NEWS & CURRENT ACTIVITES

18 December, 2014 Bodhgaya
The arrival of His Holiness the Sakya Trizin at Tergar monastery on December 18th, 2014 marked an historic re-connection between the Karmapa lineage and the Sakya Trizin. Previously the 16th Karmapa, Rigpe Dorje, nurtured the young Sakya heir when he first came to India, for which HH Sakya Trizin later expressed his gratitude in a letter.

For over an hour an estimated one thousand people stood patiently holding ceremonial scarves and incense as they lined both sides of the one kilometre road that leads to Tergar. The Karmapa made his own car available for HH Sakya Trizin and his two sons, Khondung Vajra Ratna Rinpoche and Khondung Gyana Vajra, on their journey from Patna to Bodhgaya. As the car approached Tergar Monastery, a procession befitting royalty escorted it. Monks and lamas bedecked in dazzling orange Read the rest of this article

3 December, 2014
In commemoration of World Disability Day 2014, 30 children with learning disabilities were invited to Tergar Monastery for a special audience with the Gyalwang Karmapa.

All are students at a newly-established unit on the campus of the local Bodhi Tree School. On the very day that the unit opened, they came with their mothers and teachers to receive the Karmapa’s blessings. Regular students from Class IX at the school accompanied them. Most of the children, who come from the villages around Bodhgaya, are Dalits from very deprived backgrounds
His Holiness smiled at the children, welcomed everyone and gave a short talk.

“Your human life is very important,” he began. ” I offer prayers that all of you may have great happiness in this life.”
He went on to say that all human beings faced difficulties and Read the rest of this article

26 November, 2014, Tergar Monastery, Bodhgaya
Each winter, monks from Kagyu shedras [monastic universities] across India and Nepal gather together under the guidance of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa to engage in a month of intensive study and vigorous debate. This annual event is called the Gunchö, a Tibetan word which means ‘winter dharma’. This is its eighteenth year. The 2014 Gunchö was inaugurated by the Karmapa on the 20th November, before he left for his teaching programme in Delhi, and will continue until 17th December. The eight shedras participating in the debate competition this year are: Karma Shri Nalanda Institute from the Karmapa’s seat in Rumtek; Lungrik Jampal Ling from Situ Rinpoche’s Sherab Ling Monastery; Rigpe Dorje Institute from Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche’s monastery in Lava; Vajra Vidya Institute, from Khenchen Thrangu Read the rest of this article

November 9, 2014, Tergar Monastery, Bodhgaya

Khöndong Ratna Vajra Rinpoche visited the Gyalwang Karmapa at Tergar Monastery this morning. Rinpoche was received with the highest honours and escorted in procession to the Karmapa’s residence, where the two spiritual leaders spent half-an-hour in private conversation. The Karmapa then presented Ratna Vajra Rinpoche with a Buddha statue and a facsimile of a rare practice text, the Nag-gyal-phag-sum. The author and compiler of this text was the Fifth Shamarpa, Kunchok Yenla and the original was printed in gold ink on black paper.

Following the meeting, Chamsing Ngodup Pelzom, the Karmapa’s elder sister, escorted Rinpoche on a tour of the International Kagyu Monlam site, visiting the administration block and the Monlam Read the rest of this article

(5 November, 2014 – Bodhgaya) The Gyalwang Karmapa left Tergar Monastery at 9 am today to pay homage at the central shrine of Buddhism, the Mahabodhi Temple, home to the Bodhi tree and other sites linked with the time when Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment.

Mr N.T. Dorje, Secretary of the Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee, and the Head Monk-in-Charge the Venerable Bande, welcomed the Gyalwang Karmapa.

Gyalwang Karmapa walked into the complex, down the central steps and headed directly to the Mahabodhi temple shrine room. Devotees from around the world greeted him along the way. Flanking both sides of the pathway, they proffered pink and lilac lotus blossoms or ceremonial white scarves, and asked for his blessing. Inside the shrine room, His Holiness first offered a three-piece set of robes of hand-woven golden silk to the image Read the rest of this article