New Tibetan Buddhist temple opens in Cork

Nestled among the rugged coast of West Cork, with its copper roofs glistening across the skyline, and original Tibetan architecture, the new Tibetan Buddhist temple at Dzogchen Beara opened its doors to the public at the weekend when it hosted its first retreat.

From Friday, July 12 to July 14, teachings were delivered to 280 retreatants who travelled to Dzogchen Beara to attend the first retreat at the new temple. The fully booked event was fittingly led by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, who has been a yearly visitor to Dzogchen Beara.

Peter Cornish, who founded Dzogchen Beara, had always held the dream that one day, such a temple would be built on the site, which is 9km west of Castletownbere. Peter and his wife Harriett had always intended to build a retreat centre at the site and had been students of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1992, they gifted the 150 acre site that they had owned for 19 years previously, to a charitable trust under the spiritual guidance of Sogyal Rinpoche.

Peter always reminded the trustees about his intentions to see a temple at the site. In the intervening years, various Tibetan Buddhist monks traveled to Dzogchen Beara to advise on the size of the temple, how it should look, and whereabouts on site should it be built. A sea facing point, slightly to the west of the site was chosen. One of the monks, Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche, a high Lama, was a master of geomancy, the art of placing buildings auspiciously, said that building the temple in the precise spot where the temple now stands would reap many benefits.

Director of Dzogchen Beara, Malcolm MacClancy, explained Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche’s theory in further detail.

“He said that temples bring different levels of benefit. And some temples, they will bring benefit to the people who have contributed towards the building of the temple. That’s to whom the benefit would go,” Malcom explained.

“Other temples might be just the surrounding area. 

But this temple, in of geomancy, its position at the very southwestern tip of Europe is particularly a power point. 

"And so he said this temple has the potential to bring benefit to the whole world. And he said protecting against warfare, against famine, against epidemics, and also to be the cause for the teachings of the Buddha to remain for long.

“So, this particular position, he recognised as a power place. A thousand years ago, the monks who went out to the Skelligs recognised something about this place as being the edge of the known world at that time. They really thought they were at the edge of the world, you know?”

Merely a pole marked the spot where the temple would be built and a fundraising campaign to complete the structure was underway. In the background, the impending financial crash of 2008 loomed and things were put on hold. Later donations would come from all over the world.

“So they cleared the site and then they got a 13 metre mast from a big old boat, I don’t know how tall. And they put that up in the centre of the site, marking the space - ‘this is where the temple will be.’ And then things were put on hold when the global financial meltdown happened. And then shortly after I ed the director team, we put everything into motion,”said Malcom.

Since the project was entirely dependent on donations, completion of the building was staggered and all in all it took eight years. The main people behind the temple’s construction were Brian Murphy of Beara Building Services and McCarthy Engineers from Bantry with the copper roofs being fabricated by Wychbro Coppersmiths from Clonakilty, Stroker Fabrications from Enniskeane.

“There’s the Liscannor flag (stone) for all the capstones, there’s also Kilkenny blue limestone. And so the materials are Irish, where we could get them.

And all of the people who built the temple, as much as possible, there are people from Beara or from the wider Cork area. 

"We made that a priority, to get people who could do the best work, but find them locally,” said Malcom.

One of the challenges of completing such a Tibetan structure was taking a building designed for eastern culture and climate and a Irish landscape and withstand the elements of the wild Atlantic.

“I always like to say this, that it’s built to what’s called a monumental standard, so there’s a ring beam of steel holding the whole thing together, and there’s mass concrete, and the roofs are locked down to the steel, so it’s actually built to last a thousand years: It’s not like a building that will be replaced in 200 years.

Who knows what’s going to happen in the world, but whoever’s around in a thousand years, hopefully they’ll be finding this temple that’s been here for all that time, it’s kind of mind-blowing. 

"And if you think of all the people it might benefit in that time?” said Malcolm.

What I find most interesting from my chat with Malcolm is during a weekend where one of the most significant buildings in the country opened its doors, its business as usual at Dzogchen Beara, no huge fanfare. While there have been some private ceremonial events marking the opening and a relatively low-key event which is open to the public on July 17. The events schedule continues as it has been.

The humility exerted by Malcolm at such an auspicious time reminds me of the central message of Dzochen Beara, which he articulated so well as we finish our conversation.

“We’ve had many of the greatest Tibetan teachers come to Ireland, and we will hope that with this temple, we can attract more of them, you know, because their message is one that is profoundly useful to the world today, and without any sense of religious exclusivity, you know? Just how can we understand our mind? How can we understand our emotions? And through that, how can we find lasting happiness and a way to live in peace with one another and with the world around us?”

For more information about the new Tibetan temple at Dzogchen Beara and the events being hosted there see https://www.dzogchenbeara.org/