There are a range of teachings not suitable in rented facilities, due to cost, scale, or lack of suitable amenities. A permanent home enables such retreats, which include an introduction to and training in Buddhist psychology and counselling techniques; family-friendly retreats supported by crèche facilities, trained child-minders and child-friendly activities; training for professionals, college students or interested amateurs in rare Buddhist crafts and arts.
It has also long been our desire to provide a venue suitable for a Buddhist laity such as Friends’ Retreats for Friends of Sang-ngak-chö-dzong. There are many people who attend our events who possess a genuine long term interest in elements of Buddhist practice, but do not wish to take the step of becoming vow holding practitioners either in monastic or ngak’phang traditions. Such people often have a depth of knowledge and experience that goes beyond what can be addressed in a traditional weekend workshop that might have people with no Buddhist experience attend
Many members of the Aro Tradition have diverse interests, skills, and talents. Drala Jong will provide a home in which sangha can offer their talents in running courses on counselling, alternative therapies, martial arts, craft work, musical training, dance, artistic displays and installations, cookery, horticulture, children’s education and equestrian pursuits.
In addition to this there are teachers and teachings from other spiritual and philosophical traditions complimenting those of Vajrayana Buddhism. Hosting courses on relationship, counselling, and other spiritual traditions, would facilitate a cross fertilisation of ideas and experience for those using the Centre.
Drala Jong will provide a perfect venue for the many Vajrayana Buddhist arts and crafts. A dedicated workshop will provide a home for tools such as our lathes and kilns. Crafts include metal work, metal casting, ceramics, carpentry, manufacture of traditional musical instruments, tailoring, and creation of appliqué thangkas. There are many symbolic forms through which Buddhism is artistically expressed. At present the number of tools available on a retreat is limited by the number of vehicles travelling to each retreat. Craft projects are also limited by the time available on a given event - partially completed projects having to be stored for the following annual event.
Facilities will be established for craft work in general, and thangka painting in particular. Our Spiritual Directors, Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen, are both master thangka painters – but at present the number of their trainee painting students is limited not by the time of the teachers but by the size of the homes of the sangha members who host such events. A larger, permanent, dedicated facility will enable broader the teaching of this rare art form to be opened up both to a broader Buddhist population and the general public.
Drala Jong will provide a perfect venue for the many Vajrayana Buddhist arts and crafts. A dedicated workshop will provide a home for tools such as our lathes and kilns. Crafts include metal work, metal casting, ceramics, carpentry, manufacture of traditional musical instruments, tailoring, and creation of appliqué thangkas. There are many symbolic forms through which Buddhism is artistically expressed. At present the number of tools available on a retreat is limited by the number of vehicles travelling to each retreat. Craft projects are also limited by the time available on a given event – partially completed projects having to be stored for the following annual event.
The Treasure Vase (gTér Bum) ceramics project pictured here, and led by one of our qualified teaching Lamas, Ngala Nor’dzin Pamo is an example of our work. Completed in 2005 this project demonstrates the charity’s ability to create wonderful and unique works, in support of our charitable goals, on a sound financial basis. This particular project involved donation of many vases to charitable causes whilst selling all the rest of the vases to individual donors to generate a healthy return which covered all project costs fourfold.
The phurba is three-edged symbolic weapon, which focuses the mind on the destruction of the three deluded perceptual states: obsession, aggression, and indifference. In 2004 the largest Phurba in the world was constructed in the Austrian Mountains by the students of Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen in Mainland Europe. The creation of statues and symbolic monuments such as a phurbas is an inspiration for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. Sang-ngak-chö-dzong aspires to create such a monument—made from Welsh Steel—and plant it in the bedrock of South Wales. One volunteer quipped: … perhaps if the Welsh Phurba were a little taller than it’s continental sibling, it might be possible to see the Austrian Phurba from its summit.
