This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche founded a meditation centre, Tail of the Tiger, now known as Karme Choling, in Vermont in 1970, then established Vajradhatu, the organization's original name, in Boulder, Colorado, in 1971. The network draws on the Kagyu and Nyingma Vajrayana lineages of Tibetan Buddhism.
Leadership passed to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's son, enthroned in 1995 as the Sakyong, the organization's senior teacher and lineage holder, continuing the two lineages' shared teaching authority within the network. The organization was renamed Shambhala International in 2000 under his leadership and has been headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, since 1986.
Shambhala International today links more than 150 meditation centres and groups across North and South America, Europe and Oceania, a reach that makes it one of the larger Tibetan Buddhist organizational networks operating outside Asia. That growth, from one meditation centre in rural Vermont to a network spanning four continents, took just three decades. Its governing structure changed after 2018, when the Kalapa Council resigned amid allegations against senior leadership; an Interim Board has overseen the organization since.