Thupten Rinpoche has demonstrated his expertise and experience in coordinating and bringing to completion large-scale projects. One example is his successful effort in building the new main prayer hall at Gaden Jangtse Monastery in south India. 

Gaden Monastery was founded by Lama Tsong Khapa in 1409. After Tibet lost her independence in 1959 Gaden Monastery was re-built in exile in south India. The early settlers in the newly formed Tibetan colony in Mundgod toiled in the 1960's and ‘70’s to preserve their community, culture and religious traditions.

By the 1990’s the original Gaden Jangtse prayer hall that had been built by the early refugees had become seriously overcrowded. Many refugee monks continued to come from Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan to study at this great monastery. A new prayer hall became an urgent necessity.

The foundations of the new Gaden Jangtse prayer hall 

and the first walls going up

Thupten Rinpoche inspecting the work

After receiving permission from His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Geshe Lobsang Tsephel (who later became Khen Rinpoche, abbot of Gaden Jangtse) and Thupten Rinpoche took the initiative to raise the funds to build a larger Gaden Jangtse prayer hall. Thupten Rinpoche personally took on the job of overseeing the whole implementation of the building work, from architectural designs, materials and construction, through to all the statues and holy objects that were placed inside the building after completion. Actual construction of the new Gaden Jangtse prayer hall was begun in 1998 and finished in 2001, with a consecration by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.

His Holiness, the Dalai Lama laying the first mortar, 1998

The finished new main prayer hall at Gaden Jangtse