THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER

Crestone Stupa by Mark Elliot During his lifetime, the Buddha Sakyamuni gave extensive teachings on stupas to his disciples. When the Buddha Sakyamuni passed away, his students built a stupa and placed his physical remains inside it. Since that time stupas have been built in all Buddhist countries to contain the relics of great Buddhist teachers. Adapting to different cultural forms, they have become objects of veneration, pilgrimage and worship for Buddhists all over the world. The Tibetan word for stupa is Choten. "Cho" means to offer, and "ten" means place, thus "the place to make offerings."

The Tashi Gomang Stupa was built on the Baca Grande Estate in the Sangre de Christo Mountains of Southern Colorado between 1989 and 1996. HH the XV1 Gyalwa Karmapa visited this remote and beautiful location in 1980. He was given two hundred acres to begin to fulfill his vision that this would be an auspicious location where the Tibetan Buddhist teachings could be preserved and passed on to future generations. While the Karmapa passed away the following year, His Eminence Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche, one of his principal disciples, asked that the Tashi Gomang Stupa be built to consecrate HH' land. The Tashi Gomang Stupa (Stupa of Many Auspicious Doors) symbolizes the eighty four thousand paths to enlightenment taught by the Buddha.

A stupa is an architectural rendering of the stages and aspects of enlightenment. It also represents the entire universe from a Buddhist point of view. A stupa is more than just a symbol, however. When a great Buddhist teacher leaves his or her physical existence, the body that remains is considered to be permeated with the very essence of enlightened mind, possessing tremendous intrinsic power and blessings. The appropriate vessel to contain these relics is a stupa. Through its design and contents, a stupa is regarded as having the power to transmit the very essence of enlightened mind, on the spot, to anyone who comes in contact with it.

The Tashi Gomang Stupa in the Baca Grande is completely enclosed and contains many special ingredients. Treasure vases and offerings were placed beneath it, in tribute to local deities and the earth goddess. The base was filled with chipped juniper, along with treasure vases, musical instruments, medicines, herbs, food, precious jewels, silks, brocades, perfumes, gold and silver. Through the blessings of the Bodhisattvas these work to bring peace, prosperity, and good health to the region around the stupa, and throughout the country. The area above the base was filled with 100,000 tsatsas, or miniature stupas made by local volunteers. Within every tsa tsa is roll of prayers and mantras. Each tsatsa was blessed by Tibetan lamas before being placed inside the stupa.

Precious relics, including those of Padmasambhava, Tilopa, Naropa, Milarepa and all sixteen Karmapas were placed in the sogshing, or life force post, that was placed in the center of the stupa. Carved from a juniper tre˙e, the sogshin forms the central axis for the stupa.

After seven years of intensive work the forty-two foot high stupa was consecrated on July 6th 1996, birthday of HH the Dalai Lama by many prominent lamas of the Kagyu Lineage. These included Bokhar Rinpoche, Bardor Tulku and Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, who had supervised the project from its inception.

In the words of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "Within the stupa, the teacher remains unchanging. The Buddha has said that whoever sees the stupa will be liberated by the sight of it. Feeling the breeze around the stupa liberates one by its touch. Having thus seen or experienced the stupa, by thinking of one's experience of it, one is liberated by recollection."

For further information regarding the Tashi Gomang Stupa, contact:

Mark Elliot
Gatesgarth Productions
PO Box 157
Crestone, CO 81131