Vimaladhatu Stupa - the story continues...
On Wednesday we carried a story about the new Stupa Rupadarshin is carving for Vimaladhatu, the FWBO’s German Retreat Centre. We were reporting from the Buddhafield perspective - Rupadarshin is working in a bender in their garden! Now Sanghadarsini from Essen writes with their side of the story - and some background to the project. She says -
“Here is some information about our planned Stupa for our Retreat Center Vimaladhatu. Could you please post the information on the FWBO news website?
A stupa for Vimaladhatu
Some years ago the idea was born to build a Stupa in the Grounds of the German Retreat Center, Vimaladhatu. Bodhimitra took up the idea again in March 2009, and planned to build the Stupa himself with the help of friends from the Sangha. The site was chosen and quite quickly Bodhimitra had constructed the foundation for the Stupa. Around this time Sangharakshita visited Essen for FWBO day and Bodhimitra told Bhante about his plans to build a Stupa at Vimaladhatu.
“Bhante was very pleased and spontaneously offered some of Dhardo Rimpoche's ashes for the Stupa. He also suggested that we could put Dhardo's Motto ("cherish the doctrine, live united, radiate love") on the Stupa and that we could use a stone from the local area. The Essen Sangha was delighted by Bhante's offer, but we also realized that we needed a stone mason to do the work. All of us thought of Rupadarshin, who had built the Stupas in Padmaloka, Tiratanaloka and at Windhorse Trading. When we asked Rupadarshin, he felt really inspired by the project, but said that he wouldn't be able to start right away because of his responsibilities to Buddhafield in the Summer.
In October 2009 Rupadarshin visited Vimaladhatu and he and Bodhimitra visited a stone quarry, which is very close to Vimaladhatu. There they chose a local stone called Anröchter Kalkstein, a stone much liked by many stone masons.
A few weeks later the Center Team chose the form for the Stupa. It was clear, that we wanted a Tibetan style Chörten Form, and out of 8 different forms, we all chose the Enlightenment Form (funnily each one of us for different reasons.) We were very pleased that there was such consensus in this decision.
By the end of the year Rupadarshin had built a workshop tent in his garden. The stone was shipped over to Devon with the help of Windhorse Trading and on the 2nd of February Rupadarshin started to work on the foundation stone. To date: several stones are already finished.
Chintamani is working on the finial for the stupa (the top bit) which will be in bronze.
We hope to have the inauguration of the stupa in October this year and Bhante has offered to come and to place the ashes of Dhardo in the stupa - if his health will permit it.
If you want to find out more about the project and see more pictures you can have a look at our bilingual (German/English) Facebook site called "Stupa Vimaladhatu"
We will post more information soon ...
Liebe Grüße,
Sanghadarsini
“Here is some information about our planned Stupa for our Retreat Center Vimaladhatu. Could you please post the information on the FWBO news website?
A stupa for Vimaladhatu
Some years ago the idea was born to build a Stupa in the Grounds of the German Retreat Center, Vimaladhatu. Bodhimitra took up the idea again in March 2009, and planned to build the Stupa himself with the help of friends from the Sangha. The site was chosen and quite quickly Bodhimitra had constructed the foundation for the Stupa. Around this time Sangharakshita visited Essen for FWBO day and Bodhimitra told Bhante about his plans to build a Stupa at Vimaladhatu. “Bhante was very pleased and spontaneously offered some of Dhardo Rimpoche's ashes for the Stupa. He also suggested that we could put Dhardo's Motto ("cherish the doctrine, live united, radiate love") on the Stupa and that we could use a stone from the local area. The Essen Sangha was delighted by Bhante's offer, but we also realized that we needed a stone mason to do the work. All of us thought of Rupadarshin, who had built the Stupas in Padmaloka, Tiratanaloka and at Windhorse Trading. When we asked Rupadarshin, he felt really inspired by the project, but said that he wouldn't be able to start right away because of his responsibilities to Buddhafield in the Summer.
In October 2009 Rupadarshin visited Vimaladhatu and he and Bodhimitra visited a stone quarry, which is very close to Vimaladhatu. There they chose a local stone called Anröchter Kalkstein, a stone much liked by many stone masons.A few weeks later the Center Team chose the form for the Stupa. It was clear, that we wanted a Tibetan style Chörten Form, and out of 8 different forms, we all chose the Enlightenment Form (funnily each one of us for different reasons.) We were very pleased that there was such consensus in this decision.
By the end of the year Rupadarshin had built a workshop tent in his garden. The stone was shipped over to Devon with the help of Windhorse Trading and on the 2nd of February Rupadarshin started to work on the foundation stone. To date: several stones are already finished.Chintamani is working on the finial for the stupa (the top bit) which will be in bronze.
We hope to have the inauguration of the stupa in October this year and Bhante has offered to come and to place the ashes of Dhardo in the stupa - if his health will permit it.
If you want to find out more about the project and see more pictures you can have a look at our bilingual (German/English) Facebook site called "Stupa Vimaladhatu"
We will post more information soon ...
Liebe Grüße,
Sanghadarsini
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