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| It was very nice that just after I settled in Albany, NY, my brother, Michael was able to attend a retreat close by. Michael's spiritual path is one of the four main Tibetan Buddhist lineages which is Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, Kaygu or KTD for short (as that is a mouthful). The only official KTD monastery in North America is outside Woodstock, NY and Lamala (Michael's 'spiritual friend' or teacher) was holding a retreat their at the very end of October. Much of the Dallas KTD community came up for the retreat. I met Michael, Leslie, and Guy at the Albany airport (above) and we all drove to the KTD monastery, about an hour away. The first bit of the drive was pretty boring (all freeway), but once we took the exit for Woodstock, the drive got much more interesting. Here and below are pictures of the road, Mead Mountain Road, as we went up the mountain to the monastery. |
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| As you approach the monastery, you see an impressive four store new building on your left across a short stretch of woods from the road (above), but as your turn in the driveway (here), you come on what looks like a really large old house (below). That is an old summer hotel which was first built in 1865. It was converted into a KTD monastery in the 70's when the 16th Karmapa visited this area and declared that this would be a monastery and the seat of Kaygu activities in North America. He also sketched out what the monastery would look like. In 1992 they started construction of the current shrine building (also below). |
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| That was finished around 1998. Then in 2005 they started construction of the new administration and housing building for the monastery (shown here and below) which is built into the mountain side so that it is one story on the side facing the shrine building and four story from the road (and each floor has a 'ground floor entrance'). It is between the original hotel and shrine building as shown here. Below you can see what will be the main entrance into the monastery, the portal to the courtyard. Right now the original building blocks the portal. |
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| The formal entrance to the shrine building faces the courtyard and new building (still under construction), shown above. That entrance is hardly ever used now as the side entrance close to the original building is closer and more convenient. Inside there is an impressive shrine room shown above and here. On the back of the shrine room and high up are cases with copies of the teachings of Buddha (sutras). There is a high seat (throne) in the center which is where the Dalai Lama and 17th Karmapa sat when they visited this monastery. To the left of the large statue of Buddha is a statute of the 16th Karmapa and there is a picture of the 17th Karmapa on the throne. There are also ashes of the 16th Karmapa in the little stupa shown here (just to the right of the large statue of Buddha). Below is picture of the ceiling of the shrine and a better picture of the large statue of Buddha (not obscured by the Karmapa's throne). |
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This page was last updated on November 2, 2009.
