In June Akong Rinpoche set his friends and students a challenge to fund and complete a Prayer wheel house that will house 45 prayer wheels within one month, this July. Rinpoche asked for volunteers and donations to acheive this goal. A total of £25,000 is needed to pay for building materials and another £6,000 to complete the printing of the Mani, Tara, Karmapa and Guru Rinpoche mantras which will fill the 45 prayer wheels.

A small team is busy every day polishing the prayer wheels, and saffroning and rolling the mantras- a gigantuan task.

Each weekend in July so far between 40 and 50 volunteers have responded to Rinpoche's appeal and a tremendous amount has been achieved.

Chöje Akong Tulku Rinpoche's call for volunteers for the Mani House (June 2005)
During the last few years Samye Ling has had many building projects. In the beginning our projects were very much based on voluntary effort. When work is done by sincere Dharma practitioners and is carried out from the depth of one's heart and is done like a purification - as a pure mandala offering - the projects often turn out to be of the highest quality.

More recently, due to rules and regulations, lack of engineering knowledge and also the need for people to make their own income and support their families, we have had no choice but to use contractors for our bigger projects, so have had less opportunity to use volunteers. Now however, I would like to invite people to help me with one particular project, which I would like to be done entirely by volunteers, using only donated or sponsored materials.

This project is the prayer wheel house near the Stupa. As you know, Samye Ling has completed the building of the World Peace Stupa, which houses the Amitabha Shrine.The Stupa has a wall around half of it, and on this wall we wish to erect prayer wheels. Those of you who have travelled in the East will know that wherever there is a Stupa, there are hundreds of prayer wheels. The Stupa gives people the opportunity for circumambulation, and also to accumulate merit through turning the prayer wheels.

The project is to build a wall and a covered passageway and to install the prayer wheels. Also the wall will have cubicles where ashes can be stored, particularly if people wish to have entire urns preserved rather than just the small amounts that are able to be housed inside the Stupa itself.

For those who enjoy working with me, this is a good opportunity. Together we can achieve something very meaningful.

LINKS
2005 Photos
Lorry Crash Dec 2005
About Mani Wheels
Samye Ling Stupa

Photographs from the Samye Ling Prayer Wheel House Working Weekend of 16/17 July 2005 Clic pic to upsize