Tara House, the forerunner of Tara Institute had its beginnings in Melbourne in 1974 when a small group of people who had attended one of the first Kopan Monastery meditation courses in Nepal began to meet at a house in North Fitzroy.
Following the advice and persuasion of Lama Thubten Yeshe in 1981 to "think big" Tara House bought an old mansion in East St Kilda in 1983.