Photo Album: Sacred Sites in Nepal
Mar 8, 2010 | Views: 2,294
In October 2008, I led a group of 61 pilgrims to Nepal to visit the holy power places in Kathmandu valley. During the pilgrimage, I gave many Dharma talks to set our motivation correctly and many explanations on the significance of the various holy places which had made our pilgrimage a so much more meaningful and a powerful spiritual experience.
Some of these places are kept by families from generation to generation. They are not open to the public, only to sangha members and serious practitioners.
Do take a look at the photos…they are of sacred places that we got a chance to visit.
Tsem Rinpoche
In October 2008, I led a group of 61 pilgrims to Nepal to visit the holy power places in Kathmandu ...
During our pilgrimage, we stayed at the comfortable Kathmandu Guest House in Thamel. Thamel is a bustling area where there ...
On the first day, I gave a talk to set the right motivation for this pilgrimage and I also explained ...
We made a lot of wonderful butterlamp offerings to Chenrezig along with garlands of marigold flowers. It is very powerful ...
After some prayers, we made heartfelt dedications towards Chenrezig and all the Buddhas.
This photo was taken whilst I was explaining the benefits and blessings of Tara.
In this photo, we are standing within the compound of the Boudhanath Stupa, the largest stupa in Nepal!
We took a group photo at one of the holiest Buddhist sites in the world, the Boudhanath Stupa. This is ...
As the sun was setting, I gave a talk on the significance of the Boudhanath Stupa
Everyday, I would give a little motivational talk before we set out on our journey. It's good to keep our ...
We also went to visit the self-arising Tara temple in Pharping.
This is me giving an explanation on the significance of the self-arising Tara temple.
We made a lot of butterlamp offerings to the beautiful mother Tara.
Here is a close-up photo of the self-arising Tara that seems to get clearer each year due to numerous prayers ...
This is us walking towards the Guru Rinpoche meditational caves.
The cave here in Pharping is believed to have been used by Guru Rinpoche for Tantric meditational retreats before he ...
Guru Rinpoche sealed his blessings with a hand print on the stone wall next to the entrance of his cave. ...
A sincere Nyingma monk outside Guru Rinpoche's cave came to greet me.
I explained the history of this cave and told the pilgrims the aspiration that they should make here.
This is us walking down a flight of stairs down the hill towards an old temple...
Upon arriving at the Vajrayogini temple at Pharping, I gave a short talk before we went in to have audience ...
There are many stray dogs in Nepal, some are taken care of and some are not...just like anywhere else in ...
We went to Patan where I gave a little talk upon reaching the courtyard. Our intention was not to visit ...
The next day, we visited Bijashwari Vajrayogini temple and for auspicious reasons, I gave my students and friends the very, ...
We went to Swayambhunath hill and came to the Temple of the Doors.
The Temple of the Doors is actually the entrance to the underground cavern of Kathmandu valley, believed to be where ...
The famous gilded Swayambhunath Stupa, one of the holiest sites in Nepal.
Here I am giving a short talk together with the other 61 pilgrims.
At Pashupati riverbank, we made lots of offerings at Tilopa and Naropa's caves. This is where Tilopa and Naropa is ...
I performed an auspicious puja to Vajrayogini within Naropa's very own meditational cave.
Thamel is Kathmandu's tourist haven with all its shops, restaurants, bars, and supermarkets
I was in solemn prayer as I entered the meditational cave of Naropa and Tiilopa at Sangkhu Monastery
The Torana gateway above the main entrance of the Chenrezig temple is exquisitely carved with images of Chenrezig and two ...
Letting the pilgrims know the history and origin of this place makes them have more faith in the holy statue ...
This white face of Chenrezig is one of the 3 arisen brothers of ancient times
I am glad to have brought Datuk May Phng on this pilgrimage as she had spiritually grown so much
Nepal is very backwards but it is very rich spiritually because it is very much a part of daily life ...
