Erik Jampa Andersson, MA, founder and director of Shrimala, is a London-based environmental historian, Tibetologist, and the author of Unseen Beings: How we Forgot the World is More than Human (Hay House UK, 2023). He is a graduate of the Shang Shung Institute School of Tibetan Medicine, and holds an MA in History from Goldsmiths, University of London.

A Buddhist practitioner since 2005 (at the age of 14), Erik found an early home in the Tibetan tradition under the close guidance of Lama Tsultrim Allione, founder of Tara Mandala Retreat Center in Colorado. Over the past 20 years, he has received instructions from a wide array of teachers from around the world, including Tibet the Himalayas. While pursuing a degree in religious studies at Naropa University, he was inspired to change course and enrol in a five-year Tibetan Medicine program at the Shang Shung Institute, where he trained extensively under notable senior physicians including Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo, Dr. Namgyal Tsering, Dr. Nyima Tsering, and others in Asia, America, and Europe.

In 2013, he began studies with Dr. Nida Chenagtsang, a yogi-physician from northeastern Tibet and founder of Sorig Khang International, from whom he has received extensive teachings and guidance in Tibetan Medicine and Tibetan Buddhism. Erik is a certified Sorig Khang teacher and has taught a wide range of courses on Tibetan Medicine, Tibetan Astrology, and the Yuthok Nyingthig spiritual cycle, specialising in the practice of Chöd.

Having received extensive specialised training in ritual arts under Khenpo Urgyen Wangchuk, Erik served for many years as head umdze (ritual MC/puja leader) in the Tara Mandala community, leading multiple Great Accomplishment (Drubchen) ceremonies. Today, Erik teaches regular retreats at Tara Mandala as a visiting teacher.

Outside of the Tibetan tradition, Erik has trained in western herbalism, Taoist five-element medicine, alchemical herbalism, and Hellenistic Astrology, and is passionate about animistic forms of engagement with the more-than-human world. Erik is also conducts independent scholarship on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, specialising in ecocritical and historiographic approaches to Tolkien’s legendarium. Two of his papers - ‘The Akallabêth and the Anthropocene: Myth, Ecology, and the Changing of the Earth’ (2023) and ‘‘At Furious Speed’: Tolkien, Revelation, and the Tibetan Treasure Tradition’ (2023) - will be published next year by The Tolkien Society in their respective conference proceedings.