De-Tong Ling Buddhist Retreat, Kangaroo Island

Enlightenment Stupa

About the Stupa

The spiritual leader of FPMT, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, saw long ago the role a major stupa could play on Kangaroo Island - a major national and international tourist destination. Although the core purpose of the Retreat Centre was to provide facilities for long-term retreat, he was clear that it should provide benefit as widely as possible, rather than just to long-term retreaters; especially as visitors to the stupa are able to be well away from retreaters. De-Tong Ling is a big property, around 1300 acres/430 hectares.

The foundations for the stupa were were poured on March 19th, 2003 - within half an hour of the time bombs and rockets began raining down on Baghdad to signal the start of the Second Gulf War. It was also World Harmony Day.

The stupa itself is nine metres high, and rests on a platform five metres above the ground. Underneath the stupa is a ten-metre square room, made of massive mud-brick walls. It is planned to fill the room with statues and 2-D and 3-D mandalas of Chenrezig, and paint the walls with the 12 Deeds of the Buddha.

The stupa has been built entirely with volunteer labour and donated funds. Every year since 2003, there have been two "work retreats" of one to two weeks' duration, and in this way it has slowly but steadily arisen. Hundreds of people have physically worked on the stupa, and hundreds more have made donations. Each one of the 8,000 mud bricks was probably handled by at least ten different volunteers before they went into the walls. It's a joyous and wonderful project with which to be involved.

The environment around the stupa is stunning. It is situated next to a large man-made lake, surrounded by natural, untouched bushland, with long views out to the islands of Investigator Strait and to the mainland beyond. We hope that it will become a restful and inspiring place for many thousands of visitors in the decades to come.

The land of De-Tong Ling ("Bliss-Emptiness Place") has already been blessed by the lamas and the many retreaters who have come here. The Enlightenment Stupa will transform the environment even more.

Current Progress

Stupa Update – September 2011

Most people would be aware that De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre had to cancel the scheduled consecration of the stupa in May 2011 by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, due to his sudden illness a month earlier.

De-Tong Ling volunteers had, of course, been working very hard since September 2010 to get the stupa finished for Rinpoche to consecrate. It was a powerful motivator and a huge amount of work was done during the six months before May. The stupa is now essentially finished. It looks extremely beautiful and is powerfully inspiring. Heartfelt thanks to all those who have helped to bring the stupa to this stage, whether financially or hands-on during work sessions. It is truly amazing what has been accomplished.

• The entire stupa was rendered and painted before the scaffold came down
• All the ornamentation - including the flower garland, snow lions (eight of these were cast in special concrete), lotuses (hundreds were cast, painted and fixed), kurtimukhas on the vase, all the jewels, the double vajras, and much, much more was installed (each of the ornaments has a complex story attached to them)
• Lightning conduction was finalised (another complex story)
• The verandah was completed – a major undertaking, requiring much funding and well over a thousand hours of skilled labour during several work sessions
• All the electrics were installed – panels, batteries, regulator, inverters, switchboards, light fittings (inside the room below, flood lights for the stupa, and the light on the Buddha in the recess at the front of the stupa) – a huge job, and completed over several work sessions
• The proper safety railing was installed – many hours of pre-fabrication, then many day’s solid effort to install
• Over 200 glass blocks were laid – these create the light well for the room below
• All the windows and the front door were built, installed and painted
• The inside walls of the room were rendered twice and painted
• The ceiling in the room was suspended, gyprocked and plastered
• Storm water pipe from the verandah roof was laid and buried
• A major clean-up of the site was carried out

Again, a million thanks to all who have supported this work financially, or have been part of the work crews.

It has always been the intention to make the stupa available to the general public when completed – indeed, this was one Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s first instructions. To enable this, the following tasks will need to be completed.

• Final completion of the room underneath (initially to a clean shell)
• Build a toilet block
• Car parking – Marking out car spaces etc.
• Safety railing banisters
• Upgrading of access paths to wheelchair standards
• Prayer house foundations (see landscape plan)
• Decking (see landscape plan)

Later, further work will be undertaken to fulfil Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vision for the stupa and improve amenities for the public. Some of these tasks are listed below:

• Prayer wheel house for LARGE prayer wheel
• Prayer wheels in the recesses provided on the outside of the room underneath the Stupa
• Padmasambhava statue in the pond in front of the Stupa
• Artwork, statues, mandalas inside the room underneath the Stupa
• A visitors’ shelter/lunch area/interpretive space
Many seats, benches
• Further landscaping (including a Zen garden)
• Planting a Bodhi tree

If you are able to support this work in any way, your assistance will be deeply appreciated – not just by De-Tong Ling volunteers and management, but by all the sentient beings who will make a connection with the stupa in the hundreds of years to come.

Stupa Update - July, 2010

Latest photos Click image for slideshow

The April work session on the stupa saw us further advanced than we had imagined. The vase was completed and all the contents for filling the vase were consecrated. The vase was then filled. We then continued on, under the guidance of Geshe Pema Tsering from Buddha House, to build the harmika (the square shape on top of the vase which signifies entering the Path of Seeing - ie the meditation practitioner's first, direct, unmistaken perception of the nature of reality); then erect the thirteen rings (symbolising the ten bhumis of a Bodhisattva and the three close mindfulnesses of a Buddha); then the umbrella (the protection of compassion); the moon and sun (the union of conventional and ultimate Bodhicitta) and the jewel on top (the final achievement, Buddhahood). The entire site was cleaned up, the stupa now being an object worthy of veneration; and later the final render coat of the vase was completed.

With the core structure of the stupa built, the focus will switch to completing its external aspects. A statue is to be installed in the recess in the vase facing east, and the ghorkim (the ornamental surround of the recess) fitted. Snow lions are to be placed around the throne; the vase, throne and steps studded with "gems" and lotuses, and all of this painted. Lightning protection and ways of lighting the stupa at night are being devised. Other aspects such as safety railings, public toilets, access, parking and so on will be put into place.

The room under the stupa is yet another story. The next tasks here are to put in the windows and the large front doors, and the four panels of glass blocks above the room which create the light well for the room below. Other tasks include completing the ceiling, laying the floor, and building the outside verandah. The walls inside will depict the twelve deeds of the Buddha, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional mandalas of Chenrezig (or Avolokiteshvara) will also be installed.

Earlier photos Click image for slideshow

Further plans encompass a large prayer wheel house, and other, smaller prayer wheels; further, extensive landscaping, providing many opportunities to rest, view, and contemplate; a Visitor's Centre; and a larger than life-size statue of Padmasambhava.

Our aim is to offer visitors the blessings and inspiration that such a powerful symbol of peace and enlightenment will bring; and offer them too, the opportunity to rest and reflect, experiencing the potentials for peace they carry within their own minds.

Holy Objects

Found in all Buddhist countries, stupas are the archetypal symbol of the enlightened mind. Even just seeing a stupa brings immense benefit -- incredible purification, incredible merit, and incredible blessing. Stupas transcend the limitations of language to plant the seeds of enlightenment and peace in the minds of all who see them, human or animal, Buddhist or non-Buddhist.

"There is a need in the world to develop compassion and a warm heart. Building stupas helps develop so much peace and happiness for numberless sentient beings. As a result, wars, disease, and desire will all be pacified. Instead of feeling hopeless, people will gain courage. This is about peace - for the beings that see it, for the whole country, for the entire world, for all sentient beings"

Benefits of Holy Objects such as Stupas

Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

For a more extensive explanation of the benefits of Holy Objects please see this teaching from Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche.