Namkhai Norbu was one of the most influential Tibetan lamas of the twentieth century. Trained in pre-Communist Tibet, he settled in Italy in 1960 where he initially assisted Giuseppe Tucci and then taught at the University of Naples for close to thirty years. He was a Dzogchen master as well as an expert in the study of Bon, Tibetan medicine, and history, authoring scores of books that have been translated into dozens of languages. His main center, Merigar, in Italy, branched into more than a dozen global Dzogchen Community centers. In addition to Dzogchen, he taught an ancient form of Tibetan yoga known as Yantra Yoga. He established a publishing house, Shang Shung, the Shang Shung Institute for promoting the study of Tibetan culture, and the nonprofit ASIA which is active in Tibet and south Asian countries.

Kunzang Dechen Gyelpo was an eighteenth-century treasure revealer active in southeastern Tibet. Only one of his eighteen revelations, the Profound Three Roots, is preserved in the Treasury of Revelations. Another, The Wish-fulfilling Gem, Hayagrīva and Vārāhī, which survives in manuscript form, was Shabkar's main practice.

Known as one of the Six Female Bon Siddhas, Choza Bonmo is positioned in Bon histories as one of the most important female practitioners of Yungdrung Bon. According to traditional Bon narratives, not only was she instrumental in preventing the destruction of Yungdrung Bon in central Tibet in the eighth century but she also played a key role in its restoration.

Tromge Tulku Arik was a twentieth-century Nyingma and Sakya lama from the Trom region of Kham. He was a disciple of Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang and a master to Chagdud Tulku and Khenpo Akhyuk, the founder of Yachen Gar. Preferring to reside in retreat, he fled to central Tibet in his thirties to avoid institutional responsibilities. He was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution and spent the last decades of his life in retreat.

Orgyen Tsomo, also known as the Great Ḍākinī of Tsurpu, was one of several consorts of the Fifteenth Karmapa during the first decades of the twentieth century.