Geshe (Tib. dge bshes, short for dge-ba'i bshes-gnyen, "virtuous friend"; translation of Skt. kalyāņamitra) is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks. The degree is emphasized primarily by the Gelug lineage, but is also awarded in the Sakya and Bön traditions.

The title Geshe was first applied to esteemed Kadampa masters such as Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1102-1176), who composed an important lojong text called Seven Points of Mind Training and Geshe Langri Tangpa (dGe-bshes gLang-ri Thang-pa, 1054-1123).

The geshe curriculum represents an adaptation of subjects studied at Indian Buddhist monastic universities such as Nālandā. These centers disappeared around the time of Islam's arrival in India, leaving Tibet to continue the tradition. It first developed within the Sakya monastic lineage, where it was known as ka-shi ("four subjects") or ka-chu ("ten subjects"). The Sakyas also granted degrees at the conclusion of these studies, on the basis of proficiency in dialectical ritualized debate. In Tsongkhapa's time the Sakya degree was awarded at Sangphu, Kyormolung and Dewachen (later Ratö) monasteries.

Kelsang Gyatso is a Buddhist monk, "meditation master, scholar, and author" of 22 books based on the teachings of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the founder and former spiritual director of the New Kadampa Tradition ~ International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT-IKBU), a Western Buddhist order based primarily on the teachings of the Gelugpa tradition, albeit "not subordinate to Tibetan authorities other than Geshe Gyatso himself." The NKT-IKBU has grown to become a global Buddhist organisation that currently lists more than 200 centres and around 900 branch classes/study groups in 40 countries.

Geshe Kelsang was born in Tibet in 1931 and ordained at the age of eight. After leaving Tibet, he spent eighteen years in retreat in the Himalayas in India. In 1976 he was invited by Lama Thubten Yeshe via their spiritual guide, Trijang Rinpoche, to become the resident teacher at the main FPMT center, Manjushri Institute in Ulverston, Cumbria in England. Following a three-year retreat in Tharpaland, Dumfries, he founded the NKT-IKBU in 1991. He retired as General Spiritual Director of the NKT-IKBU in August 2009 but continues to write books and practice materials.

Michael Roach (born 1952) is an American teacher of Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelugpa school, and was the first Westerner to qualify for the Geshe degree at Sera Monastery in India.^{[citation needed]} He received the degree after twenty-two years of (part time) training in both India and abroad. He is a scholar in Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Russian.

He currently teaches Buddhism at ACI Phoenix, a branch of Asian Classics Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, which he founded in 2010. He also tours the world, teaching Buddhism and ethical business practices. He has founded several other endeavors, including Andin International, the Asian Classics Input Project, the Diamond Abbey in New York, and the Enlightened Business Institute.

Michael Roach was born in Los Angeles, California in 1952 to Episcopalian parents, and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. He was a choirboy at his local church. He received the Presidential Scholars Medallion following high school graduation from U.S. President Richard Nixon, then graduated from Princeton University in 1974. Shortly before his graduation, he lost both of his parents to cancer and then his brother to suicide. He then moved to a Buddhist monastery in New Jersey with a Tibetan Buddhist lama, Sermey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (Tib. o thog bstan 'dzin dbang rgyal) is a teacher (lama) of the Bon Tibetan religious tradition. He is founder and director of the Ligmincha Institute and several centers named Chamma Ling, organizations dedicated to the study and practice of the teachings of the Bon tradition.

Tenzin Wangyal's parents fled the Chinese invasion of Tibet and later, in 1961, he was born in Amritsar, India. At the age of thirteen, he began dzogchen training from both Buddhist and Bon teachers. He began an eleven year traditional course of instruction at Bonpo Monastic Center and in 1986 attained the degree of Geshe, the highest academic degree of traditional Tibetan culture. That same year, Tenzin Wangyal began employment at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India.

In 1988 he began to teach in Italy at the invitation of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. In 1991, he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship at Rice University in Houston, Texas. A second Rockefeller Fellowship followed in 1993.