LAMA LA CHAG TSAL TOD

Tashi delek dear sangha friends, relatives and also those we don’t even know but which received this letter somehow.

Since some time more and more people from Europe ask for news about the gompa and its activities. As we are unable to report to each of you individually in detail and because of the forthcoming events we decided to write a kind of newsletter which will give you an idea of what is going on, what are the plans and problems and also a few ideas and inspirations.

Who lives right now at gompaland and what is their job or duty?

Passang together with his wife Chandrakala and his two year old daughter Dawa Lhamo are the longest staying at gompaland. He is a kind of handyman, caretaker for the gompaland who has an eye and hand at every work which is going on. Already as a young boy he was helping out at Rinpoche’s home.

Besides him we (Anne, Sebastian and Yeshe) still live here. Since we have finished our retreat, we tried to make ourselves somehow useful and right now our main baby –besides Yeshe- is the library for which we just prepared a catalogue and ordered two big bookshelves units. More about that we will write a bit later this letter. Then there is Kela and Choesang, two brothers from Zilnon village in Sikkim close to Tashiding. These two brothers were among the first young monks residing at our gompa and with that we reach one of the main themes of this letter

Kela Dorje Lepcha (13) and Choesang Dorje Lepcha (12) belong to a fairly well educated Sikkimese family. Their father is a lama and Tibetan teacher and as well as their mother. Both joined school till class 4 and 3 and both do speak a little bit English. They came to our gompa last year in December together with two other boys and Lama Kunzang (also from Zilnon) who was supposed to be their teacher and lama. It was planned that these four boys should be trained and educated at our gompa to become a lama. Besides them, Lama Kunzang brought his whole family consisting of three boys (one not even a year old) and his wife.

To make it short, Lama Kunzang left the gompa together with his family and two of the four boys and returned to Sikkim. Why he left is not clear because he never really talked about it. Just one day he said: “Tomorrow we will leave.” We all (Ugen, Sashi, Anne and Sebastian) tried to talk with them in order to find out what happened with them in order to find out what happened but without success. However we think it simply was too much work and a too hard climate for them, so they preferred to leave us and the gompa. He has a lot of skills but honestly, he was not able to cope with his task as a teacher and leader of monks. Now Kela and Choesang are the only two left here. Their parents wish them both still to be educated at our gompa. Unfortunately they have almost lost a year because Kunzang taught them nothing they did not knew already. After Kunzang left, Ugen and Sashi taught them for some time but they really have enough work to do as you will see later on.

Ugen is looking out for a new teacher (and also takes Choezangs and Kelas father was supposed to do so) but he is thinking he won’t find any this year. Instead he got already a few applications for little monks from Darjeeling and Mirik but had to tell their parents to wait until our gompa is ready to educate them or watch out for other possibilities.

For Kela and Choesang we try to do with them at least one small puja a day and a big one at the special days like Guru Rinpoche Day. From time to time we take them out. For example once we were for a visit at Kalu Rinpoche’s gompa in Sallugara and another time we have been to a Mela (a fair) but that is all we can do for them. The problem is to find a teacher with a sense of responsibility who is able and willing to deal with the climate and a gompa in its infancy. But who will do this as Rinpoche is barely known among the young lamas today!

In order that these two boys don’t lose much more of their precious time to learn, a solution for that problem has to be found. But also we have to say we are glad and grateful that these two remained when all others were going.

The next big theme is the chorten (stupa) in which the relics of Kyabje Khordong Terchen Tulku Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche, our precious teacher will remain.

The construction is ready up to the bumpa, the chortens spherical main part. What is left to do is the cho khor chog sum, the chortens conical top. The steps at the square throne are already filled with tsatsas. The throne itself will remain as a visitable room with Rinpoche’s statue and maybe some painting inside.

During the next days the same Bhutanese artist which made the statues inside our gompa will start working at Rinpoche’s 5 feet high sculpture. He also is supposed to make a 45 feet high Dorje Drollo for the window at the bumpa. For both he needs approximately one month.

Right now there is a Lama from Chorten Gompa in Gangtok painting the Srog Shring, the heart or spine of the stupa.

The Srog Shring is made of a pine tree from Tashiding. In its lower end a dorje is carved and on its top a little golden painted stupa is shining. Small holes have been drilled into the Srog Shring and were filled with ringtsel (Yang Dru relic) of the first Buddha Od Srung and Kubal (relics) of Guru Rinpoche, Longchen Rabjam, Ku Drub and many other precious gurus and siddhas. These relics were handed over by Kyabje Dodrubchen Rinpoche to Ugen for this purpose.

