Our dear Dharma brother Ven. Cesare Thubten Thardo "he who walks towards Nirvana", after several years of illness, this morning at 5:00 followed his master Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
We found ourselves in the room where he stopped breathing and with Ven. Jhado Rinpoche, the resident Geshes of the Ven. Geshe Tenphel and Geshe Gelek, their son Livio, the director Valerio Tallarico, some monks and nuns and many others, we recited the prayers that I may have a good and precious human rebirth as soon as possible.
Monk since 1981, Cesare, true historical memory of the Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, was the dean of the ordained sangha not only by age, but also by monastic ordination, having received his novice vows from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1981 and full vows from the Dalai Lama in 1983.
Arrived in Pomaia in 1977 from Rome, where the passion for painting in the sixties had led him to frequent Spazio Zero, where he met Sciascia and Cesare Musatti and his teacher, the painter Pascal Papisca, Cesare knowing the work of bricklayer, contributed to the reconstruction of the Institute.
The Gompa, the library, the dormitory, and the splendid stupas with their refined symbologies also came to life thanks to the naive colors he used for his paintings.
“I'm just the fruit of the great Masters of the past who flooded me with energy” he said of himself to explain the extraordinary force that guided him.
In the picture, from 1992, we share the memory of Ven. Cesare Thubten Thardo (right) together with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Geshe Ciampa Ghiatso on the occasion of the consecration of the Stupas of Gomo Tulku and Geshe Rabten.