Recitation successfully completed

28.10.08 Buddha Mandir

May our root Guru Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche receive the call sent from here and come back to us swiftly to turn the wheel of dharma once again.May all his wishes be fulfilled.May his Yangsi be granted with a long life and his enlightened activities be cleared of obstacles.

Sampa Lhundrup 111.111 recitations

starting on October 14th, 2008 ( Full Moon day )

Greetings to all,

As many of you already know, during his stay in Drophan Ling this summer, His Holiness Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche recommended the recitation of 111.111 times Sampa Lhundrub to be performed to help in the process of finding the Tulku of our beloved Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche. At the same occasion Rinpoche invited the sangha to do the same.

• Regarding the first advice, the Chhimed Rigdzin Society has already received some donations to start the recitations and arrangements are being made to start on October 14^th, 2008 (full Moon Day). Ten of our lamas here will be able to take part in the recitation and are very interested to do so. Making some tests with them we found out that it would take seven hours to recite 150 times the Sampa Lhundrubma prayer for one lama. So in order to match the target of 111.111 recitations it will be necessary to invite another 30 lamas at Khordong Byangter Gompa for 17 to 21 days. In this way the full recitation can be done at our Rinpoche’s Gompa, which will be an honor as well as a way to fulfill our duty as it will be performed for the benefit of our Rinpoche and his sangha.

It will require organizing the transportation, accommodation, food and offerings to the extra 30 lamas, as well as the purchase of tsog, Sampa Lhundrub prayer flags and so on.

Due to our winter program which includes two more events this year, we need to start the recitations mid-October, which is very soon and giving you a very short notice. Budget wise another 3200 euros are necessary to cover the whole cost. Hopefully such amount can be collected on time. Those of you who are willing to sponsor this very important recitation for the Swift return of Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche can contact us directly and we will tell you how to send the money and to whom.

• Regarding H.H Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche invitation to the sangha to recite 111.111 Sampa Lhundrub as well. We know some of you have already organized something, so that each and everyone can contribute by reciting the prayers from home and counting the accumulation. This collective accumulation of Sampa Lhundrub recitation as a sangha is very important and we wish that the recitation being made from Khordong Byangter Gompa will motivate all of you to join as much as you can in the recitation from wherever you are. Please accumulate as many prayers as you can everyday as your daily practice until the target of 111.111 is reached. Regarding the details on the coordination of counting the accumulation in each country, we would appreciate from those involved to share with us how they got organized and who centralizes the collective accumulation for each country, so that we know and can help you spread the information widely as it concerns all of Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche’s students and whoever felt connected to him.

May both recommendations from H.H Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche be fulfilled and may this collective effort help accomplishing all the wishes of Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche, and finding his reincarnation with a long life and successful enlightened activities.

Yours in the Dharma,

Tulku Ugen

18th Butterlamp retreat anouncement

August 26th, 2008

We are happy to announce all of you that the 18^th Butterlamp retreat will be held this winter at our Khordong Byangter Gompa from December 24^th 2008 to January 14^th 2009. Some of you already came forward with some donations to cover the cost of the retreat but that is not enough yet. Nevertheless it was a nice surprise to see how much some keep this retreat strongly in their minds as it is the first time since Rinpoche passed away that we receive donation for the lamps so early in the year, giving us the confirmation that it must be organized once again.

As you maybe remember, last year the retreat was attended by just a few disciples but all were very dedicated and had the strong motivation to do a retreat of intense practice. None of them allowed themselves to be distracted from the offerings during the whole period of their stay, which as a result their dedication could be felt deeply in the whole atmosphere. We very much wish for the same this year.

