Thank you for making 2024 an amazing year. Some utterly memorable moments are shared in this news out of many in the life of dharma in Sri Lanka.
Fulfilling Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice
Medicine Buddha prototype statue
At last the Medicine Buddha prototype of the five-storey statue is now cast, gilded, and painted. Its preparation is being supervised by Gen Tenpa Chodron from Kopan monastery while it’s being filled with mantras .
Nearly twelve months ago, with much trepidation, Venerable Lekdron took a baby step towards fulfilling Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice of building a five-storey Medicine Buddha statue in Sri Lanka. At first, this seemed like an insurmountable task in a country that, at best, had no idea of Medicine Buddha and, at worst, distrusted the Mahayana tradition as inauthentic.
We have called the five-storey Medicine Buddha statue project in Sri Lanka, 5MB. The first step was to build a prototype in Nepal according to Rinpoche’s instructions, and we also secured a location and the support of a prominent Theravada temple in Colombo. Gangarama Temple agreed to house and display the Medicine Buddha prototype there. The public will be able to see it and join in meditations and prayers.
A number of Medicine Buddha pujas and practices have already been held at Gangarama temple in readiness.
5MB Pilgrimage to Sri Lanka
In order to create awareness of the healing power of the Medicine Buddha, in September Venerable Lekdron led a pilgrimage to Sri Lanka supported by our excellent Tour Manager Jason Isma.
Sixteen pilgrims from Australia, Malaysia, and the USA, including two very senior Tibetan nuns from FPMT, participated in the journey. We visited the Sri Maha Bodhi tree, the sacred Tooth Temple and very importantly rarely visited Mahayana sites such as Buduruwagala Temple.
This pilgrimage was created to bring together and showcase what’s hidden in plain sight: the strong presence of both sutra and tantra, Mahayana Buddhism in Sri Lanka. The relationships that have been nurtured over nine years by Tara Lanka were evident in the warm welcome we received from very senior Theravada monks in charge of the Sri Maha Bodhi tree and Abhayagiriya, a prominent Mahayana monastic complex in ancient Anuradhapura. Much goodwill was created by this visit.
Medicine Buddha Puja with disabled Soldiers
and a Tamil refugee
While we were in Anuradhapura, we had a major highlight of the pilgrimage. We performed a Medicine Buddha puja, whose audience included fifty wounded Sinhalese army soldiers. There could have been 500 but we did not have the resources to manage such a large disabled group.
Maureen Ernest, a Tamil refugee
Tara Lanka has organised previous healing events with Maureen, who is a courageous young Tamil woman committed to her own healing. In a previous event, on the day of the twenty-eighth anniversary of the bombing of her village, she recited some poems she had written about the impact of war on her life, in the presence of disabled Sinhalese army soldiers. It had a huge impact on everyone.
This year, at Maureen’s request, we brought together fifty wounded soldiers, the pilgrims who travelled from overseas, Tara Lanka members from Colombo, and 15 students whose education is sponsored by Tara Lanka. These students and their parents came from Kandy and nearby villages to Anuradhapura Abhayagiriya temple where the Head monk presided over the event.
This senior abbot invited Ani Lekdron to sit next to him at the beginning of the ceremony, which is a surprising and radical act in Sri Lanka because monks and nuns don’t mingle. Ani Lekdron invited a Theravada nun to jointly lead the Medicine Buddha puja in Sinhalese for the 200+ Sinhalese speaking people while the international visitors happily joined the Tibetan sangha to do a more low key puja themselves making space for the local people.
After the puja Maureen made a very moving speech in the Sinhala language, which she has taught herself in the last couple of years. She talked about the gains of war in her life like Buddhadharma and Sinhala language as well as Sinhalese friends which were inaccessible to her before. She had been reflective on the rights and wrongs of both sides. All this was the result of the first event at Tara Lanka with the disabled soldiers.
