Welcome to the Vajra Vidya
Retreat Center

Vajra Vidya Retreat Center was built under a sacred mountain between the Karmapa Tashi Gomang stupa and the Tulku Urgyen stupa. The Center was founded by the Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist master, and is open to all practioners.

We have individual retreat rooms for doing short and long-term retreats under the guidance Khenpo Jigme. Khenpo has completed the five year monastic college (Shedra) program and a three-year retreat. He is available for instruction in almost any practice and for personal interviews.

The Vajra Vidya Retreat Center is a new and modern facility providing a comfortable and supportive environment for practice. The daily schedule includes one hour of morning and evening group practice (optional), as well as the traditional four sessions a day for individual practice. Silence is observed most of the day. Retreatants are welcome to design their own retreat within the framework of the daily schedule.

The center is well heated and well insulated, equipped with a modern kitchen, showers and laundry facilities, a small Buddhist library, and wireless internet service. Three vegetarian meals a day are included in the cost of the private room.

The Vajra Vidya Retreat Center is located at 3203 Camino Baca Grande in Crestone, Colorado. Our mailing address is PO Box 1083, Crestone, CO, 81131. Our phone number is (719)256-5539. To schedule a retreat and find directions, refer to Retreat Information

A notable lama once said "To see the greatness of a mountain, one must keep one's distance; to understand it's mood, one must experience it from above and below, at sunrise and sunset, in all weather and during the various seasons. The life of a mountain is as intense and varied as that of a monastery. There is a deep inner relationship between the mountains and monasteries, the true embodiment of the spirit of the Himalayas. What monasteries and mountains have in common is Greatness, Simplicity, Strength, Aloofness, and Endurance. Wherever beauty, solitude, and grandeur conspire to produce an atmosphere of awe and religious inspiration there will be found a sanctuary, a hermitage or monastery, or a place of pilgrimage. These citadels of faith amidst the most challenging forces of nature are the fulfillment of nature on a higher plane, expressing its transcendent spirit through the ascending aspirations of Man."

What a wonderful description of Thrangu Monastery in Tibet. May those words also come to describe Thrangu Rinpoche's Vajra Vidya Retreat Center in Crestone Colorado. The North Wing is now open to persons wanting to do a retreat.

"Over the years many of my Western students have expressed a wish to do extended practice. Up until now I have only been able to say, 'That is very good. Please go and do that at home.' I have not been able to provide proper facilities for them to do a retreat. Over the years I have thought about having some kind of place where students could come and practice for three years or, if they couldn't do three years, then for three months or for one month, or even a few weeks. There has not been anything until now. Now things are about to change." Summer 2001 —Thrangu Rinpoche