Completing the Purkhang

His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche presided over the cremation and the practices surrounding it. He did so not only as one of the most revered masters of his generation, but as a teacher whose lifelong connection with Trungpa Rinpoche was rooted in deep friendship and mutual commitment. Years earlier, the two had made a promise to one another: whichever passed first, the other would care for his students.

Dilgo Khentse Rinpoche

In the difficult months that followed, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche fulfilled that promise with extraordinary generosity, offering guidance, steadiness, and blessing to a grieving community. Together with the Kagyu teachers present, he made a decision that would shape the future of this place. Rather than dismantling the Purkhang, as tradition would normally require, he asked that it remain standing and one day be completed as a stupa.

This project is, in many ways, the fulfillment of that wish.

It is an offering to the Vidyadhara, to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and to the generations of practitioners who have quietly cared for this sacred place ever since.

Over the years, many hands have helped preserve that vision. In 1989, Paul Kloppenburg, who built the original Purkhang, prepared plans for its completion and urged that it not remain unfinished. Venerable Tenga Tulku later provided detailed guidance for transforming the structure into a proper kudung chorten, including correcting its form, installing the sokshing, or life-force pole, and filling it with tsa tsas and other sacred contents. When the structure began showing signs of age, Raven Fennell undertook its restoration and, together with Tenzin Odzer of Nepal, renewed its sacred artwork. Raven has continued caring for the Purkhang with remarkable devotion for more than twenty-five years.

Now, as the fortieth anniversary of the Vidyadhara's Parinirvana approaches in April 2027, Karmê Chöling is taking up this long-held responsibility with renewed devotion and with the guidance of a teacher uniquely suited to bring it to completion.

Lama Tashi Dondup

Karmê Chöling is deeply grateful that this work will be guided by a teacher uniquely suited to bring it to completion.

Lama Tashi Dondup, founder and Abbot of Karma Tekchen Zabsal Ling, was born in Lodrag, Tibet, in 1952. From 1970 to 1988 he trained at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, the seat of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, where he received extensive instruction from some of the most respected masters of the Karma Kagyu lineage, including Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, Salje Rinpoche, and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso. He completed the traditional three-year retreat at Rumtek, followed by a one-year Kalachakra retreat under the guidance of Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche. Among his lifelong areas of expertise are ritual music, torma, mandala construction, and the building and consecration of stupas.

In recent years, Lama Tashi Dondup has devoted himself to another remarkable undertaking: the creation of a garden of 132 stupas dedicated to primordial wisdom dharmakaya. Built to enshrine sacred relics and precious ritual objects entrusted to him over decades, the project reflects his lifelong devotion to preserving the Dharma through sacred architecture.

He often speaks of stupas not simply as monuments, but as living supports for practice. They offer future generations a place to make offerings, circumambulate, remember the teachings, and awaken devotion. Their purpose is not only to honor the past, but to benefit all who encounter them for years to come.

We are deeply honored that he has offered his guidance, knowledge, and wholehearted support to the completion of the Purkhang.

Incorporated into the symbolism of the purkhang is the Buddha, the elements, as well as the path to enlightenment.