Tsem Ladrang-Kuala Lumpur
Tsem Ladrang Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tsem Ladrang in Kuala Lumpur is the heart of the organization, the headquarters of the ladrang operations and my main place of residence.
The KL Ladrang is housed in a large converted bungalow located close to the Dharma center, Kechara House. This building houses my personal living quarters on the 2nd floor, a grand prayer hall dedicated especially towards KECHARA’s Dharma work and growth, a throne room for private teachings and audiences, and guest quarters for visiting high Lamas and Sangha. This is my private residence not for the public and not a temple. But I have beautiful shrines throughout. The Ladrang Liaisons did a wonderful job to design, build and make Tsem ladrang -KL manifest. I sincerely appreciate their efforts.
The throne room in Tsem Ladrang KL, where I holds many private audiences and teachings.
Buddhas decorated in splendour, representing the qualities we want to achieve. I had a few students inclusive of Datin, her daughter, Patsy etc come over and they kindly spent weeks offering beautiful crystals onto the sacred bodies of Tsongkapa, Shakyamuni and Tara. This is a traditional Gelugpa Altar with Tsongkapa centre, Shakyamuni left and Mother Tara on the right. This altar is meant to be bling-bling and modern. Why not? Offerings from the heart to Buddhas of any kind are fine.
Much of the space is allocated to administrative offices for the Ladrang staff and a large conference room for my liaisons to meet, from which major decisions about the organization are made. Without the liaisons present almost nothing can be accomplished. I am very happy to work with them. So we meet very often, once a month (below).
Modern and large conference room for meetings.
General admin area of the ladrang
A fully-equipped kitchen enables the Ladrang to prepare full vegetarian meals for me, staff, guests, as well as to cater for all events hosted at the Ladrang. A dining hall was also set up to provide a suitable space to host private functions, appreciation dinners and for mealtimes during extended meetings of the Liaisons Council. Above. We have many important meetings that are the decisions to make the organization grow.
Dry kitchen
Dining area
I like giving many gifts, along with my prayers and well-wishes, to inspire many people on to the spiritual path and eventually to practice pure Buddha Dharma. Hence, the gift room was designed to make optimal use of the available space to store as many gifts possible. Innovative solutions include a mezzanine floor and compact sliding cabinets (below).
Gift room
The Ladrang receives many guests throughout the day and a spacious waiting room was designed to ensure the continuous inflow of guests are properly received. The waiting room also doubles as an extension of the grand hall, during larger teachings and private events (below). A beautiful Hayagriva blesses the waiting area and it was gifted to me from JJ, Joshua and Joshua’s family.
Waiting room
Waiting room
The Ladrang also includes a large aviary and tortoise run, to create the causes for our animal sanctuary to manifest in the future.
The Ladrang Aviary is divided into a large section for the cockatoos and conures, and a smaller section for the cockatiels and local parrots. We have a large and beautiful outdoor aviary. I love it. I live animals. The ladrang staff takes good care of the many birds. Thank you!
Tortoise sanctuary – We have an area outside the ladrang for our tortoises to run free, with nice shades, pool, an outdoor house. They get fed fresh vegetables and fruits three times a day.
So the above pictures are just to share with you where I live and work from with my hardworking group of people. I hope you enjoyed this ‘virtual’ tour of my house or Tsem Ladrang.
Good Wishes,
Tsem Rinpoche
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Tsem Ladrang is actually the Headquarters of Kechara House and also the residence of Tsem Rinpoche. It has been housing E Division. Lately because E-Division has expanded they have moved to another building in Sunway Mas. And the old E-Division office has been taken over by Kechara In Motion temporarily while waiting for their permanent place. Tsem Ladrang is very typical of the Tsem Ladrang in Ganden except that in Ganden the staff are all monks. And Tsem Ladrang Kuala Lumpur staff are all lay young people and the layout and usage in Tsem Ladrang Kuala Lumpur are hi-tech and modern. There are still some departments being housed in Tsem Ladrang like the Animal Sanctuary, Kechara In Motion andf Gift Department as Rinpoche likes to give away gifts to people.
Although I have gone to
Although I have gone to and stayed in Tsem Ladrang Gaden India many times. The activities between the two Tsem Ladrangs are different. In India Tsem Ladrang only houses the refugee monks that come from Tibet. The Ladrang in Gaden is full of monks sometimes with 30 to 40 monks. The differnce between the two Tsem Ladrangs are Kuala Lumpur has 13 departments to do the different types of work to promote dharma and funds are easily available to do projects to help the Monastery in India. Even if Tsem Rinpoche is in Ladrang in Gaden wants to do more to help the monks in the Monastery he cannot as there are no funds and manpower to help him. In Tsem Ladrang Kuala Lumpur he can do that. He has formed the 13 departments which will eventually be in KWPC. Tsem Ladrang Kuala Lumpur is the miniature KWPC currently.
