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Community members for the Center of White Mahakala Study Group in Romania, which received a Merit Box grant for their stupa and retreat cabin construction projects in 2024. Photo courtesy of CWMSG.
The Merit Box Project closed for good at the end of 2024. We invite rejoicing in the many students and friends around the world who contributed to the project, helping bring hundreds of Dharma activities to fruition—including stupas, statues and other holy objects, scholarships and supplies for retreat, new publications and translations of Dharma texts, social service community programs and important repairs and upgrades to FPMT center buildings and land; among many others.
In total 370 grants were awarded over 21 years, providing US$1,258,580 in funds to these projects. We deeply thank and rejoice in the incredible generosity shown, and in all the great work of the recipients of Merit Box grants in preserving and sharing the Dharma.
Maitripa College’s Tara Farms, the location for their future Maitripa Rabjungma Community Project for training Western nuns, a recipient of a 2024 Merit Box grant. Photo courtesy of Maitripa College.
Moving Forward: The New FPMT Community Support Fund
To keep this vital source of support available to local FPMT affiliates, we are transitioning now to the new FPMT Community Support Fund, which will fulfill the same purpose as the previous Merit Box Project. Through the FPMT Community Support Fund, local FPMT centers, projects, services and study groups, or any project that is working for the mission of FPMT, will be able to apply for grants, which will be awarded each year in March/April, including in 2025.
Any offerings that were collected and planned for the Merit Box Fund this year can now be directed to this new fund, and any offering made until February 28, 2025 will be used for this year’s grants. We hope this new FPMT Community Support Fund, like it’s predecessor, will inspire another 20 years of generosity and much-needed grants for local FPMT communities and projects, and beyond!
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Maitreya School, Bodhgaya, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Our January e-news is now available and brings you news, resources, and special announcements including::
- Teachings and advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe
- Practices to do for fires and earthquakes
- An update on the Stupa of Complete Victory
- Details of grants offered through the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund in 2024
- Changes and causes for rejoicing in the FPMT organization
- Resources for your study and practice
and much more!
Please read this month’s e-news in its entirety.
Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page.
Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email inbox.
The grounds of Rinchen Jangsem Ling illuminated by 50,000 candle light offerings. December 8, 2024. Photo thanks to RJL.
The grounds of Rinchen Jangsem Ling retreat center (RJL) in Triang, Malaysia, were illuminated by fifty thousand candle lights during its recent light offering ceremony on the evening of December 8, 2024. From late afternoon until dusk, hundreds of visitors from near and far participated in the event, lighting candles following RJL resident sangha Ven. Jampa sharing the benefits of making light offerings. Volunteers placed candle-holders around the holy objects forming the letters, “KLZR SR,” signifying the strong wish and dedication for Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Swift Return.
About offering lights, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, “By making light offerings, you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and achieve wisdom. By offering light, you are never in darkness while you are circling in samsara. There will always be light. And offering light just one time to Buddha creates the karma to have great wealth for many hundreds or thousands of lifetimes.”
Daytime view of RJL grounds with stupa and large Twenty-One Tara thangka in view. Photo thanks to RJL.
Geshe Zopa making prayers at the 50,000 light offering event at RJL. Photo thanks to RJL.
Visitors also admired and received the benefit of seeing a very large Twenty-One Tara thangka on display. The thangka was auspiciously hosted on the foundation which will become, on the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the world’s largest three-story prayer wheel, which will contain within a pavilion at least one hundred trillion OM MANI PADME HUM mantras.
After sunset, Geshe Tenzin Zopa led the light-offering prayers in front of the Twenty-One Taras thangka. This was followed by circumambulation of RJL’s holy objects and a spectacular fireworks display to conclude the first part of the evening.
With high spirits, the retreaters then joined the overnight Tara practice where they recited Praises to the Twenty-One Taras through until the morning. The sadhana practice was divided into four sessions, two sets recited in Tibetan and English and two in Chinese. Geshe Zopa offered commentary and oral transmissions related to the practice.
The evening included purification practice that lasted through dawn. The retreatants then enjoyed breakfast together thanks to the RJL’s dedicated cooking team.
