Top: The planned Surmang shedra. Sketch by Stanley Doctor, preliminary architectural plans by Steve Vosper.

Left: Water is collected from the streams as there is no running water. Photo by Marvin Ross.

Latest News: Foundations Laid, Walls Going Up, Money Coming In

August 10, 2004

Shedra Construction

Construction of the Düdtsi-til shedra at Surmang is on schedule and, if anything, slightly ahead. Bob King (project director for The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya) has been closely monitoring the building activity there, using a remarkable communications link.

For much of the summer, one of our core supporters, Marv Ross, has been “our Man in Tibet”, equipped with a satellite phone and cost-free phone card. He has been able to facilitate daily phone communication between with the site at Surmang and Konchok Foundation people in North America. This means we have been able to keep our finger on the pulse of the construction, so that Bob and our diligent engineering team have been able to help guide this process.

The complete foundation seen from an nearby mountain location. Click image to view larger version. Photo by Marv Ross

In general, according to Bob, construction is going remarkably well there. Of course, there are always obstacles and challenges. But overall we are doing very well. The walls of the main lhakhang (shrine room) for the shedra are now going up. (Although one of the first walls had to come back down! Bob realized a mistake had been made and managed to get the contractor to take the wall down and rebuild it properly.) The khenpo is managing the flow of materials and labor for the project quite well, and the crews have been working continuously.

We will keep everyone updated as we get more reports from the "front." When Marv Ross left Surmang at the end of July, he left the satellite phone with the khenpo, so we are able to stay in touch with what is happening there. When Marv gets back home, we will be able to get photos out to everyone (and on the web) so you can see the state of building there. (Due to limitations with email in the region, we have not been able to do this so far.)

By the way, we all owe a great debt to Marv. He has performed a great service to the project and done so under the harshest of conditions, and we want to thank Marv for his energy, diligence and good humor during his time there.

If we can keep the money flowing to the project we can get a great deal of work done there by the end of this year's building season. If we can keep the crews busy for the season, we will accomplish much more of the construction of the main buildings this year than we ever thought possible.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and Shambhala Delegation Visit Surmang in the Fall

As part of a visit to India and Tibet, the Sakyong will visit Surmang from September 26 to October 4. He is bringing a delegation of about twenty people from the Shambhala community. They will be able to see the construction site, meet with the local leadership and the community, and offer inspiration for everyone there.

As part of this visit, we hope to raise some funds for the project from the members of the Shambhala delegation.

Fund Raising

Thanks to everyone’s generosity we have been able to send $75,000 to Tibet for the project. Part of that is the approximately $20,000 donated by program participants at Shambhala Mountain Center this July. This came in the form of a spontaneous fund raising event held with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, as well as receiving 10% of the monies raised at the annual stupa fund raising event. We have also recently received some funds owed to the foundation from Shambhala.

The next big fund raiser will be another marathon run by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in Edmonton, Alberta, on Sunday 22 August.

As mentioned above, we have an opportunity this season to make very serious progress on the shedra. Bob King estimates that at present it costs us about $6,000-$7,000 a week to keep our crews working there. With this next transfer to the khenpo, we will have the costs covered until about the second week in September. But the building season runs until late October. So we have about 6-7 weeks - or about $35,000-$50,000 - to raise to keep going for the entire season.

In short - we need more money! (We always will.) In order to help our cash flow over the next few months, we also could use loans to help meet our obligations in September and October.

Meeting with the Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

In mid-July Peter Volz met with the Ven. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche when he was visiting Boulder. Peter gave him the rendering of the shedra and went over the outlines of the project with him. His monastery in Tibet is quite close to Surmang, and he was extremely pleased to see what we were doing at Surmang and offered us his support and encouragement.

A great deal of momentum and passion for the project has been generated over the past few months. Everyone has jumped in and offered so much of their minds, hearts, time, blood and wallets. Let's try to finish strong this season, and keep up our energy and joy.