On September 13, 2010, His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgön Chestang was welcomed to the Tampa Bay area in Florida by a delegation of students from six Florida Drikung Kagyu Dharma centers: Ratnashri Tampa Bay, Drikung Dzogchen Community Tallahassee, Katsel Dharma Garden, Katsel Meditation Tampa, Drikung Theksum Choling (Orlando), and Tibetan Meditation Center Gainesville. His Holiness’s arrival at the Tampa International Airport was reported later that evening on Bay News 9.

On September 14th and 15th, His Holiness gave two days of teaching to almost two hundred students gathered from around Florida, including Drupon Tinley Nyingpo (Ratnashri Tampa Bay), Lama Konchok Sonam (Katsel centers), Lama Gursam, and a gathering of Western monastics. The first day began with roughly fifty students taking refuge precepts from His Holiness, followed by the transmission of the bodhisattva precepts in the afternoon. The next day, His Holiness conferred the Five-Fold Mahamudra Torma empowerment in the morning, and taught on Lord Jigten Sumgön’s Song of Realization of Five-fold Mahamudra in the afternoon.

On the morning of September 16, the Drikung Kyabgön Chetsang visited the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, where he blessed a group of birds recuperating from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and then performed a ceremony on the beach to bless the Gulf of Mexico. A brown pelican started dancing in circles for several minutes upon seeing His Holiness. Ralph Heath, Jr., the founder of the bird sanctuary, mentioned that birds of all species come up to him wherever he is in the world. His Holiness said that this is a result of the power of his many years of love for birds and dedication to their welfare. That afternoon, His Holiness and his entourage departed for Colorado.