Tenzin Ösel Hita y Torres was born in 1985 in Bubión, Granada, Spain. He was designated soon after his birth as the tulku or reincarnation of Thubten Yeshe. As a youth Hita studied traditional Tibetan subjects at Sera Monastery in southern India, and simultaneously received private tutoring in Western subjects. At age 18, Hita gave up monastic robes and distanced himself from the FPMT in favor of a more secular lifestyle, for example performing at the 2007 Burning Man festival. He later attended St. Michaels University School, a private high school in Victoria, British Columbia.