On October 16th, 9-10 lamas from Chorten Gompa are expected to come and start with the preparation for a puja. The next day the Srog Shring wil be placed in the chorten during which a puja will be performed. Later on the bumpa will be filled with many Buddhist scriptures, statues and all kind of precious things. For that reason the Kangyur and Tengyur, the two most important scripture collections in Tibetan Buddhism, have been ordered and Ugen simply has to send the money to obtain them. The Bum, a collection of nyingma tantras, and many other precious objects like statues, jewels etc. were already donated by various people.

By the way, in case anyone of you has the wish to offer something which should be put inside the chorten, he should do so very quickly, because around October 25th will be the closing date for entry. From that day they will start filling the chorten. So hurry up! (Contact us in case you still like to send something. Maybe it is not too late.) The chorten should be completed mid December. The rabne, the traditional consecration ceremony, will be performed by Ven. Choesang Rinpoche. Choesang Rinpoche is Byangter lama who lives at Gonjang Gompa in Gangtok and whose guru was a Bane tulku whose tsawe lama was Tulku Tsolo, the tsawe lama of Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche. Ven. Choesang Rinpoche agreed in general to perform the Rabne, but with reservation. But these details are too much for this letter.

From December 21st (Tse-Chu Guru Rinpoche day – which is this month is dedicated to Dorje Drollo) till December 23rd the Rabne should take place. Ven. Choesang Rinpoche should stay at least till December 25th in order to receive the relics of Lord Buddha Shakyamuni in name of our gompa and all Buddhists around. With this we reached the next big theme.

The Buddharelics.

From December 25th-30th the relics of Lord Buddha shall be displayed at our gompa. What are the Buddha relics?

The Buddha relics are the relics of Buddha Shakyamuni and consists of a teeth and some bone parts (if we remember well). The Mahabodhi Society of India, a more than 100 year old Buddhist association, of which Chhimed Rigdzin was a vice-president, is a kind of caretaker for these relics which are kept in Sarnath, the place where the Buddha preached his first teachings and are only shown to the public once a year for half an hour. Ven. Tulku Thondup Rinpoche explained to us last December that these relics are the only ones accepted by all the Buddhists worldwide as authentic. For the faithful Buddhist (and maybe not only Buddhists) these relics are a great source of spiritual blessing. Because that Ugen and his associates expect more than 100 000 visitors.

In order to organize this quite big event Ugen and Sashi, as acting representatives of the Chhimed Rigdzin Society, together with representatives of many other Buddhist associations from the area around (like Sallugara, Mirik, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Gangtok,…) have formed the “Buddha Relic Exposition Committee 2004” which is divided into 8 other committees which again form diverse committees. (That is the Indian way.) The costs for this event will be covered by donations and for that reason 3000 donation books have been printed and spread. Unfortunately the C.R. Society is still not able to receive foreign donations in a legal way, but Indian donations are now tax free. Also Ugen is making sure that the C.R. Society is not the only responsible for the financial matters. That means in case of a financial loss all the partaking organizations have to cover it by collecting more donations etc. We mention this here because we think it is a very important step as the C.R. Society means our Khordong Gompa. About the event itself, it is planned that Ugen will travel on December 24th to Sarnath and together with two or three members of the Maha Bodhi Society, he will the relics here on the 25th.

As we said the relics will be received at the airport of Bagdogra by Ven. Choesang Rinpoche and brought to gompaland. During that time many eminent local personalities like the Chief Minister of Sikkim will be present. Once at gompaland the relics will be placed for a short while inside Rinpoches stupa. A small puja will be performed and the relics will be displayed to the public in our gompa for 8-12 hours a day till December 30th.

During those 6 days of exhibition about 30 lamas (10 from Tashiding, 10 from Deorali, 10 Gonjang Gompa) will be permanently present and do the pujas and ritual service. About the pujas that time, it was planned before that all kinds of Buddhist groups especially the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism, should have the possibility to do their own traditional ceremonies. But due to many different reasons this is not possible and so now it is left to the nyingmapa and kagyupa. From the 25th till 27th the Drub Khor Nam Sum ceremonies (Drow Khundrol, Rigdzin Nam Sum and Thug Drub) will be performed, and from the 28th-30th the Kagyu led by Ven. Lama Pemba Tsering and his monks from Darjeeling will perform their puja and ceremonies. On December 31st Ugen will bring the relics back to Sarnath and Khordong gompa will return to its daily life, hopefully. That is it for the relics. Now comes the next highlight of this letter.

