Ösel Khandro Duwi Ling, The Gathering Place of the Dakinis, is
located 17 miles south of Grants, New Mexico, in the Zuni
Mountains. This small, simple, and remote retreat center of Bhakha
Tulku Rinpoche is at an altitude of just under 8,000 feet.
It is situated in a grassy meadow surrounded by a vibrant Ponderosa
pine forest—a place of peace and solitude, yet full of power and
promise. Days are warm and pleasant; nights are cool. It is
accessible via a well-maintained and easily drivable dirt
road.
The retreat land is located 20 miles southwest of Grants, NM, off
I-40. The nearest airport is Albuquerque, 70 miles east of Grants
on I-40. If coming from the west, Grants is 70 miles east of
Gallup, NM. Due to weather conditions at this altitude, the retreat
land is open only between May and early October. Because the stupa
is situated on private land, visits must be arranged by
appointment
Ceremonies and retreats are held in the stupa’s shrine room. At
this point in the development of the retreat land, the facilities
are simple but very pleasant. Retreatants should be prepared to
camp (bring all your own gear) in a designated pine-forest camping
area; there are also various motels in Grants, 20 miles away by a
good road. The retreat land has a small sangha kitchen where
wholesome and delicious food is served during retreats, as well as
a bathhouse and toilets. There are no telephones (but there is some
cell-phone reception).
http://www.zunimountainstupa.org/retreatland.html
The Zuni Mountain Stupa is envisaged as being fifty feet in height
and will be constructed in the Dudul Choten, "subduing of evil
forces," style. It will house a shrine room and will contain buried
weapons, relics of enlightened beings, millions of mantras, tsa
tsas, and numerous other precious substances. All aspects of its
construction will be done in the traditional manner, consecrated by
Bhakha Tulku Rinpoche and other lamas.
The retreat land, accessible by an unpaved road in the Cibola
National Forest, is at an altitude of 8000 feet, where the
Ponderosa pines tower and a wide variety of wildflowers bloom
through a fragile desert crust embedded with crystals. It is in an
area that was a traditional inter-tribal hunting area for the
various Native peoples who have inhabited this region. Nearby Mt.
Taylor, known as Tsoodzil to the Navajo people, is one of the four
sacred mountains between which they live.
Bhakha Tulku Rinpoche holds many lineages, including the Pema
Lingpa lineage, the Dzogchen lineage of the Namchoe tradition, the
Longchen Nyingthig, and the Chetsung Nyingthig. He received the
Rinchen Terzod and many other teachings from H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche.
He studied at Mindroling, the great Nyingma center of learning in
central Tibet, but fled Tibet to Bhutan in 1959 during the Chinese
Bhaka Tulku Rinpocheoccupation. He studied at the school for young
Tulkus in Dalhousie, India and served H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche for a
number of years. He has also received many teachings from other
great masters including H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Dodrup
Chen Rinpoche. He has since done much translation work for
westerners and has served H.H. Penor Rinpoche, the current head of
the Nyingma School, and H.H. Chatral Rinpoche, the great Dzogchen
master. Bhakha Tulku Rinpoche's teaching and practice activities
have taken him to India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Taiwan and the
United States over the past 10 years.