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Guru Rimpoche statue, present day
Master Sculptor Tashi Norbu, Venerable Wangdor Rimpoche, Lama Lena up on statue scaffolding.
Nine years ago today, on April 2, 2012, Ven. Wangdor Rimpoche’s iconic Guru Rinpoche statue was dedicated by H.H. Dalai Lama. See how this incredible project came together with the help of an entire community, in the gallery below.
The Guru Rinpoche statue, constructed by Ven. Wangdor Rimpoche, is more than just a statue. It is also a pilgrimage point and a focus of spirit overlooking the holy lake of Tso Pema (Rewalsar, India).
From the beginning, the statue was built as a full representation of the body, speech, and mind of Guru Padmasambhava. The statue is not solid on the inside, nor is it hollow. Instead, it is literally filled with texts, relics and tsa tsas assembled by the combined communities of Zigar Monastery, the cave community, and Rewalsar’s lay people.
The statue was built using mostly traditional Indian construction methods (manual carriage and labor) to place things into position. The foundation alone took three years to construct. The most complex machinery used on site was a cement mixer.
On the day that President Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to HH the Dalai Lama, a rare double rainbow appeared over the statue – which hadn’t yet even been painted. Local Tibetans declared a holiday!
On April 2, 2012, HH the Dalai Lama came to dedicate and consecrate the statue. The ceremony included the planting of two trees, representing the joined communities of Tso Pema and Dharmasala.
See it all come together in the gallery below.
Thank you to Nyondo for the pictures and captions!
Construction site as it looked in 2001.
No roads lead directly to the statue. Materials are trucked to a nearby location, then carried to the site by pack ponies and construction workers.
Few Westerners are aware that the statue's eleven year construction also provided employment for close to 200 of the local villagers. They used traditional construction methods, involving manual labor rather than the heavy machinery used in the West. A temporary kitchen was built on site to serve the workers three meals a day, plus chai.
The foundation alone took three years to construct. Most of the work was done by hand, using little heavy machinery or prefabricated materials.
Local indian stonecutters cutting stones for the foundation walls. Over the years the statue project has employed over 200 local Indian villagers for the construction work. Stonework involves cutting and shaping the stone bricks using hammers and chisels.
Women are a common sight on Indian construction sites, working alongside the men. These women are wearing local versions of the salwar kameez, including the long dupatta (scarf).
The foundation alone took three years to construct. Most of the work was done by hand, using little heavy machinery or prefabricated materials.
2006. The statue's foundation and lotus seat are in the background.
The construction site in 2006. Here you can see the main temple building, the lotus seat, and the beginnings of the other buildings on the campus.
Rimpoche inspecting the construction site, 2006
Venerable Wangdor Rimpoche takes a kora around the statue on the lotus seat.
The petals of the lotus seat begin as lines of yellow spray paint sketched roughly onto some cement. These sketches will serve as templates for the welders.
Welded lotus petals frames.
Welded rebar frames are stapled into position around the lotus seat.
The petals forming the lotus seat are built up over frames of rebar, using rough textured cement.
The final details of the lotus seat are completed using fine grained cement.
The shoes are made of welded rebar frames covered in fine mesh. A passing worker demonstrates the relative size. The mesh is covered in rough-textured cement, and then a final layer of finer cement is applied to sculpt in the details.
For the statue's fine details, Ven. Wangdor Rimpoche brought in sculptors from Bhutan, and thangka painters from Nepal. The details are sculpted free hand in fine grained cement.
Shoe being painted
At the rear side of the temple a protector is being built into place. As with everything else, a rebar frame is built up with rough cement before sculpting and painting.
Rear protector, filled in with fine cement
Rear side protector: Final details painted in.
Each side of the temple also features snow lions holding up the corners. Here the frame for one is set in place.
Detailing a snow lion: Fine details being sculpted.
Finished snow lion with painting complete. Each snow lion bracing the temple wears a different facial expression.
Dzong are strips of mantras or other holy texts wrapped up around a stick of incense, dipped in red coloring, and sealed with glue and yellow fabric.The holy texts that power the dzong are printed on large sheets of yellow paper. The paper is then cut into strips for rolling.
Local nuns, monks, and laypeople work on rolling dzong.
Khenpo Sonnam Tashi of Zigar Monastery in Rewalsar sits among stacks of texts destined to be converted into dzong. Some of the tubs and larger scrolls are finished dzong of varying sizes.