The Butterlampretreat.

As almost traditional, the butterlampretreat will take place from December 25th till January 14th. On the first 6-7 days the daily schedule might be a bit thought over. Our idea is to do the pujas either before or after lunch so we will have a chance to take part in the events in our gompa to learn something and make ourselves useful. After the 31st we will come back to normal life and should return to the normal schedule as usual. That means:

6.00 Lamps lighting
7.00 Small Rigdzin
8.00 Breakfast
9.30 Big Rigdzin
13.00 Lunch
14.30 Lamps lighting
15.30 Butterlamppuja
19.00 Dinner
20.00 Small Rigdzin
In between the lamps should be cleaned.

Also due to security factors it will not be possible to sleep in a tent during the first days. We all have to stay in bamboo huts or in the hotels around (which are a bit far away.) In order to build the right number of huts we need to know who is coming at least one month before. It needs at least two weeks to make a hut and also it costs something, so we always like to avoid preparing too many huts. What might be of interest for all of Rinpoche’s students is that Tulku Tsering Nyima from Khrodong gompa Tibet, son of Rinpoche’s brother and Ugen’s cousin, is planning to visit us here in India and is supposed to take part in all the events around that time including the Butterlampretreat. We think that would be another source of blessing especially for all of Rinpoche’s students and also another step forward to the cooperation with our sister, or better, mother monastery in Tibet! But at present however this depends upon the approval of the Chinese government , since for Tibetans it is still not allowed to travel freely.

Another piece of news this year: we would like to try to collect the money necessary for the Butterlampretreat or at least for the butterlamps in advance in order to secure the now almost traditional retreat. The reason for that is the decreasing number of participants and the benefits would be:
1. less headaches for the organizers
2. those who have got some money but no time to come here would have a chance to participate in the lightoffering
3. for those coming here with little money the retreat would be cheaper. Maybe if everything turns out extremely nice the retreat could be managed without any fee and you just give a donation however much you like. Wouldn’t that be nice? We think it is worth to test it anyway!

The next thing I would like to share with you is the state of affair at the gompalibrary.

As result of our fundraising action in June we collected about 80000 Rupees (about 1450 Euro). Thereafter we send a second letter around in which we said: “Guys, that is great and quit a lot but yet not enough to realize the idea we had in mind for the library.’

The answers were another 70000 Rupees and many supporting letter, so that we received at the end 150000 Rupees instead of the 100000 Rupees we had asked for. Also in this way again thank you very much to all of you! Meanwhile the euphoria about the many support has cooled down because we realized with two bookshelves it is not done. The carpenters should have finished their work a month ago and they still need more time, the painters work slovenly and we met diverse problems which slowly but for sure will devour all the collected money.

However the bookshelves units will be hopefully ready in December and partly filled with books for which we just prepare a simple catalogue. Also there will be a big round table with six chairs and we will try to isolate the backside of the shelf which is already there build in a timely humid wall.

Not only the cash gets slowly short but also our time staying here is running out. New tasks constantly appear so it looks like the refurbishment of the windows must wait or maybe someone else can take care of it.

So finally we reached the money matters of this letter.

Like always there is also for these events, works and activities a need of money and we are sorry to say but it is a lot! Let’s start with the event which is the most costly one: the exhibition of the Buddharelics. For that such huge amounts are needed that we are too much afraid to go in detail here. But Ugen is trying hard to get some Indian funds. Without this to organize the exhibition would be impossible. But however surely it would give him a great release if we could back him up supporting him financially and mentally. Unfortunately there is also not enough money for the stupa. At least 3 to 400 000 Rupees (7000 Euro) are needed to pay for the Kangyur and Tengyur, the statues and the left work.

Concerning the butterlampretreat we spend last year for

Daalda (lampoil) Rs 1.85.480 or 3500 Euro
Wages Rs 23.440 or 440 Euro
Food Rs 40.318 or 760 Euro
Tshog Rs 39.377 or 740 Euro
Diesel Rs 24.722 or 460 Euro
Electricity (installation and buying) Rs 8.300 or 160 Euro
Lamas Rs 19.000 or 360 Euro
Bamboo huts Rs 15.000 or 280 Euro
Others Rs 3.700 or 70 Euro
TOTAL: Rs 3.59.539 or 6770 Euro

Of course the costs for many things have changed and we might need more money for tshog or dalda this year. But in the end it depends upon us what we can afford to offer. Personally we thin it would be wonderful if we could manage to collect the money for the dalda (lampoil) before the retreat starts and so the offering of the 100 000 lamps would almost be secured. Also we think that the butterlampoffering is a method Rinpoche left us not surely to work for peace and happiness in the world but especially in our own sangha.