Strong of last year successful Tashiding Pilgrimage, the wish is to go to Yuksom this year (in West Sikkim). As most of you know Yuksom is an important place of Sikkim Buddhist history as it is there that the first Dharma king of Sikkim had been enthroned by the three great lamas from Tibet, Kathok Rigdzin Chempo, Ngadak Sempa Chempo and Gyalwa Lhatsun Chempo. All three came from different region of Tibet and had left to Sikkim in order to fulfill the prophecy of various tertons. Coming from different directions they finally met at Norbugang in Yuksom. From there the first Chogyal got enthroned and the Dharma spread throughout Sikkim, the hidden land known as hBras-ma ljong. Yuksom is also a place surrounded with many sacred caves, lake, rocks, stupas and so on, as well as a place of legends and a stronghold of the Lepcha community.

The other reason for this choice is that our Lopon Choewang together with eight of our lamas and 3 members of staff are coming from Yuksom. So, it will give us a good occasion to go on Pilgrimage to offer 10.000 lamps there and honor these families with whom we are connected. Yuksom is also the place of residence of H.H Yangthang Rinpoche.

We will leave for Yuksom on January 8th, early morning by jeep to reach there in the afternoon. Food and Accommodation in Yuksom will have been pre-arranged in advanced by the organizers and Yuksom Gompa will receive us as a group of pilgrims. Those arrangements will have to be respected by each individual during the time of the pilgrimage. Facilities will be provided for us to offer our 2500 lamps daily and one of the gompa will be made available for us to perform our pujahs together. On January,13th  we shall return to Khordong Byangter Gompa, to close the retreat on January 14^th 2009.

Please confirm with us as soon as you know you will come.

Bring with you :

Your passport with minimum 6 months validity.

3 Identity Photos.

Sikkim Permit: You may apply directly by yourself while applying for your Indian visa at home if you wish. Otherwise, it will be taken care of by the organizers at the beginning of the retreat for those who will need.

First Aid medical kit with travel sickness, diarrhea, fever, headache, twisted joints, cramps, cough and cold medicine.

Warm clothes, good shoes and sleeping bag.

Contacts :

Gompa: 00.91.353.64.54.578

House: 00.91.353.2581.358

H.P: 9.8320.49.416 or 9933.06.2222

Tulku Ugen Chencho : uclama@rediffmail.com

Gompa : thechhimedrigdzinsociety@yahoo.com

First Nyungnae Announcement

August 26th, 2008

This year Khordong Byangter Gompa will innovate from December 14^th to December 21^st 2008 with a new event which shall become a yearly event together with our offering of 111.111 Butter lamps known as Marme Monlam. While seeking the advices of Kyabje Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche, Tulku Ugen Chemcho was told to organize a Nyungnae on yearly basis at our Khordong Byangter Gompa.

So this year for the first time it shall be done. All dedicated practitioners are most welcome to take part in this 8 days event. Participants shall reach Khordong Byangter Gompa on December 14^th.

On December 15^th the day will start early with some explanations from the head lama leading this Nyungnae, some precepts will be taken ( Sojong) and pujahs will start. Breakfast and lunch will be served while in the evening only drinking will be allowed. It will be same for December 17^th, and 19^th.

On December 16^th, 18^th and 20^th silence will have to be kept all day long and neither food nor drink shall be taken according to the rules of this particular Chenresig practice.

On December 21^st, we will celebrate the end of this Nyungnae and offer a big tsog.

We believe this will be a very strong and beautiful time of practice and wish to see as many of you all as possible on this memorable occasion which will be followed by our annual Butterlamp retreat.

Sarwa Mangalam

NB: Traditionally such event is sponsored by the participants as well as by others in order to cover the cost of accommodation, food and offerings for the period. Please keep it in mind and be generous.

Last minute info

July 2008

This is a last minute note to inform all of you of an unexpected change in my schedule.

First of all as most of you already know H.H Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche has well arrived in Darnkov on July 9th, together with his group of lamas and Khenpo Chewang.

I am happy that I could be there in order to receive them and personnaly greet Rinpoche and pay him my respect. It is really a great opportunity for Darnkov and all of us to have Rinpoche among us to bestow empowerments of the Byangter lineage. We are very lucky that despite his many invitations to go and give wangs in many places of India and Nepal Rinpoche insisted since last year that his priority once he would have recovered from his eyes operation was to come to Darnkov first.

