Compassionate Activities

Monasteries

Sustaining Tradition:

Pema Ewam Chokgyur Gyurme Ling Monastery

Pema Ewan Chokgyur Gyurme Ling, also known as Chokling Monastery, offers us an intimate glimpse into Tibetan monastic life as it exists today in India. To visit Chokling Gompa is at once to peer into a distant past and to witness an ancient contemplative tradition surviving with undiminished power in the modern age. Located in Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche's hometown of Bir, India, Chokling Monastery was established in the 1960's by his father the 3rd Neten Chokling Rinpoche, an emanation of the great tertön Chokgyur Lingpa, following the mass exodus of refugees from Tibet. For this reason Kongtrul Rinpoche and MSB maintain a close connection to the health and well being of the monastery, now under the care of the 4th Neten Chokling Rinpoche.

Over time and through many phases of construction the Chokling Monastery has fully re-established itself with a complex of temples and stupas, monks quarters, and a three year retreat center, all painstakingly furnished with statues, thangkas and wall paintings. This has taken place along side the development of Bir Colony itself, while still preserving the practice lineage, including the numerous annual drupchens that the monastery is known for. Download a history of Chokling Monastery and Bir, here.

Monastic communities were once the focal point of much of Buddhism in Tibet, enjoying a relationship of mutual dependence with surrounding villages, in a culture that revered the choice to devote one’s life to dharma through monastic vows. That reverence continues today in Bir, even amidst the many attractions of modernity, as seen in the daily practices and rituals inside the monastery, and ceaseless stream of villagers circumambulating the outside of the gompa from morning till night.

If you would like to make a donation to Chokling Monastery, please click here: Sustaining Tradition: Chokling Monastery.

Watch wonderful archive footage of Bir and Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche’s family: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XzWVXLrVNE

Read more about the Neten Chokling line as told by Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche:

http://www.rangjung.com/authors/Neten_Chokling_tulku_line.htm

Tsokar Monastery

Far from Bir, in the Riwoche province of eastern Tibet, sits Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche's own monastery, Tsokar. As so many others, Tsokar Monastery was all but destroyed in the 1950's and 60's. The strength and determination of the monks who have continued to uphold the lineage shows another side of this tragic story: the indomitable spirit that comes from a mind steeped in practice and the Buddhist outlook.

Tsokar monastery is situated just within the Tibetan Autonomous Region, making access extremely difficult to those who live outside this region. After many years of slow progress, the monastery has finally been rebuilt and was consecrated in the fall of 2010. This monumental accomplishment was made possible by Tsokar Khyentse Sogyal Rinpoche (pictured here in the yellow robes with other senior monks from Tsokar Monastery). Kongtrul Rinpoche found Tsokar Khyentse in the 1990's and installed him as the Head Lama of Tsokar. He is from a noble family in which many lamas have been born and offered great service to beings in the region. Tsokar Khyentse's commitment to the monastery and the monks have been a great source of joy for Kongtrul Rinpoche, as their partnership now ensures the legacy of the monastery and the surrounding community.

Tsokar has returned to its full functionality with the traditional daily, and monthly rituals and offerings, and the ongoing operation of the three-year retreat center, for which the monastery is well known. The main temple, including the monks quarters and kitchen have all been rebuilt, together with a near by school for the local children. In the rebuilding of Tsokar Monastery, the rejuvenation of the traditional balance of support between lay and monastic communities that has been the backbone of Tibetan Buddhist culture for centuries, has once again some measure of security. But this security is still under threat.

Up until now the monks have always begged for their food, traveling from village to village, collecting enough tsampa and dried cheese to last them through the winter. But, due to modernization and development, this is becoming increasingly difficult and unreliable. Kongtrul Rinpoche intends to provide this much needed support to the monks of Tsokar.

How You Can Help

Please join in the merit of Sustaining Tradition in both Chokling Monastery and Tsokar Monastery. They both welcome your gifts. You may make a donation via our Store, or mail your check to Mangala Shri Bhuti, PO Box 4088, Boulder, CO 80306 with the name of the project you wish to support in the memo. For more information, contact Sasha Dorje Meyerowitz.