Amitabha Monastery dominates the ridge’s skyline

A ridge in the northwest corner of the Kathmandu Valley, in aeons past a rocky islet and a great lake respectively, could possibly lay claim to having the highest concentration of spirituality in all Nepal. Here, on a northeast-southwest axis not one kilometer in length, sometimes referred to as Kopan Hill, are to be found four great monastic institutions, each intrinsically associated with an illustrious spiritual leader: Pullahari Monastery, Rigpe Dorje Institute and Retreat Centre, and the 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche; the Amitabha Foundation and Retreat Centre, and Chöje Ayang Tulku Rinpoche; the Shyalpa Monastery, Nunnery and Retreat Center, and Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche; and last but not least Kopan Monastery and Kyabje Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. To learn about—or, even better, visit—each of these places and great leaders is to go on a meaningful journey into the heart of Tibetan Buddhism and its place in the modern world.

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‘Real unchanging peace and happiness exist within ourselves and can only be realised through subtle intellectual enquiry and meditation. To provide the opportunity for people today, I have decided to build a place for study and meditation.’ ~ 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche

Starting at the northeastern end of the axis, just beyond the fast-developing little community of Jagdol, is the Pullahari Monastery, Rigpe Dorje Institute, and Retreat Centre. Often misspelt as Phulbari, due to the proximity of a neighbourhood of that name in Boudhanath, its origins can be traced back to 1986, when the 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche accepted the offer of a substantial plot of land from Dilyak Dabzang Rinpoche. 

The birth of in Lhasa in 1954 had been accompanied by propitious portents, and he was soon recognised as a reincarnation of Khyentsé Özer and a key holder of the Kagyu lineage. At the tender age of six, he was enthroned by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa at his seat, Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim, and throughout his adult life worked tirelessly for the Karmapa and the Kagyu lineage as a whole. 

The land donor and Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche’s senior by many years, Dilyak Dabzang Rinpoche, had been born in Derge, Kham, in 1929. He was closely associated with Dilyak Monastery, Namchen and, in 1963, had founded the Pal Dilyak Monastery (commonly known as Dabzang Gompa), the oldest original Karma Kagyu monastery in Boudhanath.  

In accordance with the traditions of the Dilyak Dabzang lineage, with its roots going back to the teachings of Padmasambhava and its emphasis on both Mahamudra and retreat centres, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche was determined to establish a three-year Mahamudra retreat centre as well as a monastery on the land he had been given, and chose to call it ‘Pullahari’, the name of the sanctuary established by Naropa (fl. 10^th -11^th century CE), considered to be one of the eighty-four mahasiddhas (Vajrayana ‘saints’).

Pullahari Monastery was opened in March 1992, with Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche consecrating the lineage shrine hall, designating the site of the proposed retreat centre, and making the decision to relocate the Rigpe Dorje Institute project from Sarnath, near Varanasi, India, to Pullahari. Tragically, within one month of the opening, both of the Rinpoches who had enabled the establishment of Pullahari  were no more: Dilyak Dabzang Rinpoche passed away on 2 April in Hong Kong, and Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche on 26 April in India

On 16 November 1992, the sacred relics of the 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche were brought back from Rumtek Monastery to Pullahari, and, on the second anniversary of his passing, were enshrined there in a Golden Stupa, just a month after the first three-year Mahamudra retreat at Pullahari had been instituted.  In 2000, construction work on the Rigpe Dorje Institute began, and the first classes were held the following year in the as-yet-incomplete building. 

Today, Pullahari Monastery Rigpe Dorje Institute and Retreat Centre, in its serene and expansive setting, is a haven of peace and beauty.

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My phowa teaching is for a joyful end to one’s life. While you are alive, don’t forget about preparing for your death, as we don’t know when or how our life will end.” ~ Chöje Ayang Tulku Rinpoche

Next along the axis, with its entrance next to the military police post on the road which cuts through the middle of the ridge, is the Amitabha Foundation and Retreat Centre, known in Tibetan as Opak Kyilkhor Chöling (Opak = Öpakmé, the Tibetan name for Amitabha; Kyilkhor or Khilkhor = mandala; Chöling = monastery).  Consecrated in May 2013, it is undeniably the most visually stunning of the four monasteries, designed like a great mandala, with the central temple being dedicated to Buddha Amitabha, one of the main Buddhas of both Mahayana and Tibetan traditions, particularly associated in the latter with phowa, or the transference of consciousness at the time of death. The Amitabha temple is surrounded by fifteen smaller temples and a retreat center. 

The driving force behind the establishment of initially the Amitabha Foundation in 1989, and then the Amitabha Foundation and Retreat Centre, was Chöje Ayang Tulku Rinpoche, a lama in the Drikung Kagyu lineage. This ‘minor’ lineage within Karma Kagyu had been formally established around 1179 and traces its spiritual roots back to the Indian Mahasiddhas Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, and Milarepa. Born into a nomadic family in Kham in 1942, Ayang Rinpoche was recognised at a young age by several high lamas, including the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, as the mind (wisdom) emanation of the Tertön—a highly realized master who uncovers ancient hidden texts, objects, or teachings that were concealed by Guru Rinpoche—Rigzin Chögyal Dorje, and the seventh incarnation of the founder of the Ayang Monastery in Kham. He is thus a continuation of the unbroken line of succession of the Drikung phowa lamas from Dorje Chang, the ultimate Primordial or Adi Buddha, down to the present day. Phowa, or ‘the transference of consciousness,’ is the Tibetan Buddhist method for attaining a better rebirth, liberation, or enlightenment at either the moment of death or in Bardo after death. Said to be the quickest and most direct way to be liberated from samsaric (worldly) suffering and to attain enlightenment, Ayang Rinpoche was requested by the 16th Karmapa shortly before his death in 1981 to teach phowa in the West. Ayang Rinpoche consequently became acknowledged as one of the greatest phowa masters. Ayang Rinpoche died in Mysuru, Karnataka, India, on 4 December 2024.

