Ivan Cooper

Ivan Cooper was born in Cambridge in 1967. After a false start working as a lab technician, he spent several years kicking around in Asia, including long journeys through Pakistan, China and India. In the following years teaching jobs in Taiwan and Korea sparked an enduring, if love-hate, relationship with oriental languages. Growing fascinated with Tibet after visiting Buddhist regions of China and India, Ivan made his home for ten years in Dharamsala—the Indian headquarters of the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile, where he studied Tibetan, Sanskrit and Buddhist Philosophy. His first book Tibet: An Accidental Pilgrimage (Artemis) was published in 2013.