Two Stupas Arrive at Dhagpo
September 2019
During this summer’s visit from Trinley Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Gerard Guinot—the artisan behind the eight copper stupas—delivered two of them: The Reconciliation Stupa and The Parinirvana Stupa. Here is some information about the events that these two stupas commemorate.
The Reconciliation Stupa དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་དབྱེན་བསྡུམ་མཆོད་རྟེན།
This stupa symbolizes the monastic community’s reconciliation following an internal schism caused by Devadatta in Rajgir. Out of jealousy, he had convinced a number of monks to leave the Buddha’s community and found another under his leadership. At the Buddha’s request, his disciples Maudgalyayana and Shariputra went to meet with the monks and clarify their confusion, allowing the schism to come to an end and to unite the community once more.
The Parinirvana Stupa མྱང་འདས་མཆོད་རྟེན།
This stupa marks the death of the Buddha. The Buddha fell ill while on the road to Kushinagar. Knowing the moment of his final departure was imminent, he asked for Ananda to prepare a place for him to die. He left our world to enter into parinirvana lying on his right side in a state of profound meditation and after having given his final teaching to the disciples gathered around him: “Monks, never forget, all conditioned phenomena are impermanent.”
