About us
World Peace Stupa Project
Foundation for the future
Stichting World Peace Stupa Center Europe is an indepent organization founded in Amsterdam August 7 2024. This new foundation is a joint initiative of the Nyingma city centers Centers in Amsterdam and Cologne, wishing to create conditions for a flourishing future of the Nyingma based wisdom teachings in Europe. Spiritual guide of the WPSCE foundation is Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, a learned Tibetan Buddhist lama who inspires many peace projects and programs all over the world.
Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche
Stichting World Peace Stupa Center Europe operates under the spiritual guidance of Tibetan Lama Tarthang Tulku. Born in 1935 in Golok, Tibet, he studied under many renowned masters among whom his root teacher Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro.
After China invaded Tibet in 1958, he lived in exile in India and started his life’s work of preserving sacred Tibetan texts and preserving the wisdom of his lineage for the future. In 1968, he moved to the U.S., founding the Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center in Berkeley, California.
In the following decades over twenty different organizations were founded, making a significant impact on the transmission of Dharma to the West and the restoration of Dharma in Asia.
Among Tarthang Tulku’s many remarkable accomplishments are the books he wrote and the programs he created meant specifically for a contemporary often non-religious western audience. It is one of the goals of the new stupa center to make these beneficial and insightful programs and books more widely available for Europeans.
Today Tarthang Rinpoche lives in retreat at Odiyan Country Center in northern California. He continues to guide the work of selecting, editing and printing sacred texts and creating offerings of sacred art and symbols to the Dharma. He provides ongoing spiritual direction to the Nyingma community and its member organizations.
European Cooperation
The two Nyingma CityCenters in Europe grew out of informal studygroups created by the first European students of Tibetan Lama Tarthang Tulku. These students matured into dedicated practioners by frequently visiting retreats and projects in the USA and India. The new stupa center will make it possible to organize retreats, projects and gatherings closer to home. This will not only enable us to attract new interested audiences, it will also help reduce negative impact of frequent air traffic. The center also aims to create a home base for growing groups of Nyingma practioners in other European countries, including France, the U.K, Belgium and Austria.
Partner organisations
In organizing a rich variety of high quality programs, the new WPSCE foundation will work closely together with various TNMC partner organisations and with other European organisations pursuing comparable goals.
Links to some of the partner organizations with whom we will cooperate:
Nyingma Centrum Nederland, Amsterdam
Nyingma Zentrum Deutschland, Köln
MindingWork, Amsterdam
Hart van Onderwijs, Muiden
Odiyan Retreat Center, California
Sarnath Interational Nyingma Institte, India
Nyingma Institute, California
Center for Creative Inquiry, California
schreinerei-thoma.de, Austria
Bodhiyoga.co.uk, United Kingdom
Yoga Tibetain Kum Nye, France
Organisation
A new independent foundation Stichting World Peace Stupa Center Europe was founded on Amsterdam on August 7 2024 – with representatives from the Dutch and the German Nyingma Centers in the board. This is what makes them tick:
Guda van der Lee
"Care makes all good things happen."
Guda is trained as a scientific researcher in Physical Geography and was employed at the University of Amsterdam and at Delft Hydraulics. In 2004 she made the transition to Montessori education and then worked as an elementary school teacher until she got the opportunity to work at the Nyingma Center at Uitgeverij Dharma in 2012. Since 2017 Guda also teaches Caring classes and Tibetan language at Nyingma Centrum Nederland. Guda plans to live and work and teach at the new Stupa Center with her husband Hans.
Elske van de Hulst
"We owe it to ourselves and each other to celebrate our potential for love, beauty and joy instead of cultivating our limitations and suffering"
Elske van de Hulst is co-dean and senior instructor at Nyingma Centrum Nederland in Amsterdam.
Elske graduated at Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de kunsten and worked in the theater as an actress, director, producer and author between 1969 and 1998. In 1998 she started studying the theatre of the mind, guided by Tarthang Tulku’s books and programs, and she never stopped since. Elske is co-dean and trustee at Nyingma Centrum Nederland and has been planning for a retreat center since 2008. She plans to live part-time at the new center and will continue to teach Meditation, Knowledge of Freedom, Revelations of Mind, Dimensions of Mind, Caring and Lotus Trilogy teachings in cooperation with other Nyingma orgs.
Anja Nogaitzig
"…What if you fly?"
Anja studied architecture and has been practicing the Nyingma teachings of Tarthang Tulku since 1997. One of her main focuses is Kum Nye Yoga, which she has been teaching with love and dedication in courses and training sessions since 1999. She is also active in working with Tibetan Buddhist Sacred Art. She loves the communication of and with forms and their symbolic expression. Anja is trustee for the Nyingma Center Germany e.V., and member of the board of Nyingma Centers International. Anja will support the new Stupa Center with all her strength in as many areas as possible.
Henk Toorman
"Serving others is a path that leads to the cultivation of kindness and understanding."
Henk, registered tax advisor and former accountant is involved with the Nyingma organization for over 25 years. He has extensive experience in the financial management of foundations and serves on multiple boards and is eager to assist in establishing a Stupa Center.
Alois Gehrmeyer
"If human beings can not pray, the human spirit has no voice. If there is no quality of virtue or meditative awareness, the human spirit is effectively dead, and only mechanical and technical abilities remain"
Alois trained as a carpenter and theologian and worked in various fields as an entrepreneur. He has been practising and working with the Nyingma teachings since 1999 and is on the board of Nyingmazentrum Deutschland as treasurer . Together with Steve Suma yen Thomas Rogowski Alois is an enthusiastic member of the international World Peace Stupa team, currently working on the building plans.
Residential Community
A small residential practice community will live at the new Stupa Center full time and many other practioners will be welcomed as regular part-time volunteers at the new rural retreat center. We invite you all to take part in this exciting new project. There will be plenty of ways in which you can support and participate. We will be looking for volunteers to help build and maintain the new World Peace Stupa, volunteers to create and maintain a permaculture garden and foodforest, volunteers to cook and clean and care for retreat programs. There is also room for at least three more permanent residents of the new facility.
Benefits
WPSCE is a non profit organization. Board members, volunteers, residents and program instructors all work on a volunteer basis. All net income will first be needed to further establish the land and the property, a later potential surplus will be destined to contribute to other World Peace Stupa Projects and to support the Odiyan Retreat Center.
ANBI
WPSCE has applied for ANBI status. Click here for the policy plan (dutch only, sorry) that accompanies our ANBI status application. For EEG citizens this means that their donations will be tax deductible. For the time being, all donations for WPSCE will be done to Stichting Nyingma Centrum Nederland, which has the ANBI status. All donations for WPSCE will be further donated by NCN to WPSCE.