Monkswelcome all to peace prayer

People are invited to pray for peace at a spiritual ceremony held to also remember the living and the dead.

The ‘ Kagyu Monlam’ will be staged at Palpung Thupten Lungtok Kunphen Choling Monastery in Alfriston from October 22-24.

New Zealand’s largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery, it sits on an 11-acre site and includes a more than 3000 square metre, threestorey temple, or gonpa.

The whole facility will have cost about $11 million to construct when finished by the end of 2018.

It’s administered by the Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Charitable Trust and funded by donations and profit from the sale of 28 houses on land subdivided from the original parcel.

Project manager and trustee Michael Barraclough says construction on the first building will be completed in time for the Kagyu Monlam.

The annual event will be led by Pong Re Tulku Rinpoche, who’s known as the Kiwi Buddha and based in India.

‘‘There will be prayers, teachings, chanting and a treeplanting,’’ Barraclough says.

‘‘The prayers will be for the living and deceased and for world peace. It’s open to anyone interested in enjoying the surroundings and participating in the events. The environment offers a place of retreat and harmony.’’

The temple’s abbot, Venerable Choje Lama Shedrup, was born in Tibet and is the founder of Palpung centres in New Zealand and Australia.

He says the almost completed building has accommodation for lamas (a chief or high priest), a main shrine room, an office and classrooms.

A future part of the complex will house a kitchen, dining room, library and public facilities.

Lamas based overseas will eventually travel to Alfriston to carry out detailed decoration and painting on the temple.

Its grounds will feature landscaped gardens and will be a tranquil place for the public to visit, Barraclough says.

Choje Lama says the local community deserves to enjoy what’s being built at the site.

Kagyu Monlam is at the monastery at 1 Wastney Rd from 9am to 5pm over Labour Weekend with a free vegetarian lunch from 12pm to 1.30pm.

Go to palpung.org.nz for more information or to Facebook.com and search for Palpung Auckland.