FPMT International Office
Department Name
FPMT International Office
Lama Zopa Rinpoche established the Stupa Fund in 1992 . The aim of the Fund is to provide the resources for the building of
100,000 stupas around the world, each a minimum size of 12 feet high.
Stupas are found in all Buddhist countries and are the archetypal symbol of the enlightened mind .
Even just seeing a stupa plants the seed of enlightenment and peace in the minds of all who see them, human or animal, Buddhist or non-
Buddhist.
Stupa at Kachoe Dechen Ling, California USA
Department Name
FPMT International Office
The stupa represents Buddha's holy mind, Dharmakaya, and each part of the stupa shows the path to enlightenment.
Building or contributing to the building of a stupa is a powerful means of purifying negative karma and obscurations and of accumulating extensive merit.
In this way you can have realizations of the path to enlightenment and be able to do perfect work to liberate suffering beings, who equal the sky, leading them to the peerless happiness of enlightenment. This is the ultimate goal of our life.
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Stupa in the snow in Iceland
Department Name
FPMT International Office
Benefits of Stupas
Inside each stupa are mantras and relics of holy beings that create incredible purification, merit, and blessings, such as the powerful four
Dharmakaya relic mantras.
If you put the four Dharmakaya relic mantras inside a stupa it creates the same merit as having built 100,000 stupas and having made offerings to all the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
Stupas are an antidote to war, famine, and disease and are also extremely powerful for health and healing. If you are facing death the best thing to do is circumambulate a stupa.
Kalachakra stupa at Kurukulla Center, USA
Department Name
FPMT International Office
By building a stupa or statue, without words you are continually liberating so many sentient beings every day and anybody who sees, touches, remembers, talks or dreams about the stupa - it plants the seed of enlightenment and they are purified.
When the wind touches a stupa, the wind becomes blessed and then wherever it goes and whoever it touches is liberated from the lower realms, by purifying their negative karma. When the rain falls on the stupa, that running water liberates any being it touches, all the worms in the ground etc., from the lower realms. It is similar with dust.
Monks taking the annual Gelugpa Exam in 2009
The Great Thousand Buddha relic stupa at Kopan
Department Name
FPMT International Office
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's heart projects is the building of prayer wheels and other holy objects around the world.
Rinpoche has inspired the construction of many large stupas including:
The Great Thousand Buddha Relic Stupa at Kopan Monastery in Nepal
The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion being built in Australia
The Kalachakra Stupa in the USA
The Kadampa stupa in France
And many other stupas in Nepal, Spain, Italy,
France, the United States, Canada, Iceland,
Tibet, Australia, and New Zealand.
Kadampa Stupa at Institut Vajra Yogini, France
Department Name
FPMT International Office
Department Name
FPMT International Office
After Lama Yeshe passed away, Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested a number of centers to build stupas for
Lama Yeshe:
In actuality Shakyamuni Buddha,
He revealed the instructions to gain enlightenment in one lifetime.
The incomparable holder of the Dharma, leader of all migratory beings of this time of degeneration, who destroyed all the wrong conceptions.
By the joy of the wisdom of bliss and voidness.
Please grant the transcendental bliss and voidness
Monks during the annual winter debate
Lama Yeshe stupa at Vajrapani Institute, USA
Department Name
FPMT International Office
The Stupa Fund also supports the making of three small Kadampa stupas every day that are filled and blessed by the Sangha at Lama
Zopa Rinpoche's home in
California. These stupas are dedicated for all students and friends who have passed away.
Mitukpa, Medicine Buddha, Long
Life Buddhas and Padmasambhava tsa tsas are made daily and dedicated for any student who is sick and for the success of all FPMT centers, services and projects.
Stupa with light offerings at night, Kachoe Dechen Ling, USA
Department Name
FPMT International Office
The inconceivable merit of building stupas is not limited to the person who physically builds it; those who support the project financially, materially, or through rejoicing all receive equal benefit!
Stupa at Dorje Chang Institute, New Zealand
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