A stupa is the most sacred monument in the Buddhist world. It is a symbolic representation of the fully enlightened mind and the path to enlightenment. Buddhist pilgrimage places, from Bodhgaya to Bouddhanath and Borbodur, are famous for their great stupas.

In 1981, Lama Yeshe laid out his vision of a great stupa and supporting community at Atisha Centre, in the Australian bush just out of Bendigo, a city two hours north of Melbourne. The physical realization of his vision has already begun: monk Ven. Thubten Gyatso is building the first FPMT Australian monastery for monks, Thubten Shedrup Ling, near the stupa site.

Ian Green, co-director of Atisha Centre, which has offered some of its land to the monastery and the stupa, explains how this far-reaching project began and describes his visit to Gyantse in July. And he speculates about what’s in store as people come together to build the Great Stupa of Australia.

It must have been a grand place. Sixteen monasteries and colleges, 1,600 monks, a large gompa, and central to it all, the Great Stupa of Gyantse. Now there is one monastery, one gompa, 60 monks and, miraculously, still the Great Stupa of Gyantse. Presiding over them is Kushap Loten-la, the abbot of Gyantse.

In July this year, a party of four Australians – Garrey Foulkes, Peter “Swami” Langham and Peter’s son Tao and I – visited Gyantse, the first step in the ambitious FPMT project of recreating the Great Stupa of Gyantse in the Australian bush.

This incredible idea goes back to August of 1981, when Lama Yeshe laid out a master plan for the establishment of a monastery, hospice, lay community, and the focal point of it all, a “Super Stupa” at Atisha Centre, near Bendigo in Victoria in southeastern Australia. With a stick drawing scratched in the earth, Lama described a massive gompa inside and a library above.

Lama explained his vision for the stupa to Garrey Foulkes and me. Both of us were overwhelmed by its scale. Garrey had brought along a model of a smaller stupa that he had been working on. Lama Yeshe never saw that model. It was in a box, and that’s where Garrey left it. We knew Lama had a think-big attitude, and I remember being keenly aware of the importance of that day.

Two and a half years after his visit to Atisha Centre, Lama Yeshe passed away. Over the next eight years, various plans were drawn up by volunteer architects. Each time, these plans failed to fit the objectives of Lama Yeshe’s successor, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. Then, in early 1994, I received an envelope from Lama Zopa. Inside was a photocopy of a page from a Tibet coffee-table book. Over a photo Rinpoche had scrawled the words: “This is my idea for the stupa in Bendigo.” The photo was of the Great Stupa of Gyantse. This magnificent building, situated in Tibet’s fourth largest city, then became the inspiration for our stupa, the Great Stupa of Australia.

The four of us went to Gyantse accompanied by Lhundup, a trusted monk from Lhasa, who acted as intermediary, interpreter and friend during our stay. In preparation for meeting the abbot, I carried a letter of introduction from Chhime Rigzin, the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Australia.

The abbot lives within an old two-story stack of mud-brick buildings, which at first glance looks fit for animals or perhaps a hay shed. Entering through an old wooden door, we passed into a room of darkness and uneven earthen floors. We were led up two flights of very steep and narrow stairs, around a U-bend corridor, and past a thick hanging cloth to a small, charming room lacquered to a bright shine in orange and red tones. The abbot asked us to sit down and introduced Yeshe, his young assistant, who then began to diligently pour tea (Tibetan for Garrey, sweet for the rest of us) for the duration of the visit. The only breather from the tea was when Yeshe went out to refill the large Chinese thermoses.

We presented Chhime Rigzin’s letter and announced that we were there to study the Gyantse Stupa because we were going to build a replica of it in Australia. Loten-la, a small, frail-looking, but sharp-minded lama, was immediately fascinated. “Do you really intend to build it the same size? Do you realize how much work would be involved in actually finishing something like this off? Would you import workers from the East to do the decorative work?”

After receiving somewhat satisfactory answers to these and other questions, he beamed with pleasure and issued every good wish for the success of the project.

In his youth, the abbot of Gyantse studied at the great Sera Monastery with Lama Yeshe. He remembers Lama fondly, and has heard, with much interest, of his reincarnation as the Spanish boy, Tenzin Osel Rinpoche. But about the future of Dharma in Tibet, the abbot remains philosophical. And like many Tibetans, he feels that we Westerners have “all their luck”: we have the great fortune to have excellent Tibetan teachers and to actually have the Dalai Lama visit our countries.

On the first day’s visit, the abbot donated to us a book in Tibetan on the Gyantse Stupa. He also indicated that our investigations would have every cooperation from the monastery. He instructed Yeshe to show us over the stupa and ensure that anything needed was made available. He also asked that we return the following day as he may have some other offerings for the Australian stupa.

