Lama Zopa Rinpoche with brother Sangye Sherpa (left), and sister Ani Ngawang Samten (right), Lawudo, Nepal, June 2008. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

This letter below by Frances Howland was originally published in the Love Lawudo Newsletter #14, November 2022. It celebrates the service of Sangye Sherpa, the brother of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and the development of the Lawudo Gompa and Retreat Center during his time as director. Lawudo is a small and remote village in Nepal, and was the home of the Lawudo Lama, a hermetic yogi who spent most of his life in retreat in a cave above the village. Lama Zopa Rinpoche was recognized as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, so the village holds a special connection with the FPMT organization.

By Frances Howland

Sangye is the younger brother of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his sister Ven. Ngawang Samten. He was born in 1948 in the village of Thame in Solu Khumbu, one month after their father died. They were a poor Sherpa family, and the early years were filled with many hardships due to their father’s untimely death.

In 2008 Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested Sangye to become the director of Lawudo Retreat Centre and for the next 13 years he worked hard raising money and maintaining and developing Lawudo Retreat Centre in accordance with the wishes of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

The immediate advice from Rinpoche was to tear down the old monastery and build a new, larger gompa that could accommodate 500 monks. Built in 1968 it was in an extremely poor condition and at risk of collapse at any time. The building was sinking into the ground, the front pillars were crooked, and the walls were visibly leaning outwards. However, the senior Lama from Thame monastery, Lama Zopa’s uncle Ashang Yonden, and other Lamas recommended that the old gompa should be preserved as a pilgrimage site because Lama Zopa and Lama Yeshe themselves had supervised and planned the construction and carried some of the stones used in the building. Following this input, Sangye decided to reinforce the foundations with concrete while adding concrete beams and pillars in strategic places, while keeping the original building.

Lawudo Gompa, Nepal, April 2019. Photo by Harald Weichhart.

The difficulties of building in the Khumbu region cannot be stressed enough. In 1976 the Khumbu region became the Sagarmatha National Park and was declared a World Heritage Site. Everything must be carried or flown into the area. Even wood used for building cannot be cut from local trees. Sangye had to organize cargo helicopters to carry all the materials he used for all the projects he undertook. This also increased the cost substantially with each helicopter costing around 3,000 US dollars plus the porter charges to carry the goods from the Syangboche airstrip to Lawudo. Despite these challenges, new guest rooms, a new kitchen, major renovations and extensions to the existing buildings plus the construction of a library with a balcony overlooking the valley were all completed. The logistics of all of these projects are mind-boggling.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Lawudo Retreat Center, with sangha and his brother Sangye Sherpa (with hat), Lawudo, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In late March 2015 a group of us accompanied Rinpoche to Lawudo. Sangye and Ven. Ngawang Samten hosted everyone and there was a big opening ceremony for the new library building, with a procession of monks from a nearby monastery. On April 25th, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had just left Lawudo to return to Kathmandu when a major earthquake measuring 7.6 shook Nepal. No one in Lawudo or the surrounding villages died but most buildings and many stupas on the trails were damaged. At Lawudo the impact was severe. There were cracks in the gompa, the dining room roof fell down, the toilets collapsed, the stone walls of every building cracked open, and the new library where we had just had the opening ceremony was cracked with many stones fallen. Sangye immediately organized an Earthquake Relief for Damage at Lawudo to help fund the repairs.

The 22-foot statue of Padmasambhava arriving to Lawudo by helicopter, with Ven. Tashi Nyima, pictured.

Another task that Lama Zopa gave his brother was to install a 22 feet-high Padmasambhava statue in the gompa at Lawudo. In the standing aspect of Sampa Lhundrup, it was to face eastwards and be surrounded by seven life sized manifestations, all cast in copper with gold finishing. Sangye commissioned the statues from the skilled Sakya artisans of Patan down in the Kathmandu valley. On 27 June 2016 the statues were helicoptered into Mende, the hamlet closest to Lawudo. 35 Sherpas were needed simply to carry the main statue up the steep mountainside to Lawudo.

The 22-foot statue of Padmasambhava residing in Lawudo Gompa.

In May 2021 a pilgrimage to Lawudo was organized for Lama Zopa and a group of students. Sangye and Ven. Nyima Tashi spent months in Lawudo making sure all the building work was completed and the statues were ready to be consecrated. By then the COVID pandemic was in its second year, and by May the Delta variant was claiming lives in Nepal and India. Once again Nepal went into a total lockdown and the visit to Lawudo was cancelled. Nevertheless Sangye and his team continued undaunted with their extensive program of repairs and upgrades. These included introducing a damp course for the Lawudo cave, building a support wall behind the monastery building, and installing safer steps and walkways for the increasingly elderly Lawudo family.

Another extraordinary achievement from Sangye’s time as Lawudo director was to bring fresh running water to Lawudo and 38 other households in the valley. Anyone who has been to Lawudo will know what an extraordinary feat of engineering would be necessary for such a project. The water is piped at 1.7 litres per second from a height of 4500m through a pipe clamped to the vertical rock faces above. The pipeline was inaugurated in November 2019 and is making an incalculable contribution to the health and well-being of the local population and its livestock. The budget was millions of rupees, much of which was fundraised by Sangye.

Before dedicating his time to Lawudo, Sangye was a successful businessman, and was also involved in the trekking and tourism business. He lives in Chabhil not far from the Boudha stupa with his wife Nyima, his airline pilot son Pemba, and his daughter-in-law Sarita Chhetri and two grandchildren. His other three children are married and live in the UK and US.

Please join us in rejoicing at the amazing contribution that Sangye has made to fulfilling Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vision for Lawudo, and in making prayers for his health and long life.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with his brother, Sangye Sherpa, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.