Projects

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in front of Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, Chailsa, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In March 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited the village of Chailsa, in Solu Khumbu, Nepal. Among various activities there, he visited Sagarmatha Secondary School. More than two years ago, FPMT took on the commitment of sponsoring this school, which has about 120 students, with its Social Service Fund. Kopan Monastery oversees the management of the school.

Chailsa is in Solu Khumbu, north-eastern Nepal, the district where Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born and where many Himayalan Buddhists live. Chailsa is in the southern part of the district near Salleri, the district headquarters. The area is remote but still reachable by jeep—a day-long drive from Kathmandu over difficult roads.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to do water bowl offerings to the children of Sagarmatha school. Chailsa, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche blessed the school and was welcomed by the children with a traditional dance. He gave a talk to them, giving them an explanation of how to do water bowls. He also sponsored a picnic for the children and their teachers. The school provided prizes for the children’s exams, which Rinpoche handed out. Rinpoche and Kopan are working to identify the needs of the schoolchildren so they can ensure that the necessary donations are organized.

Schoolchildren offering Lama Zopa Rinpoche a traditional dance. Chailsa, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In the village, Rinpoche gave a lung and some commentary for the Vajrayogini three-year retreat privately to some students, one who is planning to soon do the retreat. He also gave a short commentary to the local gompa keeper of the torma gyatsa practice. Finally, he offered an Amitabha long life initiation with teachings.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering an Amitabha long life initiation, Chailsa, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche also visited Thubten Shedrup Ling. This monastery, located in Chailsa, is under the care of Kopan Monastery, which took it over in 2004. It has only a few dozen residents, and with the help of Kopan, it has been partially rebuilt. It offers an opportunity for young people to receive a monastic education, to live in their vows in a monastic environment, and study and practice the teachings of the Buddha.

Rinpoche is also trying to locate land in Chailsa on which to keep goats and other animals whose lives have been saved.

On the trip, Rinpoche also went to Thubten Chöling, a large monastery built by the late Trulshik Rinpoche in the 1960s in Junbesi, which is near Salleri and on the Jiri-Everest trekking trail.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the monks and nuns of Thupten Chöling Monastery doing prayers in front of the Holy Body of Trulshik Rinpoche. Solu Khumbu, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

One of the greatest living masters of the Nyingma and rime traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, Trulshik Rinpoche, who passed away in 2011, was one of Rinpoche’s gurus. While at Thubten Chöling, Rinpoche offered to sponsor a portion of the costs of a stupa being constructed there. He paid his respects to Trulshik Rinpoche’s holy body (which is in a mandala house above the altar), made prayers, and made offerings to each of the approximately 400 Sangha present. Rinpoche’s assistant, Ven.Roger, requested the Sangha to do an extensive Medicine Buddha puja for Rinpoche’s health and long life, following the advice of Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme).

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.

Extensive Long life puja offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, April 23, 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

An extensive White Tara long life puja was offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery on behalf of the entire FPMT organization on April 23, 2017. 

White Tara long life statue offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche by Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi and Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja. April 23, 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Earlier this year, Ven. Roger Kunsang received advice from Khadro Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Nangsel Dronme (Khadro-la)  on what pujas and practices are needed for Rinpoche’s health and long life. Khadro-la advised for there to be an extensive White Tara long life puja which was completed at Kopan. A beautiful White Tara long life statue was also offered to Rinpoche during the ceremony by Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi and Ven. Roger Kunsang. Prior to the puja Kopan monks completed a seven day White Tara retreat as part of the puja and offering. Extensive offerings were made to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the puja on behalf of all the FPMT centers, projects, and services as well as all students.

Khadro-la also advised practices that can be done by students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche to help create the conditions for Rinpoche to have good health for the coming year.

The prayers advised are the Vajra Cutter Sutra, and the Dependent Arising: A Praise of the Buddha (Tendrel Topa).

