Karl Brunnhölzl, M.D., was trained as a physician and presently works as a Tibetan translator and Buddhist teacher. He studied Tibetology, Buddhology, and Sanskrit at Hamburg University in Germany, and Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators in Kathmandu (under the direction of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche). In 1990 he received the traditional Tibetan title of "dharma tutor" (Tib. skyor dpon) after completing a five-year course in higher Buddhist philosophy at Kamalashila Institute. Since 2000 he has worked as a translator, interpreter, and teacher under the direction of The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche at the Nitartha Institute in Canada, Germany, and Seattle, Washington. He is the author of The Center of the Sunlit Sky, the first in-depth study of the Kagyu interpretation of Madhyamaka in any western language, and is the translator of In Praise of Dharmadhatu by Nagarjuna, with commentary by the Third Karmapa.