receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Stupa Fund-draft
DONATE | Read the Latest Stupa Fund News
Building stupas helps develop so much peace and happiness for numberless sentient beings. As a result, wars, disease, and desire will all be pacified. Instead of feeling hopeless, people will gain courage. This is about peace – for the beings who see it, for the whole country, for the entire world, for all sentient beings.
–Lama Zopa Rinpoche
100,000 Stupas for World Peace
Lama Zopa Rinpoche established the Stupa Fund in 1992 with the aim of providing the resources needed for building 100,000 stupas around the world, each a minimum height of 12 feet. Simply seeing a holy object such as a stupa becomes the cause to achieve inconceivable awakening and enlightenment by purifying defilements. This is the special advantage of holy objects, that just by their existence they make it so easy for all living beings to create merit.
The minute you see a holy object you create infinite merits,
So no question, if you actually make prostrations,
Offerings and so forth, you create far greater merit.
—the Sutra of the Mudra of Developing the Power of Devotion
What is a Stupa?
Stupas, one of the most ancient icons in Buddhist art, are powerful symbols of the mind’s limitless potential. In other words, they represent the mind of enlightenment. Stupas are filled with sacred images, mantras and the relics of holy beings. Building or sponsoring a stupa is a very powerful way to accumulate merit and purify negative karma.
Completed magnificent stupa in Thame, Nepal.
Stupas Completed/In Progress
To date, fifty-five stupas have been completed, or are in progress, at FPMT centers and by FPMT students toward this goal of 100,000 stupas around the world. See the current list of completed stupas below.
The stupa fund also covers the cost of materials for making daily tsa tsas and stupas. Every day, three small Kadampa stupas are made, filled and dedicated for anyone who has passed away. In addition three long life deity tsa tsas and 13 Mitukpa tsa-tsas. These are dedicated to any person who is sick with prayers that they may immediately recover, be liberated from samsara, and may achieve enlightenment quickly. In addition, on the eighth day of the Tibetan month, three Eight Medicine Buddhas tsa-tsas are also made and on the thirtieth, one 12-inch Padmasambhava tsa-tsa is made.
Wherever a stupa is built will become a powerful place for healing and a cause for the success of whatever visitors to that place are seeking.
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Northern & Central America
-
Kadampa Stupa (10 feet) at Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, USA
Kalachakra Stupa at Kurukulla Center, Massachusetts USA.
- Lama Yeshe Cremation Stupa (6 feet) at Vajrapani Institute, California, USA
- Lama Yeshe’s Enlightenment Stupa (16 feet) at Vajrapani Institute, California, USA
- Kadampa Stupa (6 feet) at Land of Medicine Buddha, California, USA
- Mahabodhi Stupa, at Land of Medicine Buddha, California, USA
- Kalachakra Stupa (15 feet) at Kurukulla Center, Massachusetts, USA
- Kadampa Stupa (18 feet) at Kadampa Center, North Carolina, USA
- Auspicious Stupa of Many Doors at (14 feet) Milarepa Center, Vermont, USA
- Enlightenment Stupa (16 feet) at Pamtingpa Center, Tonasket, Washington, USA
- Enlightenment Stupa (9 feet) at Gendun Drubpa, Canada
- Enlightenment Stupa (16 feet) Canada
Europe
-
Kadampa Stupa built for Lama Yeshe and International Year of Tibet (1991) at Institut Vajra Yogini, France
Kadampa Stupa at Institut Vajra Yogini, France.
- Enlightenment Stupa (13 feet) at Nalanda Monastery, France
- Descent from Tushita Stupa at Kopavogur, Iceland
- 1 Enlightenment Stupa built for Lama Yeshe Geshe Rabten, Geshe Yeshe Tobden, and Gomo Tulku, at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy
- 1 Reconciliation Stupa built for Lama Yeshe Geshe Rabten, Geshe Yeshe Tobden, and Gomo Tulku, at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy
- Kadampa Stupa at Kushi Ling Retreat Centre, Italy
- Lama Yeshe Enlightenment Stupa at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, UK (Built in 1988, contains, Lama Yeshe’s bone relic, and was consecrated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche)
- Kadampa Stupa at Centro Nagarjuna Valencia, Spain
- Kadampa Stupa with Geshe Thubten Tsering’s ashes at Centro Nagarjuna Valencia, Spain
- Enlightenment Stupa built for Lama Yeshe at Osel Ling, Spain
- Eight stupas at Centro Muni Gyana, Palermo, Italy.