RJL shares, “Heartfelt thanks to Geshe Tenzin Zopa and all the volunteers who worked tirelessly to actualize their inaugural Fifty Thousand Light Offering and All Night Praises to Twenty-One Taras event that benefited so many. May Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche quickly return to guide us soon!”
With grateful thanks to Janet Lui for submitting this report on the light offering event.
Learn more about how to make light offerings and other offerings in the book Extensive Offering Practices by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, available in The Foundation Store.
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.
FPMT Mongolia Children’s Program, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Photo courtesy of FPMT Mongolia.
We are delighted to share a report from FPMT Mongolia’s Mahayana Children’s Program on the ways they were able to utilize a recent Merit Box grant.
FPMT Mongolia’s Mahayana Children’s Program began in 2007, aiming to engage children from 6–16 years of age every Saturday at the FPMT Mongolia Center in Ulaanbaatar. Each year approximately 80–100 children are enrolled and participate in learning activities focused on Dharma, traditional culture and practices, yoga, arts and crafts, and first aid/health education in order to further develop positive life-long coping strategies and positive stress-response skills.
The Mahayana Children’s Program has also been started at Lamp of the Path (LOP), the center’s local non-governmental organization (NGO). In the Ger district area, classes focus more on alternative informal education (based upon the 16 Guidelines) and positive social-emotional development activities for children who have access to fewer resources and are more “at risk” due to challenging family living situations.
Based on the wishes and vision of FPMT founders, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, FPMT Mongolia strives to provide integrated education and opportunities for learning so that people’s–including children and youth–minds and hearts can be transformed. The 16 Guidelines provide a concrete and practical way to do this while also building important skills for children and young people so that they are enabled and empowered to successfully navigate the road to adulthood.
Children with the new desks for the FPMT Mongolia Children’s Program, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Photo courtesy of FPMT Mongolia.
With a recent upgrade and expansion to the classroom used at LOP for the Children’s Program, FPMT Mongolia requested and was awarded a Merit Box grant in the Spring of 2024, specifically to support further development of the Lamp of the Path classroom and to also publish new children’s learning materials and training resources for use in this location and beyond based on the 16 Guidelines.
Based on the 2024 Merit Box award, the team was able to purchase 20 adjustable children’s floor desks, seating mats, and other materials for use in classes, complete a translation of the 16 Guidelines children’s resource book “Ready, Set, Happy” in Mongolian for use by the FPMT Mongolia team (and others as well), and cover part of the costs of printing the first 500 copies of the new book.
Please rejoice that this Mahayana Children’s Program was able to utilize their grant so well, to really offer so much with what they were awarded.
The FPMT Social Services fund has been supporting the activities of LOP since 2003. You read a recent report on these activities.
With thanks to Susan Roe, the center director of FPMT Mongolia, for sharing this update on their Mahayana Children’s Program.
FPMT Mongolia Children’s Program, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Photo courtesy of FPMT Mongolia.
Update: The Merit Box Project was permanently closed at the end of 2024, after more than two decades of fostering generosity and providing aid to local FPMT centers, projects, services, study groups, and other activities that align with the FPMT mission.
To continue offering the vital resource that the Merit Box Project provided to local FPMT communities, we have transitioned to the new FPMT Community Support Fund, which will fulfill the same purpose in giving aid to local FPMT communities and projects. Grants will be made through the FPMT Community Support Fund later this year, and any offerings planned for the Merit Box Fund can be made to this fund now and in the future. We will be sharing more information about this new fund in upcoming communications.
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.
Medicine Buddha Puja participants in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, with disabled disabled military, pilgrims and Tara Lanka community.
In September 2024, Sri Lankan-born, Australian-based nun Ven. Tenzin Lekdron led a pilgrimage tour in Sri Lanka to raise funds for the 5MB Project, a mission to build a five-story high Medicine Buddha statue in Sri Lanka, according to the instructions of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The Medicine Buddha prototype of the statue is now cast, gilded, painted and will be filled with mantras. The preparation is being supervised by Gen Tenpa Choden from Kopan Monastery.
Ven. Tenzin Lekdron met Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1998. After her ordination in 2016, she founded Tara Lanka Study Group in Sri Lanka and initiated dialogues, social services projects, translations of Mahayana sutras and Dharma texts into Singhalese, and organized group recitations of sutras by local monks and lay people around the country to create harmony and understanding between Theradava and Mahayana traditions in Sri Lanka.