Today, it is Amitabha Monastery, with its four corner towers, that dominates the ridge’s skyline.

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“Seize the moment and make the most of this precious human life.” ~ Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche

Shyalpa Monastery was originally established in 1989, then rebuilt, expanded, and re-opened in 2013 as the Shyalpa Monastery, Nunnery, and Retreat Center, along with the Mipham Institute for Buddhist Studies, a facility dedicated to the higher education and advanced spiritual training of monks and nuns. The whole complex bears the name of its founder, Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche, born on an unrecorded date in a Tibetan refugee camp in the foothills of the Himalayas but now an internationally recognised master. 

Like Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche at Pullahari and Chöje Ayang Tulku Rinpoche at Amitabha, his special qualities were recognised very early on and he began his spiritual training at the age of four. He went on to attend the Buddhist University in Sarnath, India, and received teachings, empowerments, and transmissions from many of the greatest Tibetan Buddhist masters of his time. Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche is a lineage holder and preeminent master of Dzogchen—the Great Perfection—within the Nyingma School, a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Bön which aims to enable people ‘to discover and remain in the ultimate ground of existence and thus transform the way of being in everyday life’. For over thirty years, Shyalpa Rinpoche has conducted retreats, seminars, and empowerments throughout Asia, North America, and Europe, highly respected not only for his endless wisdom and spiritual authority, but also for his humanity and ability to transform the ancient teachings into guidance for practical living in the twenty-first century. 

In addition to the Kathmandu complex, which provides over 200 monks and nuns with both a spiritual and secular education and is currently being expanded still further, the institutions under the direction of Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche are varied both in scope and geographical location: Buddhafield Center for Enlightenment,  New York; the Universal Peace Sanctuary, Lumbini, Nepal (under construction); Wencheng Gongzhu International Foundation, Hong Kong (with branches in Taiwan and Malaysia); Bhrikuti Himalayan Foundation and the Himalayan Children’s Fund, Nepal; and Light of Wisdom Publications, New York.

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“Each one of us is responsible for all other living beings’ happiness besides our own. As a result, your loving kindness is the most wish-fulfilling thing in life, more precious than anything else in the world. That makes for a most satisfying, fulfilling life.’~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Undoubtedly, the final institution on the ridge is also the most renowned. The foundation of what was to become Kopan Monastery was the brainchild of two great lamas: Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935 – 1984), and his main disciple, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche (1946 – 2023). Lama Yeshe was born in Tibet and educated at the great Sera Monastic University in Lhasa, while Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who had been born in Thame, Solukhumbu, and at the age of four had been recognised as a reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, also went to study in Tibet. They were both forced to flee from there in 1959 upon the Chinese takeover, and met at Buxa Chogar, the refugee camp for exiled Tibetan lamas in West Bengal, India. After coming to Nepal in 1968 and initially residing in Boudhanath, they were able to purchase and move into an old house with a small amount of land that had once belonged to a royal astrologer at the southwest end of the ridge.  It was there that what was initially known as the Nepal Buddhist Mahayana Center, largely funded by the lama’s growing number of Western disciples, was built in 1971 – 2 with three main goals: to inculcate in people goodness and the wisdom needed to serve others;  to create a monastery for young Himalayan monks and nuns; and to establish a center for the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism for foreign students. This was followed two years later by the creation of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), while Lama Zopa Rinpoche was concurrently re-establishing the Lawudo Retreat Center in Solukhumbu, 

The first monks were mostly youngsters from the Solukhumbu and Manang areas of Nepal, whilst Westerners attended the Dharma talks in increasing numbers in spite of the lack of creature comforts available. Some of them took ordination vows, and a Western sangha was established at Kopan until a change in Nepal’s visa regulations in 1985 meant that foreigners were unable to remain in the country indefinitely as before. 

Since then, Kopan has developed and grown into one of the biggest Gelug monasteries in Nepal, with around four hundred monks and, after 1994, a similar number of nuns in the nearby Kopan Nunnery, as well as an extensive programme of Buddhist courses for foreigners, sangha members and laymen alike now being provided with improved modern accommodation.

The central figure in the beautiful prayer hall depicts Lama Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), renowned teacher and yogi, and the founder of the Gelug tradition, which stretches down to HH the 14^th Dalai Lama today. 

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The casual visitor can easily visit all four institutions in one day on foot, starting from Jagdol and going to Pullahari Monastery, perhaps for the daily morning puja at 7 am; then, after following the walking trail on the other side of the ridge, the Amitabha Foundation and Retreat Centre; and finally, situated close together, the Shyalpa and Kopan Monasteries. Taxis can be used to access the beginning and end points, and refreshments are available at Pullahari, both inside and nearby Kopan Monastery.

Those wishing to explore the possibility of retreats or spiritual guidance are advised to visit the following websites: 

www.jamgonkongtrul.org

www.buddhistmonasteries.org/monasteries/pullahari-monastery

www.buddhafield.us

www.peacesanctuary.org

https://ayangrinpoche.org

https://kopanmonastery.org/

https://fpmt.org/

Photographs by Louisa Kamal and by courtesy of the institutions’ websites