Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India – April 1, 2010

From Ven. Roger Kunsang:

5:30 a.m. …. We’re scrambling to get the White Tara long life puja ready, preparation begins at 6 a.m.

Suddenly, Dagri Rinpoche arrives with Namgyal Monastery’s umze who will lead the puja for Rinpoche! Sangpo and a few others are rushing to get breakfast. Kunsang, flies off with his audio equipment and zen dragging along the ground, half asleep.

Quite a large tribe of monkeys appear at the door blocking the entrance.

With breakfast finished, preparation for puja starts. The long life initiation starts at 8 a.m. when Rinpoche arrives. It has to finish by 10 a.m. because the Hayagriva retreat group has an appointment with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rinpoche hasn’t done White Tara long life puja before, but it goes quite smoothly with the help of the Tibetans and with  lots of help from Tushita staff and volunteers in the background – they have done an excellent job. After the long life puja, everybody immediately rushes to get ready to walk down to His Holiness’ temple for the audience.

10:30 a.m. ….  I’m in Rinpoche’s room and of course it is a little crazy trying to organize all the specialty, amazingly designed gifts: a large crystal swan full of gems (crystals, pearl beads, different colored quartzes, zircons) appearing like it’s dripping with wealth;  another big crystal vase filled with pearls, beads, zircons and different colored crystals; a 4-foot x 3-foot,

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with His Holiness, March 2010

beautifully framed picture of the Potala in 3D; Lama Tsongkhapa statues and his two main disciples (from Ven.Pemba) and much more….

We manage to load everything into the jeep and balance all the gifts as we rush down the hill. With us in the jeep is the young, 4-year-old reincarnation of Ribur Rinpoche, his father and Oser Rinpoche.

We arrive at His Holiness’ Private Office and meanwhile there are 120 Hayagriva retreatants going through the slow but detailed security process. We get through that and we are inside the temple grounds waiting for our appointment.

Haircutting ceremony with His Holiness and Ribur Rinpoche's reincarnation

We arrange three different group photos with His Holiness because the group is too big. Then, His Holiness says he would like to speak to the group in his audience room. While the retreatants are going to the audience room, His Holiness meets with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ribur Rinpoche’s incarnation and conducts the haircutting ceremony for Ribur Rinpoche’s incarnation.

His Holiness moves very quickly through several other rooms that have different groups of people waiting in them. These groups briefly meet His Holiness and photos are taken all in a matter of minutes. Then His Holiness comes into our audience room and gives a very, very nice talk to the retreatants for about 30 minutes. His Holiness departs, giving Rinpoche a friendly slap on the back.

Rinpoche with His Holiness and some of the retreatants from the Hayagriva retreat

As they leave, the retreatants are given blessed pills and a poster of the 17 Nalanda pundits. Everybody is very, very happy.

Rinpoche rushes back to attend a benefactor’s dinner and then is interviewed about FPMT on video. This was set up by the Tibetan information minister.

Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India – March 31, 2010

From Ven. Roger Kunsang:

It is midnight….Rinpoche is relaxed and quietly dictating letters to students about practice, I am talking on the phone to International Office, Sangpo is organizing the gifts that Rinpoche will offer to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kunsang is just finishing on the computer with an audio of Rinpoche’s teachings.

6 a.m…. The preparations for the long life initiation are well underway. White Tara Long Life Puja will be offered to Rinpoche. Students are still in the gompa (they’ve been working all night) doing the last preparations and decorations. The teenage monkeys are asleep.

Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India – March 30, 2010

From Ven. Roger Kunsang:

At 1:30 a.m., Rinpoche  finished teaching how to do the visualization for the fire puja of Most Secret Hayagriva.

The retreatants started reciting the sadhana at 5 a.m., and at 7:30 a.m., Rinpoche joined them to conclude the retreat with certain rituals.

At 9 a.m., Dagri Rinpoche preformed the first fire puja with about 50 retreatants. After lunch, Keutsang Rinpoche will preform another fire puja with the reamining 50 retreatants.

The teenage monkeys have been quiet today….

Rinpoche’s long life puja starts early tomorrow, 6 a.m., and preparations are being made.

Rinpoche is currently doing prayers and not talking. Occasionally, he sends a hand written note with instructions for the next activity to be done. And, as usual, people have been eager to schedule an appointment with Rinpoche before he leaves!

Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India – March 29, 2010

From Ven. Roger Kunsang:

It is 3 a.m. and I have been helping Rinpoche write letters to his students. One letter has been done in three stages, and we are currently on the fifteenth page….

It is now 7 a.m. in Tushita Meditation Centre’s gompa on the last day of the three-week Hayagriva retreat. Rinpoche has arrived with Dagri Rinpoche and Keutsang Rinpoche to attend the all-day Hayagriva Tsok Kong, a very extensive Hayagriva puja.

Meanwhile, a lot of teenage monkeys are partying outside in the monkey amusement park that Rinpoche has created. One has been wearing what’s left of Rinpoche’s underskirt up in a tree.

Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India – March 28, 2010

From Ven. Roger Kunsang:

Every day during the Hayagriva retreat, Rinpoche has been offering a party to the monkeys. Rinpoche has provided the monkeys with a very nice setup. Three big basins serve as their baths and swimming pools. They’ve been given lots of different colored plastic balls that they can throw around and play with. Also, there are lots of plastic bottles filled with water – perfect for playing with and punching. Rinpoche throws food out to them daily:  chocolate, fruit, biscuits, bread, puffed rice – everything that is edible in the house.

Today was unusual because it seemed that there was an abnormal amount of teenage monkeys and they were extremely wild. They were bouncing off the roof, hitting windows, going from tree to tree, bumping into each other and jumping into the water basins for almost three hours. It was a completely wild scene!

The other day, one monkey stole Rinpoche’s underskirt that was hanging outside on the roof to dry. The monkey managed to wrap Rinpcohe’s underskirt around him, like a cape, and eventually over his head, causing him to freak out and fall out of the tree. When that happened, he went wild and ripped it in half. It now hangs in two pieces up in a tree.

Welcome to this special new feature of the Mandala website, our first blog: Life on the Road with Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

FPMT’s CEO, Ven. Roger Kunsang, is on the road with Lama Zopa Rinpoche most of the year serving as Rinpoche’s tireless attendant, a post he’s kept since 1986. We at FPMT International Office keep up daily with Ven. Roger through email, Skype and phone. We are fortunate to receive many inspiring stories, updates and anecdotes from Ven. Roger as he accompanies Rinpoche around the world. Further, anyone fortunate enough to attend to Lama Zopa Rinpoche invariably emerges with amazing stories of a true bodhisattva in action.

And now, through this blog, we’ll be able to share these communications with you.

As Ven. Roger’s schedule and time are unpredictable, we can’t promise he’ll be posting regularly. But we can promise, when he does, you’ll be afforded a rare glimpse into the FPMT organization, as well as the daily life of our precious spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. When Ven. Roger isn’t available, we’ll post stories from Rinpoche’s other attendants as well as little gems from Rinpoche’s house in California.

Thanks for reading and enjoy!

The Mandala team

One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT is for FPMT centers to display large thangkas and host festival days where these thangkas can be enjoyed. 

Large Padmasambhava thangka at Kopan Nunnery, Nepal, December 4, 2015.

Thangkas are painted or appliquéd depictions of deities, venerated spiritual figures, or common religious symbols, usually framed by colorful brocade.

“My wish is for the big centers in FPMT to have these large thangkas.” Rinpoche explained. “This is a way to leave imprints for all these people [who see them], for enlightenment.”

About holy objects, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said, “You may think that a statue or thangka is just a statue or thangka, but it is the transcendental wisdom of dharmakaya, which understands and directly sees absolute truth, as well as conventional truth.”

Large Thangkas & Festivals Around the World

• In 2011-2014 Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, commissioned a 55 ft x 40 ft high stitched appliquéd thangka of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava). More info on this project….
• Chenrezig Institute, Australia, large 1,000-Arm Chenrezig thangka is displayed at the Festival of Tibet each year and seen by over 5,000 people and is the backdrop to political discussions, meditations, concerts, and dharma talks.
• Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, has a large Maitreya thangka which they show during Buddha multiplying days (weather permitting) and during any great occasions at the center.
• Medicine Buddha Festival Day with large thangka (24 ft), Land of Medicine Buddha, CA, USA. Painted by Peter Iseli.
• Ksitigarbha Festival Day with large thangka (9.5 ft), Land of Medicine Buddha, CA, USA.
• Vajrasattva and consort thangka (11.5 ft), Land of Medicine Buddha, CA, USA. Painted by Peter Iseli. 
• Pamtingpa Center, Washington, USA, has a large Tara thangka to which they offer 21 Tara dance.
• Losang Dragpa Centre (LDC), Malaysia. LDC unveiled a large Medicine Buddha thangka as part of their 1,000 Offerings Event, with Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi presiding. This thangka will be featured in an annual festival and offerings event.
• 21 Tara thangka at Institute Vajrayogini, France, 14 meters (46 ft) high and 9 meters (30 feet) wide.
• 35 Buddha thangka, Kopan Monastery, Nepal painted by Peter Iseli. Several smaller copies of Peter’s are also used for display at Kopan. 
• Amitabha Buddha in his pure land accompanied by the eight great bodhisattvas (50 feet x 31 feet), sewn entirely by hand by Tibetan artists in south India. Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore.
• 21 Tara thangka, Tara Institute, Melbourne, Australia. Painted by Peter Iseli. 

Please enjoy a photo gallery of many of these large thangkas being created around the world.

Large Thangka Workshop

Having a workshop to create huge thangkas has long been one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wishes. After many years of planning and discussions with Swiss artist Peter Iseli, this project has become a reality at Institut Vajra Yogini in France. The workshop is 8.5 meters (28 feet) tall. Rinpoche’s first order was a 21 Tara thangka that is 14 meters (46 feet) high and 9 meters (30 feet) wide.

Peter Iseli working on a large 21 Tara thangka in the workshop that Lama Zopa Rinpoche had built for large thangka painting in France.

Peter Iseli: Helping Manifest Rinpoche’s Vision