The Peace Vase Project Needs You

September 5th, 2010

As we approach the 20-year anniversary of Siddhartha’s Intent involvement in the project, about 2,000 peace vases remain to be buried.

By Noa Jones

Toward the end of his life, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche initiated The Peace Vase Project , a global effort to increase peace, harmony, and well-being by placing 6,200 treasure vases, or terbüm, in carefully selected locations around the planet. Terbüm are containers filled with medicines, precious substances, and mantras that have traditionally been used by Tibetans to protect important places against misfortune and to promote positive, healing energies. Similar sacred vases are used by some North American Indian tribes to heal the land and to restore peace.

In 1991, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche agreed to take over responsibility for the project. Tibetan Buddhist astrology and other ancient methods are used to select burial sites for the vases—oceans, lakes and rivers, holy places, places of war and strife, and ecologically degraded or endangered natural sites.

So far, about 4,000 vases have been buried or submerged in many extraordinarily remote locations, from the South Pole to the Pamir region of Tajikistan, but about 2,000 remain. As we approach the 20-year anniversary of consecration of these vases, we encourage the international dharma community to band together to finish what has been started. A network of individuals and coordinators is available to assist.

Some of the remaining vases are in storage in India awaiting transfer to their destinations, and some were taken to other continents but not buried. We need people to help transport the vases from India to a place where they are more easily accessible.  Due to Indian regulations, the vases can no longer be sent by courier or post. We rely entirely on people offering space in their luggage.

What you can do:

  • If you have a vase that has not been buried, please carry out the task or ask someone else to do it.If you have several vases in storage, please contact Pema Bidha and let her know. The vases are not meant to remain as shrine objects. They must be buried.
  • Visit the Peace Vase Project web site to read inspiring stories of burials.
  • Volunteer to work on the project as a coordinator, facilitator, technical advisor, or strategic planner.
  • Carry vases from India when you leave the country.

For more information, contact international coordinator Pema Bidha pema@siddharthasintent.org

Peace Vase, Northern Davis Strait, Nunavut Canada (Arctic) Photo by Chris Atkinson

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Deer Park Thimphu

September 5th, 2010

A centre for art and contemplation….

By Shenphen Zangpo
Prior to moving from Taipei to Thimphu to establish a new Deer Park centre, I had little knowledge about Bhutan. While I understood, that the needs of people who live in a small city hidden in the folds of the Himalayas, would obviously be far different from those who live under the gaze of skyscrapers and neon, it was far from clear what those needs would be. As an indication, Rinpoche had merely said that we should reach out to the youth and that our activities should be low key.

Meditation at Deer Park Thimphu

As a firm believer in the allegory of Dharma being like gold – the essence remaining, while the form adapts to circumstances – I felt sure that with Rinpoche’s blessings Deer Park would find a niche in Bhutan’s society. After two years of twists and turns, we currently have a small centre that is conveniently located in a youth complex near the centre of town. Here, we hold weekly meditation and discussion gatherings as well as mindfulness classes for children and screenings of indie movies. Since the inauguration of the centre in 2008, the classes have continued to expand, and in particular the meditation meetings and movie nights have gained a strong following.
Outside the centre, we organise a nightly drug outreach program, meditation classes at two colleges and a drug rehab centre and engage in social activities, such as cleaning the city dog pound and reforestation.
In the future, I would like to offer more activities based on the contemplative disciplines and also increase the number of treks to sacred sites for recovering drug addicts. Along with meditation, I hope such activities can provide the means for the youth of Bhutan to fully embrace the opportunities of the modern world, while at the same time giving them the skills to remain firmly rooted in the wisdom traditions of the kingdom.

Meditation Class In Changjiji, Thimpu. Between 90 -100 kids attend twice weekly


As I once told someone, I would like the youth who attend our sessions to be outwardly like any other kid – going to discos or playing basketball. However, through their knowledge of Dharma and practice of meditation, they would perceive these activities differently. Rather than being caught up in all the expectations and attachments that usually destroy the enjoyment of such recreations, they could participate purely for the pleasure of doing so. Then, once the activity is over, they let it go.

Shenphen Zangpo



Read Sangay Tenzin’s poem on our Arts & Media page by clicking here.
He is recovering addict who is learning meditation and haiku through the Deer Park programme.

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Buddhist Heritage Literary Project

September 1st, 2010

BHLP Logo


by Huang Jing Rui
“If you ask the Buddha which one is more important–the Buddha’s form, speech, mind, quality and activity? I think it is the Buddha’s speech. Because, even from a very mundane point of view, if you think of Shakyamuni Buddha as a form, that he has come and gone, and that it’s been almost 2,500 years and something, we can’t really see him. The mind of the Buddha is beyond our reach. The speech of the Buddha, what he taught, is actually readable.”

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Chair, BLHP

The vision of the Buddhist Literary Heritage Project (BLHP) is to make the precious teachings of the Buddha universally available through translation.

History has shown us that in order for the Dharma to take root in a society, it is imperative that the Dharma be made available in languages that its people could comprehend. The various movements to translate the Buddha’s teachings into world languages, which subsequently formed the Pali Canon, the Chinese Mahayana Tripitaka, the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur, and the many non-canonical collections, all led to the revival and growth of Buddhism in different parts of the world. In particular, the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur form the largest surviving collection of Buddhist texts, after the massive destruction of Buddhist texts in Sanskrit and other Indic languages in India in the 11th and 12th centuries. While Buddhism was almost wiped out in India, that it flourished in Tibet was in large part due to the availability of translations in Tibetan.

Over the past few decades, the Tibetan Buddhist community has sadly seen the loss of many of the most learned and accomplished Buddhist masters, and most of those who remain are in their old age. Their knowledge of the texts, handed down over the generations in a living tradition going back to the great masters of the past and to the Buddha himself, is an essential part of every Dharma translator’s work. With only less than 5% of the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist literary heritage translated into modern languages, the world faces the imminent risk of losing access to the profound messages and meaning contained within this precious heritage.

At the same time, there is growing curiosity towards and demand for the teachings of the Buddha in Western societies today, as well as a revival of interest among English-reading Asians. However, the lack of material available in modern languages has set considerable limits on what is possible in terms of study, research, and personal advancement.

It was with these perspectives in mind that the BLHP was subsequently formed in January 2010, and has since worked progressively towards the establishment of an organizational framework and infrastructure to support its long-term vision. Six months since its inception, the Buddhist Literary Heritage Project (BLHP) has already funded 27 pilot translations, and will soon be providing more translation grants to support translators in their important mission to translate texts of the Kangyur.

Dzongsar Khyenste Rinpoche addressing BHLP 2010 Photo from Huang Jing Rui

We hope you will be part of this huge endeavour to offer the Buddha’s heritage of ancient wisdom to the future generations of the world. You can:
• Subscribe to our mailing list:
http://www.buddhistliteraryheritage.org/subscribe
• Donate to our cause:
http://www.buddhistliteraryheritage.org/donate
• Recommend our website to others:
http://www.buddhistliteraryheritage.org/tellyourfriends

“So, yes, it is a daunting task, but as followers of the Buddha, it is our practice, it is our path, and, if you are a Mahayana practitioner, it is also our act of benefiting sentient beings. It is serving the Buddha, therefore, it is also serving all sentient beings. So we do realise that this is quite an important task that we can’t afford to ignore.”

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

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