Khenpo Gyurme Tsultrim was born in the Mugu district of western Nepal in 1969 where he studied reading and writing with his uncle. When he was thirteen, he met Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and became one of the first monks at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal. In 1985, as the Shechen Philosophical College was not yet built, Khyentse Rinpoche sent him to the Dzongsar Monastic College in India for higher studies. He studied there for six years and then completed the last three years of his study at the Palyul Nyingmapa College in Mysore, India.

He became the first monk of Shechen Monastery, Nepal, to attain the rank of Khenpo, the equivalent of Ph.D. in 1996. Presently Khenpo Gyurme Tsultrim is the vice-abbot of the monastery, and teaches at its College. He has traveled to Europe a number of times to give teachings and he oversees many of the activities of the monastery.