Newsletters

Dear sponsors and friends of the Khampagar togdens,

Here is finally some news of the togdens again!

I was fortunate to be able to spend over 6 weeks at Tashi Jong last year from late November and December till early January and take the attached photos. After getting installed in my place I went to see the togdens in early December to offer their annual sponsor money, get their news and take some photos. After meeting with ,some of them I was relieved to hear they are doing ok and are grateful for your ongoing support.

Since the old Vajrayogini temple, which was built at the lower retreat center in 1976 with funds from the late Trungpa Rinpoche’s organisation, started to disintegrate a few years ago due to bad quality cement, they’ve had a building team up there to break down the old temple and build a bigger one on the same spot. It seems the building is almost done by now so that’s good news. The old temple had a Vajrayogini statue made by top artists from Bhutan which was blessed by the 8th Khamtrul Dongyu Nyima, who passed away in 1980 at the age of 48. His blessings caused the Vajrayogini statue to stay levitated in the temple, so one could pass a katag (scarf) underneath it, it was very special. I don’t know if that’s still the case as I haven’t been in the temple area after Togden Atin passed away. At that time we didn’t have mobile phones equipped with cameras so I couldn’t take a picture of it. After Atin’s parinirvana, some more monks joined the retreat center to become togdens and they made a fence around the retreat center so non-retreatants couldn’t enter the retreat area.

[In the] photos you see that Togden Achos has aged a bit, he is 93 now, and there is also a photo showing him blessing some devotees on his verandah. In the group photo which was taken recently you see how the lower retreat center togdens look nowadays. For various medical issues some of them take Tibetan medicines from the famous Tibetan Dr. Drolkar in Delhi which seems to help a lot. This year Togdens Drubgyu and Thutop Nyima were asked to join Choegyal Rinpoche in Thailand where he went to see some students and took them on a pilgrimage, see photo.

In one photo you see me with Togden Lhawang, the late Togden Atin’s nephew, in a garden. It just happened that he was on pilgrimage in Nepal while I was there last February, March and part of April. He goes on pilgrimage after every three year-three-month retreat he has completed at the lower retreat center, this must be at least his fifth pilgrimage as I hadn’t seen him for at least 12 years so it was delightful to meet up and have lunch at the Shechen Monastery Garden restaurant. He looks and talks just like Togden Atin and to listen to his stories was incredibly inspiring.

Togden Gyamtso, the main lama from the upper Yamantaka retreat center, again came to see me at my house as I’m getting too old to walk up to the upper retreat nowadays, it’s quite a hike and the path is not easy. So nowadays he comes to see me to catch up and get their sponsor money at my house as you see in the photo. There are 9 togdens at the Yamantaka retreat nowadays, and according to Gyamtso they’re all fine. There will be more photos on the website later on, along with the news, so this is all for now.

Wishing you all the best, with sincere gratitude from the Khampagar togdens for your continuous support,

Ani Jinba