All are welcome and encouraged to join in the recitation of these prayers during the rest of this Tibetan year, and keep track of your recitations.  At the end of the Tibetan year FPMT International Office will request students to report on the number of prayers recited, and then all of the accumulated recitations will be offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Please use the following dedication (ideally in addition to the usual FPMT dedication prayers):
For Lama Zopa Rinpoche to always have perfect health and to always be free of obstacles; and for all Rinpoche’s Dharma projects around the world to be highly successful, including all FPMT centers, projects, and services.

All are welcome to contribute to the expenses associated with the long life puja and statue offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Long Life Puja Fund. 

57 monks are offered lunch daily at Idgaa Choizinling through the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund.

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund offers sponsorship for daily lunch for the 57 monks studying at Idgaa Choizinling Dratsang in Mongolia. Recently US$9,000 was offered to cover all of 2017. 

Idgaa Choizinling was established in 2003 through FPMT Mongolia due to the kindness of many benefactors. Idgaa is strongly connected to Sera Je Monastery in India and serves as a focal point of Buddhist learning in Mongolia. Since its inception, FPMT has been offering food to the monks studying there. 

In a letter to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the monks expressed their gratitude, “Your very generous support of meals provides a most important condition for us to be well nourished, to be free to engage in practices, to listen to our Dharma teachers, and to contemplate and meditate on the Dharma.” 

Young monks at Idgaa Choizinling enjoying daily lunch together.

“If you offer with the recognition that they are the guru’s pores,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said in 2011 in reference to the Sera Je Food Fund which offers three vegetarian meals every day to the monks of Sera Je Monastery, “then that is an unbelievable way to collect merit. When you offer to many Sangha who have the same guru, then you are making offerings to that many pores of the guru. This is the easiest way to collect skies of merit by offering. By offering even just one candy or flowers or even one grain of rice to a statue of Buddha or even a visualized Buddha, you collect skies of merit. It is much more powerful than offering to the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) as well as all the statues, stupas and scriptures existing in all directions, so there is no question if really offering to the same guru’s disciple. These benefits should be understood so that when you make offerings to the guru’s pores that you think correctly. This is the best business.”

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund supports ordained monks and nuns as well as monasteries and nunneries by providing sponsorship for food, accommodations, educational needs, and health care for Sangha. 

Please rejoice in this offering of daily food to these earnest monks who study and practice so sincerely to keep Buddhism alive in Mongolia. 

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries.

Enthronement ceremony of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Gendun Choephel, Sera Je Monastery, Bylakuppe, South India, July 2016. Photo via http://www.serajeymonastery.org

A new stupa is being built at Sera Je Monastery for Khen Rinpoche Geshe Gendun Choephel who passed away on July 31, 2016. Among Khen Rinpoche’s many students is Tenzin Ösel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe.

“My dearest and most precious Teacher, Friend, Mother, Father and Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Gendun Choephel, just passed away in a very sudden way,” Ösel wrote on his Facebook page on July 31. “He was the closest person in my life, he raised me and gave me everything, taught me and loved me like no one else. It is devastating and so hard to accept, but I feel joy for having known him and it has been such an honor to grow up under his guidance. Thank you so much Gen-la, you are always in my heart.”

Ösel requested Lama Zopa Rinpoche to assist with this precious stupa, and Rinpoche, through the Stupa Fund, offered US$20,000 toward its completion. 

Young Osel with Geshe Gendun Choephel (left) and Lama Zopa Rinpoche (right) at Sera Je Monastery.

“Building stupas helps develop so much peace and happiness for numberless sentient beings. As a result, wars, disease, and desire will all be pacified. Instead of feeling hopeless, people will gain courage. This is about peace – for the beings who see it, for the whole country, for the entire world, for all sentient beings.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Tenzin Osel Hita with Geshe Gendun Choephel and brother Kunkyen.

Geshe Gendun Choephel was born in 1941 in Karze in eastern Tibet. He later joined Sera Je Monastery in 1955 and went into exile in India in 1959, joining the Buxa Duar community to study and practice. He was among the foremost group who re-established Sera Je in Bylakuppe, South India. After earning his Lharampa Geshe degree, Khen Rinpoche began teaching at the monastery and did so for the rest of his life. He was enthroned as the 75th abbot of Sera Je Monastery on July 18, 2016. 

