Stupa Building

2009 sees us ready to begin the process of building and filling the vase section of the Stupa. We know how much Hebel block we need and we've organised the printing and rolling of thousands of mantras to go into this section. To help with this and learn a new Dharma activity, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

As well as mantras, the vase will be filled with sacred texts, tsa-tsas and relics. We have a complete set of the Tangyur and Kangyur texts from India. These were wrapped in 2006 and put into safe, clean storage. We also have thousands of tsa-tsas made by a dedicated team of volunteers, who quietly worked on them over several years. The relics we have are being protected and cared for in private houses in Adelaide until we're ready to put them into the vase. We also hope to obtain the complete works of Lama Tsong Khapa on microfilm and we're more than happy to accept offerings of dried flowers and herbs to fill the spaces between objects.

The Ghorkim and Rings from Nepal

In late 2008, money raised from Quiz Nights (over $6,000) and donations managed to fill the gap in funds that we needed for the copperwork in Nepal. After a delay caused by escalating gold prices and political unrest in Nepal, it was with much excitement and relief that it arrived and is being stored at De-Tong Ling until the vase section is complete.

Now the 'Life Tree' is complete and has been wrapped ready to be inserted down into the centre of the Stupa inside a steel casing, so that the rings, sun and moon can be mounted over it.

Stupa Surrounds

Early in 2009, a landscape architect from Melbourne directed a crew of faithful volunteers to further sculpt the area around the Stupa creating a waterfall complete with ponds, alongside the storeroom, and a flowing creek, which follows the curve of the path down to the pond in front of the Stupa. The future vision is to have a deck over the creek alongside a 'zen' garden and the small pond covered in lotuses around a statue of Padmasambhava inthe centre. This will be in full view of a chai shop on the bank opposite. Having water trickling into the pond means that we no longer have a period each year during which it evaporates and have created a feeling of abundance and flow.

Retreat Centre

Venerable Thubten Gyatso completed a solitary three year retreat in September 2008. Feedback from him indicates that he found De-Tong Ling to provide the ideal environment to complete this long retreat. As well as Gyatso, a number of ordained sangha and lay practitioners have completed retreats of various duration. Enquiries  and bookings for individual retreats continue steadily. To find out more about retreating at De-Tong Ling, click This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Regular 'work retreats' have seen the completion of jobs around the retreat generally.including the shifting of a 27,000 litre water tank to become a header tank which supplies water to retreat houses 4 & 5 and also the small pond in front of the Stupa (via the 'creek').  A hired 'ditchwitch' helped us to lay 1600 metres of pipe with all the connections and fittings. A solar pump provides the power to keep the water flowing.

We also managed to level some sheltered tent sites on 'Yacca Creeks' with a bobcat and thin out the scrub around retreat houses. In total, we now have 5 retreat houses operational.

2008 October Lam Rim Retreat

Between September 28th and October 10th we held our first National 10 day Lam-rim group retreat at adjoining 'Yacca Creeks' (in a private house used in the interim until De-Tong Ling has it's own group retreat facility). We were very fortunate to be so skillfully lead by Venerable Dhondrup from Perth, who has taught an unprecedented sixth time at the Kopan course in Nepal. Through three cycles of the topics of the Lam-rim, Dhondrub's meditations were clear, profound and inspiring - laying out the terrain of the Lam-rim as a complete path to enlightenment in the Gelug tradition.

One of the many highlights was the inaugral Green Tara puja, led by Dhondrub and held on the meditation platform overlooking the Tara Dam. As Tara sparkled in the sunlight and yellow-tailed black cockatoos flew overhead, De-Tong Ling was blessed by Tara's energy of active compassion and accomplishment.

Dhondrub returns in 2009 to lead our second National Lam-rim retreat in October.

Formalising some admin processes

As an incorporated body we have established a membership base for De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre Inc.and held our first AGM in 2006, with two more since.  AGM's provide us with valuable feedback from members and make the committee more accountable for the work that is happening at De-Tong Ling. To find out about becoming a member click This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

In a similar vein, we have also developed a 'Retreat House Agreement' which formalises the relationship with sponsors / builders of retreat houses, a 'Retreat Application' form which has become standard practice for people enquiring to engage in solitary retreat at De-Tong Ling and also a Bequest form for anyone wishing to leave money or resources to the Centre at the time of death. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.