I do not know how to convey to all of you how precious this time is and how great is this opportunity to meet Rinpoche in Darnkov and receive from him the transmissions our beloved Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche so much wish to bestow himself, there once the center would be completed.

It was an honor for me to be invited to take part in this transmission and stay together with you and at the side of Rinpoche during this particular event which will be a landmark in Darnkov history and the propagation of the Byangter teachings in Europe.

Unfortunatly after receiving several emergency call from India, I had to take the decision to return as soon as possible to look after my aged Mother Amala and stay near her to appease her mind. I went to ask Rinpoche permission to leave which he granted me immediately saying I have to look after my Mother, yet confirming how much he wish I could stay for the wang. I am extremely sorry for this sudden change which may affect some of you, and wish you can understand that this is also part of the duty I have to fulfill.

Nevertheless, since in my Euro Tour this year I was kindly invited to go to Lublin and then Bremen towards the end of August, and since the organizers really insist that I do not cancel these programs, I will do my best to come back to Darnkov before the end of the wangs to express Rinpoche my gratitude, attend some of the transmission and  taking part in the closing ceremony .

Once the program is over, I wish to have the opportunity to meet the Darnkov committee members and sangha as a whole to address you on certain issues dear to me and of interest of all. Then I will proceed to Lublin and Bremen as it was planned.

Yours in the Dharma,

Tulku Ugen

May'08 newsletter

As usual on daily basis, much has happen here in the past 3 months. Two more lamas have joined Dorje Wangdi and Jigmed bringing the numbers at 14 lamas studying here while another 4 are in Shimla where they have accustomed very fast.

End of March a special place for the nagas has been built and inaugurated near the pond and lopon Choewang together with the young lamas will now perform the naga pujah regularly on the required dates.

Straight after the inauguration Tulku Ugen flew to Singapore and drove to Melaka in Malaysia to lead a retreat there for 7 days during which he was requested to bestow the initiations of Padmasambhava, Dorje Drolo and Urgyen Menla together with various lungs. It was held in a very family like atmosphere thanks to the generosity and care of Mr. Soo, Richard and Eric Yap, Chua and Mrs. Alicia Tan. New connections were made there during the public programs while the practices were introduced to a smaller and dedicated number of people along the week.

Meanwhile in Gompa, two new cows were purchased and two big vegetable gardens were planted with cucumbers, green beans, pumpkins, carrots and so on. We just start to eat from them but it is not easy as it requires a lot of care and attention. Otherwise 2 rooms of the guest house are being used at the moment by two Tibetan families who have a member suffering from cancer and undergoing 4 to 5 weeks treatment at the hospital next door. Despite the heat they are very happy to have found such a haven in these difficult times.

More work needs to be done to beautify the surrounding of the Guest House and to make it more comfortable to live for a long stay. Such as basin for the bathrooms, a common kitchen for those who need to cook, fencing and planting trees and bushes. A presentation of the facilities and regulations of the Guest House is now available on the website.

Before the end of this month we will also start to make a proper tin roof for the dining hall as the storms have once again totally destroyed our bamboo roof and we shall build a semi-permanent structure for the kitchen.

Soon comes Saga Dawa, which we will celebrate here as well as the anniversary of our Rinpoche's paranirvana. End of June Tulku Ugen will fly to Europe where he has been invited in France to bestow the Vajrakilaya initiation in Paris as well as the Dorje Drolo initiation in Lyon. He will then go to Darnkov to receive H.H Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche and attend the wangs there. He has also been invited in Lublin and Bremen during the month of August. For the details of his program, please check the website.

We wish all of you will have the opportunity to meet in Darnkov this summer at the feet of H.H Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche in this very precious time of such a great event for the center, our sangha and the propagation of the Byangter lineage teachings in Europe.

Personal note from Tulku Ugen :

<< It is important for all of us, as being the practitioners of Byangter order of Tibetan Buddhism to be able to attend this great event, in order to make the wish of our Rinpoche to see Drophanling Gompa known as an established Byangter Gompa in Europe, and help to spread the Byangter lineage teachings there. Some of our western dharma friends were fortunate enough to come to Khordong Gompa in Siliguri to receive during two months long the complete transmission of Byangter order of Rigdzin Godem in the year 2006 by H.H.Taklung Tsetrul Rinpochi. I wish and pray that more and more people would have the opportunity to get these blessings of him this summer in Darnkov.>>

Sarwa Mangalam

Tulku Ugen's European Program

Summer 08

Guest house

Accomodation

.

Khordong Byangter Gompa has now a 10 rooms fully furnished Guest House to receive visitors and offer a suitable space for dharma practitioner who are looking for a place to do practice and short term retreats all over the year.

Gompaland is very quiet place to stay away from busy Siliguri yet very well located as it is just 30 to 45 minutes away by public transport if you need to do some shopping or book your tickets for your next journey

There are 4 corner rooms with single or double bed, 4 small single rooms and two dormitory rooms which could contain 4 beds each. Clean common toilets and bathrooms are just a few meters away from the rooms.

Our rooms offer basic comfortable accommodation and the rates are inclusive of Indian regular Breakfast, Lunch and Diner as there are no other means to get food nearby.

Here is an overview of our rooms including their respective rates

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For Dharma practioners who plan to stay to do regular practice or even put themselves into retreat a 25% discount will be offered to them, if they pay in advance the full amount due for their proposed stay.

For those who need to catch a train or a plain from here, private taxi can be arranged. It would take approximatly 30 min to go to Bagdogra Airport or to NJP train station depending on traffic situation.

Rules and regulations :

Smoking is strictly prohibited within the Gompaland.
Complete Registration in our Guest register is compulsory.
Check out time 12 noon.
Guests are responsible for their valuables.
The management reserves himself the right to refuse a guest or ask a guest to leave if his or her behavior is found unacceptable for our environment and community.

Newsletter

March 2008

Time has passed very fast since our last communication in late december'07, may this letter update you of our various activities and success since then.

First of all following our last letter calling for support to cover the cost for the Butterlamps offering, several of you have generously answered and thanks to their help the offering could be completed in due number and form. This 17th Butterlamp retreat has then been successful. Despite the few number of participants from Europe, we were quite a few as for the first time we could say this retreat was being done together with our gompa's own lamas. A total of 16 of them took part actively in the process and for most of them it was a discovery including the teacher Loponla.

So, together with the supervision of the sangha members we managed to make it happen. Days after days a true feeling a being into retreat could be felt as everybody respected their involvement not to get disturb with outer activities, spending all their time on Gompaland focusing on their practice and the offering, cleaning and filling of the lamps.

Then came the time to go on pilgrimage to Tashiding together with Amala, 7 lamas and 5 sangha members, plus the cook and all our belonging including the lamps and the Dalda. It was quite an expedition to reach Tashiding and then to carry up all our things. We were very nicely received there and the weather conditions were best, a clear blue sky with the warmth of the sun till the day of our departure when fog came and the weather changed. We managed to offer 10.400 lamps from Tashiding doing our pujahs in the Guru Lakhang and being involved with the lamps from early morning to late at night. On our way back we went to visit the Khandro SangPhuk where we took the time to make the small Rigdzin. We were back to Gompaland on January 13th, to complete the offerings the next day. This last day offering was particularly dedicated to Stephan Jaeger's deceased father, Walter Jaeger who had passed away in December'07.

Then on January 15th, an auspicious day when all over India the Ganga pujah is performed we went to release several thousands of fishes in the nearby Dam, as well as 30 pigeons and 4 white geese. It was a very enjoyable and moving experience to close our program for this year.