The total cost for this stupa is US$27,000 and the remaining US$7,000 will be raised by Sera Je monks.  Please rejoice in the creation of this holy object dedicated to a most kind teacher, Geshe Gendun Choephel. 

If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues. The Stupa Fund is a sub fund of the Holy Objects Fund. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated “Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas,” which details the benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings, and offering service to stupas. Also available is, “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice for Circumambulation.”

The monks of Sera Je Monastery are offered three nutritious meals every single day through the Sera Je Food Fund.

The Sera Je Food Fund (a project of the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund) has been in operation for twenty-five years, offering free meals to the sincere monks of Sera Je Monastery daily.

In a typical month, nearly 22,000 bananas, 120 bottles of soy sauce, and an incredible 5,500 pounds of flour, among many other ingredients including vegetables, rice, noodles, and tea, are utilized in preparation for this offering of vegetarian meals for, on average, 1,600 monks every day.

Approximately 50 monks help prepare meals for in the Sera Je Food Fund kitchen.

The Sera Je Food Fund doesn’t just supply food. A tremendous amount of work must go into the planning, cooking, serving, and cleaning up of the daily meals.

Every day each khangtsen (monastic house made up of monks from the same regions) informs the Sera Je Food Fund Kitchen how many monks will be joining for meals so the cooks can always prepare the right amount of food. There is almost no waste from the kitchen because any leftovers are offered to monks who engage in evening debate or classes allowing the monks to enjoy a second dinner if they are studying or debating late. Any food bought by the kitchen that is not used is sold back to the market making the waste for the kitchen extremely low. This is quite impressive when considering the volume of food being prepared and cooked. 

Typically, about 50 monks are assigned to kitchen duties every day.  They help ensure that the ingredients are top quality, that the kitchen is always hygienic and efficient, and that the food is tasty for the monks. Lunch is often eaten as a group in the Sera Je gompa when there are pujas or practices happening.

It takes a tremendous amount of food, supplies, equipment, and collective work to offer meals every day to the monks of Sera Je Monastery.

Equipment and kitchen supply needs are ongoing, maintenance and repairs are frequent, office supplies are needed for administration and accounting, pujas and prayers for the project’s success are regularly sponsored, and dry food is organized during special occasions such as holidays and major teaching events when the monastery kitchen is closed down. All of this costs approximately US$200,000 every year to actualize. A small price considering the incredible benefit offered to so many. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught extensively on the benefits of offering to Sangha.

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund was established to support monks and nuns with a focus on the health and sustainability of monasteries and nunneries. While the Sera Je Food Fund has been our most successful and ambitious project to date, future plans for this fund will enable FPMT to make ongoing offerings in a much broader way.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the nuns of Kopan Nunnery.

“Educating monks and nuns is one of the most important things in the world.” – Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The Sera Je Food Fund was established with very clear goals and recently one of those major objectives has been achieved. We look forward to releasing details on this in weeks to come.  We invite all to connect with the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund to keep up on news,  information on new initiatives, and opportunities to get involved and support these efforts to help monasteries and nunneries thrive. 

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries.

Amitabha Buddhist Centre community liberates sea creatures at the shoreline in Singapore.

Benefiting animals in any way possible is a high priority for FPMT and one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the organization. The Animal Liberation Fund helps carry forth this work.

The Animal Liberation Fund sponsored the liberations of approximately 70,400 animals at Rinpoche’s houses in California and Washington State in 2016. Not only were the animals saved from untimely death by resident Sangha, but they were also taken around an incredible amount of holy objects, mantras were recited and blown on them and they were carefully placed where they could live out the rest of their life. When Sangha finish these liberations, they make strong prayers for all those who are sick, have recently died, or who have requested prayers. This is one of the most beneficial aspects of this practice as the merit is shared among so many. All are welcome to request prayers and dedications from the Sangha at Rinpoche’s residences for themselves or loved ones. In addition to the animal liberations in Washington State, the Sangha regularly bless the beings living in the lakes of this area. 

