Matthieu Ricard

Born in France in 1946 as the son of French philosopher Jean-François Revel and artist Yahne Le Toumelin, Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk, author, translator, and photographer. He first visited India in 1967, where he met great spiritual masters from Tibet. After completing his Ph.D. in cell genetics in 1972, he moved to the Himalayan region, where he has lived for the past 45 years.

He is an international best-selling author and a prominent speaker on the world stage, celebrated at the World Economic Forum at Davos, forums at the United Nations, and ad TED where his talks on happiness and altruism have been viewed by over seven million people. He is a charismatic figure who has captured the minds and hearts of people all over the world.

Matthieu Ricard is the author of Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill, Why Meditate? (The Art of Meditation in the UK), The Quantum and the Lotus (a dialogue with the astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan), and The Monk and the Philosopher, a dialogue with his father, Jean Francois Revel. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

His TED talks have been seen by over 7 million people: How to let altruism be your guide, and Happiness. Matthieu Ricard has dedicated his life to studying and practicing Buddhism following the teachings of the greatest Tibetan spiritual masters of our time. He has been the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama since 1989. 

He is the author of several volumes of Buddhist texts translated from Tibetan, such as The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin, The Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones, and The Heart of Compassion: The Thirty-seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva (teachings by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche).