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‘Standing For Peace’ The next stage of the World Peace Stupa

Thursday March 29 To Sunday April 1

Come and be part of history, helping to bring peace to our world.

Gates open 8.45 am this Thursday 29th & Friday 30th March

Free Entry both days until 10 am!

Join the monks in a historic event !

An extraordinary milestone in the completion of the World Peace Stupa will take place this week.
Thursday will see most of the body of the monument erected in one amazing day.

On Friday work continues and on Saturday at 6pm, join the monks in a remarkable Harmonic Chanting Performance, an evening fundraiser for the stupa. Pre-book your evening ticket here

The monks will continue their wonderful program right through Sunday April 1st

Click here for the full program.

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Saturday 13th to Sunday 21st August 2011

The Gyuto Monks are returning to Crystal Castle to continue preparations, with an emphasis on creating the stupa treasury. Activities will include the painting and writing mantras on the Tree of Life, centre piece for the 8 metre Stupa. The tree was found, blessed and felled in a dawn ceremony last May. The much maligned camphor laurel was chosen for its durability, strength and long lasting protective scent.

The monks will also be inviting the community to join in the making of tsa tsas (clay Buddha statues) and rolling mantras, both important items for the stupa.
You may also join the monks for Morning Meditation (10.30am) and Meditation Class (12.30pm) each day.

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The ground is ready!

In the next exciting step in creating the Kalachakra World Peace Stupa at the Crystal Castle, ground was broken this week at the stupa site. If you peek to the left of the path as you walk down towards the castle, there, behind the Water Pourer pond you will see the red earth where the stupa will stand. Sloping banks of grass will provide a place to sit and marvel at this extraordinary sacred monument. You can also glimpse a winding path that will take visitors around the stupa and across to the Rainforest Walk creating the opportunity to circumambulate the monument. This is considered a most auspicious activity by the Tibetan Buddhists.

Blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (as well as the Byron Shire Council who have approved its DA), the unusual spherical structure of the stupa has been engineered to last a thousand years. Like a physical and metaphysical time capsule it will be a powerful statement of our collective intentions for the future of humanity. The project is being managed and built by locals, Alok Eggenberger of ExpanDesign and Chris Brown of Domeshells Australia.

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Contribute your precious items.

The community now has the opportunity to participate by bringing particular items to be prepared for inclusion in the Stupa treasury.
These objects will reflect the future survival and prosperity of humanity.
Items to be donated should have value and meaning for the giver and be offered with pure intention for the good of all.

Please bring your precious items to the Monks in the Discovery room, between 13th – 21st August.

These are the items which are needed:

Dried and cut juniper & sandalwood.
Pots and pans, agricultural implements,
Guns, arrows (even toys guns as they are all symbols of disarmament),
Precious items - jewellery, gold and silver, coins, silk,
Grain - unhulled rice, barley,
Wool, cotton cloth,
Fine ceramics or china,
Paintings.
Good quality pure gold paste for painting the Tree of Life and fine artists paint brushes.

The items, chosen at the monk’s discretion, will be prepared and sealed in the 'time capsule' of the stupa in a consecration ceremony in October.

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Water from the snows of Mt Kailash.

Four Byron Shire residents, Robert Dhiraj, Sarvo, Gagan Smith and Melonie Zyla, have just returned from a gruelling 21 day expedition to Tibet. They crossed a 5,000 metre pass before trekking around Mount Kailash to collect sacred water for inclusion in the stupa's treasury.

Mt Kailash is the most revered mountain for a number of faiths including Tibetan Buddhism and it is considered highly auspicious to have water from its snows.

Prayer wheel update.

Since May last year, Nepalese craftsmen have been hand beating the 54 brass prayer wheels that will surround the stupa. Over the past six months, at the Gyuto Monastery in India, monks have been chanting mantras and hand rolling an incredible half a ton of prayers destined for the monument.
 

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The World Peace Stupa consecration ceremony

It was an auspiciously (and unusually!) sunny day on December 10th and the hills at Crystal Castle were ablaze with colour for our World Peace Stupa consecration ceremony. Three hundred shade umbrellas created a glorious rainbow tapestry punctuated by the rich maroon and gold of the Gyuto monk’s robes and the black costumes of the Arakwal dancers.

Delta Kay and her family from the Arakwal people began the event with a traditional smoking ceremony, welcoming the Gyuto Monks of Tibet to the land and inviting the whole community to walk through the smoke to clear the energy and request the support of the spirits of the land. Naren spoke a few words about the history and the intent of the stupa and Maureen Fallon of Gyuto House Australia talked about the importance of community involvement in creating the stupa.

The Gyuto Monks of Tibet, then performed the consecration ritual for securing the ground where the Kalachakra stupa will be built. The ceremony is performed to appease the spiritual landlords through making offerings and respectfully requesting permission to use the site. At the conclusion the master of ceremony makes the initial cut in the ground as a symbolic gesture that he should be harmed in case the spirits are incensed, not any others who work on the project subsequently. Together Gen Lama, senior Gyuto elder, with Delta Kay and Sono & Naren King, dug a hole and buried the offerings of sacred objects.

It was a beautiful and incredibly heart-warming event, a wonderful start to the project filled with a deep sense of community connectedness and goodwill.

Crystal Castle sends a huge ‘Thank You’ to all who were involved, to everyone who came to be a part of the ceremony and special thanks to Rita & Mark from Byron Curry (Namaste Restaurant) who saved the day with their gift of delicious dahl for the feast that followed.

Project update & fundraising newsWe are currently in the process of designing the landscape around the stupa and talking with builders about the specifics of the construction of the monument. The plans have arrived and the special Kalachakra statue is on its way from Nepal.

We already have sponsors for eight of the 40 handcrafted brass prayer wheels that will surround the base of the stupa. The latest benefactor is the organization that organizes all the visits of His Holiness to Australia, Dalai Lama in Australia Inc. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has supported the project so far and would love to encourage you to get together with friends and family, as a local group, street or organisation to sponsor a prayer wheel. The name of your family or group will be engraved on your wheel as a perpetual reminder of your generosity.

We need more funds now, to continue the project. You can also support the project by donating via our online store website http://shop.crystalcastle.com.au/categories/Peace-Project-Donations

Please forward this enews to anyone you feel may like to support the World Peace Stupa.

For more information about the project please visit http://crystalcastle.com.au/peace-project/

 

 

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A Kalachakra Stupa for World Peace is to be built at the Crystal Castle. This rare sacred monument will be only the seventh of its kind to be built in the world and the first in Australia.

“This stupa is very important for Byron Bay, the whole of Australia and for World peace.” Gen Lama Thupten Phuntsok, Gyuto Monk elder

What is a Stupa?

A stupa is a sacred monument built by the Tibetan Buddhists to represent the process of enlightenment. Symbolic of community strength and interdependence, Tibetans believe contributing to the building of a stupa is one of the most auspicious things one can do in this lifetime and once built, that great benefit can be gained from walking clockwise around it. The mere sight of a stupa is said to put one in touch with one’s own innate goodness inspiring compassion, kindness and thus ultimately good karma.

Kalachakra means ‘Wheel of Time’ and a Kalachakra stupa with its unusual spherical body symbolizes the energy cycle and the essential structure of the cosmos. It is known as the Stupa for World Peace.
The project officially begins on Friday 10th December when the Gyuto Monks of Tibet and local indigenous people will bless the site, remove obstacles and seek permission from the local spirits to proceed with the construction of this highly significant monument.

The World Peace Stupa Project

The dream of building a stupa began in 2003 when Crystal Castle owners, Naren & Sono King, were visiting the Buddhist sacred sites in Borobudur, Java.

“We were touched by the beauty and the energy of the monuments, and dreamed of one day building a stupa in the Crystal Castle grounds. Last February we travelled to Dharamsala in India for a private audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Whilst there, we were requested by a high lama Woser Rinpoche, using a Tibetan form of divination called the ‘mo’, to build the rare Kalachakra stupa. This is specifically for restoring balance to the Earth in times of war, conflict and environmental destruction. During our audience with the Dalai Lama, we were privileged to receive His Holiness’ blessings for the project.”

This project has also been blessed by other revered Buddhist spiritual leaders, the Karmapa, Gaden Tripa and His Holiness Sakya Trizin.

Gyuto Monks of Tibet to guide project

The stupa is expected to take a year or more to complete and will be created under the guidance of the Gyuto Monks of Tibet. As masters of the tantric arts, there is no-one more qualified to oversee and carry out the necessary rituals and ceremonies at each stage of the construction. The monks will create the intricate sculpture and artwork on the stupa.

The eight metre structure will be filled with many sacred objects, scriptures and relics. “Recently in Kathmandu a monastery gifted us with a complete collection of the Buddha’s teachings, 108 volumes of sacred scrolls, as well as the teachings of the first Dalai Lama.” explained Naren King. The local community will be invited to contribute a wide range of objects that symbolize the functioning, survival and prosperity of a good society.

“When we were in Dharamsala a monk came to our guesthouse one evening and very carefully handed us one of his monastery’s most sacred objects: the ceremonial yellow hat of his late teacher, Kirti Tsensup Rinpoche, who was one of the Dalai Lama’s teachers. It was a very moving moment. The generosity of spirit the Tibetans possess makes being in their presence a privilege. It seems like the stupa has begun a life of its own and we are along for the extraordinary ride.” said Sono King.

Forty brass prayer wheels, known as ‘Mani’ wheels are currently being handmade for the stupa by a family in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. For around 350 years this family have been creating these extraordinary prayer wheels. Their family name translates as ‘metal beater’. Each prayer wheel when finished will contain over 130,000 Om Mani Padme Hum mantras. Tibetans believe that when a prayer wheel is turned the prayers inside are released into the universe for the benefit of all.

Bringing the community together

Involvement of the community is an essential part of creating a stupa. All of the local community as well as visitors to this region are welcome to be a part of this powerful process.

“The stupa is as much a metaphysical structure as it is a physical construct that holds sacred objects. Getting the protocol right from the beginning is as important as getting the physical structure right, for it is to bring the community together for the common good. This approach is essential to align the wheel,” Gen Lama said.

During the Gyuto monks’ previous visits both locals and visitors, mostly the children, have already created six or seven hundred Buddha statues made from clay to be sealed inside the stupa. In the coming months, all of the local community as well as visitors to the region are invited to be a part of this powerful process, a rare and exciting opportunity for all.

Invitation to something special

Everyone is welcome at the Crystal Castle on Friday 10th December 2010 11am for an indigenous ceremony and consecration of the Kalachakra stupa site by the Gyuto Monks of Tibet. There will be free entry for everyone coming to the ceremony. 

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