Kanglung Shedra

Summer Retreat (Yarney) begins on 11th August 2014 at Thubten Choekhorling Shedra for the next 45 days
Yarney is an old practice which began at the time of Lord Buddha himself, some 2600 years ago in India. The term ‘Yar’ means summer, ‘Ney’ means retreat or to abide in a particular place. This retreat, which actually lasted for three months at the time of Lord Buddha, is observed only for 45 days as it reached Tibet. So, from Tibet it came down to Bhutan with Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal. It was initially observed at Thimphu Tashi Choe dzong. This system almost vanished with time in Bhutan, until the 68th Je Khenpo of Bhutan H.H Chabjye Tenzin Dendrup Rinpoche re-established it some 40 years ago. Today, it is being observed in many Shedras and other Buddhist institutes around Bhutan.
During the time of Lord Buddha, monks survived on alms, and they went for begging into the villages. Some Non-Buddhists then, criticized and accused the followers of Gautama Buddha for being merciless as they killed many insects and worms when they walked into villages for alms. Particularly in summer, as the temperature is high and the air humid, it is the season of life; insects and worms hatch and reproduce at this time of the year. So, in an answer to this accusation, Lord Buddha ordered the Sangha to remain within the premises of the dwelling areas. No monks were allowed to go beyond the demarcated retreat areas until the end of summer.
Inside the temple, the monks would be constantly and vigorously involved in the spiritual practices. They took the vows and observed them carefully. Their main activities were to listen, contemplate and meditate on the teachings they received from the guru. During those time, many monks and practitioners achieved the state of Arhatship, non-returner, and once-returner. The practice is immensely powerful as the monks get maximum time to concentrate on their practices for they don’t have to go out begging. They also pray for the peace and harmony in the world, for the living and the dead, and give teachings to the patrons and devotees.
This is also the perfect time for the common people, patrons, and kings to offer food and water by visiting the temples where Yarney takes place. They offered food, clothes, drinks, thread and needle, medicine and other necessities. Lord Buddha himself gave teachings to these patrons, and many attained higher states of realization in their spiritual practices. This is a very precious time to be spent on spiritual practices, earn merits, and excel in our journey to enlightenment.
This is the fourth summer retreat being observed at Kanglung Shedra under the spiritual guidance of Venerable Lam Neten (Khenchen) Karma Rangdol Rinpoche.

A Buddhist monk who holds a Black belt DAN certificate in Taekwondo from World Taekwondo Head Quarter, Korea.

Jigme Kuenga Wangchuk

Jigme Kunga Wangchuk

We would like to heartily thank these teachers who taught English, Mathematics and Translation to more than 150 monks for the tenure of one year. We would like to credit your hardwork and dedicated service.
On behalf of the Masters and monks of the Shedra, we thank and wish you all a successful life ahead. Tashi Delek

བཀང་ལུང་ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཆོས་འཁོར་གླིང་བཤད་གྲྭ་ནས་ཐེངས་དང་པོ་ཚང་མཁན་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བརྙན།

སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་བསྟན་འཛིན་དང་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་དམ་པ་ཟུང་གི་་སྣང་བརྙན་ལགས་སོ།