We are pleased to share the Press Release of the Municipality of Santa Luce, published by the major Italian newspapers, about the unpublished letter from Franco Battiato in favor of the construction of our monastery.
Master Franco Battiato was essential and incisive when in 2012 he urged the construction of the Buddhist monastery of Pomaia, in the municipality of Santa Luce (province of Pisa), with a letter to the then mayor Andrea Marini.
Franco Battiato's solicitation was heard only four years later, at the beginning of the mandate of the current mayor, Giamila Carli, when a memorandum of understanding was signed between the municipal administration of Santa Luce, the Region of Tuscany, the Lama Tzong Khapa Institute of Pomaia and Sangha Onlus, the association that will be responsible for the design and construction of the monastery. The operational plan followed. Now everything has been prepared so that the construction of the work proceeds smoothly: the city council, in April, approved the implementation project, while Sangha Onlus will shortly present the final project. Once the building permit has been obtained, it will start raising funds.
A fragment from Battiato's letter
«The Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, a spiritual community also founded by lay people, is attracting ever-increasing interest around it - wrote the recently deceased artist. The future monastery, which should be built on a rock, like the monasteries of Tibet, is an independent project, of a high architectural level, simple and rigorous. Moreover, it would make a significant contribution to environmental recovery. Please take my advice into consideration - he concluded -: it could bring international prestige to your municipality, which has a predestined name, and to Italy ».
Massimo Stordi, monk and head of the Sangha Onlus project, had for years been linked by a friendship with Franco Battiato who, as a broad-spectrum researcher of the spiritual universes, had approached Tibetan Buddhism, as evidenced by his trip to Nepal and the docufilm entitled "Crossing the bard". «Franco told me about the letter - explains Stordi -, he too considered the monastery fundamental for the development of monastic activity. Now, finally, we will be able to make it happen: the project is ready, we will start raising funds as soon as the building permit is issued ”.