Fifty Years of the Centre: A Retrospective

Dear friends,

Summer is now ending. We would like to share a review of the main event of this season: the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of Karma Migyur Ling.

From 1 to 5 August: teaching by Lama Sangpo

As you already know, Lodreu Rabsel Rinpoché could not come to France, because his visa did not arrive in time. We explained this in an earlier letter. So Lama Sangpo gave the teaching on the practice of aspiration prayers, and in particular on the Prayer of Excellent Conduct.

This teaching took place in the Nyoung Né temple, which was prepared to welcome the one hundred and fifty people who attended. They were happy to be in a temple made cooler by its air conditioning system. As always, Lama Sangpo felt very comfortable with this text. He was clear and skilled at teaching, and explained carefully why it is important to recite these aspiration prayers.

During this teaching, a marquee was being set up on the ground behind the main temple. It would host the fiftieth anniversary celebrations, held from 6 to 9 August, in the presence of the Buddha’s relics.

5 August: the arrival of the relics

The relics arrived in the afternoon. They were welcomed with the same solemn ceremony used for a great teacher. The procession was led by Lama Sangpo, followed by the gyalings (Tibetan oboes) played by Lama Tsultrim and Lama Teundroup, and then by the relics themselves, carried by Tsultrim Rinpoché, a friend of Lama Sangpo who lives in Sweden. An escort holding the ceremonial umbrella and the traditional banners of this kind of procession walked alongside, in the middle of an honour guard formed by a very large number of people. Each one held a kata, in honour of the Buddha’s presence.

Once inside the temple, the relics were placed beside the Karmapa’s seat. Everyone came to offer a kata, while the lamas recited prayers of homage and aspiration. This welcoming ceremony ended with the Chenrezig practice, followed by a very large number of people, in the presence of the precious relics.

Over the next four days, the relics were kept in a safe place at night. Each morning, they were brought out to the sound of the gyalings and placed on the richly decorated mandala, set up on one side of the marquee. They stayed there all day, until practices ended at around 8pm, before being taken back to a safe place for the night. A security team watched over them at all times.

The reliquary among the offerings on the altar

The Buddha’s relics in the centre, with that of the fifth Shamar Rinpoché on the left

The presence of a relic of the fifth Shamarpa

Alongside the Buddha’s relics, a second relic, also very precious, was present at the centre during these days: a tooth of the fifth Shamarpa, Könchok Yénlak (1526-1583).

Together with the Karmapas, the Shamarpas form one of the two great lineages of reincarnated masters in the Kagyu school. Könchok Yénlak, the fifth Shamarpa, was a great scholar and an accomplished meditation master, and held the Golden Rosary lineage of Mahamudra. His contemporary, the eighth Karmapa, said that the Shamarpas and the Karmapas come from the same stream of consciousness, a unique spiritual bond within the Kagyu lineage.

This relic was kept from the sixteenth century at Yangpachen monastery, the historic seat of the Shamarpas in Tibet. It was later passed on to the fourteenth Shamarpa, Mipham Chökyi Lodrö (1952-2014), who kept it for his whole life. Since his death, it has been kept for a time by his devoted attendant, Lama Jampa, who now lives in California. Lama Jampa is a close friend of Lama Sangpo; they both come from Yangpachen monastery. When Lama Jampa learned that Karma Migyur Ling was preparing to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, he offered to lend this precious relic as a support for blessing during the event.

The celebrations from 6 to 9 August

The celebrations began on the morning of 6 August with a short speech by Lama Sangpo. In it, he recalled everything that Lama Teunsang had built in the field of spiritual practice, and what still remains for each of us to accomplish.

Then, on behalf of Karma Migyur Ling, Jean-Marc gave a long speech. He traced the history of the centre and everything that has been built here over these fifty years.

In the afternoon, we had the great pleasure of hearing a moving speech from the Gyalwa Karmapa Trinlé Thayé Dorje. He could not be present, so His Holiness had recorded a video for the occasion, which we showed under the marquee. You will find it in full below. The Karmapa speaks in English, with French subtitles, and a French transcript of this speech is also available.

You will find all the videos of these speeches, translated into French, along with their transcripts, at this link.

Tsultrim Rinpoché also gave a short speech. He explained the links between his centre in Sweden and Karma Migyur Ling, links first formed between Lama Teunsang and Lama Ngawang, the founder of the Swedish centre. Tsultrim Rinpoché is a friend of Lama Sangpo; both of them come from Yangpachen monastery, in Tibet.

Apart from these speeches, the Prayer of Excellent Conduct was recited in the presence of the relics, in French and Tibetan in turn, together with the lamas of the centre, on this day and the following three days. Anyone was free to stand up and walk around the relics placed on the altar, and many people did so. More than four hundred people took part in these practice sessions.

Each evening, after the Chenrezig practice and before the relics were taken back to a safe place, they were brought in turn to the different temples of the centre, the Nyoung Né temple, the Tara temple and the Mahakala temple, or were carried around the eight stupas and around the centre.

Tsultrim Rinpoche carrying the relics

An exceptional turnout

Between 400 and 500 Buddhist practitioners or supporters came to take part in the aspiration prayer sessions and to spend time in the presence of the relics. The practice sessions were also shown by live stream, and were followed by many people who could not come to the centre in person.

