Filip Majkowski was born in 1980 in the south of Poland. In 2004 he completed his Master’s Degree in the English language and culture at the Department of Philology and Modern Languages at the University of Warsaw.
Prior to that, in 2003 he began to study Tibetan language and in 2004 joined the Faculty of Oriental Studies (University of Warsaw) as a full time student. In 2006 he completed and defended his BA dissertation “Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine according to the work ‘Essence of Ocean of the Art of Medicine’” and enrolled at the same Faculty as a PhD candidate in the field of Tibetan and Mongolian literature.
He received his PhD title and diploma in early 2014 upon presenting the dissertation “Translation and critical analysis of the first chapter of the fourth book of the Tibetan medical treatise ‘rGyud bzhi’ and the corresponding chapter of the commentary ‘Blue Vaidurya’ by sDe srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho”.
From 2004 to 2007 Filip worked in the Tibetan Medicine Buddha center in Warsaw as an assistant and interpreter to the Tibetan physician Dr Ven. Tenzin Jangchub, disciple of Dr Yeshe Donden. And it was there that his interest in traditional Tibetan medical system (Sowa Rigpa) began.
This interest led him to pursue his PhD degree and eventually travel to India and Dharamsala. Among several books he translated into Polish were two main introductory books on Tibetan medicine written by Dr. Yeshe Donden: “Health through Balance” and “Healing from the Source”. Additionally he translated Lama Thupten Yeshe’s “Introduction to Tantra” and R. Jackson and P. Cabezon’s “Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre.”
In Poland Filip gave many public talks on Tibet, Tibetan culture, medicine and political situation, also appearing several times in various radio stations to discuss the current situation of Tibet. He has also been English language editor of various scholarly publications on Tibet, Asia and other fields of Oriental studies.
During his time as a PhD candidate Filip taught for 7 years at the University of Warsaw. He mainly conducted classes in Classical and Modern Tibetan language, teaching undergraduate and graduate students of different levels. He also gave university lectures on Tibetan Buddhism and culture, taught reading difficult texts and translation techniques.
In 2012-2015 Filip attended the shedra in Benchen Karma Kamtsang Monastery in Grabnik, Poland to study classical Tibetan Buddhist texts.
Since 2007 Filip has been extensively traveling to India, visiting mostly Dharamsala as well as other Tibetan settlements and Buddhist pilgrimage places, particularly Bodhgaya. Since 2012 he has been a licensed tour leader and traveled to various destinations within Asia, like Nepal, Tibet, Vietnam and Bhutan.
In 2012 he was for the first time member of the translation team for Kagyu Monlam festival in Bodhgaya and since 2015 has been member of His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa’s international publicity team. In 2017 he became the local director of LRZTP.