THE FIRST UK KAGYU MONLAM

22 May 2018 - 29 May 2018

Cost: £0.00

Venue: Samye Ling

This year we are holding the very first UK Kagyu Monlam in Samye Ling.  

Please click here to book your accommodation.

For updates before the Monlam begins and for photos and news during the Monlam please follow on Facebook by clicking here for the new Event page 'United Kingdom Kagyu Monlam'.

The Monlam will begin on the auspicious date of the anniversary of Lord Buddha’s Birth on 22^nd May and will finish on 29^th May 2018, the anniversary of Lord Buddha’s Enlightenment and Parinirvana.

Drupon Rinpoche has kindly agreed to make an extra visit to the UK specially to preside over the Monlam.  He will give teachings on ‘The Hundred Verses of Advice From Padampa Sangye to the People of Tingr’.

For the daily schedule please click here.

We hope this first UK Monlam will be a magnificent event and that as many people as possible will take part.

The Kagyu Monlam is a major international prayer festival held annually in Bodhgaya, India, where people gather to listen to Buddhist teachings and to pray for peace and harmony  and  the well-being  and happiness of the world. 

The Kagyu Monlam is now also held annually in other countries all over the world on a smaller scale. This will be the first time it is being held in the UK.

History: Though the Kagyu Monlam belongs fully to the contemporary world, its roots lie in 15th-century Tibet, where the 7th Karmapa, Chödrak Gyatso, established the tradition of great prayer gatherings.  People from all over Tibet assembled annually to pray for the benefit of all sentient beings. In India, the Monlam tradition began in 1983, when two great lamas in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Kalu Rinpoche and Bokar Rinpoche, began holding annual prayer gatherings at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya. 

After the 17th Karmapa assumed responsibility for the festival in 2004, he brought in many innovations, creating the international festival that exists today. 

The 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s Aspiration for the Kagyu Monlam

I make this aspiration that when you recite these prayers during the Monlam, each word may first arise in your heart, and then emerge from your mouth. I pray that every letter and syllable becomes a golden image and that every word fills the entire world. May all the sounds of lament and war as well as the poisonous winds in the environment be dispelled. May these words of love and compassion blend with the innate goodness of every single being and coalesce into one powerful force. Like the light of the sun, moon and stars, may love, compassion and wisdom shine forth. May they strike every single living being and dispel the darkness of ignorance, attachment and hatred that has lurked for ages in their being. When any living being meets another, may it be like the reunion of a mother and child after a long separation. In a harmonious world such as this, may I see everyone sleep peacefully to the music of non-violence. This is my dream.

There is no fee for attending these prayers although donations are welcome. Your offering will help with the Monastery's considerable running costs.  Donations may be made in the Reception Office in Samye Ling.