In the Andalusian mountains overlooking the Mediterranean sea to the south and The Lion's Gate (named by Lama Ole) to the north, is a small village called Aldea Alta, situated near Velez - Malaga.

These mountains have seen many different cultures pass through, such as the Phonecians, the Romans and the Moors.

Aldea Alta was abandoned in the 1970's and then bought by Pedro Gomez and his wife Dorrit, and turned into a Buddhist center called Karma Guen.

The center was created as an act of gratitude towards their first Buddhist teacher Lama Ole Nydahl and his wife Hannah. It is a gift for the greatest lama of the Kagyu lineage and head of the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism, H.H. the 17th Karmapa Thaye Dorje, and in this way will always remain as a center for the Kagyu lineage in Europe.

Karma Guen is under constant expansion and development, inspired by the idea that it will become a center fit for a leading role in the development of modern Kagyu Buddhism in the West.