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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Cycle of Karma: Konchok Foundation is proud to announce the second annual Mountain Bike Pilgrimage from Boulder to the Great Stupa at Shambhala Mountain Center. Please visit our special Cycle of Karma page to see names of riders and further information. This major event is scheduled for SEPTEMBER 10-15 starting in Boulder Colorado, and ending at the Great stupa of Dharmakaya. (Shuttling back to Boulder on the 15th.) The proceeds will be shared equally between Shambhala Mountain Center (for their much needed water project) and the Konchok Foundation (for it's much needed education program.) Joshua Weinstein is currently recruiting mountain bikers for this ride. Please go to http://www.vagabondranch.org/cycle-of-karma for more information. Also, please consider supporting these riders by clicking on our donation page. The Boulder Shambhala Triathlon will take place Sept 11 2:30 or 3:30 at the Boulder Reservoir. Please join us by participating in this event with Your Cause Sports. TO FIND OUT MORE, how to register, etc.. Please go to Sunset Triathlon or email Ginny Lipson. (the deadline for registration is Sept 8) To read about last year’s Boulder Triathlon, go to Boulder Triathlon 2009 Please donate to support our sole team member who is participating in this race. The Konchok Online Art Auction is OVER, But is replaced with a "POST AUCTION ONLINE GALLERY" Please go to the ART ITEMS to see the work that is curently offered. Coinciding with the Online Art Auction are several interesting new Donation Gift items. All proceeds from the auction, and also from the donation gift items, will go to the rebuilding of the Surmang shedra. The shedra is needed more urgently than ever due to the recent tragic earthquake in Jyekundo. Many refugees from the earthquake will be in Surmang for the next several years, including children who could attend school in the shedra classrooms. The educational program (PLEASE SEE PARAGRAPH #2 IN UPDATE REPORT BELOW) at the monastery will be expanded to include the refugee children. Surmang continues as the seat of the Trungpa lineage; and the rebuilding of the shedra at Surmang has vital importance in maintaining the cultural and spiritual heritage of this region. Jyekundo Earthquake A devastating earthquake struck Jyekundo (Yushu), the closest city to Surmang Dutsi Til, on April 14, 2010. If you want to make a donation specifically for earthquake relief (let us know that the donation is for that purpose per the instructions): http://konchok.shambhala.org/donate-form.php For updates on the earthquake relief efforts, please go to earthquake updates. To find out how Konchok Foundation distributes the earthquake relief funds, please go to How funds are distributed. To view the Jyekundo Earthquake Photo Essay by Khenpo Tsering, click here! To read the Shambhala Times special page about the earthquake click here. NEWS: Surmang Dutsi Til February 2010
A key goal: finish the shedra classrooms by fall 2010. The first use of the classrooms at the Surmang shedra will occur this fall—if we can provide sufficient financial support for their completion. Khenpo Tsering Gyurme, who is directing the shedra rebuilding, is now in Tibet, purchasing materials and making arrangements for workers to resume construction in May. In addition to the monks at Dutsi Til, there are as many as 100 boys studying in the old lhakang. The new shedra classrooms will provide an appropriate study space for the first time since 1959. Khenpo Tsering reports that local girls will also start attending classes once the shedra classrooms are usable. Other major elements of the 2010 construction plan, if funding is available, include both exterior and interior painting, flooring, and plumbing. Even though the interior of the main shrine room will not be finished this year, completion of the classrooms will mark a key stage in the return of Surmang Dutsi Til as an important dharma center. The people of Surmang have become increasingly enthusiastic and energized as the shedra approaches completion. The monastery, with the help of volunteer labor from the local lay population, has built a monastery store, which includes a small restaurant. They have also built a two story kitchen flanking the old lhakang. In anticipation of the the shedra's completion, at least 7 or 8 small houses are under construction by local residents to house family members planning on attending the shedra. (The residential space inside the shedra will house about 65 students, which is only a portion of those who would like to attend.) Trungpa XII Rinpoche February 2010 Chökyi Senge Trungpa XII Rinpoche. The opening of the shedra will provide the opportunity for the Trungpa lineage, in the person of Trungpa XII Rinpoche, to once again take their seat as the abbot of Surmang Dutsi Til. Trungpa Rinpoche, who will turn 21 this year, has meanwhile been continuing his studies at Serta gar. He stays periodically at Dutsi Til, and was there recently to preside over the annual Chakrasamvara dance. 50 monks participated in the dancing, while another 50 monks and 600-700 local lay people observed. Chögyam Trungpa XI Rinpoche, who worked tirelessly to build the Surmang shedra in the 1950s, is still greatly revered at Surmang, especially by those old enough to have known him personally. Support for Surmang.
