Speaking at the Spring Retreat in June 2000, our lamas shared with us this vision for Padme Gochen Ling, Tennessee PBC's Temple and Retreat Center near Monterey, TN:

"We look at Padme Gochen Ling with great joy and appreciation, and we want to share our vision for it.

We pray that this will be a monastery and meditation and study center in the future. It is a Temple, a very special place, an object of veneration. This is an honored place to generate the two merits of wisdom and accumulation.

Temples and monasteries are so important because they generate great power and wisdom that go out in all directions. We see that this will be a meditation, study, and retreat center for the South. There should be a full-time resident in the future so that it can be used as a practice and retreat center, a place for everyone to come and develop their practice.

We encourage you to finish!"

With those words in mind, PBC-Tennessee launched the Tennessee Jewel Campaign to raise the funds necessary to make the Khenpos' vision a reality.

Much Done to Date

Much progress has been made. Thanks to our generous donors, our temple, Padma Gochen Ling, was completed in early 2002. A simple and beautiful facility with shining hardwood floors, it now stands in honor of our teachers and the Buddha as well as the Dharma and our international sangha. Work has since begun on on a Sangha House, or community center. It is not yet complete, but we are getting there, and is already fairly functional.

When it is finished, we will have a bona fide year-round Tibetan Buddhist temple and retreat facility right here in Tennessee. Along with the radiant temple, there will be complete kitchen, dining hall, and bookstore, as well as two spaces for retreatants to study and practice.

Our Goal: A Gift to the Lamas

Now we need your help: We are so close--literally knocking on the door! Only $45,000 separates us from having a fully functional facility. With a real push here, we can have Phase One complete for our lamas. Doing so will bring us far closer to our cherished goal of having a full-time monk or nun living there. So we ask you to please consider a contribution to the Tennessee Jewel Campaign.

How to Contribute

Now there are a number of ways to contribute-- credit card and bank draft capabilities have recently been added, along with in-kind and stocks and property. Credit card and bank draft donations can be made monthly or quarterly as well as on a one-time basis. Most options give you membership for at least one year, but if you aren't able to make a membership-level contribution, any amount is greatly appreciated.