"SPEECH" Inside the throat of the statue, holy texts and tsa-tsas line the walls.
Holy texts stacked and stored inside the heart of the statue of Padmasambhava.
These are tsatsas to be loaded into the statue's interior and sealed up inside.
A young Tibetan boy coats finished tsatsas with gold paint.
Painting tsatsas
The kapala the statue holds isn't empty either...it actually is filled with oversized medicine pills! These pills are made in the same way as normal sized ones, from a mixture of clay, incense, other precious pills, relics, and water,
Normally Tibetan medicine pills are as small as Western ones. These are made to be in proportion to the statue and the kapala that will hold them. The pills are made in the same way, using traditional ingredients: incense, powdered relics, water, etc...except that clay is substituted for tsampa, and the only modern ingredient is a bit of cement to keep them from cracking.
Local nuns make medicine pills
Once dry, the finished pills are packed up in red and yellow cloth.
This is the frame for the kapala Guru Rimpoche holds. Like other portions of the statue it will be filled with items representing Guru Rimpoche's body, speech, and mind...in this case, scaled up medicine pills.
Lining the kapala with fine mesh
Meditative manicure
Kapala with fine sculpting details
Painted left hand and kapala
The rope from the hand is actually supporting a scaffolding below. The dorje itself is also filled with relics representing the body of Guru Rinpoche.
The dorje in the statue's right hand is filled with holy relics.
Partway through construction Ven. Wangdor Rimpoche conducted a ceremony in the temple.
The statue takes shape within a frame of bamboo scaffolding. The scaffolding consists of long poles of local bamboo, lashed together by hand with rope. In Indian construction, bamboo scaffolding is used extensively. To steady the scaffolding as the statue grows taller, the lower poles are actually set into the statue lower down.
The tarps are placed to protect the sculptors from the sun.
The tarps are set up to protect the workers from the sun as they complete details on the right hand. The scaffolding is made of local bamboo. In typical Indian construction fashion, the lower parts of the statue are actually supporting the higher levels of scaffolding.
For the statue's fine details Ven.Wangdor Rimpoche brought in sculptors from Bhutan working under a master sculptor. The decorations are sculpted in place, free hand
Bhutanese sculptors at work
Indian workers being supervised by Bhutanese master sculptor
Master Sculptor Tashi Norbu, Venerable Wangdor Rimpoche, Lama Lena up on statue scaffolding.
After painting the face in gold, the eyes are carefully painted in.
Gaze of a guru
Filling in the mustache
At this point in the statue's construction the structure was already visible from several kilometers away, and beginning to attract pilgrims.
Fine cement details completed
Painted padmasambhava
Surprisingly the statue is painted with car paint, and once dry covered in a final coat of lacquer to protect the finish. Car paint was selected because it was sturdier than the local house paints available.
Many of the prayer flags flown at the statue site are hand printed using traditional wood blocks and ink.
Ven. Wangdor Rimpoche employed Nepalese thangka painters for decorating the inside of the temple. As with the sculptors, most of the artwork was done in place, free hand.
Drukpa lineage Ven. Wangdor Rimpoche is shown in the Drukpa lineage
The inside of the temple is decorated with paintings depicting the various lineages. Here Ven. Wangdor Rimpoche is shown in the Drukpa lineage; in a different lineage panel HH the Dalai Lama is also shown.
Lineage panel with HH the Dalai Lama
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Flower petals for HH: Preparations at the statue campus for the arrival of HH the Dalai Lama More flower preparations.These petals will be strewn along the path His Holiness will walk.
Northern doors: Preparations at the statue campus for the arrival of HH the Dalai Lama. Northern temple doors.
The shovel for the dedication of the grounds
Nuns from the Holy Caves at the statue for dzong and tsatsa making.
Murals of construction: The interior of the statue's temple displays a series of murals depicting the statue's construction. Here monks and lamas are consecrating the ground before work begins.
Murals of construction: The series of murals includes a depiction of Indian construction workers laboring with stones, scaffolding and cement.
Murals of construction: The final picture in the mural series shows the completed statue and its attached campus. This mural includes the double rainbow that appeared over the statue the day His Holiness the Dalai Lama was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then President George Bush.
Guru Rimpoche statue, present day
Padmasambhava statue in lights, in honor of the arrival of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
The Statue at dawn