DECHEN KARL THURMAN was born on January 18, 1973 in Shady, New York, and is named for a Tibetan word meaning 'great bliss'. He is the middle son of
Robert A.F. Thurman (
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/12/specials/thurman-profile.html ), Jey Tsong Khapa professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, co-founder and President of Tibet House US, President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies and the first American to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Time magazine named him one of the "25 Most Influential Americans." His mother, Nena Birgitte Caroline von Schlebrügge Thurman, is a Swedish model-turned-psychotherapist who was discovered at age 14 in Stockholm by photographer Norman Parkinson.
He is the brother of the actress
Uma Thurman, Ganden Thurman, Mipam Thurman and Taya Thurman. His maternal grandparents were Colonel Baron Friedrich Karl Johannes von Schlebrügge, a German military officer, who had become one of the senior Nazi spies in the Americas, but who was also jailed by the Nazis for protecting Jewish friends, and Brigit Holmquist who served as the model for Axel Ebbe's famous statue Famntaget (the Embrace), that overlooks the harbor of Smygehuk in Trelleborg, Sweden. He is the paternal grandson of the stage actress Elizabeth Dean Farrar and Beverly Reid Thurman, Jr., Associated Press editor and United Nations translator. His uncle, John Thurman, is a professional concert cellist who performs with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Growing up, Dechen's family was a multicultural pioneer in hosting such luminous Tibetan refugee scholars and monks as Geshe Wangyal, Lama Govinda, Tara Tulku Rimpoche, Dr. Yeshe Donden and Gehlek Rimpoche, a paramount time in Dechen's life as he learned to cultivate his meditation practice with the help of these brilliant scholars. He first met His
Holiness the Dalai Lama at age seven in
Dharamsala, India.
Dechen attended Eaglebrook Junior School in Dearfield, Massachusetts, Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, followed by Columbia University in New York City, and is an alumni of Playwright's Horizon Theatre School and New York University Tisch School of the Arts Experimental Theatre Wing. He founded Teleotheater NYC, a multi-media collaboration, focused primarily on producing and presenting new plays and refurbishing decaying performance venues, in order to defray the high cost of putting up new plays in New York. As a teen and in his twenties, he worked as a model for agencies such as the
Elite Model Agency.
From 1995 and on, Dechen produced and acted in over two dozen films and off-Broadway plays. He has starred and appeared in films Sunny Side Up, When the Devil Comes, Mattie Fresno and the Holoflux Universe, Henry X, Coitus Interruptus, Circle of Death, Fast Food Fast Women, Guildenstern, Home Sweet Hoboken, Way Off Broadway, Zoolander (
NY Times Critics' Pick), Hamlet, This is Not an Exit: The Fictional World of Bret Easton Ellis, Mixing Nia, Sue, Code of Ethics, I Think I Do, Julian Po, Myth America, Loose Women, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Gods and Generals, Animal Room, and The Next Big Thing.
In 1997 Dechen formally began training at the
Ohashi Institute having developed his own style of bodywork derived from Tibetan techniques. In 1999, his massages received international praise in the form of print articles in Vogue, Elle, Paper Magazine and an appearance on the E! channels' Mind Body and Spirit Hour. Dechen graduated with distinction from the Ohashi Institute in 2004 and was immediately accepted into the certified Ohashiatsu Instructor training program. An interest in yoga led him to pursue yoga teacher training, and in 2005 he completed an 800-hour advanced certification instructor course with the Jivamukti Yoga School. Dechen also studied with Indian spiritual leader Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and on
the day of his death told a class that his beloved guru never "got bored of yoga." He added that it was Jois's dedication to maintaining a personal practice that made people want to follow him. "You can all be a Pattabhi Jois," he said. Meaning, we can all dedicate ourselves to something so passionately and purposefully that we will affect the lives of millions.
In a June 29, 2011 article in Daily India.com, Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that yoga is referred as 'a living fossil' whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical. Yoga was based on an eightfold path to direct the practitioner from awareness of the external world to a focus on the inner. Zed welcomes Dechen to yoga fold, urging Hollywood celebrities to explore the rich philosophical thought offered by Hinduism and the powerhouse of yoga to deal with the pressures of the industry and to achieve their spiritual goals. "We are happy that after a long path of exploration, Dechen finally found a home in yoga - a liberation powerhouse and a mental and physical discipline, which is rooted in our culture."
As a yoga guru, whose teaching style incorporates Tibetan Buddhism, Japanese bodywork and Indian asana, and teacher of Pranayama,
Buddhist philosophy and meditation, Dechen frequently travels through lands shaped by Buddhism such as Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia and India as a tourguide extraordinaire. He has led workshops throughout the world, including the Yoga Journal New York Conference, Yoga Journal Berlin Conference, Yoga Journal Moscow Conference, Kripalu, Wanderlust Vermont, and Tibet House Menla Mountain Retreat.
When he is not teaching or acting, Dechen enjoys playing chess, playing the guitar, reading, filmmaking, singing and music; he speaks Spanish and is a member of the
Tibet House in New York City.