If we can provide sufficient financial assistance, Surmang Dutsi Til will take a crucial step forward this year in its re-emergence as a major dharma center. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche has frequently voiced his strong support for the rebuilding of Surmang, commenting, “I have run nine marathons over the past years to support the rebuilding of Surmang Dutsi Til...it's now time...to complete the vital dharma projects that we are supporting there.” Here are some of the ways you can participate: 1) Donate now 2) Visit the Konchok Online Art Auction/ Donation Gifts Due to the importance of raising fundse for the earthquake relief, we have postponed our Spring Art Auction until the Summer. Please continue to browse our donation gifts section. 3) Consider having a fund raising event at your center at any time this year. Among the types of events that centers have held to support Surmang are Shambhala triathlons, which can combine walking, sitting, running, or riding in any format; wine and cheese parties; a community art auction; or a performing arts event. Whatever you can think of that would be fun and help raise money, so that classes can begin at the shedra this year. 4) Join the second annual Mountain Bike Pilgrimage from Boulder to the Great Stupa at Shambhala Mountain Center this fall. If you are a serious mountain biker, please stay tuned and plan ahead for this event, around the first week in September. Please contact Ginny Lipson at ginnylipson@gmail.com for more information. *** PLEASE VISIT OUR NEW PAGE, " LIFE AT SURMANG." (Watch for more new pages to come about Surmang and related issues)! ALSO, PLEASE NOTE THAT: Several generous patrons have made it possible for Konchok Foundation to offer some wonderful new gifts to donors, in addition to those that are already displayed on the Konchok website: All donors for the next several months will receive a beautiful 4x6 photo of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, courtesy of James Hoagland. To see this photo, please go to http://www.konchok.org/donation_gifts.php There are two new photos available of the 12th Trungpa, taken last Fall by Heleen de Graaf and her friend
Ymkje
during their visit to Surmang September 2009. A 4x6 copy of one or both of these photos are available on request for any donation For donors of $25 or more, we can offer sets of five beautiful hand crafted greeting cards created by a generous supporter of our work at Surmang. These can likewise be seen on our donation gifts site http://www.konchok.org/donation_gifts.php Please indicate your request for this gift—numbers are limited! oulde to specify the Mishap Lineage book as a gift, please indicate this in the “instructions to merchant” in the donation process. If you woule t MORE ABOUT THE WORK OF KONCHOK FOUNDATION: The Surmang region and monasteries in eastern Tibet have, for many centuries, been the home of the Trungpa tulkus (incarnate lamas) and a major place of practice for Tibetan Buddhism. When the Communist Party' took control of Tibet , the 11th Trungpa Rinpoche escaped from Surmang (his spiritual home) in the late 1950s. The practice of Buddhism was forbidden for many years and the Surmang monasteries were razed to the ground during the Cultural Revolution. During this period, the abbot of Surmang, Chögyam Trungpa XI Rinpoche, after escaping into exile, became one of the first and most influential teachers of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, founding the Shambhala network of contemplative centers. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, successor to his father as the head of the international Shambhala community, has now accepted major responsibility for the rebuilding of Surmang, working closely with the people of Surmang. A crucial element is the shedra (school) for monastic and lay students. At present, there is no school in the Surmang Dutsi Til valley. The Konchok Foundation, founded in 2001 by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche together with Lady Diana Mukpo (widow of Trungpa XI Rinpoche), provides financial and other support for the rebuilding of Surmang, especially the Surmang shedra. Support is also provided to the Trungpa XII Tulku and to a number of monks who are undertaking extended group meditation retreats in the area. The foundation also provides some resources to other monasteries closely associated with Surmang or with Mipham Rinpoche. Beyond the specifics of these efforts, the Konchok Foundation is helping to initiate a remarkable coming together between two communities of people, Tibetan and Western, who share a common dharma lineage tradition but are distant from each other geographically and culturally. Exchange visits have now included travel by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche to Surmang in 2001 and 2004 and by Surmang Khenpo Tsering Gyurme to North America every year since 1999. Commencing in 2004, the two communities began working jointly together on the rebuilding of Surmang. In the next several years, we will also be working together on educational programming in Tibet, and on teaching visits to the West. Please contact us for more information. Khenpo Tsering helped us to revise this introduction to our website. o specify the Mishap Lineage book as a gift, please idicate this in the “instructions to merchant” in the donation process. wi . If you would like to specify the Mishap Lineage book as a gift, please indicate this in the “instructions to merchant” in the donation process. nter 2008)
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