During the animal liberation practice, animals are carried around holy objects so they can create merit.

About once a month at Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC), Singapore, sea creatures are purchased at a seafood market to liberate. The animals are then circumambulated around center, which has 100 sets of the Kangyur and Tengyur as well as more than 300 stupas and many holy objects, including prayer wheels and statues. The community then offers animal liberation practice for  the animals according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s instructions and advice. Incredibly, 4,199,007 crabs, shellfish, and fish were liberated in 2016.  ABC estimates that they have helped liberate 218,000,000 lives to date. 

During animal liberation practice, an altar like this one designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche filled with holy objects can be used for circumambulating the animals.

Recently, a student wrote to Rinpoche asking what they could do when finding dead insects. Rinpoche responded, not only to give advice but to describe in detail how he and Sangha at his residences work to benefit insects, birds, and other small animals.

Animal liberation is a specific practice done for animals which would otherwise be killed. The practice involves taking the animals-in-danger around holy objects to leave positive imprints in their minds, reciting mantras for them, blessing water to sprinkle onto their bodies, and then releasing them. This differs from general animal blessings which involve blessing any animal with mantras or a holy object. Animal blessings are, of course, wonderful to do for animals, but this is not what is meant by “animal liberations.”

Animal liberation practice is an incredible practice for anyone who has illnesses or is experiencing life obstacles. FPMT Education Services makes available many resources for those wishing to engage in this practice. 

All are welcome to contribute to the Animal Liberation Fund to help ensure that our work sponsoring animal liberations around the world continues. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Yarpel outside Heruka Pure Land Retreat Cabin.

Out of control wildfires ravaged many parts of the United States’ Pacific Northwest during the Summer of 2015. Several fires occurred in Okanogan County, Washington, where Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL) is located. Among the damage done, a retreat cabin on BAPL land was partly destroyed, making it unusable. In addition, all of the contents of the kitchen, bathroom, and sitting area were destroyed.

We are very happy to report that the retreat cabin has now been fully rebuilt. Parts of the cabin that were not destroyed were utilized in the rebuild, contents of the previous cabin were replaced, burnt trees cleared, and repairs were made to the deer fence.

The new cabin is now 561 square feet with 433 square feet of living space. The new building was designed, partly built, and fully supervised by Ven. Yarpel (who is a retired builder and also long-term retreatant).

With the new building some essential upgrades were added, such as bringing a larger water storage tank up to the cabin (the previous one required pumping each day) and also joining the kitchen and bathroom to the existing cabin. Before there were separate buildings and this meant that a retreatant would have to go out in the snow to use the kitchen and bathroom. These upgrades have made the retreat cabin safer and more useful.

The finished cabin is 561 square feet with 433 square feet of living space.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently visited the cabin and was very happy with the additions, blessed the new retreat cabin, and gave it the name: Heruka Pure Land Retreat Cabin.

It has been the ongoing wish of Lama Zopa Rinpoche for retreat places to be established around the world where senior Sangha and longtime senior students of the FPMT can live in retreat or retirement. In order for this wish to become a reality in the United States, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT have made available a great majority of the land at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land for the purpose of establishing such a place. 

The Practice and Retreat Fund provides grants and sponsorships for students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras and long term retreat. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with some of the Land of Joy community on the retreat center’s grounds, July 2014. Photo courtesy of Land of Joy website.

Land of Joy is an FPMT-affiliated Buddhist retreat center located in the Northumberland National Park in the north of England. We are pleased to report that due to the kindness of a generous benefactor, the Practice and Retreat Fund was recently able to invest in the current operations and growth of this retreat center. 

Land of Joy enables individuals and groups at all levels of experience to undertake retreats and find support for their Dharma studies and practice. All are welcome to visit, share their spiritual practice, volunteer to provide for the needs of the retreatants, and participate in other activities such as working in the garden and woodlands.