Pacific Region
-
The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion (50 meters, 164 feet), Atisha Center, Victoria, Australia, in progress
Auspicious Stupa with Many Doors at Dorje Chang Institute, Auckland, New Zealand.
- Enlightenment Stupa (9 meters, 29.5 feet) at De Tong Ling Retreat Centre, Kangaroo Island, Australia
- Stupa (12 feet) at Kunsang Yeshe Retreat Centre, New South Wales, Australia
- Victory Stupa at Vajrayana Institute, New South Wales, Australia
- Garden of Enlightenment Stupa at Chenrezig Institute, Queensland, Australia
- Victory Stupa at Chenrezig Institute, Queensland, Australia
- Auspicious Stupa with Many Doors at Dorje Chang Institute, Auckland, New Zealand
- Long Life Stupa (5.2 meters) at Chandrakirti Buddhist Meditation Centre, Nelson, New Zealand
- Enlightenment Stupa at Mahamudra Center, New Zealand
The stupas of Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup (left) and Geshe Lama Konchog at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Asia
- Enlightenment Stupa built for Lama Yeshe at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India
- Auspicious Stupa of Many Doors built for Geshe Rabten at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India
- Parinirvana Stupa built for Geshe Wongdu at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India
- Stupa at IMI House (1 meter, 3 ft) in Sera Je Monastery, India
- Kadampa Stupa (21 ft with 8 smaller stupas) at Root Institute in progress
- Enlightenment Stupa built for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s mother (20 ft), located between Lawudo and Namche Bazaar in a village called Samshing, Nepal
- Stupa for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s mother’s incarnation, Nawang Zhimay, (10 ft), located below Lawudo in a village called Teshok
- Eight Stupas at Kopan Monastery, Nepal
- Geshe Lama Konchog’s Dharmachakra Stupa (35 ft) at Kopan Monastery, Nepal
- Thousand Buddha Relics Stupa for Geshe Lama Konchog’s relics, a row of 8 stupas and a golden stupa for Lama Yeshe’s relics, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal
- Lama Lhundrup’s Stupa (25 ft), Kopan Monastery, Nepal
- Lama Lhundrup’s Stupa at Kopan Nunnery
- Lama Yeshe’s Stupa at Kopan Monastery, Nepal
- Enlightenment Stupa (3 meters) in Boudhanath, Nepal at one student’s house
- Namgyalma Stupa, Losang Drakpa Center, Malaysia
- Victory Stupa at Golden Light Sutra Center, Mongolia
- Enlightenment Stupa at Shakyamuni Buddhist Center, Taiwan
- Geshe Sengye’s stupa in Tibet (20 ft)
- Enlightenment Stupa (18 ft), Taplejung District, Nepal (built by Losang Namgyal Rinpoche)
- Enlightenment Stupa (18 ft), Okhaldunga District, Nepal (built by Losang Namgyal Rinpoche)
- Enlightenment Stupa (21 ft), Lalitpure District, Nepal (built by Losang Namgyal Rinpoche)
- Stupa (18 feet), Okhaldunga District, Nepal (built by Losang Namgyal Rinpoche)
- Nirvana Stupa (18 ft), Rasuwa District, Nepal (built by Losang Namgyal Rinpoche)
- Pepung Stupa (Lotus Stupa) (18 ft), Nuwakot District, Nepal (built by Losang Namgyal Rinpoche)
- Construction of stupa (18 ft) in Rasuwa District, Nepal (built by Losang Namgyal Rinpoche)
- 24.5 ft stupa, Rinchen Jansem Ling, Malaysia.
Photos
Please enjoy this gallery of some of the stupas inspired by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Further Reading
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated “Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas,” which details the benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings, and offering service to stupas.
- You can learn more about stupas in this online collection, Stupas: a Resource Guide.
- “Stupas in Everyday Life,” advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
- “Notable FPMT Holy Objects Around the World,” from Mandala magazine, April-June 2010.
——— Stupa Fund News & Updates
The Stupa of Complete Victory at Kopan Monastery Reaches the Vase Level!
Alcohol and Other Drugs Program participants gazing with arms locked at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, January 2019. Photo by Alyce Crosbie.
Offer Your Compassionate Support
The Stupa Fund is a project of FPMT Inc. and is administered by FPMT International Office located in Portland, Oregon, United States. All donations made to this fund are tax-deductible within the United States in accordance with IRS Code article 501(c)(3) to the extent allowed by law.
For larger donations, wire transfers, or check donations, contact FPMT Donor Services.
For questions about the Social Services Fund activities, please contact the Charitable Projects Coordinator.