Medicine Buddha statue prototype,
“When Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked for a five-story Medicine Buddha statue to be built in Sri Lanka it seemed such a fantastical idea as people in Sri Lanka have no knowledge of Medicine Buddha or the healing power of the practices,” Ven. Lekdron reflects. “At the time of Rinpoche’s passing, I felt it was time to attempt this huge task. Rinpoche’s advice must be followed. At that time I had a strong feeling that a prototype of the Medicine Buddha statue according to Rinpoche’s design has to be seen by as many people as possible. A strong feeling came that Gangarama temple, a prominent temple in Colombo would be a suitable location. An appointment was sought for me to meet with the chief monk to seek if there would be any interest. I asked to do a Great Medicine Buddha puja at his temple and if he would consider the prototype of Medicine Buddha to be displayed with public access. While he was very concerned about possible public outrage that a Mahayana nun is permitted to do pujas at this well known Theravada temple in a prestigious suburb of Colombo, the Medicine Buddha puja was held with 80 people in attendance. We were amazed. A door was opening.
“In the meantime the awareness about Medicine Buddha and the healing power of it’s practices needed to be understood by the Sri Lankan people. The existence of Mahayana and highest yoga tantra is little known. I felt a pilgrimage was the perfect vehicle for this. In my mind the pilgrims would be witnesses and a participants in the healing of trauma. We would do Medicine Buddha pujas side by side with Sinhala language being the dominant language, thus allowing dignity to the locals. Our tour would be immersive without being overwhelming to the pilgrims. The result was phenomenal in the healing it provided to the wounded soldiers and a former refugee Tamil lady, Maureen, attending the puja. It exceeded my expectations in fulfilling Rinpoche’s wishes for healing people’s hearts, a process which began many years ago. Now it was reaching a different level with the witnessing by visitors.”
Sixteen pilgrims from Australia, Malaysia, and the USA, including four FPMT nuns, two Australian and two Tibetan, as well as Ven. Lekdron, participated in the journey. They visited the Sri Maha Bodhi tree, the sacred Tooth Temple and very importantly, rarely visited Mahayana sites such as Buduruwagala Temple.
Alan Marsh, who participated in the pilgrimage shared, “Over ten intense days and nights traveling together by bus we
quickly bonded and became friends, sharing long bus rides, experiencing cultural and climate shock and dealing with the many surprising and unexpected events that happened each day.
“As well as the extraordinary efforts of Ven. Lekdron, the tour could not have been the success it was without the hard work of several other people. Our Australian tour leader Jason kept the show on the road by taking care of all the day-to-day details needing attention: buying tickets to the sites, booking restaurants, paying local guides, providing first aid when needed, keeping us updated with last minute changes and above all, boosting our morale at trying times with his unwavering patience and good humor.
“Also traveling with us and providing valuable information from the front seat of the bus via microphone, was Sanath, a professional local tour guide from the local tour company used for the tour, sharing his extensive knowledge of the geography and history of the sites we visited. Also with us was Sanjay, Ven. Lekdron’s brother, a professional photographer and filmmaker who documented all aspects of the trip in photos and video. He plans to make a documentary movie of the tour.”
While they were in Anuradhapura, pilgrims had a major highlight when they offered a Medicine Buddha puja, whose audience of 2,000 people included fifty wounded Sinhalese army soldiers and a Tamil refugee. Pilgrimage participant Vicki Swartz shared, “A young Tamil woman named Maureen Ernest read two very personal, touching poems about how she moved from being a fearful child growing up in the 30-year civil war of the Tamils vs. the Sinhalese Military. She converted from Christianity (most Tamils are Hindu, some are Christian) to Buddhism through a personal journey of counseling and help from Ven. Lekdron (who would stop and translate into English what she was saying). Maureen said that while she may not be able to represent every Tamil, that on behalf of Tamils, she wanted to apologize to the military men and their families for the pain and suffering caused by the Tamils (the LTTE, the Tamil Tigers, the militant group fighting for the rights of Tamils, who felt oppressed, wanted their language to be recognized and taught in schools, and to have fair hiring practices for the coveted government positions, etc.) Then Sunil W., the author of a book on conflict resolution/social justice work, took the microphone, and modeled a reconciliation process; on behalf of the military men and the Singhalese, he accepted her apology, and offered her an apology for the pain and suffering she’d endured as a result of the actions of the military in the civil war. Many of us wept; it was so powerful.”