In the future Land of Joy  will develop Tara Hospice Care, providing compassionate support for terminally ill individuals and their families. Initially, hospice service will be provided to individuals in their own homes but in time the team will develop to include on-site care for patients who wish to end their lives in the quiet, contemplative environment of Land of Joy.

The lush and beautiful view from the Land of Joy property. Photo courtesy of Land of Joy website. 

About the importance of retreat centers, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said:

“A retreat place is not for gaining power like black magic, it’s not for a honeymoon or holiday. Also it is not a place to be spaced out. The whole purpose is to subdue the mind and to actualize lam-rim up to enlightenment. It is a place for a holiday from negative karma, a holiday from the three poisonous minds and the self-cherishing thought, a holiday from the self-grasping of the person and phenomena, a holiday from the wrong concepts: non-devotional thought toward guru up to the subtle dual view of white, increasing, attainment.”

Please rejoice that Land of Joy has received some generous support it needs to actualize its vision long into the future.  You can read more about this unique center including testimonials from those involved in the establishment and operation of Land of Joy. 

The Practice and Retreat Fund provides grants and sponsorships for students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras and long term retreat. Creating opportunities for and sponsoring students to engage in retreats is an essential component of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization.  

Ven. Tsering, a Kopan monk, spends eight hours every day writing out the Prajnaparamita Sutra in pure gold on archival quality paper.

According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, one of the main ways to create the cause needed to build the large Maitreya Buddha statue in India, is to write out the Prajnaparamita Sutra in pure gold. One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast visions for FPMT is to build 1,000 large Maitreya statues around the world.

To complete this project, Rinpoche has arranged the writing of the 8,000 verse Prajnaparamita in pure gold for fifteen years. Under Rinpoche’s guidance Jane Seidlitz and Ven. Tsering are writing out this sutra in gold ink on archival quality rainbow paper. The completed sutra will eventually go into the heart of the Maitreya statue in Kushinagar, India. 

Ven. Tsering has dedicated 15 years, eight hours a day, to this project. He is currently working on the fourth volume of twelve.

Every year, the Prajnaparamita Project disburses approximately US$25,000 to cover the costs associated with this project. The majority of the money is used to sponsor the real gold used in the calligraphy ink. Tremendous thanks to all who contribute to this fund, making it possible to continue until the final verse is completed. 

You can learn more about the Prajnaparamita Project as well as the other Charitable Projects of FPMT.

Approximately 700,000 meals were offered to the monks of Sera Je Monastery through the Sera Je Food Fund in 2016.

In 2016, FPMT Charitable Projects provided grants totaling US$3,512,326 toward various beneficial activities, including offering food to ordained Sangha and children; providing Buddhist philosophy scholarships; sponsoring beneficial pujas and practices; monthly offerings to the main teachers of the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition and sponsoring annual debates; offering grants to social services such as elder care homes, schools, hospitals, and monastic institutions; providing comprehensive Dharma programs; translating Dharma texts; sponsoring the creation of holy objects, such as statues, stupas, prayer wheels, and large thangkas; and saving animals from death and giving them Dharma imprints.

Elderly residents of a home in Dharamsala sponsored by the Social Services Fund

Of particular note in 2016 was the US$356,727 disbursed from the Social Services Fund. Supporting those in need—such as children, the elderly, the poor, and sick—is the main priority of this fund. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has also indicated that in addition to offering much needed material resources, we should also help by offering Dharma talks and when possible holy objects, which helps change karma for the better and bring real lasting benefit.

This 13-foot Guru Rinpoche statue had to be airlifted to Lawudo, Nepal, and was sponsored by the Holy Objects Fund in 2016.

