Below the octagonal Temple of the Great Contemplation situated on a hilltop at Merigar West in Tuscany lies the newly constructed cinerarium, the first to be built in the Dzogchen Community to house the ashes of practitioners. Similar in form to the Temple, over the last few months, this smaller replica has been minutely ornamented internally with three different tagdrol mandalas that give liberation through different types of contact, including seeing, as well as eight panels with the tigles of the six Lokas.
The exterior of the building has recently been decorated with the mantra of Simhamukha depicted in vermilion red in elegant Ranjana script on each of the walls creating a chain of fire. Between the mantras there are colorful flower decorations and below benevolent mythological animal offering jewels (norbu).
On Saturday August 15, 2015, on the third day of the retreat on ‘The Bardo Instructions Sealed with the HUM’ (Bar do’i gdams pa hum gi rgya can) after the morning session of teachings, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu officially opened the cinerarium with a short ritual and a practice of Ati Guruyoga together with many of his students gathered there. The ashes of several practitioners were placed in niches there during the event.
There are plans to create a pleasant garden around the building in the future. Funds are still needed for this project and we warmly invite readers to donate to the project. To find out more information on the cinerarium and the regulations for placing ashes of the deceased there, please see the following link:
http://www.dzogchen.it/il-cinerario/
The first ashes were placed in the cinerarium during the opening ceremony
