various roles.

Since 2021, Birgit has spent almost all her holidays at Dechen Chöling as a MiA, while also volunteering with the Programmes Team. She joined the Dechen Chöling Council in 2023 and has been living and working at the centre as part of the Programmes Team since 2024.

Before coming to Dechen Chöling, Birgit’s first professional life was as a hairdresser. She later studied Mathematics and Business Administration and went on to hold various management positions, primarily in the field of research.

Birgit loves numbers, knitting socks and dancing, and is also a trained systemic constellation facilitator. She feels particularly at home where people, programmes and possibilities come together – and is happy to contribute to the life and development of Dechen Chöling.

Joop Laan

Joop Laan, from the Netherlands, joined the Shambhala community in 2000, the year he first visited Dechen Chöling. From 2007 to 2009 he lived and worked at DCL as Head of Communication. He is currently active in the Shambhala Global Community Council and in the communication team in the Netherlands. His professional background is in IT.

David Hope

David Hope has been a student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche for the past 40 years. He helped establish the London Shambhala Center in the early 1980’s where he was Shambhala Training director for many years.

In 1995 he came to Dechen Chöling as Head of Renovation, helping to convert a somewhat dilapidated old chateau into a Shambhala Land Centre. In 1996 he became one of the first two co-directors guiding its first few years of activity. He has been involved with Dechen Chöling since then in many ways, while living nearby till a few years ago.

He has taught widely in Europe and other countries worldwide over many years. In 2005 he was appointed as Acharya (a senior teacher) for the Shambhala community, but has now retired from that position although continuing to teach, mostly online at this time. He now lives on the South Coast of England.