Tibet Institute Rikon

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The Tibet Institute in Rikon
The Tibet Institute in Rikon
Tibet Institute Rikon

The Tibet Institute Rikon is a Tibetan - Buddhist monastery in Rikon in Switzerland , the first outside of Asia . The location of the monastery in Tösstal is explained by the fact that after the Tibet uprising from 1961 many Tibetans in exile settled there, as Switzerland was the first European country to accept Tibetan refugees.

history

After Switzerland was one of the first countries in the West to accept Tibetan refugees on a larger scale in 1961 , the brothers Henri and Jacques Kuhn from the Rikon-based Metallwarenfabrik AG Heinrich Kuhn suggested the establishment of a monastic Tibet Institute to provide spiritual and cultural support for Tibetans in exile in Switzerland as well as the preservation and care of Tibetan culture for future generations of Tibetans . The brothers ceded the 4000 m² building land required for this to the Tibet Institute.

The Dalai Lama was quickly won over to this idea and sent an abbot and five monks to Rikon. After the laying of the foundation stone on July 29, 1967, the monastic Tibet Institute was dedicated on November 9, 1968 in an act of consecration. The architect of the four-story monastery was Ueli Flück; the construction costs were around 700,000 francs. The building is listed by the federal government as a cultural asset of regional importance. Today eight clergymen live with the abbot in the monastery.

The Tibet Institute

The founding of a monastery in the canton of Zurich was only possible by disguising it as an "institute"; the official establishment of a monastery would have violated Article 52 of the Federal Constitution, which has been in force since 1874 . This ban, a reaction to the infallibility dogma (→ Kulturkampf in Switzerland ), was lifted in 1973, with the most populous cantons of Zurich, Bern and Vaud against the lifting of the ban.

The Tibet Institute Rikon has a library of around 10,000 titles, which, along with the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharmshala in northern India, is said to be the world's most extensive Tibetica collection. The building, built between 1991 and 1993, was planned by the Bernese architect Edwin Rausser .

For the 50th anniversary in September 2018, the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso visited the Tibet Institute.

Previous abbots

The previous abbots of the Tibet Institute were:

  • Ew. Geshe Ugyen Tseten (1967–1974)
  • Ew. Geshe Tamdin Rabten (1975–1979)
  • Ew. Geshe Gedün Sangpo (1979–1995)
  • Ew. Geshe Phuntsok Tashi Phunyang (1996-2010)
  • Ew. Geshe Thupten Legmen (since 2011)

See also

literature

  • Dahortshang, Champa N. Lodro; Tibetan manuscripts, blockprints and modern editions in the library of the Tibetan Institute at Rikon / Zurich; Rikon 1974 (Tibet Institute)
  • Fürstenberger, Mattias; Schuler, Samuel; Wäger, Lukas; Tibetans in Switzerland: Rikon Monastery as a spiritual center; St. Gallen 2004
  • Hürsch, Thomas; Lindegger-Stauffer, Peter; Catalog of secondary literature at the Tibet Institute Rikon / Zurich; Rikon 1973 (Tibet Institute)
  • Kuhn, Jacques; Why a Tibetan Monastery in Rikon ?; Rikon 1996 (Tibet Institute)
  • Lindegger-Stauffer, Peter; The monastic Tibet Institute in Rikon / Zurich , in: Asian Studies - Journal of the Swiss Asian Society, 1971, pp. 377–388. doi : 10.5169 / seals-146289
  • Tibet Institute Rikon, Switzerland: Tibetan jewel. Buddhism and the Western World in Conversation , Werd-Verlag, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-85932-597-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Swiss Tibet Institute in Rikon ZH . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . 88th year, issue 33, August 13, 1970, p. 742-743 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-84593 .
  2. ^ Albert Gasser: Small Church History: Essays. Theological Publishing House, Zurich 2008, p. 69–72 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed October 16, 2015]).
  3. ^ Tibet Institute Rikon (ed.): Annual report 2014 . S. 9 ( PDF at tibet-institut.ch [accessed on October 16, 2015]).
  4. ↑ Dalai Lama celebrates the anniversary of the Rikon Tibet Institute. In: srf.ch from September 22, 2018.

Coordinates: 47 ° 26 '11.6 "  N , 8 ° 48' 9.7"  E ; CH1903:  702898  /  two hundred and fifty-four thousand eight hundred sixty-nine