The yearly Tibetan Buddhist Festival of Prayers for World Peace, the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo, has taken place yearly in northern India since the 1980s. In recent years, Buddhist groups throughout the world have begun to bring the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo to their own communities. Last year was the first known public celebration of the Monlam in the United States. The U.S. festival, which was celebrated in honor of and solidarity with the main festival at Bodhgaya, was brought about by the efforts of Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche, a Buddhist teacher and monastic, and his students and assistants at Pema Karpo Meditation Center in Memphis, TN.
Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche's Education
Khenpo Gawang RInpoche is Tibetan and has studied as a monk since the age of ten, first at a monastery in Tibet and then under a yogi of the Dzogchen lineage who lived atop a snow-capped mountain. After his teacher passed away, he decided to undertake the dangerous journey out of Tibet in order to continue his Buddhist education at the Buddhist university at Namdroling Monastery in southern India.
The Namdroling Buddhist university, or shedra, was opened by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, now deceased. HH Penor Rinpoche and the Namdroling monastery were pivotal in the success of the modern Nyinmga Monlam Chenmo. Each year, a delegation from Namdroling traveled to Bodhgaya to participate in the prayers and to assist in providing food, organization, and lodging to the participants. Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche (now of Pema Karpo in Memphis) was, for eight years, a member of that delegation.
The Nyingma Monlam Chenmo in Bodhgaya
The Monlam takes place every year in the first ten days of the twelfth month of the Tibetan Calendar, or in early February. The modern festival is celebrated at Bodhgaya, a sacred location in northern India where the historical Buddha Shakyamuni found enlightenment, or a state of perfect peace and wisdom. It is said in Tibetan Buddhist teachings that Bodhgaya is the place where every past and future Buddha will attain enlightenment. The statue of Shakyamuni Buddha at Bodhgaya (see image) is the oldest known image of the historical Buddha, and is said to have been created in consultation with a woman who had seen his face.
In the early 1980s, the festival was undertaken by a small, dedicated contingent of Buddhist monastics who, as a group, chanted a Tibetan Buddhist prayer (a sutra known as The Exalted King of Aspiration Conduct) one hundred thousand times over the course of ten days. The festival has grown in popularity every year since 1989, from a small group of Nyingma monks and nuns to an international festival attended by tens of thousands of people of diverse religious backgrounds.
The Monlam, as it is known, offers the only organized event when the many lineages of Nyingma Tibetan Buddhism can congregate.
Several well-known and well-loved personages in Tibetan Buddhism were responsible for the transformation of the Monlam. Among these, one of the most dedicated to the success of the Monlam was His Holiness Penor Rinpoche. At the end of Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche's training, it was HH Penor Rinpoche who charged the Khenpo with traveling to the United States to teach.
The Nyingma Monlam Chenmo may be a more recent ‘incarnation’ of a traditional Monlam once held in Tibet, overseen by monastic orders and the Dalai Lama himself. That ceremony, itself an incarnation of an older Monlam first held in 1409 by Tsongkhapa, was banned during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976.
Those who participate in the Monlam vow, among other things, to pray and work for peace for all sentient beings.
The Monlam in Memphis, Tennessee
This year in Memphis, prayers and teachings will be led by Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche. Over the course of the Monlam, the Khenpo will teach a text by Nagarjuna, a historical Buddhist philosopher, called ‘The Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way’. Christoph Klonk, a well-respected Tibetan translator from Germany, will be translating. Participants will also chant the same prayer (The Exalted King of Aspiration Conduct) as is chanted during the Monlam at Bodhgaya.
Respectful individuals are welcome at the Memphis celebration, regardless of religious background or experience with meditation. Prayer sessions are free, but a donation of $15 is requested for the talks and teachings is requested. To register, to donate, or for more information, please visit the Monlam's website or the website for Pema Karpo Meditation Center. You can also email the coordinator at nyingmamonlam@gmail.com or call the event hotline at (901) 492-1351. For more information on the Monlam at Bodhgaya, please see this link.
