Lolland Friends are EC Friends!

To raise awareness of our jewel here in the north, and to give our jewel in the south – the remarkable Europe Center – some small support, the lovely ladies of Lolland joyfully slaved in the kitchen for days, baking delicious treats: biscotti, coconut macaroons and more.

If you were one of the lucky hundreds who discovered our bright red stand at the New Year’s Course in Hamburg, you hopefully took advantage of our offer and not only got a mouth-watering snack, but also supported the Europe Center, since all proceeds were directly passed on to them.

An additional bonus for our retreat center were the eight friends who agreed to become Lolland Friends and support us with a small monthly donation. Thanks friends! If you missed out, never fear, you can become a hero and sign up at any time, but you’ll have to visit us personally to get a taste of Lolland.

Buddha Shakyamuni statue

The Stupa’s New Buddha

Lama Ole Nydahl and Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche agreed at last year’s Summer Course that it’s time for a new statue in our stupa: a golden Buddha Shakyamuni. The best place for any Diamond Way Buddhist centre to find top quality statues is the Europe Center, so we contacted our friends there. Geri from the EC has spent years building relationships with artists in the East so that they can offer Diamond Way Buddhist centers the best craftsmanship at the best prices.

It didn’t take long to find a gorgeous Buddha of the right size. Coincidentally Matt, our newest resident, moved from the Europe Center to Lolland last week, so he brought a friend with him when he came north. The beautiful new statue is now standing on the altar in the gompa waiting to be filled and placed in the stupa window during the summer course.

Experienced friends will fill the statue during the summer course, and if you would like to help you’re welcome to join in. You can also establish a connection to Lolland’s new Buddha and the stupa with a donation: please contact us if you would like to donate precious materials, or money to buy them, for the filling.

You might be wondering what happened to the familiar Karmapa statue that stood in the stupa since 1987? During the building up weekend in May it was removed from the stupa and taken to the Czech Republic where it will have a place of honor inside the new stupa at Tenovice, lending its blessing and power to the place and strengthening connections between our Diamond Way retreat centers.

Keeping up with Lolland

Whenever we talk to friends in Denmark, Germany, Czechia, Russia – anywhere really – we realise that Lolland Buddhist Retreat Center is as special a place for people all over the world as it is for those of us who live here. But most friends of Lolland can’t come that often.

To keep up with what’s happening here, you can subscribe to our newsletter in English or German. We’ll send you an email no more than once a month, and you can unsubscribe any time you want.

If you’re curious about what you’ll get, here’s one of our past newsletters, in English and German.

Buddha Shakyamuni statue in the Lolland altar

Lolland’s Beautiful New Buddha

For many years the altar in the gompa was a bit disorganised, and there were many questions about the placement of the statues. Together with some expert friends we started to look how we could organize it better, and in a way suitable for our traditional altar.

During the 2013 Summer Course we asked Lama Ole and Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche, and we agreed to buy a new Buddha Shakyamuni statue. Lama Ole picked a Buddha for us during the EC Summer Course, and our generous Lolland Friends helped us pay for it. The old Buddha statue that stood in our altar for many years was given to Rendsburg, as a symbol of friendship and connection between Southern Denmark and Northern Germany.

Once we received the new Buddha statue, it was almost automatic that we decided to fill it in Rendsburg. On the weekend of January 17th friends from Kiel, Laboe, Rendsburg, Lolland, Århus, and Odense met to do the noble job.

Now the statue is filled and placed in the altar in Lolland, shiny and beautiful. Thank you so much to all the generous friends who donated money, materials and time to make this possible!

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Lolland’s New Website is Online!

We’ll be working this year on keeping our friends better informed about what’s happening at Lolland Buddhist Retreat Center, and the first step is our new website!

The blog here will be updated with the latest news, our events page will keep you informed about upcoming lectures, retreats and courses, and you can also read about Lolland, find out how you can help support Lolland, and everything you need to know to do a meditation retreat here. And if you’d like to get occasional updates via email you can subscribe to our newsletter.

We hope you find what you’re looking for, and if you think anything’s missing or you notice something that’s not working, please let us know.