August 14, 2023: The 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Consecrates Sukhavati Garden

Amid intense heat and storm warnings, Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, led the final consecration ceremonies (rabne) of the Sukhavati Garden at Dhagpo Kagyu Ling for nearly four hours on August 14, 2023. Surrounding the Karmapa on a dais specially installed for this purpose were Jigme Rinpoche, Nendo Rinpoche, Trinlay Rinpoche, Lama Jampa Thaye, Gendun Rinchen, the entire monastic community, and numerous practitioners, with live streaming in the event hall.

In 2021, Lama Jigme RInpoche had already carried out a first consecration of the Sukhavati Garden with the stupa of Künzig Shamar Rinpoche, the eight stupas commemorating key moments in Shakyamuni Buddha’s life and the prayer wheel.

It is indeed customary to proceed with consecration as soon as a statue or stupa is filled, even if the final consecration takes place during the visit of a great master. The eight stupas were filled in September 2021 with some 14,000 mantra rolls made by practitioners living near the Center during the lockdown period that same year.

Lama Jampa came from the United States, led the filling of the stupas and offered to guide the rabne ceremony in the Karma Kagyu tradition, which is based on the Korlo Demchok ritual. This is a more extensive ritual with more offering phases than the more commonly followed Nyingma rabne based on Dorje Sempa.

Lama Jigme Rinpoche insists that empowerments and rituals of the Karma Kagyü tradition be used, because this is how a lineage continues in its uniqueness and authenticity.
At the end of this ceremony on October 16, 2021, Lama Jigme Rinpoche asked Karmapa to seal the blessing of the lineage for this open-air temple, as it will be of immense benefit. He also requested that the same rabne in the Karma Kagyu tradition be performed on this occasion. Nearly two years later, on August 14, 2023, this wish was fulfilled.

Jigme Rinpoche guided every step of the creation of the Sukhavati Garden, developed in several phases around the stupa of Künzig Shamar Rinpoche. This stupa was consecrated on November 20, 2016, a day of Düchen, by Jigme Rinpoche, Khenpo Chödrak Rinpoche and Trinlay Rinpoche.

Earthworks began at the end of January 2017. The following year, residents and volunteers from the surrounding areas began planting trees and flower beds. The foundations were dug for the eight stupas, made in copper gilded with gold leaf by French artist Gérard Guinot. When Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Karmapa came in August 2019, Gérard delivered two of the eight stupas, those of reconciliation and parinirvana. 

The large stainless steel prayer wheel (over a meter in diameter and weighing over two tons), engraved with the Kalachakra mantra, was made by Diamond Way teams in Poland and Austria and delivered in March 2020. The wood structure of the prayer-wheel pavilion was made in 2021 by a collective of artisans (Copeaux Cabana) based around Dhagpo. The enormous mantra rolls that make this large prayer wheel a support for practice carrying the blessings of the Three Jewels were put together at the Diamond Way center in Graz, Austria.

In addition, Lama Jigme Rinpoche and Gendun Rinchen wished to include two more stupas in homage to Gendun Rinpoche and Lama Purtsela. These two stone stupas were made in Nepal using traditional Nepalese carving techniques. They arrived in pieces in August 2022 and had to be assembled based only on a few pencil markings on the stone.

Entirely funded by donations, the Sukhavati Garden is a project that has brought together hundreds or thousands of people—whether through their financial contributions, participation in various activities, expertise, or simply their wishes. The expansion of the Garden continues today around the historic Dhagpo Temple with the renovation of its surroundings as well as the walls of adjacent buildings, the rebuilding of the courtyard and the renovation of its pond.

In this way, practitioners and visitors can follow an entire meditation path that starts at the stupa of enlightenment in front of the Institute, continues to the stupa of Shamar Rinpoche and the eight stupas, passes by the prayer wheel pavilion, the two stone stupas and the prayer flags, and returns to the Institute’s esplanade. The Sukhavati Garden, an open-air temple bringing great blessings, is a place imbued with peace and serenity, offering everyone a place conducive to reflection, meditation, and wishes for the happiness of all beings.

In sharing his thoughts on the Sukhvati Garden, the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa writes :

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