The creation of appliqué thangkas and costumes for cham (dance) are examples of a form of craft which requires a permanent dedicated space for the object of the craft work to rest in whilst work is undertaken. Such projects at present are necessarily subject to the demands of completion within allotted times frames – and are therefore do not lend themselves to long term development that more detailed work would require.
Whilst the full system of yoga is presently only known to our Spiritual Directors Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen, a number of specialist teachers are available who are able to apply their unique experience for the benefit of beginners and more advanced students. This practice can be engaged in both indoors and out. It is our intention to provide either a permanent indoor studio or an outdoor facility for the practice of such systems of physical exercise. It would be relatively inexpensive to equip a traditional ‘Dutch Barn’ with roll-down canvas sides to provide a dual-use weatherproof venue for such practices.
Gar’cham (sometimes called ‘Lama Dance’) is a system of sacred dance. The movements are part of a moving meditation practice, that, like others in the Vajrayana Buddhism involves visualisation by the dancers which is maintained throughout the length of the dance, whether the dancer is still or in motion. Whilst some such dances are reserved for advanced practitioners, others may either be viewed by members of the public or in part learned by them. One such dance from the Aro gTér lineage is ‘phurba dance’. Cham, like yoga, can be performed indoors or out, and we intend to build a dual-purpose facility at Drala Jong capable of being used for both purposes.
There are many Vajrayana treasures in the care of the Aro Tradition which are seldom on public display either to dedicated practitioners or members of the public. These treasures are the art-works and ritual objects from Tibet which have been passed to the spiritual directors by their teachers and which they have bequeathed to Sang-ngak-chö-dzong. Some of these items are of immense value—both intrinsically and financially—and we are concerned to safeguard them for the future. In addition to these spiritual treasures – the spiritual directors Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen have a private collection containing numerous valuable shrine items which could be made available to the charity and the world at large if there were an appropriate setting. Whilst not every treasure of the lineage is appropriate to be on constant open display, there are thangkas, costumes, shrine objects and many other items which need a permanent home in Drala Jong’s shrine room.
These ritual objects, texts, sacred implements, costumes, statues, and artwork could provide a vast source of inspiration for Buddhist practitioners, and an educational resource for children and academics interested in the religions of the Himalayan Countries of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Sikkim.
Of similar value to the Lineage treasures, Drala Jong will become the home for a research and lending library of books, texts, audio and visual records for the study of Vajrayana in general and the ngak’phang tradition in particular.
For practitioners – the presence of the experienced elderly residents provides an ideal venue for those engaged in general study, or ngak’phang ordination training in the run-up to their examinations, or a support for those studying as part of their teacher training. It is hoped that the Centre could evolve into a true ngak’phang dratsang (Tantric College) such as the college at Repkong in Tibet.
For academics – the ngak’phang tradition, also called the go-kar-chang-lo’i-dé, or the gendün karpo is a untapped vein of rich spiritual tradition, ripe for study by philosophers, sociologists, social anthropologists and students of comparative religion. Sang-ngak-chö-dzong has accumulated a number of as yet unpublished texts on the nature and practice of the ngak’phang stream of Buddhism, and we believe we possess the world’s largest photographic library of images of Tibetan ngak’phang practitioners.
For children – the rich sounds, colour and vibrant energy of Vajrayana are a perfect playground of the senses in which children can learn about arts, crafts, dance, music and song. From playing instruments within the Vajrayana Orchestra, to the manufacture of those same instruments, from witnessing tradition gar’cham (Lama Dance) to listening to the histories of early Buddhist heroines and heroes, Vajrayana Buddhism presents a vast opportunity to broaden the scope and diversity of religious and cultural understanding for children.
We have already received offers of support from over 50 unpaid volunteers who are willing to lend their skills, knowledge and labour to the renovation of a suitable property. Professional skills range from financial and business knowledge, to wood, metal and ceramic skills, or the willingness to engage in some good old fashioned hard graft. More information about the charity board of directors and the volunteers is available to donors on request.