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Compassion Rising Tour 2025: Two Tibetan-Buddhist centres in Riga

3-4 September: visit to 2 Tibetan-Buddhist centres

1) Ganden Centre

Wednesday at 6.30pm I had agreed to meet Oskars at the Buddhist Ganden meditation centre (http://ganden.lv), which is part of FPMT, the network of the 'Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition'. That is part of the Gelug tradition. The O Sel Ling centre where I will be volunteering in winter is among them.
 
Oskars was already waiting for me on the street. The meditation session did not start until 7pm, which gave us the opportunity to exchange views over a cup of tea for half an hour.
 
Ganden is run by 4 to 5 trekkers and around 15 to 20 regular practitioners attend. They also organise regular courses taught by Lamas or teachers within the FPMT network.
 
The centre has existed since 2004. It was founded by Uldis Balodis, a Let who spent several years at Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa's Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Lama Yeshe and Zopa were the two founders of FPMT.
 
Every Wednesday, the centre holds a guided meditation open to all, subject to registration. An opportunity to get acquainted with Buddhist teachings and philosophy. Inese led tonight's session because Rita, who normally takes care of this, had to work later today.
After the session, I also had a nice follow-up conversation with Rita.

Ganden Center

2) Riga Drikung Ngaden Choling Centre

I had to search a bit to find the centre. I saw on their website that it was located at a courtyard, but I had stepped in an entrance too early. After a 'help' phone call, Jekaterina came to fetch me.
 
In the maze of Tibetan-Buddhist traditions, I am also struggling to find my way for now. At this Drikung sangha things got even more complicated.
 
Drikung belongs to the Kagyu tradition, one of the five great Tibetan traditions. I thought Kagyu was under the leadership of the Karmapa, but it turns out he only leads the Karma-Kagyu school. Drikung is one of eight smaller Kagyu lineages and currently has two 'lineage holders' or 'Drikung Kyabgöns': the 8th Drikung Kyabgon Chungtsang, which resides in Tibet, and the 7th Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang, which is based in India and is more focused on the West. This dual lineage has existed for many centuries.
 
The centre in Riga moved to this location only a few months ago in Ģertrūdes iela 103A moved in. Before them, an Indian Feng Shui and Ayurvedic centre housed here. So energetically, things will definitely be fine here.
The Drikung centre has over 50 practitioners and organises courses every two months.
A thriving and growing community.

Riga Drikung Ngaden Choling Centre: Yekaterinas, Yelena and me

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.
Photos 2 meditation centres
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