The site for this building was chosen by Twelfth Kenting Tai Situ Rinpoche when he visited the Monastery in 1988. His Eminence took a great interest in the geomancy of the property. He located a spot where he felt it would be of benefit to build, thus increasing the positive energy of the Monastery for the benefit of all sentient beings. He then designed the building very precisely, using knowledge and techniques that have been handed down from teacher to disciple for hundreds of years. The result is an impressive design for a two storey building with ponds in front and behind.

"So then I looked and found one place, which is the best place on the property, where there is lots of energy - Chinese call it "Chi". Then I designed a building according to that, to make everyone who works here feel harmonious towards each other, and have enough energy to accomplish the projects - financially, economically, and also peoples' power, and the power of harmony between everyone that will come here and work. The whole place needs energy."

The construction started with land scale earthworks, as the site chosen is in a valley, or rather the intersection of two valleys. At first, it seemed a very odd position; we had to remove tons of swampy clay before getting to a reasonable base. Then an equally large number of tons of stones were placed in the site, to re build it up to an appropriate level to start building.

Actually, that first burst, forming the road, the near pond and the base, exhausted the available funds for a few years. The next stage was to get the actual foundations in 1993.

The final preparations for the floor were made just before the onset of winter. The weeds were all pulled, big machines brought in to fill and compact the gravel inside the existing block walls, and a top layer of sand carefully screeded over the whole thing. The concrete was poured over two days. The second day it rained. The rain means the surface on the second half of the concrete is a bit rough, but at least the concrete was very thoroughly cured. It's pretty straight and flat, a good foundation for a solid building.

Finally, after fund raising exercises, we had enough to start the actual building. Summer 1996 saw the walls up, roof on and the windows in. The walls will just remain clad in a fancy building wrap until we can afford some cladding. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long and both our Lamas are working to raise additional funds for the next stage.

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