The Center Construction Archive
On this page we present archival informations in chronological order starting from 2018.
For current urgent work and needs, please visit page the news…
Archive – March 2023
Yeshe Khorlo Polska bought a house for renovation in 2020 in Jarków with an adjacent plot of approx. 2.5 ha with the intention of organizing a place for the practice and the seat of the Association there. In addition, we also have further, larger land which was purchased in 2018 for the future projects (Gompa, Stupa, etc.).
The emerging center can be easily reached from the main road, while the surrounding and adjacent areas provide excellent conditions in the mountains with a panoramic view for practices of Dzogchen such: rushen, trekchö and tögal.
We have been renovating the building for two years and we are close to putting its residential part into use.
In particular, we are buiding the foolowing:
Construction of the missing roof over utility rooms
Construction of the missing roof over utility part of building - thanks to this, the house will be completely sealed, it will also be possible to make a gompa for 50-60 people. The temporary tarpaulin cover is insufficient and there is an urgent need to replace it with a proper roof. We have started the construction works of load-bearing walls...
Finishing works for the rooms on the ground floor
We are currently finishing the bathroom: soon we will lay the tiles and install a shower cabin, a toilet and a washbasin. At the same time, we are plastering the main hall. We are also starting plaster works and finishing the kitchen, where the electrical and water installations have already been done. Soon we will lay tiles, a wooden floor and assemble the existing kitchen furniture...
Window replacement
At the end of last year, we replaced all the windows in the building and started replacing the roofing over the residential section. As soon as the weather permits, we will finish the interrupted roofing work...
Painting rooms
Two large living rooms on the ground floor have been renovated - all that remains is to paint the walls. One of these rooms is heated and currently used by builders...
Completion of the roofing over the residential part
Interrupted by the sudden onset of winter, the roof replacement was completed in seven days. The loose bricks of the chimney were also bricked up and the chimney was plastered...
Demolition work
In the former utility area of the building (half of the ground floor), we demolished all remains of animal husbandry. In this way, we obtained 120 m2 of space for later development (currently a warehouse and a workshop)...
Archive – May 2022
After the winter break, we resumed work in Jarków. Our goal is to complete the renovation of the rooms on the ground floor (Gompa, living room, kitchen and bathroom) this year, to enable permanent residence for those willing to practice and help in further renovation of the house, which we will continue in the coming years.
In particular, we are buiding the foolowing:
Roof repair and window replacement
Last year, we managed to repair a part of the roof, replace the windows on the ground floor and we make 2 rooms on the ground floor. In late autumn, we replaced 2 more windows on the first floor, started work for the floors in the kitchen and bathroom (removing the rotten floors, deepening the floors and removing unnecessary debris and soil outside the house, drilling holes in the walls for sewage pipes and water) ...
Replacing the rest of the roofing
In late autumn, the replacement of the rest of the roofing with tiles began. Unfortunately, due to unfavorable weather conditions, only half of the works were completed. Half of the roof was covered with boards and roofing felt. At the same time, the old roof structure was strengthened and the necessary elements have been made for covering the roof with sheet metal in the near future...
Cutting down trees damaged by the bark beetle - harvesting construction timber
One of the friends from the sangha donated the wood taken by the bark beetle - in this way we gained a lot of useful wood, and with it some new possibilities: preparing for the floors and walls of the attic, for the dormitory, making wooden floors and paneling throughout the living area and making a new, the missing roof over the utility part. However, before the wood can be used to renovate the house, they went to a sawmill in order to cut according to our needs. A local carpenter with special equipment made paneling and floorboards...
Construction work in the living quarters on the ground floor
Water and electricity installation
The building had a small hydrophore, but without water pipes to the rooms yet. We installed installations for cold and hot water in the kitchen and bathroom. Connections for other parts of the building have been prepared. The old electrical installation did not meet the current requirements, it was dismantled and replaced with a new one in the rooms on the ground floor. We now have enough sockets and light points...
Sewage installation and home sewage treatment plant
This year, we were the first to install sewage pipes in the building on the ground floor with the possibility of connecting the first floor and rooms in the utility areas, and we ordered a new household sewage treatment plant for the building under the municipal program. In the photo, we drill holes in the walls 80 cm thick ...
Hardening the road
We are currently paving about 100 meters of the access road to enable the transport of building materials. So far, the road was not paved and practically impassable after rains...
Archive – 2021
This year they continued to clean the house and we started renovating it.
In particular, we are buiding the foolowing:
Demolition works inside the residential part
The useless walls of the unfinished bathroom as well as partition walls and doors have been demolished. Rotten floors in the kitchen have been torn down...
Floor works
In order to install new floors, it was necessary to select almost half a meter of earth, sprinkle it with crushed stone and compact it to pour concrete layers under the wooden floors on this foundation...
Archive – 2020
In particular, we are buiding the foolowing:
Securing the house against further damage - Demolition of the roof over the utility part
The roofing is hard damaged. As far as it was possible, we provisionally sealed the tile covering over the residential part. Unfortunately, the condition of the roof covering over the utility part was so bad that we decided to dismantle this part of the roof and cover it with a tarpaulin...
Cleaning the building of residues and waste
Before we start any renovation work, we clean the house, which has been left with an extreme amount of unnecessary things and waste. The photo posted shows the situation in one of the rooms. It was the same in every other room. Two examples: in the attic we found 40 old, used couches for chilldren, which unfortunately were useless to us - a few photos show the action of burning these couches. In the room of the current kitchen we found about 5 tons of almost set cement, which we used to harden the roads. Around the house, the situation was similar. We took away about 3 of that scrap. In front of the house there was an unserviceable passenger car, which was dismantled in accordance with applicable regulations and also scrapped. It took us weeks to clean up...
