by Przemek Sumelka, Maintenance Manager
In order to sustain and spread the Dzogchen Teachings, Rinpoche left us a wonderful tool – our Dzamling Gar Gönpa. In fact, he dedicated to this project all the final years of his life. That is why it is so important and so precious to all of us.
The Gönpa gives us a lot of joy, but it is also a big responsibility to maintain it properly. This year we undertook a huge but necessary task of wood treatment, the first since the end of the construction. We did it in accordance to a very specific instruction-set that was left to us by the original team of carpenters and constructors.
At first we hoped to perform this enormous task with the help of a professional company, but they estimated the project for roughly 50,000 euro (!), so we decided to save money and do it by ourselves. Our maintenance team (Przemek and Jorrit) took this responsibility upon their shoulders. They were further reinforced by two courageous and energetic work-exchange volunteers (Carlos and Beñat) – and so the work began!
It took us a full three months to complete the task. Our team worked continuously almost every day, including weekends. We encountered many challenges but in the end we managed to successfully treat and protect more than 1500 square meters of wood. And we saved almost 30,000 euro for the Community. Amazing!
For the benefit of the Dzogchen Teachings and all beings!
Photo credit: Eva Leick and Carlos Garcia. Left to right: Jorrit, Przemek, Carlos and Beñat