Around the Bouddhanath stupa, there are many butterlamps that pilgrims can offer to the Three Jewels
This is apparently a long life shrine as it is dedicated to Namgyalma, Amitayus and White Tara
At every shrine, I ensure that the pilgrims circumambulate the holy site as it is the customary tradition to venerate ...
Monks perform Tara puja regularly to the self arisen Tara image on the rock
The caretaker of the White Tara temple gave me red sindhura powder to anoint my friends and students
This whole Nepalese pilgrimage was filmed by our very own film department Kechara InMotion
A shrine was built surrounding the self arisen Tara image
I had my students and friends hug one another as one of the ways to rejoice in the day's good ...
I enjoy making offerings to the Buddhas as I can see and feel its benefits, so I advocate that my ...
I love the ancient Tara statues that are placed on pedestals outside the Chenrezig temple
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Rejoice to those who had followed Rinpoche on a special pilgrimage to the Holy and scared place …Kathmandu,Nepal. Even though it is an old post yet it brought many happy memories to those pilgrims , I am sure. Wow a big group of Kecharians , all in 61 of them. Simply wonderful and the smiles on their faces paints a thousands words. Such a meaningful and a powerful spiritual experience for them. I have not been to Kathmandu valley but would certainly love to . Visiting the Boudhanath Stupa will be my top priority for sure.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing of those wonderful pictures.
As a Chinese, I am currently preparing to have family reunions and gatherings with friends for those precious bonding moments in celebration of the Lunar Chinese New Year.
At the same time I went into nostalgia of the past years and what have I done as a Buddhist to have practised the essence of being of purpose and benefit to others. This is what my Guru has always taught us, to live with the purpose of being of benefit to sentient beings and also to the space we occupy temporarily or permanently.
I was lucky to look back at this blog post @ Tsemrinpoche.com and remember vividly the wonderful time I had on my first pilgrimage to Nepal with H.E the 25th Tsem Rinpoche. I learnt so much and am still learning to be of benefit to others so that we are at peace with ourselves.
I like to share this with all my friends and wishing you Gong Xi Fa Cai.
So meaningful,blessful and a powerful spiritual experience for those who went for that pilgrimage, which was lead by our Precious Guru.From those beautiful photos seen above . It such a wonderful experience for them, visiting those various holy places,with Rinpoche giving explanation and teachings to them.
I have not been to Kathmandu,Nepal before but would definitely made one.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing.
Those pilgrims who went with Rinpoche are very blessed indeed to be able to visit these holy places that are not open to the general public. Further, they also had teachings by Rinpoche on motivation for the pilgrimage, offerings to the Buddhas and the various significance of the holy sites.
Since then, Rinpoche has his senior students conduct similar pilgrimages and many have benefited from it.
I still recall in 2008 when I received a personalised letter from HE the 25th Tsem Rinpoche to join in a pilgrimage to Nepal.
I was thrilled to be going on a pilgrimage as I had never been on one and so I humbly accepted and set off with a group 61 people.
With sweet nostalgia of what happened in 2008, I am sharing with you photos of that great event of my life.
I had the good fortune to go to Nepal with Rinpoche in the year 2005, it was just after the tsunami if my memory serves me correctly. Felt super energised whilst I was there woke up mostly early and occasionally we travelled by bus to various pilgrimage places. It was a great, fun and learning experience all rolled into one. the food in Nepal was fantastic ( being the Oxen that I am, check out the Horoscopes post http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/horoscopes/chinese-horoscopes.html)
People there are poor but I find the people are not unhappy unlike some people I have met in modern cities.
This pilgrimage which was led by Rinpoche in 2008 has open up many windows of opportunities for us. From this pilgrimage we have built an information center in Boudha and we had a chance to offer a Ladrang to Rinpoche. It was an experience which I’m fortunate to be involved as it really push me out of my comfort zone ie working and getting things done in a foreign country like Nepal.
You can read all about the experience of setting up the ladrang in the book “CALL ME PARIS” published by Kechara Media & Publication (KMP)
http://www.kechara.com/publications/