Purchase of land of 2.5 hectares
We bought land with a house (2.5 ha). It was possible thanks to the generous donations of the polish and german sangha - many thanks to all donors. This area is adjacent to the main land of the resort and is situated at its foothills. It has easy access from the village and the shortest route to the planned resort. The plot has an electricity connection, water supply and sewage treatment plants. We intend to proceed with the cleaning and renovation of the house in order to use it for the first dharma practices in the area where the Dharma Center will be built and the place from which the center will be built. In the photos, the house and the former owner Mr. Henryk (in the last photo)...
Archive – September 2019
During the course of Dzogchen practices, called Korde Rushen, Khenpo Karma Wangyal visited the land for the planned Center.
Khenpo performed the Fire Puja for the construction of the Center. Pictured is Khenpo performing this Vajrayana event.
Khenpo Karma Wangyal also visited a house located on the site of the land, which is planned to be purchased as the seat of Yeshe Khorlo in Poland.
Archive – June 2019
In June 2019 Gangteng Rinpoche visited the land for the first time, blessed it, and bestowed the Kurukulle initiation to over 100 people. Rinpoche was very pleased with the qualities of the land and its suitable conditions for Dzogchen practices.
The event took place during the Bardo teaching in nearby Zieleniec. This marked the successful conclusion of the complete transmission of the entire Dzogchen cycle – Kunzang Gongdu – begun years earlier, and some new friends also had the opportunity to receive initiation, enabling them to enter this path.
We were waiting for Rinpoche’s reaction regarding the land in Jarków. He was very glad that he could finally see the place for the center that we had talked about for so long. He stressed its good qualities and talked about the future of the center where people who want to practice Dharma will find peace and favourable conditions.
And so, on June 29, 2019, in the morning, Rinpoche celebrated the ritual of taking over the land for the center along with honouring local deities, mainly nagas. He was accompanied by his Khenpo, monks, nuns and several people from Polish Sangha.
We started a sacrificial fire and recited “Riwo Sangchö” while a large image of the Queen of Nagas was placed on the earth; she was also addressed as the ” the goddess of this land.”
At 12.00 noon, Rinpoche drove a pickaxe into the ground and dug out two handfuls of soil, which he instructed us to keep as ” the soil of siddhis.”
In the afternoon a large group of people joined us – brought by bus from Zieleniec. In the makeshift gompa Rinpoche gave the initiation of Kurukulle in which practitioners from South America, USA, Bhutan, China, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Slovenia and the Czech Republic participated.
It is worth mentioning that initiation was also taken by Mr Henryk – the man who had sold us the land. He passed away some time after this event, and Polish Sangha prayed for him. His life became meaningful through his service to Dharma.
Archive – April 2018
H.H. Sungtrul Rinpoche visited the land together with a few Sangha people and blessed it.
The first “king of Dharma” to symbolically take possession of the land for the future center was Sungtrul Rinpoche, who at the request of Gangteng Rinpoche blessed the the land.
Sungtrul Rinpoche visited the land during his stay in Darnków for a drubcho organised by Yeshe Khorlo. On that occasion Rinpoche directed our attention to some auspicious circumstances.
It was a beautiful spring day with a clear blue sky. Driving an off-road vehicle up the hill, on the road we encountered a beaming 90-year-old Mr. Henryk: an elderly gentleman who had sold us this land for Dharma practice. His tractor and trailer got in our way and we had to squeeze our vehicles past somehow. Rinpoche noticed that the trailer blocking our entry was full (not empty) – a very good sign for our undertaking.
The shape of the land seemed promising too: the trees, and all the greenery encircling them, are like hands in the gesture of giving us the place. When we were walking through the area, Rinpoche pointed to another auspicious sign: a group of deer had stopped to observe us with their tails up.
Then he performed the ritual of blessing the land, using a historic phurba belonging to Pema Lingpa. While we were sitting near Rinpoche and reciting prayers, a beautiful, big eagle – like bird appeared in the sky and circled around our heads.
The moment was unique and powerful – we realised that we had been blessed not only by Rinpoche, but also by nature itself – giving us welcoming signs for the future.
Archive – 2019
Purchase of the land for the center
In 2008, at the conclusion of the nine-day transmission of Kunzang Gongdu, Gangteng Rinpoche discussed with us the construction of a dharma center in Poland. At that time, two people enthusiastically offered to donate their land for the construction of the center, however, visits to those properties showed that the plots did not meet the requirements of the center.
In later years, Rinpoche mentioned this project several times, but it wasn’t until 2017, on a farewell evening with Rinpoche in Prague, that we received a clear “green light” for buying such land.
The inspection of several plots of land was not very fruitful. But soon after, we received a hint from friends about a nearby fallow land. After seeing it we realised it was what we wanted. We had no doubt that was the place we had long been looking for.
At the request of Khenpo Karma Wangyel, one of the monastery astrologers in Bhutan performed a divination and informed us that it was indeed a good site for the center.
At that point, the entire land of 22 ha was divided into three adjacent parts, each belonging to different owners. The plots were not for sale.
After six months of ongoing talks with Mr. Henryk Strama – the owner of one of the plots (7.76 ha), he agreed to sell it (below: a photo of Mr. Henryk). We were very glad and immediately began fundraising within the Yeshe Khorlo Sangha.
Thanks to collected donations (more than half the amount we needed) as well as loans granted by friends from the Sangha, on May 24, 2018, plot No. 3 was notarially purchased.
We were able to return the loans thanks to donations from Gangteng Rinpoche and from Yeshe Khorlo Taiwan.
The owner of the second plot of 5.87 ha was the Local Council. The Council approved our request for sale.
The plot was purchased and financed by one of the members of the Polish Sangha of Yeshe Khorlo on October 17, 2018
The third plot with an area 8 ha is still not in our possession.