It was to Lawudo that Lama Kunzang Yeshe (1865-1946), later to be known as the Lawudo Lama, at the age of 51, came to meditate in a cave that he dug out himself from beneath a large rock. He was a married Lama, a Nyingma yogi and until his death he remained at the Lawudo cave meditating day and night without the need for sleep. This great holy Lama who always appeared as an extremely humble, simple Dharma practitioner was widely respected and revered and had many disciples among the Sherpa people of that area.
At the age of 81 the Lawudo Lama Kunzang Yeshe passed away – “After four days had elapsed, in the first watch of the morning, Kunzang Yeshe arose from his absorption into the space-like concentration. Having purified even the subtlest defilement of his mind and energies he attainted the exhaustion of phenomena into the ultimate nature of the forth and last stage of the Togal training. The ultimate reality of his intrinsic awareness based upon the physical body became unified with the natural, absolute expanse of reality just as the space inside a vase merges with the surrounding space when the vase breaks. Kunzan Yeshe’s mind entered into the space-like primordial ground indivisible from the mind of the Primordial Buddha Kuntuzangpo (Samamtabhadra). As a sign of his enlightenment the sound of emptiness was heard along with many other auspicious signs.”
A few years later in a small village called Thangme just below the Lawudo cave a four year old boy who had continually tried to climb the path to Lawudo and insisted he was the Lawudo Lama was officially recognized as the reincarnation of Lama Kunzang Yeshe. Today, he is known as Kyabje Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, a great Dharma teacher and guide to thousands of disciple’s world wide and whose whole life is devoted to serving the Dharma and living beings.
In April 1969 Lama Zopa Rinpoche returned to Lawudo. Rinpoche was 24 years old and it was the first time he had been back to Lawudo, since he had left as a monk at the age of six to study in the monasteries of Tibet. It was at this time that, in Rinpoche’s words,
Lawudo Cave
“…. the villagers who had young sons and had been disciples or benefactors of the previous Lawudo Lama requested me to build a small gompa at Lawudo where eight or ten boys could receive a good education, I accepted their request….”
The Kari Rinpoche who himself had built a new Gompa just below Lawudo and for whom Lama Zopa Rinpoche had great respect gave Rinpoche the following advice,
“You should not have a narrow mind and build a small monastery because of the expenses involved. You should have a very wide strong mind and build it as large as possible. It will be very beneficial for the Dharma”.
So began the task of building Lawudo Gompa. In those days as today the cost of building materials in this area was very high. Most of the materials cost three times what they did in Kathmandu due to them having to be transported long distances over very difficult terrain mostly on the backs of porters. The Gompa was completed towards the end of 1972 and by that time there was a growing community of young monks studying there. However as Rinpoche explained….
“….in October 1974 the monks returned to Kopan and never went back to the mountains. The conditions at Lawudo had always been difficult for the young monks…besides the number of monks had increased and so from 1974 onwards Lawudo returned to what it had been in previous times: a hermitage”.
Lawudo gompa
From 1970 Lawudo was maintained and cared for by Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s mother ( Amala) and sister (Anila Ngawang Samten) however in 1991 Rinpoches mother passed away and since then Anila Ngawang Samten together with the monk Ven.Tsultrim Norbu have cared for Lawudo and the people who visit there.
Information and quotes were taken from the excellent book “The Lawudo Lama’ by Ven. Jamyang Wongmo” and are used here with permission.