Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre
Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre | |
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Akong Rinpoche and Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche | |
Date established | 1967 |
Kagyu Samye Ling[pronunciation?] Monastery and Tibetan Centre is a Tibetan Buddhist complex associated with the Karma Kagyu school located at Eskdalemuir, Scotland.
History
Before the present Temple complex was built, Samye Ling centred on just one building, a former
- to make available to the public facilities for study and meditation based on Buddhist and other religious teaching leading to mental and spiritual well-being: and to provide guidance for those in need of such help: and in particular the utilisation of the property known as Johnstone House, Eskdalemuir, for such purposes.[1]
Initially the community there was led there by a Canadian
In 1967 the Johnstone House trustees invited the Tibetan lamas and refugees
Trungpa Rinpoche quickly came into conflict with both Akong Rinpoche and the trustees.[6] He drank heavily and slept with his students. He married one of these, a fifteen-year-old girl at the time the relationship began, attracting press attention.[7] By this time he had already allegedly been banished to a nearby house and allegedly divested by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa of his position as an official representative of the Karma Kagyu lineage. Accounts vary about this supposed event.[citation needed] In 1970 he left for America to form other centres definitively ending his association with Samye Ling, except for a single, brief visit at the end of the 1970s to recover his seals of office, once the Karmapa had agreed to empower him as Vidyādhara, a Holder of the Karma Kagyü Lineage.[8]
For about the decade 1970 onwards Samten, Beru, and Akong Rinpoche together were the main resident Tibetans at the centre. They were joined during 1976 and 1977 by the Mani-pa Lama bLa mChog. During this seminal period of the 1970s, Samye Ling was the main and oldest Tibetan centre in Europe. As such, it received important visits from eminent teachers of many traditions, including first the
In 1969, musicians David Bowie and Leonard Cohen were students at Samye Ling.[4] In fact Bowie not only studied Buddhism at Samye Ling, he almost became a monk there:
"I was a terribly earnest Buddhist at the time [...] I had stayed in their monastery and was going through all their exams, and yet I had this feeling that it wasn't right for me. I suddenly realised how close it all was: another month and my head would have been shaved."[9]
The centre flourished and developed under the guidance of Akong Rinpoche and his brother
Penelope Van Der Have was one of the donors of Rokpa Trust.
Current Trustees include John Maxwell, retired Judge known for his work with the Birmingham Six.
Sean McGovern is the Secretary of Rokpa Trust.
The centre includes one of the first Tibetan temples to be constructed in Western Europe,[10] a large Stupa, and accommodation for those taking a range of courses on Buddhism, meditation, spiritual development and art.
ROKPA trust
The Johnstone House Trust ceased to exist in 1995 and the centre now describes itself as part of the ROKPA trust[11] whose objectives are
- to promote Buddhism and to foster non-sectarian inter-religious dialogue and understanding. To provide medical care and therapy. To provide education. To relieve poverty.[12]
The ROKPA trust administers a number of other centres and projects worldwide, notably the Holy Island Project which has Buddhist retreat facilities and a centre for world peace and health on
A ROKPA International project based at Samye Ling to raise funds for the girls school at Kandze Monastery was successful in reaching its target of £9,449.[15] As at 2010 the trust was actively involved in relief efforts following the Yushu earthquake.[16]
In 2008 the total declared income of the ROKPA trust was £2,916,136. The total funds received for Overseas Projects was £294,586 of which £260,361 was disbursed to ROKPA International.[12]
The trust is planning a further expansion of its Samye Ling temple project involving a major multimillion-pound extension which will eventually house a museum, a library, lecture theatres, offices and accommodation.[12] Work began on this in early 2008. It lodged an amendment to the layout of this second phase with the Dumfries and Galloway Council on 18 June 2010.[17]
Preservation of Tibetan art and crafts
Under the guidance of the Tibetan artist
Traditional deity and monumental sculpture and the creation of
Scottish sensibility
Listed as a
.In its early days there was a history of uneasy relations with neighbouring residents, with disputes over planning applications and suspicion about behaviour of residents and visitors. Nevertheless, the centre has come to enjoy cordial relationships with the local community. Many of its original members are now incorporated into that community and its economy, providing much needed support for local concerns such as primary schools. Local leaders such as former MP and Liberal Party leader David Steel are warmly supportive.[22]
In a 2003 interview with the
- "There seems to be something about Tibetan Buddhism which appeals to people in the West, where so many people are disillusioned with the stress and the lack of a spiritual aspect in their lives."[23]
Popular Scottish comedian Billy Connolly often visits Samye Ling.[24]
In 2010 Lama Yeshe Losal designed a Buddhist
- "We are fortunate to be established as part of the Scottish community and wanted a tartan for our Sangha to show how much appreciation we have for the people, culture and tradition of Scotland".[25]
See also
References
- ^ "Johnstone House Trust". Charity Commission for England and Wales. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
- ^ Kagyu Samye Ling The Story. Dzalendra Publishing. 2007. p. 19.
- ^ "A Brief History of Kagyu Samye Ling". Archived from the original on 30 January 2010. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
- ^ a b "Amazing Love".
- ^ The Buddhist Handbook: A Complete Guide to Buddhist Teaching and Practice at Google Books
- ^ Bancroft, Anne (1976). Twentieth Century Mystics and Sages. Heinemann. p. 194.
- ISBN 1-59030-275-3.
- ^ The Gyalwang Karmapa: Proclamation to All Those Who Dwell Under the Sun Upholding the Tradition of the Spiritual and Temporal Orders, 29 September 1974, zit. n. Garuda IV, 1976, S. 86–87.
- ISBN 9780099548874.
- ISBN 0-906181-23-2
- ^ "Kagyu Samye Ling". Retrieved 29 August 2010.
- ^ a b c "ROKPA trust". Charity Commission for England and Wales. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
- ^ "Holy Island Project". Retrieved 29 August 2010.
- ^ "ROKPA: Helping where help is needed". ROKPA International. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
- ^ "A report from ROKPA UK for Kanze Girls School". ROKPA International. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
- ^ "Yushu Earthquake UPDATE". ROKPA International. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
- ^ "Weekly list of applications received for the period 11/06/2010 to 18/06/2010". Dumfries and Galloway Council. Archived from the original on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
- Samye Ling. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
- Samye Ling (archive). Archived from the originalon 6 October 2013.
- ^ McElroy, Damien. "Former British resident held after Buddhist killed in China". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
- ^ "VisitScotland – Scotland's National Tourist Organisation".
- ^ "Tibetan Buddhists celebrate 40 years in Scotland". 24 February 2007. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
- ^ "Tibetan Buddhists find peace in Scottish hills". Sri Lanka Daily News. Reuters. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
- ^ "SILLY BILLY CONNOLLY; TARTAN BARMY: Comic's rant at patriots". The Free Library. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
- ^ "Tartan Details – Samye". The Scottish Register of Tartans. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
External links
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