Her name means Long Lived Power Woman. You wouldn't know it from her appearance, though. Despite her joyful, easy manner and tender heart, she is unusually thin and delicate, and has had terrible health problems. She'll tell you, "My body is weak and wimpy but my mind is strong." So it is. When it comes to pursuing the Dharma, her mind lives up to her name. Tsering Wangmo was born roughly thirty-five years ago, in Lhasa, Tibet. From an early age, she asked to be a nun and live a life purely devoted to Dharma. Her family had other plans: they wanted her to be a tailor or a rug weaver. Yet no matter what they said, her heart remained set on being a nun. Even as a very young girl, she had that quiet, steady determination that our sangha members know so well.  more

At the Garden of 1000 Buddhas we joyfully welcome the new year! In both the Arlee and Missoula locations, volunteers are casting statues on a continuous schedule and making the tsokshings which fill each of the Buddha images. Molds are being made in the Kila studio, and increasing numbers of statues are flowing toward the garden site. Much work has been accomplished in new research and planning for construction. Fundraising plans are in process, and educational materials in video and print are being carefully crafted. Rinpoche has spoken time and again of the merit accumulated when one is involved in the creation of the Buddha Garden, which is the tangible means to offer enduring benefit to countless sentient beings. With the support of all who have contributed time and energy, supplies and features, expertise and money, as well as the hard work of those involved today and their continued support in the future, the Garden continues to grow. A list of volunteer opportunities can be found on the Ewam Garden of One Thousand Buddhas website.

The afternoon is snow and gray and ice as I take the few blocks walk from my house to the Trail Street Buddha Barn where we have a casting studio for the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas here in Missoula, Montana. Located in a quiet cul-de-sac on a dead-end street in a curiously remote neighborhood beyond a row of trailers, where a deer family lives and woodpeckers nest in the old maples planted when the land was sparse country, this place is a dimensional oasis, separate from the well-traveled streets all around it. Once at the barn, I ring the brass bell hanging next to the door with the intent to drop worldly concerns, unlock, enter