Stupa Upgrade Project

Tashi Delek Dear Friends of Karmapa!

Those of you who have been to the Karmapa’s Tashi Gomang Stupa in Crestone, CO, know how precious this monument and pilgrimage site is to the world. You also know how fierce the climate is at our breathtakingly beautiful altitude at 9000 ft.  In the order of nature, the grounds surrounding His Holiness Karmapa’s Stupa have suffered dire breakdown and erosion. Some of you generously helped us refurbish the Stupa itself in 2010. We are pleased that those extensive renovations are in excellent condition. We now need your help to finish raising funds to stop the erosive breakdown and to make safe, uplift and beautify the Stupa grounds.

Our first priority is to reconstruct the extensive front retaining wall to prevent the plateau the Stupa stands on from slipping downwards. Once this wall has been built, the entire area around the Stupa needs to be repaved with flagstone set in concrete. Then we will replace the current broken wooden benches with more attractive and sturdier seating. A simple, elegant shrine table will grace the front of the Stupa.  At the same time we’d like to put a modest roofed meditation area close to the Stupa, replacing a broken bench under a tree.

Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche’s Center in Crestone has generously donated a traditional Tibetan torii gate used as part of a Tibetan exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum to our project. It is in need of some repair. Restored to its original condition it will be placed at the entrance to the stupa area to provide an auspicious formal entryway from the upper area.

The upper grounds behind the stupa and around the stairway are fragile and have been degraded by foot traffic from the hundreds of visitors we get every year. (Our Stupa is the single most visited site in Crestone each year.) This large area now needs to be attractively fenced off from visitors, a handrail installed, the landscaping restored and appropriate signage placed.

We have already raised $33,000 for this project which has been professionally estimated at $75,000. If one of the several parts of this restoration and beautification project especially calls to your heart, let us know your choice. Provided that project is still incompletely funded, we will happily honor your wish.

You can donate by PayPal at KTTG.org or send checks made out to KTTG, PO Box 39, Crestone, CO 81131.

Our thanks to you. May you progress gloriously along the path of Dharma in this year of the Earth Dog!

Love from all of us at KTTG!

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