The word Ladrang comes from the Tibetan words, ‘Lama’ (La) and ‘Drang’ which means residence, but as mentioned, it is much more than that. The ladrang never sleeps – It literally runs 24/7 by the hardworking ladrang staff, who are always cheerful and ready to help.
Tsem ladrang is the heart of Kechara organisation and Rinpoche is the hardest working of us all. He is always thinking of ideas of how to help people – through advice and teachings – exemplified by this blog and twitter. Through the 13 departments, he keeps thinking and implementing ways for people to solve their problems and be happier. He gives people the opportunity to make merits to learn the Dharma so that their lives can be changed not just now but in future lives. I can honestly say that I have never met such a compassionate Being who truly cares and loves everyone without exception and without agenda.
As a liaison and Kecharian, I am truly grateful to Rinpoche for all he does and giving me the opportunity to be a part of it. I’m also thankful to all the people, past, present and future who sponsor and work with him to further his vision – to Kechara World Peace Centre (http://www.kechara.com/peace-centre/). Rinpoche has said before that he alone cannot build KWPC and we alone cannot build it, but together we can. Thank you Rinpoche – May KWPC manifest soon to benefit many!
If you look at how any Ladrang anywhere in the world is set up, you will soon notice that the entire building has been set up for the sake of others. It is referred to as the Lama’s personal residence, but in actuality, the Lama only occupies one room in the building. The rest of the facilities, rooms and grounds are for others – for administrative work, prayers, offerings, audiences with the public, meeting rooms, kitchen and facilities to accommodate for the ladrang staff.
This is true of the Ladrangs in the monastery too. The lamas have their own room, but every Ladrang is centred around the main prayer hall, where offerings and prayers are made on behalf of the ladrang, Dharma work and monastery; the audience room; the other monks quarters…
How kind the lamas are that even their personal residences are used for the welfare of others. Everything to do with that building – how it is built and what is done there – is dedicated towards the growth of Dharma.
In Tsem Ladrang, we see how this is true in the many overlap of Dharma activities that go on throughout the building; while Rinpoche stays only in his room on the 2nd floor. There are departments working out of the ladrang, individual volunteers who come to help, events and appreciation dinners for volunteers/staff/sponsors, video screenings or group discussions about books, department or liaisons meetings – it’s all Dharma work, and everything was meticulously planned to make Dharma work easy, comfortable, convenient and even fun for the students. And from here, we bring Dharma to the rest of the world!
Being the nucleus of the entire Kechara Organization, Tsem Ladrang fuels and supports the cause for the entires Kechara Organization to grow in many ways. His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche resides here and is the mandala of his personal abode and as that of his administrative office.
It is from Tsem Ladrang that Rinpoche’s initial ideas and plans are being carried out and executed to bring in the desired results in order to help out the many people who are in need of help.
Tsem Ladrang’s administrative office is run by 5 hardworking, dedicated and loving liaisons under the direct guidance of Rinpoche. Liaisons Datuk May, JP Thong, Su Ming, Beng Kooi and Seng Piow bulldozes their way through daily in carrying out Rinpoche’s orders to manifest Rinpoche’s vision to relief the sufferings of others.
Tsem Ladrang is a sanctuary for both as a source of inspiration for many people who benefit people through the compassionate deeds of Rinpoche’s love and light for others. Many departments under the Kechara were born from here. Hence, every Kecharian has a special place in Tsem Ladrang.
May Tsem Ladrang grow and benefit more people.
I was totally ignorant of what a Ladrang was until it finally manifested as Tsem Ladrang.
For a short while,I had wondered why it was constructed so big with only a Rinpoche and a few assistants staying there. After all, it was supposed to be just a residence.
Tsem Ladrang is now a multi-purpose facility which is both the Lama’s residence ( forming only a small part of the building ) and nerve and operation centre from which the Lama carries out his bodhisattva mission and deeds.
The premises now look inadequate to support the ever increasing work of our Lama (and growing staff) in his holy mission to promote and spread the Dharma.
Karmically the Ladrang also serves as the cause to manifest our World Peace centre by effecting transformation of people’s mind.
Inwardly it is truly a spiritual abode and outwardly a very practical and beautiful one.
I love this place. Everyday I feel like I’m walking into a resort- especially the green garden/ aviary area and the beautiful waiting room that has received many many guests.
@Jon: But first you have to get here! 😉
Wonderful! I would never want to leave! hehe.
Jon