Three years after an arson fire destroyed the Columbus Karma Thegsum Chöling Center in a neighborhood near the city’s downtown, lamas from KTD Monastery recently visited Columbus to conduct a Land Blessing and Groundbreaking ceremony on the property.
The date was Sunday April 7, 2019, a day chosen by KTC founder Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche as an “auspicious” day on the Tibetan calendar.
The day-long ceremonies were led by Khenpo Karma Tenkyong and KTD President Lama Karma Drodhul. Also visiting from New York were Lama Zopa Tharchin, managing director of KTD monastery, and Lama Sonam of the Long Island dharma community. The local KTC Columbus dharma community was represented by Lama Tom Broadwater, Lama Karma Wangdu and Lama Kathy Wesley.
The Columbus KTC holds an important place in Kagyu history in the United States. It was the first dharma center founded in a U.S. city by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche on behalf of His Holiness the 16thGyalwang Karmapa. It was said that His Holiness Karmapa felt there was strong “tendrel” (auspicious connection) between the name of the city and the first KTC center, as the city was named after Christopher Columbus, one of the first European explorers to make landfall in North America in the 15thCentury.
Under His Holiness Karmapa’s and Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche’s direction, the Columbus KTC was founded in September 1977 and its sangha has met continuously since that time, moving to their current downtown Columbus location in 1990. Since that time it has met weekly, offering free meditation instruction to anyone who requested it. The KTC estimates that in the 42 years of its existence it has taught more than 5,000 people in Central Ohio how to meditate.
The destruction of the downtown Columbus shrine building (housed in a former Christian church building) in January 2016 brought the small 50-family KTC sangha together in ways it has never experienced before. Local Christian and Jewish churches and non-profit organizations opened their doors to host KTC programs, and the KTC did not miss its Sunday meditation or Tuesday night Chenrezig sadhanas during its initial period of homelessness.
Friends near and far began to help financially, and with the assistance of Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche himself (who donated many of his personal treasures to KTC’s fundraising efforts) the center gradually has raised enough over the last three years to actually begin their building. It is hoped they will begin this summer while continuing to raise money to finish the building in the coming year.
The Land Blessing Ceremony on April 7, then, was the culmination of three years of work by Khenpo Rinpoche and all associated with KTC. The ceremony was designed by Khenpo Rinpoche and carried out by KTD lamas and the local Columbus KTC sangha.
At Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche’s request, the local sangha rented a tent to create a temporary shrine room for the day-long Land Blessing puja event. Right after the tent was put up at 8 a.m., the local KTC shrine team went into action, using a shrine loaned by a KTC Dharma friend and statues “rescued” from the KTC building after the January 2016 fire.
Many more photos from the Land Blessing here and here.
