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Just north of the ancient Buddhist town of Boudhanath is the Kopan
hill (pictured left), rising up out of the terraced fields of the
Kathmandu valley and visible for miles. Dominated by a magnificent
Bodhi tree, it was once the home of the astrologer to the king of
Nepal.It was to this hill that these lamas first came with their first
Western students in 1969. Kopan Monastery had its beginnings in the
Solukhumbu region of the Himalayan mountains. In 1971 Lama Zopa
Rinpoche, the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, a yogi of the tiny
hamlet of Lawudo, fulfilled the promise of the previous Lawudo Lama to
start a monastic school for the local children. The school was called
called it Mount Everest Center. Twenty five monks moved down from the
mountain to Kopan in 1971 - prompted by the harsh climate at an
altitude of 4000 am, which made study barely possible in winter. Now
Kopan is a thriving monastery of 360 monks, mainly from Nepal and
Tibet, and a spiritual oasis for hundreds of visitors yearly from
around the world. Nearby is Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, home to 380
nuns. Both the monastery and the nunnery are under the spiritual
guidance of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and the care of the abbot, Khen
Rinpoche Geshe Lhundrup Rigsel. And it is the wellspring of the FPMT,
a network of some 140 centers and activities world-wide, themselves
expressions of the Buddha activity of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa
Rinpoche.
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