Lama Thubten Yeshe was born in Tibet in 1935. In 1972 Lama Yeshe and his heart disciple Lama Zopa Rinpoche purchased land in the forest hills above Dharamsala, close to the home in exile of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and established Tushita Retreat Centre. Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, Senior Teacher of His Holiness, lived right next door, and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, Junior Teacher of His Holiness, had stayed in semi-retreat in the only building on the land for 7 years.

In 1984, after an intense decade of imparting a wide variety of incredible teachings and establishing one FPMT activity after another, at the age of forty-nine, Lama Yeshe passed away.

Lama Yeshe had a very close connection to Tushita – the main feature of Tushita is Lama Yeshe’s beautiful stupa, and with much care we still have the room preserved where first Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and then Lama Yeshe lived. Old and new students visiting Tushita have mentioned often how much they still feel Lama’s presence.

It is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s precious advice and vision for Tushita to have a life size statue of Lama Yeshe to benefit many people. Rinpoche mentioned that the merit of creating a statue of your guru is so great, more merit than all the buddha statues. When ready, the statue will be placed in Lama Yeshe’s meditation box in His room.

 

We were advised to get the statue made in Thailand, from the same artists who had created the amazingly alive looking statue of Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup at Kopan Monastery.

It is Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s holy vision for Tushita to have a three-dimensional Heruka Mandala on a new second floor of our Vajrasattva gompa.

Tushita has a very strong connection with Heruka. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, who lived at Tushita for many years, is an embodiment of Heruka and the root guru of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

The mountains around the area and the Kangra valley are widely renowned to be places blessed by Heruka, Vajra Yogini and lineage masters as the great mahasiddhas Tilopa and Naropa.

Many of Rinpoche’s students both young and old have been praying for a long time to receive the Heruka Chakrasamvara Body Mandala initiation and commentary together with a very very long guided group retreat. Rinpoche has mentioned on several occasions in the past that Tushita would be the best place for that!

May our prayers come true quickly through the amazing karma of fulfilling Rinpoche’s wish for the completion of the Heruka mandala!!
Rinpoche advised that the mandala should be similar to the Yamantaka Mandala at Kopan Monastery, which is approximately 7-8 feet in diameter (see image below). The mandala will be made out of juniper wood by artists in Nepal, and it will take at least two years to finish it.

The mandala finished in color will cost approx. 3 million Indian Rupees (approx. US$ 40 thousand). This doesn’t include the costs for the glass frame and all the deities.

In addition, there will be the costs to build a second floor on top of the Vajrasattva Gompa.

A significant feature on the rooftops of Buddhist monasteries is the eight-spoked Dharma wheel flanked by a male and female deer steadily gazing at it.

Regarding the essential meaning of the dharma wheel, from a historical perspective it is said to have been offered in the form of a thousand-spoked wheel to Śākyamuni Buddha by Brahma when requesting him to teach the sacred dharma. At that moment, from the forest came a pair of male and female deer, also known as the krishnasara antelope of compassion. With unblinking gaze, they looked at the wheel with joy and delight.

The eight-spoked wheel represents the first turning of the dharma wheel of the Buddha in the Deer Park in Sarnath. The eight spokes symbolize the noble eight-fold path and the three higher trainings: ethics, concentration and wisdom. In this way the entire Buddhist teachings are shown.

The male and female deer represent the disciples delighting one-pointedly in listening to the teachings of the holy dharma. They also symbolize the unity of skillful means and wisdom, the path to enlightenment.
This symbol was also the seal of the glorious Buddhist University of Nalanda.

Due to a very long and heavy monsoon season up here in the foothills of the Himalayas, it’s very difficult to prevent the wooden floor of our Main Gompa from getting mouldy and rotting at some point.

A part of 35 times 35 feet of the current wooden floor is in very bad shape and unsafe and needs immediate renovation. Since Tushita is currently still in corona-19 lockdown, we would like to use this time, so our Main Gompa will be ready to welcome our students back, whenever we will restart our usual residential programs.

Renovation with proper chemical treatment of the wood for waterproofing will cost 900,000 Indian Rupees, which is equivalent to USD 12,096.

 

Built in time immemorial, our toilets and showers below our dining hall need not only an urgent facelift, but also an extension to accommodate the needs of our ever-growing residential student population. We are planning a full revamp of the current facilities and the building of 5 new showers and toilets, including some “Western style” ones especially for our elder students.

Since Tushita is currently still in covid-19 lockdown, this is the perfect time to accomplish this project, so the new facilities will be ready for our residential students when we are allowed to reopen.

This project will cost approximately 15.5 lakh Indian Rupees, which is equivalent to USD 20,840.

We are blessed to have 5 precious stupas here at Tushita, honouring great practitioners:

Lama Yeshe, Gen Jampa Wangdu, Geshe Rabten, Geshe Choklyi & Geshe Tsering (Lama Yeshe’s half-brother).

Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises us to repaint all five stupas each year. The cost to repaint Lama Yeshe’s stupa is 50,000 INR which includes materials and labour. The cost to repaint the other 4 stupas is 35,000 INR for each.