Lung Ngon Thubten Chokhor Ling

Golog, Tibet

Towards the end of the millennium, Orgyen Kusum Lingpa, his son Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche, and the monastic and lay communities of Lung Ngon Thubten Chokhor Ling Monastery in Golog, as well as numerous people from all over the world and all walks of life, participated in the construction of the great stupa for world peace.

The stupa was completed in 1999 and dedicated during the year 2000. Inside the stupa are more than 1,000 sets of the Kanjur, the sacred scriptures of the Buddha. Each set of Kanjur contains 108 volumes, so there are a total of over 108,000 volumes of the words of the Buddha, the Sutras. In addition many other sacred texts such as the Rinchen Terzod, collections of the treasure teachings or termas, were also placed inside.

Gracing the inside of the stupa in the dome are thousands of sacred images, statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Many precious jewels as well as gold and silver have been placed in huge vats of melted butter which is then solidified. Over twenty such huge vats with this powdered gold, silver, and jewelry and tons of rice, barley and tea are inside in the center of the stupa. Some of the sacred statues are extremely rare dating from the time of the Buddha. Many remarkable relics from the time of the historic Buddha, as well as the previous Buddha before Shakyamuni or the third Buddha of this eon, have been carefully placed inside. Hair from Guru Rinpoche, pieces of the clothes of Yeshe Tsogyal, parts of the robes of two of the Buddha’s principle disciples, Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, and relics from many great mahasiddhas and lamas of Tibet and India are also part of the remarkable sacred relics that are in the dome. Robes from the 14th Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama are also part of the holy relics.

The base of the structure is about seventy meters long on each side and the spire stands at about fifty meters from the ground. The top spire section required more than twenty people to put in place, as there were no cranes available in the region. Under the stupa were placed knives, swords, guns and other weapons to pacify violence and war. The weapons have been placed pointing in the four directions with jewelry and precious jewels in the center. The entire structure is enormous in size and is astounding to see as one approaches the valley leading up to the monastery. It appears almost as large as a mountain and is akin to one of the great pyramids of Egypt. The stupa is probably easily visible by satellite hovering high above the earth’s surface and would certainly be one of the largest man-made objects in the entire region.

The great stupa for world peace is a miraculous structure which will generate far reaching benefits to humanity and the entire world. The entire region in which the stupa and monastery are located was inhabited only by nomads about thirty years ago. It is even more remarkable to consider that the stupa represents the sacred vision of Orgyen Kusum Lingpa who brought this vision through to completion in the midst of major obstacles. In this lifetime His Holiness has overcome many extreme hardships. Having been a beggar in extreme poverty, a nomad and suffering in prison for many years during the cultural revolution, he is one of only a handful of lamas who survived the radical upheaval experienced by Tibet and the near destruction of the thousand year old tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The last hundred years of this millennium have been extreme and tumultuous in many ways. The great stupa for world peace is certainly one of the major positive forces for world peace of our time and is an auspicious indication of the future evolution of the enlightenment of humanity, now and far into the future.