Excitement over renovation, new teaching monk

Geshe Lobsang Dhonyoe, the new teaching monk at Dunedin’s Dhargyey Buddhist Centre. Photo by...
Geshe Lobsang Dhonyoe, the new teaching monk at Dunedin’s Dhargyey Buddhist Centre. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
A new teaching monk and an extensively renovated roof are sparking excitement at Dunedin's Dhargyey Buddhist Centre.

Centre director Peter Small said about five years of planning and work had gone into the $450,000 project to fix the roof of the centre in Royal Tce. The project included earthquake strengthening.

The centre is based in an historic house, built in 1878. In recent years the roof had leaked. Many of the original roof slates had been replaced in the just-completed ‘‘like with like'' restoration project.

Copper and stainless steel were also added to provide more long-term protection for the roof valleys. And the outside of the house had been repainted.

This was the biggest renovation since the centre began using the house in 1987, and ‘‘we're all pretty excited about it''.

The project reflected considerable generosity from the community, and several charitable grants, including from the Lottery Environment and Heritage Committee ($257,000), the Community Trust of Otago ($40,000), and the Dunedin Heritage Fund (about $30,000).

When the Dalai Llama visited in 2013, he had suggested the centre could convey Buddhist concepts of self-help and science of mind, to the wider community.

The centre had been without a teaching monk for the past two years, he said.

Geshe Lobsang Dhonyoe (46), a Tibetan-born monk who recently lived in southern India, arrived in Dunedin this week.

Dunedin was much colder than India, but was also ‘‘much greener, fresher, brighter'', and everything was ‘‘fresh and new'' at the centre, he said.

He would like to share what he had learned with the community.

He also looked forward to renewing connections with the centre's other monk, Venerable Lhagon Tulku, who hailed from the same village and monastery in Tibet.

The title ‘‘Geshe'' means ‘‘spiritual friend'', and the right to use this term is gained after 22 years of extensive Buddhist study and the sitting of examinations.

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