We invite you to read a recent report on the various stops made during the pilgrimage, with a very moving, more extended testimony of the Medicine Buddha puja and a summary of some of the other Dharma activities conducted by Tara Lanka Study Group in 2025. Please rejoice in this powerful and healing activity happening in Sri Lanka, thanks to the inspiration from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
To learn more about the 5MB Project: 5mbsrilanka.org/5mb-project
Please learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization to have hundreds of thousands of holy objects around the world: fpmt.org/fpmt/vast-vision/#hobjects
We are pleased to share that the 2025 Liberation calendar is available now!
This year the calendar is available only as a printable PDF:
liberationcalendar.com
Learn more about the Liberation Prison Project and the work your purchase of this calendar supports:
liberationprisonproject.org
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, December 22, 2022. Boudhanath, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Warmest seasons greeting from FPMT International Office. Our December e-news is now available and brings you news, resources, and special announcements including:
- Seasonal teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe
- Powerful pujas and prayers offered on Lhabab Duchen
- Grants for animal blessings and rescue in 2024
- Recommended practices for Lama Tsongkhapa Day (December 25)
- Resources and opportunities for study and practices
- Changes and opportunities in the FPMT organization
and so much more!
Please read this month’s e-news in its entirety.
Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page.
Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email inbox.
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/).
Aerial view of the new long retreat rooms at IVY.
In January 2025, Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY), France, will host its 39th Annual Vajrayogini Retreat, guided this year by Jhampa Shaneman. This retreat, open to all who have received the Vajrayogini initiation, marks a special moment in fulfilling Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wishes.
in 2019 Lama Zopa Rinpoche expressed his vision for more people to engage in the three-year Vajrayogini retreat. IVY then brought up their wish to create retreat rooms in which people could do this long retreat, up to three years. Rinpoche immediately pledged US$120,000 to help them complete this project. Due to the kindness of a benefactor, half of this was raised in 2020 and Lama Zopa Rinpoche personally offered the rest of the pledge through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund the following year.
These four individual long-term retreat rooms—each equipped with a private bathroom, individually-controlled air conditioning, and space for study and practice—are designed to provide ideal conditions for practitioners undertaking extended three-year Vajrayogini retreats.
View from one of the new long retreat rooms at IVY.
View of a new long retreat room at IVY.
IVY shares, “As we welcome the energy of retreatants this January, we rejoice in the manifestation of Rinpoche’s wishes and the opportunity to dedicate these rooms to practitioners embarking on deep and transformative retreats.
“We celebrate this milestone as a profound moment for the entire FPMT community! We offer heartfelt gratitude to Lama Zopa Rinpoche for his guidance, generosity, and dedication, which continue to inspire and support practitioners at Institut Vajra Yogini and worldwide.”
To inquire about long-term Vajrayogini retreats at IVY, or to register for the January Vajrayogini Retreat, please visit their website.
With grateful thanks to IVY President Julia Lefebvre for providing details for this report.
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.
Large Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) thangka with Twenty-one Taras. Photo courtesy of Kopan Nunnery.
For the ninth year in a row, a very large thangka of Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) was displayed and an auspicious 100,000 tsog offering event (Guru Bumtsog) took place at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling (Kopan Nunnery). This giant holy object is 70 feet (21 meters) high and 87 feet (27 meters) wide. This year, in addition to last year and every year going forward, this event occurred on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday, December 3. Below we share some of the rich history of this magnificent holy object, and we also share a moving report from Ven. Sarah Thresher on this year’s event.
Initial outline of the large Padmasambha thangka, November 2011.
History and Significance of the Large Padmasambhava Thangka
This holy object project and yearly event was initiated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in early 2011 in order to follow the Tibetan tradition of displaying and honoring monumental thangkas. In this tradition, large thangkas are laid on mountains, monastery courtyards, or large walls once a year with annual prayers, pujas, and extensive offerings. The main purpose of this project was to contribute to the fulfillment of the wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama including the preservation of Tibetan culture.
