In 1959, after the Chinese communists took over, Khyongla Rato left Tibet, crossing the Himalayas to India. Eventually he came to Europe and then the US, and in 1968 he starting living in New York City. In 1975 he founded The Tibet Center, a center for the study of Buddhism. For more than 30 years he was the director and main teacher at the Tibet Center, teaching primarily in English. As of 2014, he still teaches at The Tibet Center whenever his schedule permits. He is the senior reincarnate lama of Rato Monastery, also known as Rato Dratsang.