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We were very sad to learn that Venerable Lobsang Namdrol, the longest-term resident of our monastic community, passed away on January 13th 2013 at Drepung Monastery, Karnataka State, South India. He was 85 years old and had been in good health right up until his peaceful departure from this life. 

Ven Namdrol received his initial monastic training at Drepung Monastery in Tibet, and after his escape in 1959, he maintained a close relationship with the restablished Monastery-in-exile in Karnataka and spent most winters there with old friends and family members. This year, Ven Namdrol had also been resident there to attend His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings at Drepung from 30 November - 13 December 2012. Unfortunately, due to his regular absence during the winter break and his family at Drepung taking care of his funeral, we didn't come to know of Venerable Namdrol's death for several weeks. However, subsequent communication with a family member has given us more background information, and a strong sense that Venerable Namdrol was very much in control of the situation...

Venerable Namdrol's relative related the following to our Director, Linda: "On the afternoon of his passing away, he unusually sat outside of the khamsten where he was staying at the monastery over the winter, talking with the younger monks and joking that he was 85 years old and still had a good healthy body. In the middle of the afternoon, he went inside. When his young attendant went to check on him, Gen Namdrol-la was packing up his things as if he was ready to go and he mentioned that he had a pain in his side. An hour later Gen Namdrol passed away very peacefully in his room".

Venerable Namdrol had been the subject of an article about members of our community entitled "Our Mandala" in our Autumn/Winter 2012 Newsletter. You can view that interview here, or download it here. The volunteer who interviewed Venerable Namdrol for this article remembers "A day or two after our interview, I met Ven Namdrol outside the office, where he had clearly been waiting for me to arrive. He seemed worried and told a Tibetan member of staff to ask me to bring Pema, the translator for our interview, back to his house to talk again, because he had made a mistake and was concerned in case I printed the wrong information. Pema and I went back to his small hut the next day and it turned out that the mistake he'd made was that he had initially said that he had spent about four months in retreat in the 1970s, but had since remembered that it had only been three. He was worried that he might have mis-represented his retreat experience and made himself appear to be a better practitioner than he really was. I was very moved by this and have thought of it often since; it was such a small error, made without any negative intention, and Ven Namdrol's determination to correct it demonstrated such humility and integrity that I came to understand that he was indeed a very high level practitioner of the most authentic Dharma path."

We only had "Great Compassion" until we adopted "Wisdom" in October 2012, and accepted "Happiness" into our lives in February 2013... And so now we have all three, more familiarly known by their Tibetan names: "Nying-je Chenmo", "Yeshe" and "Dekyi" - Tushita's canine sangha!

Nying-je has been our resident darling since she arrived as a battered and malnourished stray in 2005. Once a scrappy pup, she is now the elder stateswoman, and had been quite lethargic since the passing of her best friend Jangsem Kalu in October 2011. Having dogs in a silent retreat centre is always a tricky balance, so although we hoped to find her a new friend and fellow monkey-guard, we waited for the right dog to turn up and make itself indispensable.

Enter Yeshe, spotted by teacher Ondy Willson and Spiritual Program Co-ordinator Ven Kunphen during breaks in the autumn 2012 courses. Ondy reports: "Yeshe started life in a tar barrel with 5 other pup siblings and her Mum. Some people came and took the other pups because they were 'pretty'. So we watched Yeshe from the Himalaya Chai Shop, getting mangy and skinny and neglected, like so many dogs in India. Ven Kunphen gave her a home". Removing the tar cankers from her hair was the first job, and she was bathed many times (pictured below) - it really was almost a close shave!

Months on, Yeshe is now healthy, beautiful and full of energy - we're so happy to see that her presence has revitalised Nying-je too.

They were joined by another friend early in 2013 - an abandoned shepharding dog of undetermined age and patient demeanour who arrived and made it known she planned to stay. She was named Dekyi (sometimes also referred to by her nick-name, a Star Wars character she has a strong physical and vocal similarity to...). She completes our doggy trinity.

In the photo above, Nying-je is the grey dog in the top right corner, Dekyi is to her left, and the fully recovered Yeshe is in the foreground.

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The 2013 season began with a wonderful surprise! Our old friend David Marks (left) returned to Tushita after 4 years, and we were excited to be able to accept his offer to guide and teach here for a few months.

David will be leading an extended version of our daily drop-in guided meditation sessions here every day except Sunday, from early April to late June 2013. He has named these sessions "Meditation & Teachings on the Buddhist Path to Peace". They begin at 9:30am as usual, but David will structure the sessions differently and after leading a 30-minute meditation, he will give a short teaching until around 11am. He has also put together this suggested reading list to complement the one you can find on our main menu to the left.

David's teachings have proved to be as powerful as ever, and in the first week of these events, attendance soared. As always, anyone is welcome to join these sessions, but please arrive before the door is locked for the guided meditation at 9:30am!

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We are delighted to announce that Brother Dharmapala (perhaps better known to many long-term friends of the FPMT as Uldis Balodis) has been appointed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche as Tushita's new Resident Teacher.

Brother Dharmapala has been involved with Tushita's parent organisation since the early 1970s and has been instrumental in the founding of a number of our sister centres in Australia, Nepal and Latvia. He ordained in 2011.

Brother Dharmapala will teach most of our Introduction to Buddhism courses in 2013, as well as leading an Intermediate-level course entitled "The Bodhisattvas' Path to Awakening", which will run from April 10-18. We have very good reason to believe that 2013 will be a very enriching year for all at Tushita!

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