Nalanda Monastery monks on the property they are seeking to purchase to create Maitreya Pure Land, Lavaur, France, August 2019. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery.

Nalanda Monastery is a community for Western Gelug monks located in a peaceful rural setting in the South of France about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Toulouse. The monastery, which is affiliated with FPMT, offers monastic students, as well as lay students, a place for ongoing in-depth Buddhist study and practice. The monastery is excited to announce a new expansion project. Ven. Gyaltsen, Nalanda’s director, shares the story:

Nalanda Monastery has been offered the opportunity to purchase the neighboring property, called Gachepel. During his visit to the South of France in May 2019, Lama Zopa Rinpoche met and spoke with the owner of the property. Rinpoche took the opportunity to pray and bless the grounds. He gave the property a name—Maitreya Pure Land. Rinpoche then auspiciously made the first donation to our purchase fund.

Detail from a building at Gachepel, the property neighboring Nalanda Monastery, Lavaur, France, August 2019. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery.

In October 2018, the owner of the property informed us of his intention to sell. As a friend of Nalanda, he offered us the opportunity to purchase it, without putting it on the open market. The property has been a family home for approximately 200 years. Purchasing it is a rare opportunity and is full of potential for Nalanda. It would enable the monastery to expand and offer further services to both the monastic and lay communities and the wider FPMT family.

In early November 2018, we had a constructive meeting with the owner. Following that, we requested Lama Zopa Rinpoche to check the karmic potential of the property. Two weeks later we received an email informing us that Rinpoche had checked and advised that this property has the best (most beneficial) karmic relationship with Nalanda.

Coincidence or not, Rinpoche was scheduled to come to the South of France for the Vajrayogini retreat at the nearby Institut Vajra Yogini in May. During the retreat, he took the time to visit the property and to explain his vision for retreat huts to be built at Gachepel. He suggested that it would be an excellent place for Nalanda students and Buddhists from around the world, both monastics and lay people, to do semi-isolated lamrim retreats in order to realize the teachings. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting the property, Lavaur, France, May 2019. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery.

“Monasteries and gompas where there are holy objects of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—statues, stupas, and scriptures—are called ‘abiding places’—nä-khang in Tibetan,” Rinpoche said. “What is abiding is the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. So an ‘abiding place’ is a great, great place to subdue the mind, collect extensive merits, and achieve enlightenment. Even the name nä-khang is incredible.” In this way, Rinpoche emphasized, monastic communities benefit everyone, lay and ordained.

Ven. Gendun is one of the eldest monks at Nalanda in terms of seniority. He is a board member and has lived at Nalanda since 2000. “Some years ago we were attending a funeral for the mother of one of the volunteers in the church in Lavaur. After the service, we went up to meet the service leader, and he turned out to be our neighbor. He later attended the inauguration of our newest monks’ accommodation building in 2016, and we kept in touch after that. I was surprised when he said he was planning to sell his property. It seems that none of his children were interested in keeping it and maintaining it was costly and time consuming,” Ven. Gendun explained.

The property, adjacent to Nalanda, is quiet and encompasses 5.5 hectares (13.59 acres) of beautiful parkland and includes two large residences.

View of Nalanda Monastery and the neighboring property, Gachepel. Image courtesy of Nalanda Monastery.

German monk Ven. Tharchin has lived at Nalanda since 1999 with an interruption of three years when he joined FPMT’s Lotsawa Richen Zangpo Translator Program. He has served as a translator at Nalanda ever since and is also a board member.

“When I came to Nalanda, there were only about six monks living here in one building,” said Ven. Tharchin. “Ever since, there has been a continuous and very organic growth in the community and in the monastery’s Dharma activities. It is especially important to note that Nalanda has achieved an ever-increasing standard of studies of the vast Dharma scriptures. Although there was no formal study program when I joined Nalanda, Geshe Jamphel taught us Dharma for many years. As the community grew, the then director Ven. Tendar worked towards establishing a Basic Program at Nalanda. This was a great step forward for us and we didn‘t know if we were up to the task. It turned out, fortunately, that we were, and we are now running the third Basic Program in a row. The number of monks has steadily increased and many lay followers have joined the study program. Furthermore, we have embarked on our first Masters Program, which is still running.”

“The monastery now hosts these two major study programs, which are led by two geshes with two translators,” Ven. Tharchin explained. “Both programs are attended by monks, nuns, and lay students. I can say that the development of the study programs was a terrific initiative and the benefits coming out of these studies are huge. More and more monks are going out to other centers to share the Dharma they have learned here at Nalanda. All of this also has led to a growth in the facilities at Nalanda. When I joined, there was only an old manor house. We have added two new buildings, and all three buildings are now being fully used. Nalanda definitely needs more space so that it can continue to welcome more monks and to extend the range of Dharma activities it can offer.”

Aerial view of the buildings at Gachepel, which would house students doing lamrim retreat. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery.