The next day we were again welcomed with copious tea and great warmth. This time the abbot offered a magnificent slate carving of Rabten Kunsang, the founder of the stupa. He presented the carving in what looked like an old oily rag, which we felt could well stay in Tibet. However, to our embarrassment, the abbot explained that the rag was in fact an ancient cloth from the robes of the Shakyamuni Buddha statue that had been housed in the Gyantse gompa for hundreds of years. He also offered an exquisite, ancient tsa-tsa of Buddha and his two main disciples, which had been in the Gyantse Stupa for centuries. We were overwhelmed. All we could do was assure Kushap Loten-la that these offerings would have a pride of place in the Australian stupa. We also committed that should the stupa be build in his lifetime, we would invite him to the official opening. The abbot laughed his head off.

Buddhism is no recent visitor to Bendigo, a city of 80,000 people a hundred miles north of Melbourne. It first came in the 1850s with the Chinese gold diggers. Gold, in fact, has been crucial to the development of Bendigo, which had one of the richest gold fields in Australia’s gold rush. Mining continued there until the 1950s. Bendigo’s golden past is reflected in the grand Victorian streetscape. Today it is an expanding center offering education, medical services, manufacturing, retail and service industries.

Atisha Centre itself is well established and was founded in Bendigo in 1981. The civic leaders of the City of Greater Bendigo have welcomed the establishment of the stupa in their city. Indeed it is seen to have major benefits for Bendigo. The stupa is forecast to become an icon for Australian tourism, and is likely to attract Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world. It will also be of great interest to school groups and those interested in seeking peace and in exploring spiritual paths. Tens of thousands are expected to visit the stupa each year.

The objectives of the stupa are: to educate Australians and overseas visitors about Buddhism. To inspire people to seek a peaceful and spiritual path. To provide a refuge of peace and serenity for all. To be of service to as many sentient beings as possible. “And it should be a place of healing and purification for all who come,” said Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

By being a magnificent work of art, the stupa will indeed inspire and impress. But in the longer term, as Rinpoche has also said, “…by it being attractive and special in this way, sentient beings will receive the positive imprints on their minds of renunciation and the path and the achievement of enlightenment, which is the cessation of all the obscurations and the achievement of all the qualities. Since there is no way for sentient beings to be liberated and achieve peerless happiness, full enlightenment, except from their own side by creating good karma, it is therefore our responsibility to give the opportunity to others by creating the conditions.”

Like Gyantse, Bendigo can be a harsh landscape. But while the Gyantse Stupa is located in a barren, rocky enclave, the Australian stupa will be surrounded by a magnificent garden. Visitors will be encouraged to walk through the garden and to ascend the stupa in the appropriate clockwise direction.

A key feature of the Gyantse Stupa is the seventy-five temples that depict in sequential order the pantheon of 15th century Tibetan Buddhism. This aspect of the Australian stupa may well be different. However the principle of gaining deeper understanding with each higher level will probably be retained. Lower levels of the stupa may, for example, introduce the Jataka tales of Buddha’s past lives. Higher levels may relate the life-story of Shakyamuni Buddha. The top levels will introduce more advanced concepts, while the tantric deities may be represented in the major chapels at the very top in the bumpa, or vase, of the stupa. Inside, the gompa may well have many features of traditional large Tibetan temples. Such features are large chapels on three sides, an elevated central section where enormous statues rise up to the floors above, and large statues of the past, present and future buddhas.

The interior of the gompa would be used for pujas and lectures for Buddhist groups. It would also be designed to present an overview of Buddhism to visitors.  Guides would be available to show visitors and especially school children over the stupa. This may well provide some employment for monks at Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery.

Lama Zopa has asked that a large entrance to the stupa grounds be decorated with the elephant, monkey and bird symbolic of cooperation and harmony. Also included in the concept for the stupa are a shop and kiosk. The shop would sell books on Buddhism plus various gift items, many of which could be created by Buddhist monks and nuns. The kiosk would serve good value vegetarian meals.

At this stage no final cost estimates are available for the construction of the monastery and stupa. However it can be said that the costs will run into many millions of dollars. A major fund raising effort will be geared up in the near future with funds being sought from around Australia and from Buddhists around the world.

During our visit to Gyantse, we undertook a detailed photographic and video record of the stupa. We also took accurate measurements of each level of the monument. A one-hour video of this trip to Tibet and the stupa project is now available. A free newsletter on the stupa and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery projects at Atisha Centre is also available. All enquiries can be directed to Ian Green at Atisha Centre.