The house that today constitutes the main building of the Chu Sup Tsang (Inexhaustible Source of Wisdom) Monastic complex was purchased in 2008. It is located in the tiny village of Ventoselo, in the municipality of San Amaro, province of Ourense. It was originally a traditional Galician rural house, with the stables on the first floor, the inner courtyard, and an upper floor where the original kitchen and bedrooms were located. Today this building houses, in a completely renovated structure that combines stone and wood, the collective dormitories, the kitchen, a dining room for about 60 people, and a small store in the inner courtyard for the sale of books, and other Buddhist objects.
In 2009, at the same time that the rehabilitation and construction work began, the minimum necessary structure was prepared to be able to host, that same summer, the first course of the 10-year Buddhist Studies Program that the Ven. Lama Geshe Tenzing Tamding, director of this monastery and the driving force behind the entire Chu Sup Tsang monastic and educational project, has led it since its inception. That minimal structure to begin with included, not only rooms and kitchen, but the heart of the complex: the gompa, the place consecrated for teachings and meditation, where since then the Dharma activity has never stopped.
Since that first year, rehabilitation, improvement and expansion have not ceased. Each year, little by little, with the indispensable help and collaboration, financial and otherwise, of the dozens of Geshe Tenzing's disciples around the world, the dream is materializing.
Since 2018, the main building is fully completed and fully operational, welcoming hundreds of people throughout the year, both in the appointments of the face-to-face Courses-Retreats in spring, summer and winter, and at other times of the year to attend ceremonies, retreats, pujas, or the activities that every weekend are offered at the Chu Sup Tsang Monastery.
In addition to this main building and the existing gompa, we currently have other small auxiliary buildings and a second phase of construction that has been completed, which houses quarters mainly for the members of the monastic community of Chu Sup Tsang. Sup Tsang.
The exterior has also been upgraded as more land has been acquired. Right now, the built area of the Monastery is surrounded by more than 30,000 m2 of oak and chestnut forest, belonging to Chu Sup Tsang, in which we have opened a small perimeter path that allows you to walk around this beautiful environment full of peace and calm in the heart of rural Ourense.
In our day-to-day work, and on the immediate horizon, is to continue working on the drive to complete the dream of our Master, Ven. Lama Geshe Tenzing Tamding who, in turn, materializes and fulfills the dream of his precious Master, Kyabye Khensur Tamding Gyatso Rinpoche: to expand the Buddha Dharma in the West in a stable way, creating a place where anyone interested can immerse in the precious teachings of the Buddha. To convert Chu Sup Tsang into the first Buddhist University Monastery in Spain in which to teach the subjects of the Five Great Areas of knowledge of Buddhist philosophy, as they are taught in the University Monasteries of India (formerly in Tibet), where our Masters come from. To turn Chu Sup Tsang into a place for Buddhist meetings and teachings with the sole purpose of showing the path that Shakyamuni Buddha opened and walked almost 2,600 years ago: the path to Enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, through the maximum development of the minds of compassion and wisdom.
The Chu Sup Tsang Monastery-University project is now contemplating the third phase of execution within a special plan that has already been finally approved by the public administration of the Xunta de Galicia. This third phase includes the construction of a large building where the library and a new gompa with a capacity for 350 people will be located. This will become the new heart of Chu Sup Tsang, in which thousands of sacred texts will beat and the Dharma teachings will resonate, expanding their message in the ten directions: that all beings abandon suffering and its causes; that all beings attain happiness and its causes; that all beings live in equanimity, free of attachment and aversion; that all beings remain forever in joy.
This library and new gompa will not be the only remaining construction of this third phase; it will be accompanied by a dozen individual retreat huts within the forest and an Enlightenment Stupa, the Buddhist monument par excellence; the sacred architecture that represents the enlightened mind of a Buddha and each stage of the path the practitioner must travel to reach that state. With the Enlightenment Stupa, about 17 meters high, the Chu Sup Tsang University Monastery project will culminate, with the hope that this monument will become an antenna that spreads the energy of the Buddha's message and the Dharma from Ventoselo to the whole world, to all the worlds.
Love, generosity, ethics, service, patience, effort, forgiveness, compassion and wisdom, as opposed to hatred, anger, ignorance, attachment, greed, resentment, violence, fear, which only generate suffering... The practice of Buddhist ethics summarized in the abstention of any type of harmful or violent attitude, both physical and mental. To benefit all conscious beings, human or animal, by helping them to free themselves from suffering and, if we are unable to do so, at least by refraining from harming them in any way.
For the benefit of all beings.
The main building of the monastery is currently under reconstruction due to the fire of 27 February 2024. We are grateful for any financial help that each person, according to his or her ability, can give for the reconstruction of Chu Sup Tsang. Thank you very much!