An Update from the Guna Foundation

Hello Friends,

As you may know, we at the Guna Foundation have initiated the first stage of our film documentary project, chronicling forty years of Tarthang Tulku’s and his students’ monumental accomplishments in preserving Tibetan civilization. In that time some very positive and encouraging developments have arisen that we’d like to share with you.

Matching Your Donor Dollars

We have recently been offered a pledge to match every donation for our documentary film project received by December 31, 2009. For every dollar donated, the amount we receive will be doubled. As you can imagine, this provides a special opportunity to substantially fund the film.

Please send your donations by December 31st to:
Mangalam Centers – Guna Office
2018 Allston Way
Berkeley, California 94704
Please make Checks Payable to:
Head Lama of TNMC – Guna Foundation

Documentary Film Update

Pre-production work is underway for our documentary project. We are excited to announce that we have hired acclaimed cinematographer, Allen Moore - who is especially known for his work on Ken Burn’s documentaries - to help us film the 21st Monlam Ceremony in Bodh Gaya, India. In addition, we have hired cinematographers from India-based White Crane Productions to film the annual Tripitaka Chanting Ceremony in Bodh Gaya.

Announcing “Name a Yak!”

Now is the time to Name a Yak! On the back of your greeting card you will find information about yaks in Tibet and current efforts to liberate them from the slaughterhouse. In support of this, we’d like to offer you the chance to give these yaks their own names. Be as creative as you wish. As each yak is released, it will be blessed by a lama, named and set free. To participate, please send us your yak’s name, a donation, and contact information to the address in the blue box above. Please write “Name a Yak” on the envelope and check.

News from Nepal

Directly after our September benefit dinner in Berkeley, Don Nelson left for Nepal. With him he carried a letter from the Yeshe De Project to the Thupten Choling Monastery, inviting their monks and nuns to the 2010 World Peace Ceremony in Bodh Gaya, to receive the Narthang edition of Kanjur and Tenjur.  This most precious offering of over 300 volumes comprises the entire corpus of the Buddha’s teachings along with a great body of commentarial treatises by Indian masters. At Guna’s request, Don hired a Nepalese filmmaker, Ruben Rai, to record the presentation of the letter.

The timing could not have been more auspicious.  Within a half hour of Don’s and the film crew’s arrival, they came upon a jubilant crowd of some 600 monks and nuns waiting on the top of the mountain.  Don’s guide wondered aloud if this gathering were for him, but alas, moments later, the highly revered, 85 year old Nyingma master and head abbot of the monastery, H.H. Trulshik Rinpoche landed in a helicopter. It was truly serendipitous, as Rinpoche rarely makes such public appearances.

Don was invited to attend and film the Puja, a special ritual ceremony, and to present the letter directly to him. 
As Don vividly recalls, “What I can tell you is that Trulshik Rinpoche greeted me warmly with a presence like a king or a president; a special aura  seems to surround him, a deep and kindly smile and eyes that seem age old and filled with wisdom.”

We thank Don and feel grateful to have captured these precious moments on film.