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Margot and Jan Paul Kool at Maitreya Instituut, the Netherlands. Photo courtesy of Jan Paul Kool collection.
Jan Paul Kool passed away from cancer on November 29, 2024 in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, aged 78.
Obituary by Paula de Wys with thanks to Ven. Yangdzom (Koosje vd Kolk)
On December 9, 2024, a memorial service was held at Maitreya Instituut in Loenen, the Netherlands, for Jan Paul Kool, one of the founders and driving forces of Maitreya Instituut. Jan Paul passed away some days before after a long period of illness. During the service, which he had planned himself, several of us recollected his amazing accomplishments and dedication through the years and the men’s choir in which he sang for years brought him a beautiful and moving vocal tribute.
Jan Paul met the Dharma in 1976 at the second lamrim course taught by Marcel Bertels in the Netherlands. A few months after the course, Jan Paul met Margot and it clicked right away between them. Soon after he brought her to one of the lamrim afternoons we organized in the winter to show her off to us and also introduce her to the Dharma—and that clicked too.
The following summer they went to Manjushri Institute in England, where Lama Thubten Yeshe, always our great inspiration, married and blessed them. Their honeymoon took them for months to Nepal and India where they lived in a cave in Rewalsar (Tso Pema) and had lots of adventures. They came back totally inspired.
Lama Yeshe marrying Jan Paul and Margot at Manjushri Instituut, photo thanks to Jan Paul Kool collection.
Soon after they returned to the Netherlands, they sailed past my houseboat with a friend and I shouted, “Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa are coming! Will you help?” They were overjoyed. The Lamas’ visit became the beginning of Maitreya Instituut and also Maitreya Magazine, because Lama Yeshe gave us (including Truus Phiipsen) the advice to organize a monthly program and also to publish something in Dutch, so that the Dharma could become accessible to people here in their own language.
Jan Paul and Paula in 2019 at the fortieth anniversary of Maitreya Instituut.
Jan Paul edited Maitreya Magazine for decades and it also became the beginning of the Maitreya Uitgeverij (publishing house). Over the years both Jan Paul and Margot worked with great enthusiasm and skill on translating and editing many books and commentaries of the Lamas, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, resident and visiting teachers, and several other great masters.
Lama Yeshe taking photos of people taking photos at the zoo in Amsterdam, 1980. Photo by Jan-Paul Kool; courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
Portrait of Lama Zopa Rinpoche by Jan Paul Kool, 1979.
Meanwhile, Jan Paul had, as a first, invited an amchi (a traditional Tibetan healer) to this country. Ama Lobsang Dolma was a well-known female amchi and came to Europe for the first time to lecture and treat people. The success of that visit was so great that Jan Paul and a few others founded the NSTG (Dutch Foundation for Tibetan Medicine), which then grew into a clinic in Amsterdam and helped over a thousand people in the years that followed.
To talk about Jan Paul and say nothing about his photography would not do him justice. He loved photography and did it very well. The photo collection of his travels, visits of high lamas to Maitreya Instituut and abroad is impressive. Fortunately, several years ago he donated this extensive collection to LYWA where it can remain well preserved and yet useful.
The passing away of his beloved wife Margot in 2012 was a great blow and he missed her until the end. When asked whether he was afraid of dying, he said matter-of-factly, “Not at all, I have the Dharma.” He died very peacefully surrounded by photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and a mandala given to him by his great friend Andy Weber. The Weber family, Ven. Yangdzom, and some close friends who loved and cared for him in the last months were his Dharma family, and very important to him.
Jan Paul was quite an outspoken character who enjoyed being a pioneer and accomplishing things in his own way. In remembering him it is his truly exceptional energy and devotion to our Lamas that stands out and there is no doubt that he is someone who will be remembered by Maitreya Instituut with great appreciation and gratitude.
Please enjoy a photo gallery of Jan Paul and some of his incredible photography, thanks to the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
Please pray that Jan Paul may never ever be reborn in the lower realms, may he be immediately born in a pure land where he can be enlightened or to receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings and meet a perfectly qualified guru and by only pleasing the guru’s mind, achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. More advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on death and dying is available, see Death and Dying: Practices and Resources (fpmt.org/death/).
To read more obituaries from the international FPMT mandala, and to find information on submission guidelines, please visit our new Obituaries page (fpmt.org/media/obituaries/).