Friday
Featured Stories20th Anniversary of the Sakyong’s Enthronement
This May marks the twentieth anniversary of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche enthronement as Sakyong. The Shambhala Times will be marking the occasion by featuring several archived articles published in local newspapers that covered the events. Our first featured article is from The Chronicle Herald on May 15, 1995.
2000 witness ceremony joining heaven and earth
The ceremony is an ancient rite, and has been performed only once before in the West. It enthrones the Sawang (Earth Holder) as a Sakyong, or Earth Protector, one who inspired sacredness, compassion, and basic goodness in individuals and society. Thus, the Sakyong combines the ideals humans strive for with the practicalities of everyday life, i.e. “joins heaven and earth.”
About 2,000 people attended the ceremony, most of them members of the international Shambhala community, including about 800 members from Nova Scotia, the centre of the worldwide organization. There were also invited guests and dignitaries, including a number of spiritual teachers from around the world.
The enthronement was conferred by Penor Rinpoche, the head of the Nyingma lineage, the oldest of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Traditionally, the ceremony would be conducted at a Buddhist monastery in Asia. But the Shambhala community, and the Sakyong himself, wanted to hold this enthronement in Nova Scotia to mark the beginning of the Shambhala taking root in the west.
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Stay tuned for our next archived article from this historic event coming soon!