Histyory: Kopan is a monastery in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism and is under the guidance of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. It is set high in the hills above Kathmandu valley, about half an hour from the city center. Therefore it represents a striking difference between the hustle and bustle of the city and the peaceful, quiet surroundings of the Monastery. The air is very clean and the view across the valley is magical.
The monastery was originally founded in the Solu Khumbu area of Nepal (later moved to the Kathmandu hills) in 1969 by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Thubten Yeshe. Lama Zopa Rinpoche came from the Khumbu region in Nepal, whereas Lama Yeshe was a Tibetan Lama who fled from Tibet in 1959. They met each other in a Tibetan refugee camp in India. Lama Zopa is there incarnation of the Lawudo Lama, a famous yogi in the Khumbu area of Nepal, who promised the local Sherpa people that in his next life he would establish a school and monastery for their children.
When Lama Zopa Rinpoche came back to Solu Khumbu in 1967, after a long absence in Tibet and India, he set up a small school and monastery in Lawudo, to fulfill the promise he had made to the local people in his previous life. This became a reality when the monastery and school were moved to Kathmandu in 1969. The school was specially aimed at the children of the original Sherpa families. Lawudo now serves as a retreat centre, with the original cave of the Lawudo Lama still there.
In 1969 Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche were living at Boudhanath. From his window Lama Yeshe could see one hill just outside Boudhanath. This was Kopan hill. One day Lama Yeshe decided that this would be a good place for a monastery and study center, a place where people from all over the world could receive Dharma teachings.
But not only that. It was also going to be a place for Tibetan and Nepali monks and nuns to receive teachings and to practice Dharma, a place where the West and the East would meet in the mutual practice of the teachings of the Buddha. This is how Kopan Monastery came into existence.
Lama Yeshe passed away in 1984. His incarnation, Lama Osel, a Spanish boy, is living and studying in Sera Monastery in South India.
Kopan-the Monastery:
Tibetan Buddhism is under severe threat in Tibet, its place of origin it is on the verge of being lost as a complete, living tradition. Even though there are still monks and nuns in Tibet, the complete transmission of the teachings are getting more and more difficult, and teachers who are the holders of the complete sutra and tantra teachings are getting rare indeed.
It is in the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries outside Tibet that the tradition is upheld and developed these days. Kopan Monastery is one of those centers of learning and study which pass on the traditions and knowledge of Tibetan Buddhists in exile.
Kopan Monastery is the home of approximately 250 monks from all areas of Nepal, Tibet as well as Northern India. The curriculum of the school is designed to give the students a good grounding in common school subjects and an intensive training in all aspects of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. In Classes I to IV the students concentrate on memorizing Buddhist prayers and texts, learn Tibetan, Nepali and English grammar, writing and reading. They also study geography, mathematics, simple science, and history. From Class V the students start with the traditional course of study in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, from introduction to debate, seine and reason (logic), through all five great treatises, and the higher philosophical topics. The monks attend classes up to grade ten, after which the more academically interested go to the university in South India (Sera, The Monastic University) to obtain the highest qualification possible: the Geshe degree, whereas some other monks continue their studies at Kopan, or offer their service to the monastery.
The students also receive, according to their abilities, training in rituals such as chanting prayers, fire pujas, consecrations of statues, the making of tormas (religious cakes) and sand mandalas, religious dances (cham), as well as learning to play various musical instruments.
There is a nunnery associated with Kopan. The nuns have their own building closer to Boudha. The nuns receive the same education as the monks, including the higher philosophical studies with their own teachers in the nunnery up to Class XII, after which they join the classes at the monastery to complete their education.
Kopan: a place of Study and Meditation for Visitors.
Kopan welcomes visitors from all over the world who are interested in meeting the Buddhist teachings and experiencing a living tradition. Many people have met the Buddha Dharma here at Kopan since the first meditation course in 1970. They come to Kopan in search of inspiration.
P.O. Box 817, Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone: 481268
Fax: 481 267 (Daytime hours)
http://www.lamazopa.com/default.htm
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