Dear all,

Until this morning Tulku Ugen was getting ready to fly to Europe, to come to visit those of you who had invited him give empowerment and lead week-end retreats.
But as some of you already know, Amalha's health is deteriorating very fast for the past 10 days.

She is now bed ridden, she does not communicate anymore, she barely eats and spends most of her time sleeping with very little reactions to the world surrounding her. Doctors have visited her on regular basis and they confirm that no amelioration should be expected at this stage.

Having care for her all these years together with his wife Shashi and being Amalha's only child being by her side in India, Tulku Ugen is compelled to change his program completely as he may have to face the last rites for her soon.

Please bear with him for the difficulties and disappointments this situation may cause to some of you because of his forced decision to cancel his Tour to Europe for now.

Tulku Ugen is asking you all to kindly make some prayers for Amalha's smooth transition from now on.

We shall keep you informed of any development or further changes.

If you wish to contact Tulku Ugen, you may do so at the following numbers:

Home: +913532581668

HP1: +919933062222

HP2: +919832049416

Shashi: +919933059999

Sarwa Mangalam,

In memory of the 35 years spent by our Rinpoche, Chhimed Rigdzin  in Shantiniketan and to keep the connection alive, Tulku Ugen had the wish for quite sometimes to introduce the lamas of Khordong Byangter Monastery to Shantiniketan and part of the earlier life of Rinpoche in India. A place where he was known to all and referred as Lamaji, a place where people still remember him and his family very vividly, till today. A place from where he got first connected with westerners.

Over the past 6 years Shantiniketan students came several times in groups of 40 and even more to visit the gompa, sometime even spending a night as guests of the Gompa. These visits were always wonderful moments of cultural exchange between the lamas and the students of Shantiniketan in a mix of dances, songs and poetry.

So this time it was our lamas turn to go to Shantiniketan and then Kolkata, so that it broadens their mind about the world they live in. For many of them it was even their first train ride, so off they went accompanied by Tulku Ugen and the two Australian volunteers.

Shantiniketan is divided in several different schools and our lamas were invited by several of them to share breakfast and lunch with them, engage in cultural exchange, perform in dance classes, taking part in their weekly program, visiting different handicrafts classes and attending prayers at the Brahma temple of Shantiniketan.

For all of them it was a very exciting and eye opening moment and the people of Shantiniketan were overjoyed to meet a group of young lamas who are disciples and monks of CR Lama. Never before such visit had happened at Shantiniketan, so it has been a memorable moment for all.

Next was the discovery of Kolkata, the state capital city of West-Bengal together with the visit of the Planetarium, the Science city, the Zoo, the Botanic garden and at the end the Aquatic Park to make the trip totally memorable.

We believe such trip is very beneficial in the lamas curriculum, very few gompas offer their monks such opportunities within their education program and we are glad it could be done with your support.

Sarwa Mangalam,

Since last June much has happen. As most of you know, Tulku Ugen travelled to Khordong with some members of the sangha and had his 3^rd and confirmation dream.

This allows the lineage to move forward into the 21^st Century with confidenceSome of you met him on his Tour to Europe and heard it directly from him while attending the initiations program, some of you also saw the film “ Journey to the source” featuring the places of origins of the Khordong Byangter Lineage. For those of you who did not have the chance to see these images yet, you may consider contacting Nathalie Koralnik and Patrice Sammut from Khordong-France as they accepted to look into the distribution of this film.

Meanwhile things have happened as well at Khordong Byangter Monastery. Our main teacher Lopon Yeshe Dorje had to leave for reason of poor health, suffering of bad mouth ulcer and digestion problem.

Despite all the treatments he received here from the best doctors of the region it did not get better, so he finally asked Tulku Ugen permission to leave and go back to Sikkim.

Yeshe Dorje has been replaced by Lopon Ang Choedrak from Takshi Shedra in Gangtok. Khenpo Shanpa Lodro from Khordong, who has been teaching in Kathmandu for the last 10 years is also on his way to strengthen the education team here and put in motion what was discussed this winter in terms of starting a shedra and raising the number of our monks to 50 by the end of 2012

At last but not least, since Mid-August we have two young Australian boys, David and Sean living with us at the gompa and teaching English to our monks and taking part in the daily activities. This is part of a program called “Latitude” which place young native English speaking volunteers around the world to teach English. They will be with us till beginning of December.

Sarwa mangalam,

As many of you already know. We are sad to confirm that Gomchen lama from Tashiding past away last week and got cremated at Tashiding on April 18^th. Some people say he was 96 years old and was suffering of poor health for the past two years.  Many of you have been touch by Gomchenla’s kindness, clairvoyance, compassion and wisdom. Keep him in your hearts, make prayers and aspiration for his swift rebirth among us.

Sarwa mangalam.