Kagyü Samye Dzong Venezia Project

Thanks to the visit of Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche to Italy, a great tibetan Karma Kagyü Buddhist Lama, and after a cycle of his teachings in the Italian Centers connected with Samye Ling, the first tibetan Buddhism Center in the West, of which Rinpoche is Abbot and Retreat Master, the Kagyü Samye Dzong Venezia Project was born.

The first aim of the project is the establishment of the “Kagyü Samye Dzong Venezia, Foundation for the Preservation of Tibetan Art, Culture, Spirituality and Medicine”. This is to be undertaken in the Italian city that had and still has a strong connection with the Orient and Tibetan culture: Venice. From his first and much awaited visit among the artistic and naturalistic treasures of the lagoon, Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche pointed to the ancient connection that from Marco Polo's ages binds this italian art city to the Tibetan culture. In the “Milione”, Marco Polo himself depicts his encounter at the Grand-Khan Chinese court with Karma Pakshi, the second incarnation of the present seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who leads the Karma Kagyü lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

The special care that Venice has always shown on an international level, regarding research, protection and valorization of art and culture, makes it the natural choice for receiving this important preservation project of a great artistic and cultural treasure. An internationally acknowledged treasure, which offers to an increasing audience a culture of peace, wisdom and limitless tolerance and fully integrates itself in the modern western everyday life.

The project foresees the purchase of real estate, which, after restoration and remodelling, will hold on the ground floor the Foundation offices, in addition to some rooms for activities promoted by the Foundation and other associations working in the Venice region. The main floor (piano nobile), open to the public, will hold the main hall entirely prepared and decorated by artists and tibetan masters, the building will also contain exposition rooms for the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, a library and a conference room. Upper floors will be reserved for the accomodation of hosts and resident staff.

The project not only concerns the artistic and cultural sphere, but it will also be involved in the preservation of traditional Tibetan medicine and knowledge. It will hold the office of Rokpa Italia ONLUS, a non-profit organization that promotes educational and health helping programs in Tibet, India, Nepal and Zimbabwe, and it will arrange meetings and teachings of some of the most important masters of Tibetan Buddhism in the world.

In the spirit of encounter and exchange with the rich cultural scene in Venice, the Foundation will also make rooms available and meeting places for city associations and institutions and will further cooperation with a variety of initiatives aiming to foster a culture of development through peace and mutual tolerance.

The main purpose of Kagyü Samye Dzong Venezia, Foundation for the Preservation of Tibetan Art, Culture, Spirituality and Medicine is to become an important union point between the need to protect this inestimable cultural heritage and the increasing demand from an heterogeneous audience to know, understand and compare the contents of this tradition.

For donations:
postal account n. IT60 G 07601 02000 000058542515
Addressed to Associazione Kagyu Samye Dzong Venezia