LAMA GAUN TASHI RABTEN Ling MONASTERY
Lama Guan Tashi Rapten Ling Monastery Vision
We are guided by H. E. Chöden Rinpoche’s enduring ethical conduct, scholarship and Buddhist insightful practices to ensure the struggles and suffering of beings in this world are lessen and eventually eliminated.Lama Guan Tashi Rapten Ling Monastery Mission
The Lama Gaun Campus is dedicated to generating the highest quality Buddhist practitioners who succeed in academic scholarship and applied Buddhist spiritual values. Our mission is to educate students—lay practitioners and monks—to become exemplary beings filled with loving-kindness, compassion and wisdom. With these qualities, our students will be the vanguard becoming significant and positive change agents in this world.Lama Guan Tashi Rapten Ling Monastery Core Values and Principles
- We will treat ourselves and others with the deepest heartfelt respect and kindness.
- We will educate the whole person, academically and spiritually.
- We will abide by and live for the Buddha’s definitive teachings on living truthfully and fully.
- Integrity, honesty and helping others will be our constant attitude and behavior.
- Creating a dynamic, inclusive loving community is our central motivation.
Lama Guan Tashi Rapten Ling Monastery Transparency
As a Buddhist educational institution, we will hold the highest values of integrity, communication and safety for all our residents, staff and the varied people who use our facilities. We will honor individuals paying close attention to their needs and reflect the Buddhist values of lessening suffering through learning and practice. With this in mind, we will be transparent in our deepest motivation to cause no harm, but to work for the betterment of all.LAMA GAUN TASHI RABTEN LING MONASTERY HISTORY
In 2012, Gyalten Khen Rinpoche and H.E Chöden Rinpoche were traveling from San Francisco to Taiwan after completing many teachings in the United States to resume their teaching schedule in Taiwan. While boarding the plane to Taiwan, Rinpoche told Khen Rinpoche how wonderful it would be if there was a retreat place for his many students, who were at that time dispersed and undertaking retreats in Dharamsala, India and many other Himalayan regional countries, to have a central place of their own. In response, without giving it a second thought, Khen Rinpoche vowed to bring into fruition the construction of a monastery campus that would provide everyday necessities such as lodging and food, medical services and the essential Tibetan Buddhist and secular curricula and activities for Rinpoche’s existing followers and many children who would become futures monks, or principle, morally upright citizens in their various communities.
With the firm conviction of Chöden Rinpoche and his many blessings, Khen Rinpoche began to search for a conducive plot of land to build a monastery campus in Indian and Nepal. In 2013, Khen Rinpoche found an ideal and beautiful site near the village of Lama Gaun, Nepal. The land is located in the Pharping area on the southern edge of the Kathmandu valley, about 26 kilometers, 12 miles from Kathmandu. Presently it is a part of the Dakshinkali municipality. This area is known as one of Buddhists most holy pilgrimage destinations. It is considered very sacred and historically many meditators have attained high levels of realizations in this area. Therefore, it is a highly blessed site. Khen Rinpoche immediately fell in love with this perfect place to build the monastery for study, practice and retreat.
Soon afterwards, Khen Rinpoche left to meet and check with Chöden Rinpoche in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Rinpoche confirmed the auspiciousness of the site and gave the name to the future monastery as Lama Gaun Tashi. In 2014, the land was purchased and construction of the monastery was initiated soon after. The initial part of the monastery was successfully completed between the years 2014-2019.
Because the construction of the Lama Gaun monastery is to fulfill the divine vision of H.E Chöden Rinpoche, that is to nurture and educate young boys to become compassionate beings who will contribute to making societies better, Khen Rinpoche through the help of many international students has begun to fulfill Chöden Rinpoche’s mission and vision.
Gyalten Khen Rinpoche’s endeavor is to educate young boys to become adept monks, to provide free facilities for the long-term retreatants, to create a conducive environment for all people globally to visit, learn, contemplate and meditate to realize their fullest potential. The first cadre of young boys were recruited to the monastery from Mustang province very near the Tibetan border in 2018.
Shortly after the main monastery building was brought to completion on October 19, 2019 the opening ribbon cutting ceremony was conducted by H.E Ling Rinpoche, the chief guest of Khen Rinpoche. Also present were many dignitaries, such as, representatives of local governmental departments, NGOs, abbots, many rinpoches, guests from various monasteries and approximately eight-hundred monks, nuns and people from international and local areas. The opening ceremony was followed by prayers, blessings and traditional Tibetan and Nepali entertainers.
For the first time, a week-long teaching and retreat on mind training and Tara practice was taught by Gyalten Khen Rinpoche, the abbot of Lama Gaun Monastery Campus.
At this time, there are seven geshes, many of whom are dedicated to life-time retreat on the campus. Eventually Khen Rinpoche wishes to extend his loving support to 20 life-time retreatants. Also, presently there are 50 junior student monks studying hard to learn and integrate the Buddhadharma and secular studies. Khen Rinpoche’s hope is that within a decade Lama Gaun Campus will be a thriving Buddhist educational campus with hundreds of young monks, programs for international retreatants, a health clinic/hospital and a center of well-being for the local residents. This is just a beginning, as the campus will grow into a center of learning, love and compassion in many ways yet unforeseen.