The thangka was completed in October 2013 after 2.5 years of completely handmade work in a school gym in south India near Sera Je Monastery, where 10-12 artists worked at once. Ven. Roger Kunsang commented that there were materials all over the gym during the time it was being made, it seemed difficult to understand how it could all come together in the way it finally did.
Geshe Ngwang Sangye, who oversaw the creation of the thangka shares, “This project is a significant cultural and spiritual endeavor. It not only commemorates the teachings of Buddhism but also acts as a focal point for community gatherings and spiritual reflection, benefiting all beings through its intended use in rituals and teachings.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche checking the progress on the Padmasambhava thangka, December 2012.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama blessing the Guru Rinpoche thangka, Sera Monastery, India, December 29, 2013. Photo copyright Rio Helmi/Jangchup Lamrim Teaching Organizing Committee.
The thangka was raised for the first time at Sera Je Monastery on the outside of the building when His Holiness the Dalai Lama was teaching in December of 2013. After the teaching His Holiness came to the monastery to bless the holy object. After the blessing, Rinpoche had an appointment with His Holiness and discussed various matters related to the thangka. From this meeting, the plan arose that Rinpoche wanted the thangka raised each year at Lawudo with the pujas and extensive offerings done there. However, at that time it was very difficult to find a way to get the thangka to Lawudo as it was too big and too heavy. Due to this Rinpoche decided to have it raised at Kopan Nunnery each year, which began in 2015 and has continued every year.
Since Rinpoche showed the aspect of passing away, it was decided to hold this event annually on Rinpoche’s birthday, December 3, as a special offering to Rinpoche in order to also fulfill his holy wishes.
The Kopan monks and nuns organize and manage this event with mastery and great care. The puja offered, Guru Bumtsog, is essentially the same as what is offered by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Namgyal Monastery each year. In addition to helping fulfill the holy wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, this project illustrates a deep commitment to preserving and promoting Tibetan Buddhist culture while fostering community engagement through spiritual activities.
With grateful thanks to Geshe Ngawang Sangye for essential information on the history of this most precious object.
The grounds of Kopan Nunnery during the Guru Bumtsog event on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday, December 3, 2024. Photo thanks to Kopan Nunnery.
Extraordinary Birthday Celebration for Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Nunnery
By Ven. Sarah Thresher
The Cham dance of the ging—messengers of Dorje Drollo performed by Kopan monks during the bumtsog event. Photo by Lesley Abhita
We enjoyed a most extraordinary birthday celebration for Rinpoche yesterday at the Kopan Nunnery with the annual Guru Bumtsog.
Like a seamless fusing of the two manifestations of the Lawudo Lama, the extensive Guru Bumtsog offering, based on a Northern treasures text by Rigdzin Godemchen, was led and inspired by the monks from Thame monastery in Thamichowa, Solukhumbu. Thame is Rinpoche’s “home” monastery so to speak—it is the monastery the first Lawudo Lama was connected to as a ngakpa practitioner and also where Rinpoche entered as a young child to be a monk. The Northern lineage, the gyaling, the dance of the gings and Dorje Drollo—all these are elements from Rinpoche’s past and present life. But the puja was energized by the love and devotion of Rinpoche’s hundreds of monks and nuns at the monastery and nunnery he created in Nepal in this life at Kopan along with the many lay people gathered—some from countries far away where our most cherished lama spread the Dharma throughout this world.
The weather was glorious, the huge applique thangka of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) merit field and Twenty-one Taras often seemed to dance in rhythm with the chanting. The offerings were beautiful and extensive. Seating and lunch and all details were immaculately arranged. Truly wonderful! And we were joined by such precious lamas as H.E. Jangtse Choeje Kyabje Gosok Rinpoche, Khandro-la [Khandro Kunga Bhuma], Thame Lama, and Dzigar Khenpo of Tsopema.
H.E. Jangtse Choeje Kyabje Gosok Rinpoche of Sera Mey Monastery presiding over the puja on December 3, 2024. Photo thanks to Kopan Nunnery.
Detail of the large Padmasambhava thangka. Photo courtesy of Tubten Pende.
Some of the crowd gathered for the Guru Bumstog event at Kopan Nunnery, December 3, 2024. Photo thanks to Kopan Nunnery.
