Completing the Purkhang

In the Upper Meadow at Karmê Chöling stands the Purkhang, the ritual cremation structure built for Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. On May 26, 1987, more than 2,000 students, teachers, friends, and dignitaries gathered here for his cremation, on the very land where he taught, practiced, and built a community that continues to flourish today.

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.

In Tibetan, tendrel refers to auspicious interdependence, the way people, circumstances, timing, and intention come together when something is ready to happen. When the tendrel is strong, a project does not feel forced. The next step simply reveals itself, and what is needed seems to arrive at just the right moment.

That has been the character of this work from the very beginning.

Blessings, Guidance, & Help
Soon after Lama Tashi Dondup offered his blessing and guidance, people began hearing about the Purkhang before we had formally shared the project. Offers of help, sacred materials, transportation, prayers, and financial support began arriving almost immediately. Again and again, what was needed seemed already to be waiting nearby.

Sacred Life-force Pole
One of the clearest examples was the sokshing, the sacred life-force pole placed at the heart of every stupa. Lama Chopel, in Questa, New Mexico, had already completed one that matched the exact dimensions required for the Purkhang. He offered it as a gift. We traveled to New Mexico, received it with gratitude, and brought it home to Vermont, where it now awaits installation.

Gifts From Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche
Just recently, a complete set of the Kangyur, the translated teachings of the Buddha, and the Tengyur, the commentaries of the great Indian masters, was offered to the project. Each volume had been personally catalogued and labeled by the late Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, originally recommended to oversee the Purkhang be properly completed and consecrated. Those volumes now rest safely here at Karmê Chöling, waiting to become part of this offering.

Financial Support
Longtime sangha member Gerry Hasse, through Friends of the Tail of the Tiger, was among the first to step forward with financial support, another quiet expression of confidence that this work had found its moment.

Aloka
To support the work ahead, we've begun transforming Aloka, once a storage room, into a simple workshop where Lama Tashi Dondup and the monastics joining him can prepare sacred materials and offerings. Fresh paint, repaired floors, space to work. Nothing elaborate. Simply a place made ready for what is unfolding.

A New Website
We're also in the midst of rebuilding Karmê Chöling's website and digital presence, a project that will take time to complete. But the tendrel surrounding the Purkhang has been so immediate, and the interest from the community so heartfelt, that we didn't want to wait.

This page is the first home for the project. A fuller website, with more history, photographs, and additional ways to participate, will grow alongside the work itself. For now, we simply wanted to let the community know that this long-awaited undertaking has begun.

None of these developments was carefully orchestrated
They unfolded naturally, one after another. A teacher with precisely the right experience. A sokshing already crafted to the proper dimensions. Sacred texts connected to one of the very teachers who helped guide this project decades ago. A room becoming available just as a dedicated workspace was needed. People from across the lineage finding one another and offering exactly what they had to give.

When you look closely at the people who have touched this project across four decades, a remarkable pattern begins to emerge.

• Paul Kloppenburg, who built the original Purkhang.
• Venerable Tenga Tulku, who offered guidance for completing it as a proper kudung chorten.
• Raven Fennell, who has quietly cared for and protected it for more than twenty-five years.
• Lama Chopel, whose sokshing had already been crafted to the exact dimensions needed.
• Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, whose hand-labeled Kangyur and Tengyur now rest on this land.
• And Lama Tashi Dondup, whose training at Rumtek connects him directly to the living traditions that have shaped this lineage for generations.

Seen individually, these might appear to be separate moments in time.
Seen together, they tell another story.

Across forty years, teachers, practitioners, craftspeople, and friends have each carried one part of a promise. Some laid its foundations decades ago. Others have only recently found their way to Karmê Chöling. Yet each has arrived with exactly what was needed, at exactly the right time.

This is more than the completion of a structure.
It is the quiet work of a lineage recognizing itself again.
It is a community, both old and new, discovering that it has been walking toward the same moment all along.

As the Purkhang becomes a completed kudung stupa, it will stand not only as a place of remembrance, but as a living place of practice, devotion, and refuge for generations to come. And like the lineage itself, its story will continue to unfold through everyone who helps care for it.

How You Can Take Part
Like every sacred undertaking, this one is being carried forward through many hands. Some offer time. Some offer prayers. Some contribute materials or expertise. Others choose to make a financial gift. Every offering, whatever its form, becomes part of the conditions that allow this work to continue. Dana is the practice of generosity, and
generosity takes many forms.

Sacred Contents
Help provide the tsa tsas, mantras, relics, precious substances, and other sacred contents that will fill and consecrate the stupa.

Ritual Offerings
Support the pujas, ritual offerings, empowerments, and traditional practices that accompany the consecration.

Teachers & Monastics
Help welcome Lama Tashi Dondup, visiting teachers, monastics, and lineage holders whose presence is essential to this work.

Travel & Hospitality
Provide transportation, lodging, meals, and hospitality for guests traveling to Karmê Chöling for the project and the April 2027 consecration.

Consecration Ceremony
Support the ceremonies that will fulfill a promise nearly forty years in the making.

Site Preparation & Access
Help prepare the Upper Meadow, pathways, gathering spaces, and the Purkhang itself so visitors may practice and pay their respects for generations to come.

Project Workshop
Support the preparation of Aloka as a working space where sacred materials and offerings can be assembled throughout the project.

Volunteer Service
Offer your time and skills. Whether helping prepare materials, assisting with events, welcoming visitors, or supporting the work behind the scenes, every act of service is an offering.

Share the Story
Help others learn about the Purkhang by sharing this project with friends, family, and members of the wider sangha. Sometimes the greatest gift is helping the story reach someone who has been waiting to hear it.

Long-Term Stewardship
Help ensure the Purkhang remains cared for as a place of pilgrimage, remembrance, practice, and blessing for future generations.