Kristine Kirakosyan
Doctor of Philosophy
Founder & Organizer in AtmaVicara
Kristine is a native Armenian and she speaks five languages.
After getting her bachelor and master degrees she won a scholarship and went to Europe where she got Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).
After her Ph.D. she took a break from the corporate and academic world to travel without even thinking that she won't be back to that world anymore. It was a new beginning and liberation for her.
Born and grew up in a very tiny town in Armenia, she could never ever imagine that she would travel the world alone. After studying for many years and getting different titles and degrees, she could never ever imagine that her best teacher would be traveling.
“She who returns from a journey is not the same as she who left”
During the last few years, Kristine has been studying yoga and different spiritual teachings. This path took her to Wat Paa Sang Tham temple (Thailand), where she goes frequently and stays to deepen her practice on meditation (vipassana, anapanasati).
She likes exploring and getting to know what is beyond each practice & teaching. That desire made her find very experienced masters & teachers and make friends with them.
She likes exploring, and mainly undiscovered places and non-famous travel destinations. That desire made her having local friends everywhere she went.
Kristine mainly did solo traveling. She finds it amazing but she accepts that solo travel sometimes can be very challenging, difficult & even dangerous. Very few times she traveled with tour agencies and she describes it as something but not travel.
Now in her travels, Kristine gets in touch with the locals as much as that's possible. She strongly believes that the best to explore any country is in a local way with local people.
Having a serious background in management and administration, having experienced culture & history of many beautiful countries, aiming to share that with the others, Kristine, with her very good friend, also a world-traveler Jin, has created AtmaVicara.
Being very passionate about her homeland; ancient Armenia, Kristine and AtmaVicara team have decided to lunch their first projects in Armenia, "the place on the earth that one can come across many miracles".