Collaboration and Harmony Between the Houses and the Gardens

Aims and Values

The Dzamling Gar accommodation program promotes living together in harmony following the principles of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and the values of the International Dzogchen Community (IDC) by providing an accommodation service to all people with genuine interest in these same values and associated activities. The houses within Dzamling Gar, while respecting their individual cultures, serve as collective bases for the promotion of the co-existence of peace and unity within cultural diversity.

Each house is connected to a different IDC gar or organization:  Merigar (Europe); Samtengar (China and Asia); Kunsangar (Russia and Ukraine); Tashigar (South America); Tsegyalgar (North America); Namgyalgar (Australia and Asia Pacific); Dzamling Gar (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain); Tibetan Medicine and Atiyoga Foundation house;  IDC and ASIA Onlus house. The beautiful gardens link the houses as living symbols of the harmonious flow of communication between the houses, they are nurtured as ornaments of the spaces between the houses. All visitors are welcome to participate in a wide variety of educational and artistic activities that facilitate relaxation and enjoyment, discovery of knowledge and understanding and expression of the natural love of humanity.

How to book

All IDC members are welcome to support the Gar they are a member of and make a reservation in the corresponding house. If the house of your Gar does not provide the accommodation option you need, you can reserve your stay in other houses. For reserving accommodation please submit a request to the Booking Managers of the Dzamling Gar houses.

Some of the visitors and house managers talked about their experiences of staying at the Gar and also of preparing the houses for occupation.

Kunsangar House – Anya Neyman, guest

dzamling gar accommodation service

We are happy to stay here as we put our contribution into the Gar instead of using it for accommodation outside so it is our little input into the Gar’s development. It’s a very nice feeling when you wake up and greet your neighbors. We also have a wonderful view of the sea.

The house was furnished by Lesya Cherenkova and since she has worked as an interior designer, she did it very well. The house has been furnished with limited resources but it is very comfortable and cosy with many small touches and everything has been thought out very well. For example, the kitchen is very well equipped for cooking and serving food and in every bathroom there is a washing machine and a hairdryer etc. Everything we need for living is here. There are even yoga mats at the house so that we can practice Yantra Yoga on the terrace. To save money, Lesya bought material for the curtains which were sewn by Lidia Kudryavtseva. Lesya, Lidia, and Dima Volodin volunteered a lot of their time and effort as karmayogis to make everything ready in such a short time.

dzamling gar accommodation service

We are sharing the upstairs apartment, which has two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and a big communal kitchen and living area. Downstairs half of the space is divided into two apartments, like the other houses at the Global Gar, but the other half has become a hostel. The hostel has two 3-bedded bedrooms, two bathrooms, a communal living room with two beds, and a big communal kitchen, so it can host eight people. The hostel kitchen is well-equipped for a large number of people and everything is simply but very nicely furnished and very comfortable. It is nice that people with different budgets can afford to stay in the house; there are possibilities for everyone here.

Being here is a good opportunity to collaborate. For example, we are sharing with another person who is older than us and we have different times for sleeping etc. so we had to adjust to each other to have similar times for sleeping and waking so that we don’t disturb each other.

Finally I’d like to mention that I haven’t been at Dzamling Gar for three years and was amazed returning this time. It was dark when we arrived and there were so many trees and plants, it was like a jungle.

I remember the first year at the Gar when there was barely a living thing here. I was really impressed. It’s such a big job, such a change.

Merigar House – Karin Koppensteiner, guest

We are staying in apartment number 3 at the Merigar House. All the flats on the ground floor are operational, are the same size, and all have a good Ikea kitchen and good bathroom. We have a big terrace and a nice sleeping room, although I think we need to put some mosquito netting on that side of the house.

My husband Peter and I have put lots of plants in the planters dividing the individual terraces, some of them will grow into bushes and also separate the spaces. Next week we will add the watering systems that are necessary.

When we came here we thought the accommodation was very basic and we decided that we wanted to dedicate and give rather then talking too much about what was missing. We started to buy things we needed, with the idea to leave them in the apartment when we leave, like a reading lamp or a teapot. Things in a flat with always changing inhabitants should be good quality but do not need to be expensive.

The experience Peter and I have had here is not so much about the flat but of being in the Gar, feeling part of the Gar. This is a unique experience for me – to be here, to step out of the door and always meet practitioners. And it is also very inspiring because we go to the Gönpa as if it were part of our living space. I find it really wonderful.

Namgyalgar House – Thuy Nguyen, manager of the house

What was your experience of setting up Namgyalgar House? Namgyalgar House has been a monumental project that was a great privilege to be a part of, exhilarating, exhausting and at the same time rewarding.

I landed mid October 2016 to a very dusty and loud construction site. The house had been completely transformed from a derelict building to a solid structure painted in lavender. Within 2 weeks of being on the ground my scope of work doubled in size to four kitchens, six bedrooms and six bathrooms across four apartments and also making it available to guests in time for the Yangtig Retreat in December, within 2 months.

I gave it everything that I had to complete the project within the time frame. I lived and breathed the Namgyalgar house for months on end and it was very intense and stressful indeed. Daily when I caught sight of Rinpoche I would have a small reminder that being present and relaxed was the goal… but rarely did I find that easy. My mind was charged daily with furniture decision making and buzzing with IKEA catalogue numbers.

However it all came together and it would not have been possible without the help and kindness of many who generously gave their time and energy to help. That was richest part of the journey, the relationships built along the way with all the people who helped make Namgyalgar House possible.

So when you arrive in Namgyalgar House and sit, sleep, wash, cook, eat, celebrate, practice, please spare a thought for the efforts of many people who brought it all together and made it possible. It is a beautiful space that speaks of harmony and calm.

Is the Namgyalgar House layout like the other houses? Namgyalgar House has a two-bedroom apartment up stairs, two separate one-bedroom apartments downstairs and a ground floor two-bedroom apartment that can be used on a per bed basis or whole bedrooms.  It has flexible accommodation to meet many requirements.  We are unique in that each bedroom has two beds, a single and a double.  This avoids moving single beds together to make a double for couples, and gives accommodation flexibility and increased capacity for highly popular retreats.

Are there any special arrangements for letting people or instructors from other Gars stay? Namgyalgar is a small community and although Namgyalgar members have priority we happily accept members from all Gars.

Samtengar House – Elena Kalistova, manager of the house

On the ground floor of the Samtengar House there are four apartments, each with four beds: two in the bedroom and two in the living/dining area, similar to the other Gar houses. The apartments have nice Ikea furniture. The only thing that is different is that we put some curtains in the kitchen/living room area to separate the kitchen area from the sleeping area in order to give people some privacy.

On the upper floor of the house the space has become a beautiful gönpa with a small shop with objects for practice such as damaru, vajra and bell, etc. [https://melong.online/tibetan-room-samtengar-house-dzamling-gar/]

In addition there is a very small room that serves as an office, a small kitchen for tea and coffee, and a bathroom. There are lots of mats and cushions so it is quite comfortable for sitting and people really like this place. This little Gönpa is available for other small courses if the Dzamling Gar Gakyil would like to use it. All the decorations and furniture for the Gönpa – in traditional Tibetan style – were made in and brought from China.

Tashigar House – Alonso Espinosa, guest

Being in the Tashigar House is really fantastic. The apartments are quite a high standard and there are quite a lot of comforts. Clara Bordeu and Valter Bianchini, some of the donors at the house, have done an incredible job of furnishing it.

This is my third stay in the area, but staying at Dzamling Gar is by far the best. Here you can resolve many tensions that you don’t resolve outside because here what governs is the Gar. When you stay outside the Gar you just have a monetary agreement for accommodation. Here you are with practitioners, very close to the Gönpa, you can socialize. This isn’t possible outside.

Another point is that what is happening here is very different from what is happening at the various Gars around the world. There is a different texture here, more open, more Khaita etc. Up to now the Gars have been a little more closed and now it’s totally the opposite at Dzamling Gar and many people don’t get that. And that is something it’s impossible to get unless you come here. My advice to people is to really try to create a possibility to come here and really experience it. It’s something you cannot put into words.

Tsegyalgar House – Kyu Kyono, local responsible of the house

I feel that each house that Rinpoche designated to one of the Gars is like his gift to the Gars and that they represent the International Dzogchen Community here. Each house has its own flavor.

Giorgio Minuzzo and Monica Patino from Tsegyalgar West were the first people at Dzamling Gar to start furnishing and had completed some of the units at this house. I helped them to do this last year so I had some experience and I tried to copy them this year with the other units. We divided the responsibility with Tsegyalgar West furnishing three of the ground floor units and Tsegyalgar East one ground floor unit and the bigger first floor apartment. They did their thing and we did ours but the whole thing is the Tsegyalgar House. Now that everything is more or less finished, East and West doesn’t matter.

I’ve realized that I have a sort of Geko position here, making guests feel comfortable. Most people who come here really enjoy staying at the Gar. This house is also directly behind Rinpoche’s.

This is part of Rinpoche’s vision. People come from all over the world, like Rinpoche’s song – ‘come as soon as possible in a relaxed manner’. I’m here to assist and my experience of being here is that I am very blessed.

Featured photo Paolo Fassoli