July 31, 2015: Consecration of the Dhagpo Kagyu Ling Institute

Two years after its inauguration by Künzig Shamar Rinpoche, the Dhagpo Kagyu Ling Institute, was formally consecrated and its statue of Buddha Shakyamuni unveiled by Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, on July 31, 2015, the last day of his visit.

Performed by a spiritual master, the consecration ritual, or rabné in Tibetan, invites the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions to inhabit the sacred objects and places of worship, imbuing them with the awakened essence of their body, speech, and mind. This act ensures their presence so that they may be of benefit to all sentient beings in their spiritual practice, and also purifies the premises.

After an hour of prayers performed on the Institute’s esplanade, the Gyalwa Karmapa, wearing the yellow headdress referred to as Gampopa’s, enters the building to consecrate the premises. The veil covering the statue’s face is removed to reveal its radiant and contemplative face.

This statue of the Buddha, whose hands form the teaching mudra, is filled with mantra scrolls and precious substances placed the day before the consecration in the soching, the tree of life in its center, by Tcheupeunla. Among these substances are a relic of the previous Buddha Kashyapa given by Lama Jigme Rinpoche, which he himself received from the 16th Karmapa; a relic of Buddha Shakyamuni offered by Khenpo Chödrak Rinpoche; at the level of the heart, a small statue from Tsurpu in Tibet offered by Jigme Rinpoche; and in small cloth bags, rice blessed by the 16th Karmapa, bodily relics of the 5th Shamarpa, the 8th Shamarpa and the 16th Karmapa, longevity pills from several Karmapas, pills made of earth from many Buddhist holy places… Thus, this Buddha becomes the receptacle of the Buddha’s body, speech and mind, making it a powerful source of blessing for anyone entering the Institute.

The statue, made of gold-covered copper sheet, is the work of French artist Gérard Guinot, who also created the large statue of Dhagpo Kundreul Ling, stupas at Karma Migyur Ling, the stupas in the Sukhavati garden at Dhagpo Kagyu Ling, and numerous statues and stupas in Shar Minub (Nepal), Rumtek (India), the United States, Germany and Spain. He received the commission for the statue from Künzig Shamar Rinpoche, who gave him a reproduction of a stone statue from a flourishing period of Buddhist art as a reference.

I asked him for advice, but he said, ‘You know!’ I didn’t know exactly what he meant, but with time, I realized that the most important thing is to have a deep sense of the meditative aspect, to understand deeply, from within. You can’t do something if you don’t understand it. You can’t convey the meaning of something if you haven’t grasped it. It’s a practice that really comes from within.

Inspired by ancient Egypt and the art of cathedrals, Gérard discovered Buddhism at the Dashang Kagyu Ling temple in Burgundy, where he met Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche, and trained with Bhutanese sculptors. Does the artist’s hand represent a bridge between East and West, the expression of a spiritual quest? 

Having started in the West, without any references or transmission, I was forced to question all of this. What is being transmitted? Not everything is codified. We are forced to make choices. For me, it forced me to try to go back to the source, to the essentials. And in fact, the statues we make here are very simple, without much detail.

Unlike the one in Kundreul Ling, the artist assembled the statue in his workshop in Burgundy and delivered it to the Institute in one piece.

It took nearly fifteen years for the causes and conditions to come together for the Institute project to see the light of day. On August 15, 2002, the foundation of what would become the Institute was consecrated by the Gyalwa Karmapa and the 14th Shamarpa, and the first stone was laid. The project was interrupted along the way to be revised and better adapted to the location and needs. It restarted in 2010 and was completed without hindrance. Now inaugurated and consecrated, the Institute provides a place to share the Buddha’s teachings authentically, to learn them together and thus to progress toward enlightenment. The wisdom emanating from the Buddha statue in the Institute is an invitation to contemplate for everyone entering the hall, as well as a source of blessing.

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These photos come from our archives or were collected as part of the research for Dhagpo Kagyu Ling’s 50th anniversary. We have not been able to identify all the authors. The use of these photos is solely for informational purposes within the context of Dhagpo Kagyu Ling’s 50th anniversary celebration. Their use is limited to this event and our website and is not for commercial purposes.