And so from the depths of our hearts we pray that His Holiness Dalai Lama may live long and all his holy wishes be fulfilled and we request that a new magnificent and unmistaken manifestation of the Lawudo Lama, our most cherished Lama Zopa Rinpoche, swiftly return to continue his enlightened activities for all beings in a precious human form!
With thanks to Ven. Sarah Thresher for this moving brief report of the December 3, 2024 event, and to Geshe Ngawang Sangye for providing details of the history of this incredibly powerful holy object.
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.
Australia/New Zealand regional consultation participants in front of Tara Institute. Photo by Damien Busby.
The last of the four regional consultations planned in 2024 to pave the way for the CPMT 2025 meeting, FPMT Australia and New Zealand, as well as a national meeting for FPMT Australia, took place at Tara Institute, Melbourne, AUS, from October 26-28, 2024. Forty participants attended in person with another ten joining online. This turnout represented 22 FPMT centers (including study groups), projects, and services from the region! Karuna Cayton and Dale Davis joined from the FPMT Inc. Board of Directors, and François Lecointre joined from FPMT International Office.
The meeting began with Tara Institute Director, Kerry Whitlock, welcoming the group. FPMT Australia Education Coordinator, Stephanie Brennan, led an acknowledgment of the First Nations people on whose land the meeting was held.
An inspiring motivation for the meeting was set by Geshe Lobsang Dorjee.
The first part of the meeting was devoted to preparatory discussions, a regional consultation, for the upcoming CPMT meeting in April 2025. These sessions were facilitated by Stephanie Brennan, Dale Davis, Karuna Cayton, and Francois Lecointre and contribute to the conversations and feedback being gathered in other regional consultations.
The second half of the meeting was a regional meeting facilitated by FPMT Australia National Coordinator, Peter Stickels; and FPMT Australia Education Coordinator, Stephanie Brennan. These sessions were devoted to the discussion of local issues that also have international relevance. Separate center director and SPC (spiritual program coordinator) sessions looked at issues relevant to their areas of responsibility.
Peter Stickels shares: “Thanks are due to Tara Institute for hosting the meeting, to the staff and volunteers for looking after us and to Café Bliss for feeding us.
“Above all, this meeting was a chance for people to reconnect and, as always at our national meetings, some of the most important discussions took place during the breaks rather than in the sessions.
“This year we had quite a few newcomers. What struck them most was the positive energy of the meeting, the warmth and openness of the attendees and the feeling that they had been to a family reunion — something that regular attendees have come to expect and value.”
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with brother Sangay Sherpa (left), and sister Ani Samten (right), Lawudo, Nepal, June 2008. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Sangay Sherpa, the brother of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, passed away on December 8, 2024 after an admittance to HAMS hospital in Kathmandu for various health issues. Sangay offered a lifetime of service to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the Lawudo Retreat Center. The cremation will take place on December 11 at Ramadoli Teku in Kathmandu.
In 2022, Frances Howland wrote a moving biography of Sangay, and we invite you to read it now. Please rejoice in Sangay’s beneficial life, recall his kindness, and to also pray for him to never be reborn in the lower realms, to be 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, to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. It is also requested that those who are able to please recite at least one mala of OM MANI PADME HUM and/or The King of Prayers for Sangay at this very important time.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his brother Sangay Sherpa and Sangye’s wife, Nyima. March 2021, Kathmanu, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Rejoicing in the Achievements of Sangay Sherpa
By Frances Howland, written in 2022
Sangay 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 Sangay 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, Sangay decided to reinforce the foundations with concrete while adding concrete beams and pillars in strategic places, while keeping the original building.
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. Sangay 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.
In late March 2015 a group of us accompanied Rinpoche to Lawudo. Sangay 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. Sangay immediately organized an Earthquake Relief for Damage at Lawudo to help fund the repairs.
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. Sangay 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. Thirty-five Sherpas were needed simply to carry the main statue up the steep mountainside to Lawudo.
In May 2021 a pilgrimage to Lawudo was organized for Lama Zopa and a group of students. Sangay 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 Sangay 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 Sangay’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 Sangay.
Before dedicating his time to Lawudo, Sangay 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.
Written by Frances Howland, December 2022.
Please pray that Sangay Sherpa 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/).