In “Benefits of Building Monasteries,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, “Many lineage lamas of the lamrim built monasteries. I understand that business people who are not Buddhist may not understand the benefits of building monasteries, but if you are saying it has no meaning to build a monastery, then all those lineage lamas, Buddha himself, the Kadampa masters, those who actualized the path, including Lama Tsongkhapa’s disciples, who established monasteries, made big mistakes.”

Nalanda Monastery has been doing the bi-monthly sojong ritual and the yearly yarne and gayay (rains retreats) since 2009. These rituals and retreats distinguish Nalanda from other Western Buddhist centers. Without them, Nalanda would not be able to call itself a monastery. The monks of Nalanda feel committed to preserving the essential vinaya tradition and organize annual vinaya teachings for the fully ordained monks.

Nalanda Monastery has an increasing potential to be instrumental in preserving the vinaya tradition in the West. All Nalanda monks participate in daily prayers and in the large pujas, such as the Tara puja, the Sixteen Arhats puja, and the Medicine Buddha puja. All these pujas are held weekly. Rinpoche would like some of our Nalanda monks to go to Kopan in 2020 to participate in the Monlam prayer festival, and he would like to see the prayers for the festival translated into English. Perhaps this is an indication that Rinpoche would like Nalanda to organize prayer festivals in the future? It would be another landmark for us.

“When we are studying, a monastery or nunnery offers us the opportunity to study with more supportive conditions and fewer obstacles. Mundane tasks like shopping, cooking, cleaning, and maintenance, etc., are shared by all, freeing up much time and mental space. By studying the Dharma in a large community, we are exposed to more well qualified teachers and students with a broad range of ideas and perspectives, deepening and enriching the quality of our learning. The greater our wisdom of hearing, the greater our wisdom of contemplation will become, and accordingly the greater will be our wisdom gained through meditation. Recognizing such benefits, monastic scholars of the past naturally formed major communities of study and practice, like Nalanda and Vikramashila in India, and the ‘Three Great Seats’ [Ganden Monastery, Sera Monastery, and Drepung Monastery] in Tibet.”

— from “The Benefits of Monasteries and Nunneries,” by Ven. Tenzin Legtsok

Monks viewing land to become Maitreya Pure Land, Lavaur, France, August 2019. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery.

Purchasing the Property

The realization of this project to purchase the neighboring property, which will help to fulfill Rinpoche’s wishes, relies entirely on the kindness and generosity of sponsors. All donations, regardless of size, will be most welcome and greatly appreciated.

Geshe Graham Woodhouse, Nalanda director Ven. Gyaltsen, and Nalanda Monastery monks on the property they are seeking to purchase to create Maitreya Pure Land, France, August 2019. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery.

The original asking price was US$1,650,000. However, due to the good will on both sides, the owner will accept US$1,340,000. Our deadline to secure the funding to purchase the property is the end of December 2019. Additionally, we shall need to renovate and adapt the buildings to suit our monastic community, and for this we estimate that a further US$100,000 will be required.

Two Nalanda monks are visiting North America for a promotion and fundraising tour from October to December 2019. They are visiting FPMT centers where they will talk about the benefits of monastic community and the plans to expand Nalanda. As they travel, they are documenting their journey on a Facebook page.

The positive karma generated by making offerings to the monastic community is beyond measure in this and future lives. The Buddha said in the Mindfulness Sutra, “Whoever has built the support [statue] and supporting [temple] well and arranged a place and for the needs of the Sangha will always have more and more happiness and virtue. The virtue can never be wasted or lost, even for millions of eons. One who has built the holy body of Buddha (statue), the holy speech of Buddha (scripture), the holy mind of Buddha (stupa), the kungarawa (temple or shelf for Dharma texts), and establishes the monastery (Sangha), gains very extensive merit, which is never lost and always increases.”

Monastic communities do not just preserve the Dharma and provide a place for monastics, but also help lay people directly and immediately. In this regard, those outside the monasteries are able to collect merit by coming to the monasteries, getting inspired and making offerings. By building monasteries, Buddhist practitioners collected so much merit in the past.

The acquisition of this property will provide benefit for the Dharma and the Sangha in the West for now and for the future. It will also give an opportunity to many lay students to not only develop their Dharma knowledge through our extensive study programs, but to integrate these teachings through intensive meditation practice. This will create the foundation for training more qualified Western teachers in order to benefit all sentient beings.

To give you an idea of the project, Harald Weichhart has made an inspiring video that shows how we envisage the future of the monastery.

Watch the video on Maitreya Pure Land:
https://youtu.be/1RKwuywh-ww

If you want to follow the efforts of the Nalanda monks to raise funds for the Maitreya Pure Land Project, you can find information on their Facebook page, which is called “Nalanda’s North-America Merit Tour” or “NalandasTour.”

The Nalanda monks would be very happy to be invited to present their project directly at a center and to answer any questions. Contact Nalanda.tendar@gmail.com for possibilities.

Please see Nalanda’s website for more details on the project and to offer your support:
https://maitreya.nalanda-monastery.eu/