Changlochen Spring Opening 2025

Sakya Changlochen Ling was opened up after the winter at the end of March when David Armstrong and Liz Godfrey met up with others there for the usual spring opening. Lama Jampa and Dechen Dolma were staying at their house nearby but before visiting Changlochen they visited Dhagpo Kundreul Ling in the Auvergne where Lama Jampa continued to teach Sonam Tsemo’s Tantra Sets, which he had begun last year.

With the help and support of some sangha members who have small properties in the area and more who came especially, we began the task of reviving and renewing the Centre. As always there is plenty to do such as: cleaning, jet washing, painting, weeding, pruning, grass cutting etc but it’s a joy to be there as the spring unfolds and we were very blessed with some fine weather.

After Lama Jampa had finished teaching at Dhagpo Kundreul Ling, he and Dechen Dolma visited Changlochen and we all gathered for Chenrezig practice. Lama Jampa commented on Changlochen as being a beautiful place for intense practice and a place for people to come together in ways that are much more restricted in our city centres. And that although we don’t have a monastic community at the present time, like Dhagpo Kundreul Ling for instance, we can nonetheless be semi content in what we are doing and what we have achieved so far but of course there is always so much more to do.

We made some small improvements to the shrine with the addition of some beautiful new bumpa vases from Nepal and we installed a Bhutadamara statue and a Vajrayogini thangka, both of which belonged to the late Steve Mulligan.

While we were at Changlochen we had some unexpected visitors who arrived on horseback! Actually they turned out to be fairly close neighbours of ours having moved to the area some 18 months ago. We visited them the following day, as they potentially have some gites to rent, which they thought might interest us in the summer. Being former horse breeders they have a stable with 5 horses, which we were delighted to see. This is a lovely new connection with local people and there is still one 3-bedroom gite available at a good price which sleeps 6, with a pool in the beautiful grounds (contact changlochen@dechen.org for more info).

So Changlochen is now ready for the events of the year ahead, the main one being the Summer Course in August (17th – 29th). Incidentally, we have decided not to run the Dechen Diner this summer, which means that people attending the summer course will need to bring their own lunches. The Changlochen Dining Space will be available for picnics, whilst the adjacent campsite Brin D’Amour could be another possibility for buying lunch.