FPMT News Around the World

Osel Hita speaks at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, April 2012. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

“The first step for harmonious communities is to be aware of your own actions and thoughts,” Osel Hita told a group of students in April 2012. 

A 50-minute recording of the talk is now available online. This was the first time Osel had spoken to a group of Western Dharma students in over a decade. Gomo Tulku also joined the discussion, which took place at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy.

In 2010, Osel Hita and Gomo Tulku along with Ling Rinpoche and Cherok Lama participated in a roundtable discussion with Mandala about being recognized as reincarnated “lamas” and the future of Buddhism. The young FPMT notables offered fresh and original views on how Buddhism fits into the 21st-century world.

“Religion is moved by the people,” Osel told Mandala. “It is connection between the unknown and known universes within and outside of us. Like many other religions, Buddhism is one more way of understanding and growing closer to our true essence.” 

Gomo Tulku, perhaps even more than his compatriots, is pushing into new territories, pursuing a long-held interest in becoming a musician. He has just released his second music video today, called “Let Me Down.”

You can learn about new recordings and teachings along with the latest FPMT news by reading the FPMT International Office News, a monthly e-newsletter. Subscribe online to have it delivered directly to your email inbox.

With 159 centers, projects and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.

Dr. Renuka Singh interviews His Holiness the Dalai Lama for her book Women Reborn. In it, His Holiness discusses his greatest spiritual accomplishments and struggles, celibacy, and separating from his mother at a young age, among other topics.

From Mandala January-February 1998.

As president of the Tibetan Women’s Association, Rinchen Khadro was the inspiration and energy behind many of the social welfare projects to help the Tibetan refugee community in India. 

American nun Ven. Thubten Chodron talked to Rinchen Khadro (in October 1992) about her views about social work activities.

From Mandala November-December 1999.

FMPT News Around the World

Kadampa stupa construction at Kadampa Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, May 2012

Kadampa Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, is making impressive strides with its project to build a new Kadampa stupa. The center reports, “For two months, we had been designing and building all the remaining concrete parts for the stupa ‒ an ‘upper cylinder’ to complete the vase section, a lid for the cylinder, and a harmika. These have all been built to sizes and shapes that we have been taught by Jampel Lama, who of course is with us every day in person, and by his comrades who are back in Nepal.”

Jampel watches as the assembled upper cylinder, lid and harmika are moved by forklift.

With the aid of a forklift, center members moved the concrete pieces weighing well over 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms) each, making sure they all fit together.

With the completion of the last concrete parts, the stupa is ready for the blessing and filling ceremony. At the blessing ceremony, the cylinder will be filled with mantras and precious substances, and then the lid and harmika will be lifted into place and the ceremony completed.   

Jampel, who supervised the construction and decoration of the stupa at Kurukulla Center, will be adding more decorations to the harmika. You can see some of the decorations (above) that have already been completed on the throne section.

The stupa is situated in view of both passing drivers and those traveling by train on nearby tracks as advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 

With 159 centers, projects and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.

FPMT News Around the World

Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling Director Massimo Corona reports the recent uncovering of a VHS tape from a decade ago, featuring the former CEO of FPMT Mongolia Ueli Minder and Thubten Gyatso (Dr. Adrian Feldmann). The rough but fascinating video documents some of FPMT’s early contributions to the restoration of Buddhism in Mongolia. The 13-minute video, now available on FPMT Mongolia’s YouTube channel, includes footage of the renovation of a historic monastery located near Ulaanbaatar where Drolma Ling Nunnery, the first residential Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in Mongolia, was established. Also making a brief appearance in the video is Ven. Bakula Rinpoche, who greatly contributed to the return of Buddhism in Mongolia.

The history of Buddhism in Mongolia is rich, going back to the third century B.C.E. But with the rise of communism in the 1920s and Mongolia’s close alignment with the Soviet Union, Mongolian Buddhists suffered heavy oppression, witnessing the extensive destruction of monasteries and temples and the purging of an extraordinary number of monks and lamas in the late 1930s. The relighting of the lamp of Buddhism in Mongolia signifies the strength and determination of Mongolians to reclaim this nearly lost aspect of their cultural heritage.

Be sure to check out more of Mandala’s recent coverage of Mongolia.

With 160 centers, projects, and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.

This account of a day with Lama Zopa Rinpoche comes from Ven. Thubten Jinpa, Kopan Lama Gyupa, who has often served as Rinpoche’s second attendant and was with him recently in Dharamsala, India. Incredibly inspiring!

From Mandala July-September 2009.

Miffi Maximillion of Langri Tangpa Centre in Brisbane, Australia – “I’ve had one foot in the nether world of boarding houses and the street for years” – makes some down-to-earth recommendations for dealing with mentally unstable people who come to Dharma centers.

From Mandala September-October 1999.

Thubten Pemo speaks with Ani-la Tenzin Palmo in this very early interview from Mandala April 1988. Ani-la Tenzin Palmo later became Jetsünma Tenzin Palmo, a title recognizing for her significant spiritual achievements and bestowed on her by His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa. 

From Mandala April 1988.

FPMT News Around the World

Gunjiimaa translating in Mongolia

It is with sadness that we share the news of Gunjiimaa Ganbat passing away. After struggling with a very difficult to treat form of drug-resistant tuberculosis, Gunjiimaa died in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on April 1, 2012. Gunjiimaa made significant contributions to the development of FPMT Mongolia, including serving as an FPMT Mongolia translator, as Ven. Thubten Gyatso’s (Adrian Feldmann) Mongolian translator and as the previous director of the FPMT center in Ulaanbaatar, Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, founded in 2000.

“Gunjii,” as she was fondly known, was also the driving force in connecting MK Sen, current CEO of FPMT Mongolia, with several parties able to offer the help and assistance needed for Rinpoche’s priority projects in Mongolia. Gunjii was part of the special team overseeing these projects. Her immense personal contributions to ensure the success of each project will remain as testimony of her faith and devotion to her guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. As MK puts it, “Gunjii will be irreplaceable and a great loss to FPMT Mongolia. We pray for her blessed rebirth.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was reached very soon after Gunjiimaa’s death and was able to give advice to those near her. Rinpoche also immediately did Vajrayogini powa and other prayers and then requested Khadro-la to also do the necessary prayers and practice for Gunjiimaa.

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When reading an obituary or an announcement of death in Mandala, Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises that students make prayers for the recently deceased that they “find a perfect human body, meet a Mahayana guru and become enlightened quickly, or be born in a pure land where the teachings exist and they can become enlightened.”

Advice and practices for sickness and death can be found on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice page and at the Foundation Store.

In the late 1960s, Åge Delbanco (also known as Babaji) followed the “hippie trail” from Denmark to India and then found his way up Kopan Hill in Nepal. He arrived about a year after Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Zina Rachevsky had begun creating what would become Kopan Monastery. Later, he went to Vajrapani Institute in Boulder Creek, California, and ended up staying for 13 years. Wolf Price talked to Åge about the early years at Kopan and the time he spent at Vajrapani. From Mandala April-June 2012.