Along with these practitioners, about 500 visitors also came, on Friday 7, Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 August, most of them from the local area, who had heard about the event through the local press. Besides the chance to spend time in the presence of the relics under the marquee, they could also discover the centre and its activities: films shown throughout the day, a photo exhibition tracing the fifty years of the centre’s history, guided tours of the main temple, and meditation workshops offered all afternoon, which were very well received.

Temple visits organised to welcome visitors

We were honoured to welcome Gendün Rinchen, who came with about twenty monastics, as well as residents from Kundreul Ling. We also welcomed the Venerable Nyanadharo, from the monastery in Tournon, who holds a very special place at Montchardon: he was one of the first resident monks at the centre, in 1976, where he lived for just over a year alongside Lama Teunsang, who had just arrived. The Venerable has remained very close to Karma Migyur Ling ever since. Several sanghas from the Vietnamese pagodas of Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon and Grenoble also came to visit us.

Gendün Rinchen with the monastics from Kundreul Ling

These days went wonderfully well. The atmosphere was the same as when a great lama visits, which is not surprising: we were in the presence of the Buddha.

None of this organisation could have happened without the dedicated help of about sixty volunteers, who truly carried the event, and of all the participants who gave their help every day to support the group effort. We thank them all very warmly.

Venerable Nyanadharo

With gratitude

We would first like to thank the UBF for agreeing to lend the Buddha’s relics, which they hold in trust.

We would especially like to thank the security team, whose dedication in protecting these relics was remarkable; some of them even took time off work to help guard them. This thanks goes to the people assigned to this task by the UBF, and also to the Kasung, the six people who usually guard the Karmapa’s security and who kindly agreed to help with security here during this event.

Finally, our thanks go to all the donors who gave money to help cover the costs of this event. The announced budget was fully covered, and there is even a surplus, which the centre will put to good use.

The volunteers and residents with the security officers, Xavier and Jean-Luc, in front of the relics

One thing about the relics stood out during this time, and deserves a closer look: their power to multiply. Here is what we know.

About the multiplication of the relics

There is one point still to explain, which may seem strange to a Western reader: the way relics can multiply. As unbelievable as this may sound, this is a well documented event among the relics of great Buddhist masters, and it is exactly what happened with the Buddha’s relics.

As a reminder, in 2009 Thai patriarchs decided to offer five relics to the Buddhist Union of France (UBF).

(For more information about the history of the relics, see this link.)

Among these relics, one, longer and glazed, is most likely a piece of a tooth. Three others, of medium size, are probably pieces of bone. The last one is what is called a rinsel, a small pearl-like bead, clear and white.

What is a rinsel?

These are small, round objects, often white but sometimes of other colours. They appear in the ashes of great masters after cremation, or they can appear on sacred objects such as statues of the Buddha or stupas. This goes back to the cremation of the Buddha himself. What makes a rinsel different from an ordinary relic is this special power: it can multiply on its own, inside its own container, under the right conditions.

Tradition says that this is directly linked to devotion: the stronger the faith of the people around it, the more likely the relic is to multiply.

Since the UBF has held these relics, this kind of « multiplication » has happened more than once.

The first time was in 2023, when the relics were taken to Bhutan to be shown at different monasteries and public places. When they came back to France, the people in charge of them found a sixth relic! They then remembered the strange words of a lama, who had told them, half joking and half serious, as they were leaving the country: « After everything that has happened here, do not be surprised if you go home with a sixth relic. »

The same thing happened again a year later. On 18 May 2025, during a Vesak ceremony in Paris, a seventh relic appeared, and there was no doubt about it. Dagpo Rinpoché, a Gelug lama living near Paris, said: « For you, in the West, this may feel especially surprising; for us, Tibetans, we are a little more used to this kind of thing. »

This summer at Montchardon, on 9 August, the last day the relics were at the centre, Xavier Chevrier, who has looked after the security of the relics for a long time, gave a speech about their history.

He opened with a surprising statement: « Two tiny rinsel appeared during their stay at the centre. They are very, very small. We did not expect a new rinsel to be so small. But size does not change the value of the thing. To put it simply: everything inside the sealed container, where they are kept, is a relic. We will see how they develop. »

This new multiplication is a very happy sign, and a good omen, since it happened during the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of Karma Migyur Ling. Still, since this news came in so quickly, it needs to be confirmed with more time.

Close-up of the reliquary’s « bubble », where the relics are kept

This kind of multiplication of relics is a fairly common event in Tibet, as Dagpo Rinpoché explains.

A similar case happened at Montchardon. Lama Teunsang had received a few rinsel of Kashyapa Buddha, the Buddha before Shakyamuni. They were found inside a statue kept in Tibet. He kept three of them in a small bottle. In 1998, while leading a retreat of one hundred Nyoung Né, he decided to place this bottle on the Chenrezig mandala, as a blessing. The retreat went as planned, and at the end, Lama Teunsang took back the bottle: there were now twelve of them! We saw this ourselves. Lama Teunsang later placed them inside the eight stupas built the following year.

Another example can be given. This is not directly about rinsel, but the same kind of multiplication has been seen in other cases, for example with the black pills of the sixteenth Karmapa. These were given out during the Black Crown ceremony. People spoke of « mother pills », which could multiply and produce « daughter pills », which did not have this power to multiply. This was a common event, and many Western observers saw it for themselves. Lama Teunsang had very productive black pills, which he shared with many students!

Thank you to everyone who made this fiftieth anniversary such a rare and special moment for Karma Migyur Ling.

With warm wishes in the Dharma,

The Montchardon team