November 27, 2022 marks the fifteenth anniversary since Geshe Ciampa Ghiatso, our beloved and precious master, passed away. He was the first abbot of the Monastery, as well as an active inspirer of the Sangha Onlus Association, and we want to remember him with you through the words of his short and touching speech in 2006, given at the monastic Sangha who lived in Pomaia.
One day Geshe-la lucidly listed the many problems that monks and nuns had to face in order to respect the rules of monastic discipline and agreed on the need to find a suitable place to carry out their daily practices. She said: “Without a monastery there is no future for monks and nuns. The monastery is the base of the practice and will have to be built close to the Lama Tzong Khapa Institute because the Sangha will have to continue its close collaborative relationship with the Dharma activities of the Institute.”
FIRST VISIT TO THE HILL
After viewing several places, he chose in theOctober 2006 for the future monastery, the land and the woods of Poggio La Penna and during the first visit, embracing a breathtaking panorama with his gaze, he declared "Nice nice! This place reminds me of my Tibet”.
Geshe-la also indicated the site of the temple and its direction, according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Feng Shui. She advised that the female monastic area be placed close to the temple to make the path that the nuns would have to make less tiring, placing the building in a cooler area and protected from a more favorable climate.
For the monks' area he suggested a large space above and also advised to make six rooms for the guesthouse, like the six perfections.
SECOND VISIT TO THE HILL
The second, and last, visit to the hills took place a few months after the first and, although already somewhat debilitated, he reached on foot as far as the land where the area destined for the monks was to be built, and he offered each of us some sweets as good luck.
Also accompanying him were Ven. Geshe Tenzin Tenphel and his brother Geshe Loden.
All of Geshe-la's advice has found full implementation and compliance in the numerous geological and urban planning surveys that have taken place over the years, which have confirmed in the areas indicated by him, the areas suitable for the construction of the main Temple and of the lodgings for the monks and nuns.
Geshe-la, in his only two visits before leaving this life, already had a perfect vision of what the monastery would look like once it was built!