Maureen then did something outstanding. She took responsibility for the condition of the wheelchair bound young men and apologised on behalf of the LTTE terrorist group who inflicted those wounds. In this very powerful and moving moment a Sinhalese professor spontaneously got up on his feet, grabbed the microphone and offered a counter apology to Maureen on behalf of Sinhalese for harming the Tamil people.
An army soldier who had an artificial leg made an impassioned speech that he has been in the army for 24 years and had heard a lot about women’s empowerment and reconciliation and peace. However this is the first time that he witnessed both empowered women in action and true healing.
Tara Lanka had taken a calculated risk, as anything could have happened when bringing traumatised people together.
By creating a safe environment we created the conditions for healing. It is evident that Medicine Buddha is very much at work in Sri Lanka and the Pilgrims felt fortunate to bear witness to an outstanding historical moment and their presence was very much valued by the soldiers and everyone else present.
Healing happens when accompanied by the loving presence of witnesses. We are keen to go back to continue the journey we began. There will be more pilgrimages and events in the new year to continue the healing.
2000 People Attend Medicine Buddha puja at Mahiyangana
“The Grand Finale of my time in Sri Lanka came after the pilgrims had left.”
A senior Theravada monk had invited Venerable Lekdron to lead a Medicine Buddha puja at Mahiyangana temple, a prominent temple where chronicles record Buddha Shakyamuni once visited.
The Mahavamsa recounts that the Buddha visited Mahiyangana to bring peace to the island, which was then inhabited by Yakkhas (a class of semi-divine beings). He preached the Dhamma to them, leading to their conversion or retreat from the area.
It was an unimaginably grand event where over 2000 people took part. The medicine offerings were prepared over four days by indigenous medicine men at the temple. There were 1080 offering bowls and a long parade to make the offerings. The highlight was travelling to a remote indigenous village with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s golden stupa. I was requested to bless Sri Lanka’s Indigenous Vedda leader and their community with Tibetan prayers.
Incredibly, this grand Medicine Buddha puja will be an annual event. Tara Lanka members Mr and Mrs Thenabadu put enormous effort into making this event possible, as did the Theravada monks who worked with the whole community to break tradition and allow a Mahayana nun to lead a puja.
Vietnamese Support for 5MB
From Melbourne, 5MB is very fortunate to have the support of Venerable Phuoc Tan, the Abbot of the Vietnamese Quang Minh Temple, who understands and supports the significance of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s instruction to build a five-storey Medicine Buddha statue in Sri Lanka.
In November 2024, he led a large group of Vietnamese Buddhists on a special pilgrimage to Sri Lanka. Tara Lanka arranged several important meetings with senior local monks and Venerable Lekdron’s brother, Sanjaya, personally escorted the group on a private viewing to the Sacred Tooth Temple in Kandy as well as a grand welcome ceremony at Abhayagiriya temple and an exclusive visit to the the Enlightenmement tree at Sri Maha Bodhi temple.
Tara Lanka members led by Aruni Weerasinghe welcomed the group at Gangarama temple where the Medicine Buddha statue will be based. The Head prelate of Gangarama, Venerable Assaji Thero< and other monks joined the group to provide valuable details about the statue such as its final location within the temple grounds.
Earlier, in Melbourne, Venerable Lekdron sought the help of Venerable Phuoc Tan who then enabled the completion of a Sri Lankan Temple at the foot of the Great Stupa in Bendigo where the Sri Maha Bodhi sapling is now growing.
Venerable Phuoc Tan is working actively for the healing of the world supporting Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vision.
Hard-to-hear news!
Malintha Leaving
Malintha Perera, the Tara Lanka facilitator who has been the rock in Sri Lanka, is currently relocating to Vietnam for family reasons. What an impact she has had. Her enormous effort and generosity cannot be overstated.. Malintha stepped up to restart the Tara Lanka Study Group which had been halted for a couple of years. Along with her program of Medicine Buddha pujas and Tara pujas, she and her husband and two sons reestablished regular dharma discussions in dedicated premises in a leafy suburb of Colombo.