Another area we are so happy to have supported in 2016 is the creation of holy objects. The Holy Objects Fund contributes to the construction of holy objects for world peace, which is a high priority among Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization. This year, US$879,972 was offered toward these projects, including the Maitreya Projects in Kushinagar and Bodhgaya; seven large prayer wheels, including five water-turned prayer wheels in Nepal, one in a Tibetan settlement in India, and one in New Zealand; thirteen Guru Rinpoche statues for Lawudo Retreat Center in Nepal; and seven statues that will be placed inside a larger statue in India.

We’d like to invite you to rejoice in all the grants that FPMT Charitable Projects was able to offer this year. You can read more about this in this year’s FPMT International Office annual review. Tremendous thanks for the kindness and generosity of many who give to the various funds and initiatives this past year, enabling our compassionate work to continue. 

You can learn more about the FPMT Charitable Projects, follow news and updates, or make a donation of any amount to help this work continue.

Monks of Sera Me Monastery offering Medicine Buddha puja

On Chotrul Duchen (the Day of Miracles), which is the fifteenth day of the Tibetan New Year (Losar) and falls on March 12 this year, the Puja Fund will sponsor offerings to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and Sangha around the world; make offerings of robes and gold to holy objects in India, Nepal, and Tibet; and sponsor extensive prayers and pujas offered by up 15,650 Sangha. One of the many pujas happening on Chotrul Duchen is the recitation of the Prajñaparamita.

The Puja Fund makes offerings on the four Buddha Multiplying Days, when karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained that the karma of group practice is more powerful than individual practice. “The karma of one ordained Sangha reciting a sutra in a temple or room alone, compared to reciting a sutra with all the assembly of Sangha present, the latter one—reciting a sutra with all the Sangha—is much more powerful…. The more people there are supporting the practice, the more powerful it becomes…. When the karma is more powerful, the result comes more quickly.”

These auspicious activities cost approximately US$8,000 on Buddha Multiplying Days, including Chotrul Duchen on March 12. All are welcome to join in the merit of these prayers, practices, and offerings by rejoicing or contributing any amount to the Puja Fund.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given advice about what practices can be done on Buddha Multiplying Days such as Chotrul Duchen.  

The Puja Fund was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to provide resources for continuous pujas dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors, and those serving the organization in any way. You can learn more about the Puja Fund and FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity online.

Tenzin Osel Hita requesting Lama Zopa Rinpoche to live for a very long time. Photo by Paolo Regis Photography.

On January 18th, Lama Zopa Rinpoche was offered a long life puja with the dance of the five dakinis by nuns and sponsors at Yulo Koepa, (Tara Pure Land) in Sarnath, a project of Kopan Nunnery. The main purpose of Yulo Koepa Nunnery is to facilitate Tara practice. Praises to the Twenty-one Taras is recited twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in the gompa of the nunnery with each nun taking a turn.  Every morning Four Mandala Offerings to Chittamani Tara is performed.  During the day the nuns attend language classes and study philosophy. In this way the nuns stay ahead of their studies and can participate in the annual exams at the nunnery. After a two year period the nuns return to their mother nunnery and a new group of nuns take their place. 

The nuns of Yulo Koepa Nunnery with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and some of the very kind benefactors. Photo by Paolo Regis Photography.

Recently, due to the kindness of many benefactors, a new accommodation building was constructed for the nuns. The nunnery requested that when it was completed Lama Zopa Rinpoche would visit and bless the building. They also requested for Rinpoche to accept their offering of a long life puja during this visit. Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi attended to preside over the puja. Tenzin Ösel Hita and a number of benefactors of the new building were in attendance. Ösel gave a moving speech requesting Rinpoche to live for a very long time. 

Offerings being made to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja. Photo by Paolo Regis Photography.

A delicious lunch was enjoyed by everyone after the puja. Later that evening Rinpoche granted ordination to a new nun from Bangladesh. 

The new accommodation for the nuns can be seen in the background here.

Please rejoice in this long life puja offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The purpose of the long life puja is for students to purify the mistakes that occur in relation to their teacher, and to create the causes and conditions to continue to receive benefit from that teacher for a very long time. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). 

You can learn more about Yulo Koepa, (Tara Pure Land).