Soon after we got the school started for all the young lamas, then we got involved into the preparation of Losar and its celebration. In the mean time the 10 rooms Guest House got finally completed, freshly painted and furnished, to be inaugurated on February 4th on the arrival of Olivier and Jacqueline from France and got named " Pillow Below" in memory of our Rinpoche's habit to keep everything under his pillow. Straight after that new visitors came and the first four rooms were already booked. Further details will be given about our "Pillow Below" Guest House in terms of rates and rules and regulations, later on this month, on the website.

March was dedicated to overall maintenance of the Gompa in which it was found out that termites had invaded all three floors through the walls so that immediate action had to be taken. Much work was also done on the surrounding land, as well as to strengthen existing structures. The other 2 areas of focus were the confirmation of H.H Taklung Tsetrul Rinpochi invitation's to Darnkov this summer, together with the preparation of Tulku Ugen Chencho's program in Malaysia where he has been invited to go give wangs and do practice for 7 days from March 24th to April 2nd, 2008. This is a new beginning for our Rinpoche's teachings and lineage as for the first time they will be given and practiced in South-East Asia. On March 3rd, 2008 four young lamas from here together with Norbu Gyaltshen left gompa to further their studies in Shimla at Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche Monasteries, so that they learn deeper philosophy and the ways and rituals of the Byangter lineage. This will take them several years before they can come back here to hopefully pass their knowledge to the younger ones here, helping establish this Khordong Byangter Gompa in its own tradition.

That's it for now, hopefully we shall be able to send you some more news around June, till then we wish you all success in your endeavor and growth in your practice.

Sarva Mangalam.

Tulku Ugen Malaysian Program

March 24th - April 2nd, 2008

 Dharma Program in Melaka conducted by
HE Tulku Ugen Chencho, Dungsi and Principal Regent of Khordong

Tulku Ugen Chencho is the fourth child of  late Venerable Terton Tulku Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche who was fourth incarnation of Nuden Dorje Drophan Lingpa Drolo Tsal. Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche is the traditional holder of the Khordong lineage and practice the Nuden Dorje Tersar and Byangter lineage. The Byangter lineage is the tradition of the Northern (Byang) Treasures (gTer)  rediscovered  in the 14th century by Rigdzin Godem. Tulku Ugen was recognized by late H.H Dudjom Rinpoche and late H.H Gyalwa Karmapa when he was a small boy, but all these were kept as a secret until in 1985 and on his first ever trip to Tibet where he was told by his father Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche  that he was a tulku of  Suckchung Monastery in Tibet. 

Before Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche  passed away in 2002, he appointed Tulku Ugen Chencho as the Dungsi and Regent of Khordong and passed unto the responsibility to carry on his work as today's holder of his lineage and head of Khordong Monastery in India.

Tulku Ugen will conduct dharma program from 24/03/08-30/03/08 in Melaka to bestow Nuden Dorje Tersar  transmission. 

Venue :    PAC – Puer Art & Culture Center (upstair 1^st floor)

                17&19 Jalan Kesidang  3/11, Melaka Mall Off Jalan Tun Perak, Melaka

 Venue :  CCK - Che Chiang Khor Moral Uplifting Association

              139, Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Melaka

  Contact :  

 Soo   Tel : 012- 6392599  Email : ternnong@gmail.com

 Chua  Tel : 016- 6317526 Email : babyface5995@yahoo.com          

For further information on Khordong Monastery and its lineage please refer to this link :
http://www.khordong-india.org

The Vidyadhara Guru Sadhana or Big Rigdzin:

Dorje Drolo Practice :

The prayer of aspiration of the lamps (butterlamp offering practice) :

Nuden Dorje Treasure Text entitled “The Mirror of Clear Meaning”:

The root text is written by Nuden Dorje in the mid 19^th century.These are the teachings that he first heard in his former incarnation as Khyeuchung Lotsawa. The text provides a very clear authentic account of the view and essential meditation of dzogchen, the practice of non-dual experience. The text is very fresh, radiant with the dew drops of its short lineage.