Khadro La Rinpoche Teaching
Malintha attended the famous November Kopan course and completed the Vajrasattva retreat and attended FPMT meetings there. While in Kopan she made a request to Khadro La Rinpoche to give teachings to the Sri Lankan Study Group.
We are so grateful that this request was accepted and that Khadro la Rinpoche commenced zoom teachings, particularly addressing common misunderstandings amongst Theravada Buddhists about Mahayana which is greatly useful and of particular to Sinhalese Buddhists.
In addition, Malintha formed a great connection with the ABC centre in Singapore. They donated funds to print many translations including “Virtue and Reality” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. And to the amazement of the small Tara Lanka group, they also donated the stupa of Enlightenment, which arrived recently and is now being used for circumambulation and purification of people and their pets.
Much gratitude to Hup Chen and the ABC members for their immense generosity.
Lam Rim study is getting accessible to Sri Lankan dharma students at last
Two Theravada Monks, a nun and a lay student from Sri Lanka attended the 2024 Kopan November course, possibly the first time that Theravada sangha have done so. Much gratitude and thanks to Malinth’s very generous son, Dinuga, for sponsoring them — along with all the other generosity this family has bestowed on Tara Lanka over the years. What a wonderful parting gift they have offered the Sri Lankan people. We pray that these sangha will further their understanding and study and use their new found understanding to open hearts and minds in Sri Lanka.
During the Kopan course the Sri Lankan attendees met Kadro la Rinpoche for the first time. After the November course ended Malintha joined them to go on a pilgrimage in Nepal and sought an audience with Khadro la as a group. The Sri Lankan nun Venerable Anuththara was overcome with emotion and tears flowed while Khadro la Rinpoche held her in a loving embrace with tears flowing from Rinpoche too. What an auspicious meeting.
How amazing for the group then to experience such humility and love from a revered female teacher.
Venerable Tenzin Gendun to visit Sri Lanka
In early 2025, Venerable Gendun, a Sri Lankan born monk from Nalanda monastery in France, is also sponsored by Malitha’s family to spend two months in Sri Lanka. He is an experienced FPMT teacher who will bring further understanding and knowledge. He will be staying at Tara Lanka for two months at the beginning of the year where short teachings and discussions are planned. While Malintha’s departure leaves big shoes to fill, the working committee is very determined to keep the rekindled Bodhisattva path alive in Sri Lanka.
At the end of the year, we were excited to hear that Wisdom Publications has agreed to publish the historic Manjusribhasita Vastuvidyasastra. The book is a passion project of Venerable Lekdron, having promised the translator, Professor Walter Marasinghe (above with his team), that she would get it published. Venerable Lekdron financed the team who revised and improved the manuscript over two years, recently finding a generous sponsor for final publication. There’s quite a story to this text, including the fact that it is the only Buddhist silpa (architectural or artistic manual) in the world. And it was found in Sri Lanka. It is dated 5th–7th century and many Sri Lankan structures have been found to follow its directions. Its architectural principles are still used in modern Sri Lankan monastic constructions.
We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the special generosity of Oi Loon Lee, Malintha and family, Venerable Choying, Venerable Phuoc Tan and MP from Quang Ming temple, Jason Isma, John Teschendorf, Peter Guiliano, Frank Brock, Sarah New, Maree Fowler, Alex Kong, Sau Chee, Sanjaya Mahavithanage, Tara Lanka working committee and all the pilgrims for their support with healing of Sri Lanka and Medicine Buddha statue project and all other things in between.The children we support through Silke and Lance are thriving and it is a great pleasure to see them grow. Thanks to Tikiri and Malintha and the two monks who manage these two groups.
In 2025 there is a plan to register a not for profit in Australia to continue the healing work and build a 5 storey Medicine Buddha statue one day. Tara Lanka and the 5 MB project take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful holiday season and a peaceful new year. May all our efforts be dedicated to the long and healthy life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Khadro la Rinpoche and the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.