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White Mahakala study group members with Ven. Gendun. Photo courtesy of White Mahakala study group.
In 2017 Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised the White Mahakala study group in Romania to build a Kadampa stupa. Rinpoche advised that if they put it on top of a mountain, then they could put more Namgyalma mantras in it (in addition to what is normally placed inside) and then the whole mountain becomes, “extremely blessed.” They decided on the stupa being 2+ meters high (7.5 feet) and placed on the highest spot of the land.
Marius Micu, who is an architect, spent a year volunteering in Buddhist organizations in Europe before returning to Romania in 2017 and founding the White Mahakala study group in Cluj, the second largest city in Romania and county seat. The study group has been offering Buddhism in a Nutshell and Discovering Buddhism programs and inviting visiting FPMT registered teachers since then.
In 2017 Marius also bought a plot of land in Tranișu, a village in Cluj County, in the region he had been connected to since childhood. Impressed by the stupa he saw in Iceland, he envisioned building a stupa and a retreat center on this plot of land.
According to the plan, one of the buildings, which is under construction, consists of an event hall on the ground floor and rooms for participants upstairs. The construction of a small building with teachers’ quarters and the Kadampa stupa have been completed.
The event hall is under construction. Photo courtesy of White Mahakala study group.
The construction of the Kadampa stupa concluded in June this year. More than 200 donors and volunteers took part in this process. The members of the study group decided that they would make tsa-tsas and prepare all mantra rolls which are placed inside the stupa themselves instead of getting ready made ones, a process that took few years.
“We could have commissioned them to be made by someone else more quickly, but by making them ourselves, community members will understand the value of the stupa much better,” says Marius.
Ven. Tenzin Gendun from Nalanda Monastery in France, who has been visiting the group over the last five years, supervised the final stages of the construction of the Kadampa stupa on June 14-15, 2024.
“Being filled with sacred objects, the stupa emanates a powerful energy, helping anyone who sees it or surrounds it to eliminate negative energy. In this way, generosity and patience can be attained more easily, bringing happiness into this life,” says Ven. Gendun.
Please join us in rejoicing in this powerful holy object being built in Romania according to the instructions of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, supporting Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization.
“My wish is for FPMT to build many holy objects everywhere, as many as possible. Making it so easy for sentient beings to purify their heavy negative karma and making it so easy for sentient beings to create extensive merit. Which makes it so easy to achieve the realizations of the path and so easy to achieve liberation and enlightenment.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche
We thank Marius Micu, Mircea Lupescu, and Győrffy Gáborf for their help with the details for this update and photos. You can learn more about this project from the stupa’s Facebook page.
Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.