As for as we can see the situation here seems to be lying in our hands whether the butterlampretreat takes place and is successful or not.

At present these are the three most important things for which money is needed. Besides that of course there are lots of big little things which have to be done like the windows and the doors in the gompa, the floor on the first floor, the finishing works at the chora, the wall around the gompa and many many more. But it seems this has to wait.

So how can you make donations?

As everything else seems to be a process which takes a long time it will be alright to send your donations directly to our account (and we withdraw it almost weekly when it is needed. But please please in case you send any donation write us when and for what purpose you have send it and try to note it also on you transfer form. Otherwise it will be a big mess and we cannot secure that your donations are used for what they were supposed to. Anne Wanitschek Berliner Sparkasse Bank code: 10050000 Account number: 4164012779 (IBAN: DE58 1005 0000 4164 0127 79 BIC: BE LA DE BE xxx)

Ok now dear sangha friends, relatives and also those we do not even know. It is up to you to support what we were talking about here or not! We can ensure you help is really needed. SO PLEASE HELP!


At the end we want to inform you about the loss of three great beings.

In August Ven. Pema Wangchuk, a childhood friend of Rinpoche, passed away during his three year retreat in Khordong gompa Tibet. Rinpoche announced him to be the head lama of the Khordong gompa in Tibet after Ven. Sonam Ozer, the late head lama expired, but ven. Pema Wangchuk preferred to withdraw himself and start a three year retreat just after Ugens visit.

Also Ven. Gosse Lama likewise an old friend of Rinpoche and head of the gelugpa monastery is Sarnath has expired.

Many of you might already know but Ven. Bokar Rinpoche, a well known and beloved lama of the kagyu order performed the act of impermanence and passed away mid August. For the 49 day ceremony on October 4th a great number of people from all around showed up in Mirk. Among them the 17th Karmapa, young Kalu Rinpoche and many ministers, …


Okay thee was the information we collected for you during the last days. Whatever is written was talked over with Ugen but please do not misunderstand this: everything is prey to impermanence and changes and this is especially powerful in this blessed country like India. What we like to say it that all the plans, problems and ideas may perhaps change. But we, or someone else will try to inform you about the changes and happenings during the next two-three months if possible. No need to say that you always can contact us asyl (ad) khordong.net or anne_wanitschek (ad) hotmail.com or phone 0091 353 2585860 in case you have a special interest, idea or question. We are always happy to receive post and as we told you already, in case you have to send any donation to our account please inform us.

Of course you can also get in contact with Ugen uclama (ad) rediffmail.com or phone 0091 353 2581 358 in order to receive first hand information, but remember he is extremely busy. In the past Ugen has had many problems with his computer and/or emailadress, so maybe it is best to send us a copy of your email to make sure he really got it so we can prevent this misunderstanding. As you wish.

The last now is a personal request to all of you sangha friends.

Please come and show your interest in this place. Not only in December/January but in general. Rinpoche once said to us: “This is my place, here I can protect you.” That means it is also very much our place. The various difficulties should not prevent or stop us to visit this blessed place or stay here also for a longer period and take actively part in shaping the gompa and its environment. This too was Ugens and Sashis wish since ever. It is not that our money is needed but also very much our hands and heads!

In January our (Anne, Sebastian and Yeshe) time here is over and we have to return to Europe. Who then will do regular pujas here? Who will keep an eye on the boys, visitors and workers tell them when they are doing wrong or praise them when they are doing good? Who will take initiative if necessary? Who will do for our gompa whatever has to be done if not the sangha? And how can the sangha help if nobody is there?

It is not that we want to play a moralist, neither do we want someone else to do this here. But we like to show that we are a bit worried and we really like to see some more people taking care for the gompa and not only if a Rinpoche is blessing us with his presence or big events take place.

Today was new moon, the last day of the Tibetan 8th month which this year was announced by the calender as a Da nak (black moon month) and there has been a partial sunecclips – so quite an energetic day. While leaving through the calender we discovered the month in which the events take place will be Tashi dawa (a good black moon month)

With this in mind may it be auspicious! Benefit to all!

Take care and yours in dharma,

Anne, Sebastian and Yeshe

SAMAYA

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***10/2004 ar