August 21: Rusenai - Overnight at Namgyal Stupa under construction
On Thursday, I drove with Albertas from Vilnius to Rusenai to visit the stupa that the Ridgzin community of Vilnius is building there. His friend Andrius is coordinating the works there, under the supervision of Namkha Gyatso Rinpoche, who is staying here for 3 months to oversee compliance with Tibetan regulations regarding the construction and furnishing of a stupa.
Andrius owns the land on which the stupa is being built. He welcomed us very warmly with tea and lunch and then showed us around the site.
A total of 310 tonnes of concrete will be used for the stupa. As the building is to last 1,000 years, the walls are about half a metre thick.
In the ground floor of the stupa, which will be permanently closed and sealed, untold numbers of tsa-tsas (small clay votive tablets or figurines) are kept for the future. Exactly how many Andrius could not say, but a total of more than 1,500 kg of clay was purchased to make them, and several tsa-tsas can be printed from 1 kg of clay. Before the clay is pressed into a mould, a tiny mantra roll is inserted into it. To bring the whole undertaking to a successful conclusion, a large 'tsa-tsa production tent' is set up on the premises in which the figurines, after taking their final shape with great care and dedication, are first dried and then painted in silver or gold.
Finished tsa-tsa
On the accessible second floor of the stupa will be a museum with a large mandala and other Tibetan-Buddhist statues and religious ornaments. These were imported from Nepal. All that beauty is now waiting in a second large 'stupa preparation tent' until it can be integrated into the stupa. In that tent, you are dazzled by the glitter of all the gold leaf.
The larger mantra scrolls are stored in sealed sections of the second and third floors of the stupa.
Traditionally, the third floor of the stupa will have a spherical structure that will incorporate two golden gates. These were also manufactured in Nepal. At the top will be a gilded crown with the symbols of the moon and the sun.
Furthermore, there is already a 'sangbum' on the premises, a large oven in which incense offerings are made every Sunday. Artist Dana, who specialises in Tibetan painting, came over from Spain and will start painting the sangbum from Friday. She will spend several days doing so.
Andrius at sangbum for smoking offerings
Before all plans are realised, several years of work will have to be done on the site. Currently, there is a makeshift gompa (temple and meditation room) in a large tent. A building will have to rise there in the future. Furthermore, a pond is planned to the left and right of the stupa: one in the shape of the moon (female element), the other in the shape of the sun (male element).
Now there is already a round pond in which there will be another statue of Padmasambhava, aka Guru Rinpoche, the monk who brought Buddhism to Tibet around the 8th century.
For the volunteers, there are the necessary facilities to stay there: a provisional sanitary facility, a kitchen tent and some ordinary tents to spend the night in.
I was allowed to stay overnight in one of those tents and participated in the daily teaching by Namkha Gyatso Rinpoche in the evening.
What a coincidence! It was my second, again unplanned and unsuspected encounter with him. In 2022, during my cycling trip for Tibet through Spain and Portugal, I was resting on a terrace before I was to start climbing the Granatilla pass to Cabo de Gata. Suddenly a car braked quite violently and turned into the car park. To my surprise, three monks stepped out in their wine-red robes. They were on their way to their Namkha Dzong monastery in Bedar, Almería and Namkha Rinpoche had noticed my parked bike with Tibetan flags. After I handed him a flyer of my project - a fundraiser for the educational department of the Tashi Lhunpo monastery in Bylakuppe - I was immediately given a donation.
This was also the case now. As we posed for the farewell photo on Friday morning, another well-filled letter envelope came my way for the SEE Learning project of EdCamp Ukraine. I am very grateful to the Rigdzin community for their hospitality, generosity and dedication to their project and hope to return here one day as a volunteer to contribute as well.
