receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Telo Tulku Rinpoche looking through Nalanda Monastery Workshops’s catalog of silicone tsa-tsa molds, Moscow, Russia, November 2021. Photo by Nima-Handa.
The Tsa-tsa Workshop, an educational project of Ganden Tendar Ling Center, the FPMT center in Moscow, Russia, has been teaching the tsa-tsa making practice since November 2019. Center director Andrey Lomonosov shared the following update on the workshop.
At the beginning of 2021, a community from Kalmykia asked us to help make tsa-tsas for the construction of a temple complex in the village Ketchenery. Kalmykia is a republic in Russia where Buddhism is the primary religion. Ketchenery is special because it is the birthplace of Geshe Ngawang Wangyal (1901-1983), who played a key role in introducing Tibetan Buddhism to the West. In 1958, Geshe Wangyal established the first Tibetan Buddhist Dharma center in the United State, where leading Western scholars such as Robert Thurman, Jeffrey Hopkins, and Alexander Berzin studied. The temple complex that is being built in Ketchenery is on a site that His Holiness the Dalai Lama personally chose and consecrated when he visited Kalmykia thirty years ago.
Image of temple complex planned for Ketchenery, Kalmykia
For the construction of the temple complex, it was necessary to produce 10,000-12,000 tsa-tsas by the end of 2021. Local residents make tsa-tsas from clay, but it is difficult for them to make a large amount without the help of others. At the beginning of 2021, we began making tsa-tsas for Ketchenery as group practices on weekends.
Making tsa-tsas in Ketchenery, Kalmykia, Russia, May 2021. Photo by Nima-Handa.
In May 2021 by the blessing of Telo Tulku Rinpoche—who is the Shadjin Lama of the Kalmyk Republic (Head of Kalmyk Buddhists) and the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Russia, Mongolia, and Commonwealth of Independent States countries—a group of eight volunteers led by Nima-Handa, the coordinator of the workshop, went to Ketchenery to make tsa-tsas on site. It took eighteen hours to drive from Moscow to Ketchenery by car. The volunteers brought with them all the necessary equipment—silicone molds, plaster, paints, as well as books that the Ganden Tendar Ling Center presented to the villagers. During one week, the volunteers were able to make about 1,500 tsa-tsas. It was intended for them to stay longer and make more, but, unfortunately, due to the outbreak of the pandemic in the village, the volunteers had to return to Moscow.
Telo Tulku Rinpoche looking at tsa-tsas, Moscow, Russia, November 2021. Photo by Liana.
In Moscow, we continued to make tsa-tsas for Ketchenery. In September the directors of Ganden Tendar Ling decided to rent a special room for the workshop that allowed people to make tsa-tsas not only on weekends but on other days as well. Every week around twenty people engaged in making tsa-tsas in our workshop.
On November 28, Telo Tulku Rinpoche visited the workshop to consecrate the next batch of ready-made tsa-tsas before being sent to Kalmykia. It was a great honor for the volunteers to receive Rinpoche in the workshop. We talked in detail about the process of making a tsa-tsas from plaster and showed him all of our tools and materials. Rinpoche was very pleased with our success and noted that this is a real contribution to the revival of Buddhist art in Russia, lost during the years of repression in the last century. Rinpoche recommended that next year we should travel to Kalmykia to train local residents in the practice of making tsa-tsas.
By the end of 2021 the total quantity of tsa-tsas sent to Kalmykia exceeded 3,000 pieces. We were very happy to make our contribution to fulfilling the wish of His Holiness Dalai Lama to build a temple complex in the village Ketchenery in Kalmykia. Our special thanks to Nalanda Monastery Tsa-Tsa Workshop, which supported us in learning the practice of making tsa-tsas.
Telo Tulku Rinpoche with Tsa-tsa Workshop volunteers, Moscow, Russia, November 2021. Photo by Nima-Handa.
To learn more about Ganden Tendar Ling Center, visit their website:
https://fpmt.ru/
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from 150 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.