Buddhist Temple Consecrated In Zuni Mountains

September 10, 2009

Author: Diane Fowler

Source: The Buddhist Channel/Cibola Beacon

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=61,8535,0,0,1,0

The road is an unpaved track through Ponderosa pines leading to a mountain meadow where a magnificent new structure gleams in the sunlight. The building is the Zuni Mountain Stupa (temple), a sacred monument and reliquary that represents the Buddha's wisdom and compassion.

In Tibet and all Buddhist countries, the sites of stupas are gathering places for Buddhist practitioners, who come to pray, meditate and make offerings to accumulate merit and to connect with their own innate purity, according to the program.

A pristine white cupola with a gold spire tops the stupa, which was consecrated last Saturday in a joyous ceremony filled with vivid sights and sounds. Color abounded in the décor of the building, the prayer flags strung from trees and the outfits of the participants. Bells, gongs and chanting provided an auditory background to the festivities.